POZIS matures into 'Chinese' sheet: Kamastal to 'wrap' Haier and POZIS in its roll
The production capacity of Chinese resident Kamastal at 35% will be closed by competing manufacturers of ''white'' appliances by Haier and POZIS in Zelenodolsk
''Tao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, The Two gives birth to Three, The Three gives birth to all universal things,'' Deputy Chief of Mission Counselor Chen Wei quoted the postulates of Chinese philosophy at the official opening ceremony of Kamastal plant in Pioner, the industrial park in the city of Nizhnekamsk. The reference to the oldest Chinese proverb was made with a clear hint: the plant for the production of painted rolled steel worth 426 million rubles has become the third enterprise of the PRC in the republic, and it seems that the Chinese do not want to stop there. And then they throwed a curve by saying that POZIS, following Haier, signed contracts with them for the supply of steel for the batching of 30,000 refrigerators. Read more in the material of Realnoe Vremya.
Minnikhanov looked around everything the day before
The official opening ceremony of rolled steel production Kamastal, scheduled for 9 a.m., was postponed for an hour and a half ahead — Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov, who was expected to be the main guest, could not arrive for ''a good reason''. He urgently flew to a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, but before that still managed to visit Nizhnekamsk, without the press.
The guests, invited for a half-hour earlier, walked through the production territory leased by Kamastal, which seemed to be cleared just a day earlier.
Haier was looking for a partner for three years, but found in China
Throughout the territory there were laying the rolls of galvanized steel sheets with the logos of Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works and Severstal. It turned out that this was a semi-finished product, from which the Chinese resident makes money. It is not going to ''push'' the Chinese metal, but buys Russian rolled metal in bulk, paints in its own chamber, makes specific embossing — and ready. The output — galvanized sheets for the subsequent manufacture of household appliances.
''Haier has been operating in Russia for almost three years, but failed to find a suitable supplier of sheet metal for the manufacture of frames of household appliances,'' Ilnur Gizatullin, a technologist at Kamastal, told Realnoe Vremya. ''While the Chinese concern worked at a minimum level of output, it was tolerable to export Chinese steel. But all this time Haier was looking for a supplier inside the country, and it turned out that there is no one better than its strategic partner — Shandong BAIKAL Group. So the capacities were relocated to Nizhnekamsk. This summer, Haier is halting the supply of metal from China and switching to Kamastal's sheets.
Kamastal PLC was registered in Tatarstan in May, 2017. The project investor is the Chinese company 山东贝加尔集团 — Shandong BAIKAL Group, which owns 99,8% of the shares. It also ensured the supply of technological equipment from China, as well as prepared the conditions for its installation and commissioning. The plant began its operation in December, but officially opened only now. In anticipation of the expansion of the assembly of refrigerators and the launch of the plant of washing machines in Naberezhnye Chelny, Kamastal is below the design level and produces a test batch of prepainted metal.
I thought they would build not in a year, but three years
First Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Nigmatullin, who arrived at the celebration, was happy and joked, although he did not hide that at first he was skeptical about the third resident of the PRC.
''You know, when a year ago Director General of Kamastal Alevtina Kuzmina reported at an investment committee meeting that they would build a plant in a year, I couldn't believe it. I thought: well, not in a year, but in three,'' Nigmatullin told, recognizing that he was mistaken.
Mayor of Nizhnekamsk Aydar Metshin shared his thoughts about high, as well as Deputy Chief of Mission Counselor Chen Wei. ''Tao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, The Two gives birth to Three, The Three gives birth to all universal things,'' he quoted the last postulates of Chinese philosophy, then confirmed the power of China in figures, saying that its investment in the world economy exceeded 129,8 billion dollars. In general, his assessments are peculiar, he noted that the investments of Kamastal make 740 million roubles, although to date it is authentically possible to tell only about 300 million rubles. However, this is nothing, because the plant really is and works, and how much it costs — the tax authorities more need to know.
Together with the deputy chief of mission counselor, the founder of Kamastal Ne Wei, who is engaged in the production of non-ferrous sheet steel at home, and Director General of the company from China, Zhai Yugui, also attended the ceremony. By the way, the latter speaks excellent Russian, and Alevtina Kuzmina herself — Chinese — that's such a tandem. As told at the plant, Kuzmina comes from the Far East city of Ussuriysk and taught Chinese there, after which she was invited to the plant in Tatarstan. In an interview with Realnoe Vremya, she highlighted territorial proximity to consumers as the main advantage of the enterprise. According to her, the Chinese have built a new logistics chain, which Tatarstan consumers are ready to join.
POZIS — following China
She preferred to keep silent about price policy, but noticed that they managed to recruit even the Tatarstan plant POZIS. According to her, the Tatarstan manufacturer has signed a contract for the supply of Chinese sheet of Russian origin for the batching of 30,000 refrigerators. Before that, POZIS imported it from Korea. Radik Khasanov and his team did not come to the celebration. According to Kuzmina, in the near future there will be test shipments, but Kamastal intends to cover 100% of the needs of both manufacturers. However, their starting orders will provide only 35% of the plant load. The rest of the volume they expect to get from other manufacturers of the ''white'' equipment, but the main focus is on the production of metal and siding, profiled sheet and profiles for gypsum boards, sandwich panels.
Pioner industrial park was built on the site of an abandoned brick factory, which had not functioned for more than 10 years. Today, after a complete overhaul, there is a geographically separate complex of ready-made production and office premises, within which favourable conditions for doing business are created. At the first stage, the area of the industrial park is 9,3 hectares, buildings — more than 15,000 square metres, more than 200 jobs will be created. It is assumed that the plant's products (steel with polymer coating) will occupy a share of 2% of the Russian market.