Friday presentation in Kalush, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, unveiled some details of a urea resin production project.
KarpatSmoly [Carpathian Resins] Director General Dmytro Herusov reported that the project costs will make up $10 million, resulting in 60 new jobs in the first phase, and 80 more in the second phase of project implementation.
The resin produced will be supplied initially to the domestic market, and foreign markets in the future, Herusov said.
KarpatSmoly, a close corporation founded by a foreign investment fund, was registered as recently as June 2005. It is a new company, which has nothing to do with the Urea Resins Plant, presently idle. The new plant intends to produce urea-formaldehyde resins, class E-1, to the up-to-date standards of technology.
Asked why did they come just to Kalush, Herusov said, “Kalush is the city where 15 plants worked until recently. We bought an industrial site from Lukor, and it’s right there where necessary reconstruction goes on. In addition, there is infrastructure in place that our enterprise needs. We will use the existing treatment facilities, heating water.”
According to unofficial sources, the KarpatSmoly founders had considered purchase of the idle Urea Resins Plant, however, their estimates showed that the size of investment required to revive the old plant would exceed by far that for establishment of a brand-new one.
Herusov said they are well aware of environmental concerns in Kalush, and promised that their E-1 class resin will have a minimum content of formaldehyde, a hazardous substance. “KarpatSmoly is the production [meeting] the European level of environmental safety, and with technology that is used in Europe… Italian equipment will be installed in out enterprise,” Herusov said and added that the company has already obtained majority of permits required to start up the production. He also made reference to many woodworking enterprises in the Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Zakarpattya, Ternopil and Chernivtsi oblasts that manufacture chipboards using a lower-quality resin, which contains a high level of formaldehyde.
Horst Krüger, general representative in Ukraine for the Swiss group Krono, told reporters the start-up of E-1 producer in Kalush is “vital to our facilities [in Western Ukraine]. Now we bring 220,000 tons of this resin annually from Poland and Slovakia. As soon as the production in Kalush starts, we’ll buy the resin there.”
According to Krüger, Krono and KarpatSmoly have already agreed on supply of the E-1 resin.
The Krono enterprises in Western Ukraine specialize in manufacture of furniture and furniture chipboards.
The head of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast State Administration Main Industry and Infrastructure Development Department, Vadym Kozlenko, said it is important that KarpatSmoly will create new jobs; the budget revenue will also increase. He said the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast “occupies 25 percent of the Ukrainian chipboard market. And it’s no good when raw materials for chipboard production are brought from other regions.”
Moreover, Kozlenko said, the new production will add to sound competition in Kalush, as there are other resin producers. “I’m sure that this project will spur other investors,” he concluded.
Myroslav Baran, Kalush Deputy Mayor for economy, named the technology proposed by KarpatSmoly “higher aerobatics” comparing to other projects. He said, “In addition, the investors propose a level of environmental safety just unattainable for many enterprises from technological point of view.”
According to the Deputy Mayor, the new plant will have no problem with sales, and not only in Ukraine but also in Western Europe.
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