‘We have been gradually switching our workers to a shorter working day and sending them on forced leaves since November 2008. During the current financial crisis, our shipments output went down by 50% to 60%, that is, from 450 million RUR to 150 million RUR worth of produce,’ Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation’s General Director Nazim Efendiev said in the course of a round table discussion on the crisis-defying measures in the industrial sector.

‘Last fall, even the contracts we got prepaid on had to be halted because of the crisis. Moreover, some of our customers are even unable to pay for the goods delivered to them already. These are not some small firms, by the way; quite on the contrary, these are large enterprises like Mechel and Severstal. Then, the financing for two major contracts (delivering some roasting equipment to Mikhailovskiy and Severniy Ore Mining and Processing Enterprises) has been stopped for the time being. In the meantime, this money had been meant to keep the plant running in the last quarter of 2008 and in the first quarter of 2009,’ Nazim Efendiev explained to the plant’s trade union earlier.

‘Our directors and I have been considering making more workers redundant for several days now. Let one person do two people’s job; I believe that we need to halve the number of auxiliary shops’ personnel, for instance,’ he said.