Zavod ZhBI-6, a subsidiary of LSR Group, has started trial operation of a new line to manufacture solid-core panels for internal and external walls. It is a milestone event for the business unit turning into an integrated supplier of components for prefabricated housing construction.  The first shipment of products just manufactured includes vertical wall elements for a new series of houses to be launched by Zavod ZhBI-6 this autumn.

The total amount of investments in the new production facility including workshop refurbishment and procurement of equipment from Vollert-Weckenmann was RUR 170 million. To install the advanced equipment, a workshop of the factory was overhauled, and the final products warehouse was expanded. During trial operation the new line will be manufacturing 12 panels daily, and upon trial completion – 70 panels per day. The line will be operated in two shifts, the total annual capacity of the factory being 170,000 cub.m of reinforced concrete including the manufacture of piles, hollow floor slabs, and also the necessary components to complete 200,000 sq.m of panel housing a year.

The upgrading of production facilities will ensure the operation of the factory as a one-stop house building company which will be offering to its customers a full range of reinforced products to complete prefabricated homes. Owing to the application of the latest technologies and maximum automation of the production process, the new line takes only 12 people to operate. The trial production has proved that the use of new equipment ensures higher quality of panel surfaces.

An official opening of the new plant will be held in autumn 2009.

The factory will become the key manufacturer of a new series of panel houses for the Moscow region, the main advantages of the new series being ample opportunities to use a variety of architectural solutions and a special façade fit-out technology that makes it possible to have no seams between the panels, which results in a solid appearance of the buildings and high heat insulation properties. The first houses of the new series will be built in Balashikha, and Zavod ZhBI-6 was contracted to supply its new products for the project.

It is important to note that 22 July 2009, the Morton group of companies signed a contract with CJSC Mosstroyrekonstruktsiya (a subsidiary of LSR Group) to jointly implement a housing construction project for military personnel in Balashikha. The contract amount is RUR 3.9 billion. Under the agreement, Mosstroyrekonstruktsiya is to construct a neighbourhood of six residential buildings of 14 to 17 stories each, with a total area of 140,000 sq.m. The houses will be built of reinforced concrete products of Zavod ZhBI-6.

Note to  Editors:
OJSC LSR Group  is a real estate and building materials company founded in 1993 and operating in a number of complementary market segments. Its core business areas are building materials, construction and real estate. The Group includes enterprises for extraction and processing of aggregates, production and transportation of building materials, and housing construction — from mass market large-panel housing to elite property built after designs made by leading domestic and foreign architects.
LSR Group has operations and offices in a number of cities in the Leningrad region, in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine and Germany.
In 2007, the sales revenues of LSR Group (according to the IFRS-based financial statements) were RUR 35,858 million, in 2008 – RUR 49,813 million.
LSR Group is a public company, with its GDRs listed and traded on the London Stock Exchange and its shares listed and traded on MICEX and RTS.
In 2007, LSR Group was awarded ‘The Company of the Year’ National Award in the ‘Construction’ category.

OJSC Zavod ZhBI-6, a subsidiary of LSR Group is a leader in reinforced concrete production in Moscow. Established in 1955, it was merged with LSR Group in 2006. 
The plant comprises five main shops and seven auxiliary shops. In 2008, the design capacity of the plant meeting the current demand was 135,000 cub.m of reinforced concrete per year, with a total of 15 million cub.m of products manufactured over the years of its operation.
The core business area of the company throughout its history has been fulfilling public procurement orders through supplying its products for the construction of government buildings and social and transport infrastructure. The products turned out by ZhBI-6 have been used for the construction and renovation of the White House (headquarters of the Council of Ministers of Russia),  Mayor’s Office in Moscow, Olympic Games Complex, Poklonnaya Gora Memorial Complex, Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve, Izvestiya Publishing House, Third Transport Ring, Moscow City International Business Centre. Today the company offers over 1,500 reinforced concrete items including those used for housing and commercial property construction.
The use of flexible reconfiguration schemes enables the plant to promptly produce large quantities of reinforced concrete items. The plant is also capable of manufacturing non-standards products by virtue to its design office that complies with customer’s drawings.