Electricity and water cuts at Ulyanovsk

Published: 5/5/2000

According to local reports, during April Ulyanonsk based Aviastar has had to stop production due to power cuts caused by unpaid debts to the local utility company. The power cuts follow the cutoff of water supplies to the plant from Ulyanovskvodokanal, the Ulyanovsk water supplier. According to Yury Korshunov, a director of Ulyanovskvodokanal, the cuts have left Aviastar at certain points in the month with water reserves for only one day, which the plant keeps it in case of fire. Currently, according to reports, Aviastar owes 14 m rubles ($ 0.5m) for water and electricity. Gennady Kortnev, General Director of Aviastar, has promised payments to Ulyanovskvodokanal of 1.1m rubles ($0.04m) but according to latest reports the monies have failed to arrive. The disruption of utilities do not come at a good time for Aviastar, when alone among Russian civil manufacturers, it has what could be described as an order backlog of at least six Tu-204s and one An-124-100 to be delivered this year, with the prospect of further orders for 2001. The problem does however, highlight the cash flow problems that even the more successful of Russia"s producers can have, given that much of the funding provided by prospective buyers and operators involves little in the way of prepayment, leaving the plant continuing to struggle with the funding of work in progress.

Article ID: 1543