‘SUAL Kremniy Ural has had a production stoppage because of the plummeting demand for its produce. This has to do with the general economic downfall that hit the silica-consuming steel-smelting and cast iron industries worst. Selling our goods is therefore virtually impossible at the moment. The company currently employs 122 people, but we are forced to make 85 people redundant soon. The remaining 37 employees will be enough to handle the current shipment volumes,’ UC RUSAL’s press officer for Ural Federal District Roman Lukichev said to UrBC.

‘The enterprise produced about 24,000 tons of goods last year; the production process can only be resumed if the demand for its products is restored, and this depends directly on the state of the global economy,’ UC RUSAL says.

Meanwhile, Kamensk Uralskiy municipal council announced earlier that the number of SUAL Kremniy Ural’s workers would be reduced by four times by early July 2009.