OREANDA-NEWS. June 28, 2007. Once the equipment is commissioned the house building factory will be able to move to an entirely different technological level of manufacturing reinforced concrete structures for panel houses. The volume of investment will be around 70 mln. rubles. According to the specialists' forecasts the payback period will be 3,5 to 4 years, reported the press-centre of OAO LSR Group.

The introduction of new equipment will mean a real technological breakthrough for wall panel manufacturing in St. Petersburg where no lines like this have been ever used by house building factories. The construction of a new energy technology centre is linked to the reequipment of the concrete mixing and molding plants currently implemented as part of the DSK Blok general programme of upgrading its manufacturing facilities. The commissioning of the energy technology centre will ensure uninterrupted heat energy supply to meet the production needs of the factory, reduce its heat supply costs, prevent the formation of condensate and protect the equipment from corrosion.

The energy technology centre will have an area of 864 sq. m and will be fitted with state-of-the-art German-made equipment from one of the leading manufacturers of thermal oil equipment in Europe. The new line will include three thermal oil plants of a total capacity of 12 MW, four heat exchangers and high-temperature organic heat carrier pipelines.

The energy technology centre will be automatic with the process controlled from the control room. The first shipment of equipment is planned in August. Installation work is to be completed in November. The energy technology centre will undergo all necessary inspections of the supervisory authorities and will meet the engineering, sanitary and environmental requirements.
The implementation of the project is regarded by the factory as a strategic breakthrough vital for ensuring high performance and reliability.

Today DSK Blok is the largest house building factory in St. Petersburg by the volume of panel house installation. The company is planning to increase its production volume to ensure the installation of up to 500,000 sq. m of total housing area by 2009.

For reference: Founded in 1992, ZAO DSK Blok is the leader of the panel housing construction market in St. Petersburg and Northwest Russia by production of quality panels and housing construction. It is the only house building factory in the panel housing construction market of St. Petersburg applying the "seamless" facade fit-out technology. In 2005, the company built 150,000 sq. m of housing and in 2006 — about 220,000 sq. m.

About LSR Group. LSR Group is a diversified holding company, a leader of the Russian construction industry. Its core business areas are building materials manufacturing, construction and real estate development. The Group includes enterprises for aggregate extraction and processing, building materials manufacturing and transportation, and housing construction — from mass market large-panel housing to elite residential property built after designs made by leading domestic and foreign architects. LSR Group comprises over 20 business units having a total of approx. 14,000 employees. LSR Group enterprises: No.1 in Russia by ceramic brick production; No.1 in Russia and Northern Europe by aerated concrete production; No.1 in Russia by construction aggregates production; No.1 in Russia by ready-mixed concrete production; No.1 in St. Petersburg by elite real estate development; No.1 in St. Petersburg by reinforced concrete structures production; No.1 in St. Petersburg by large-panel housing construction.