Business Watch
In a rare example of the state responding to public protest Russia’s President Medvedev has instructed the government to suspend work on the Moscow – St Petersburg highway that has already cut a swathe through the ancient Khimki forest north of Moscow.
For the first time since the beginning of the economic recession, cement production in Russia boasted a positive growth rate in H1 2010. During the first six months Russian cement plants produced 21.4 million tonnes of cement, 10.9% more than during the equivalent period of 2009 (19.35 million tonnes), according to the Rosstat data. However, the Russian cement industry has not yet reached the indicators witnessed before the recession. It is forecast that by the end of 2010 overall cement production in Russia will reach 49 million tonnes, a 10-15% year-on-year increase.
Cement prices in Russia have also increased slightly. At present, in August, one tonne of cement costs about RUB 3,000 -3,500 (€76-89), with the lowest price of RUB 2,500 (€63) was recorded in February-March 2010.
The first section of the “Adler – Alpika-Service” combined railway and highway was officially opened in Adler near Sochi. The first section of the combined road built by JSC Russian Railways, a Sochi 2014 General Partner, is 6 km long and connects the Imereti lowland with the existing highway to the mountain resort Krasnaya Polyana, bypassing the urban boundaries of Adler. The new road will provide circular movement around the airport, which, in turn, will greatly facilitate the organization of vehicular traffic at Olympic construction sites and ease congestion.
Motorists using a bridge in the southern Russian city of Volgograd were given the ride of a lifetime by a powerful gust of wind. The new river crossing started shaking violently and a massive downpour at the same time made conditions worse. Drivers say their cars were literally thrown into the air, many thinking it was an unexpected earthquake.
Related Video
The new St Petersburg passenger port, Sea Facade, is nearing completion almost a year ahead of schedule. On a 400-to-470 hectare area on Vasilyevsky Island on the Gulf of Finland, the $1-$3 bn is expected to face off stiff opposition on aesthetic grounds, as it touts the potential to attract world-class tourism to St. Petersburg and into the heartlands of Russia.
Science Applications International Corporation today announced it has been awarded a contract for the production and delivery of an SAIC Tsunami Buoy (STB) system by the Far Eastern Ecological Center, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, for the Far Eastern Regional Hydrometeorological Research Institute (FERHRI), Vladivostok, Russian Federation. The STB system will be one of the key sensors monitored by the Tsunami Warning Center in the Russian Far East, and will serve as the ocean segment of the Russian Federation tsunami warning system network currently in development.
Once implemented, the Russian Federation tsunami warning network will become one of the key providers of tsunami information to Pacific Rim countries.
"The SAIC Tsunami Buoy (STB) System is expected to be deployed near the Kuril Islands, recognized as one of the world's most seismically active regions and having a history of significant tsunami events," said Dr. Yuri Volkov, director of FERHRI. "Major earthquakes in this region produced trans-Pacific tsunamis in 2006 and 2007. After the first year of the STB deployment, the Far Eastern Regional Hydrometeorological Research Institute may consider widening the system of ocean sensors."