In 2006, the House-Building Combine Blok plans to invest some 90 million roubles in production development.

In the words of Alexander Gobeyev, the manager of DSK Blok, part of these funds will be used to promote a complex of measures to reduce production costs and the prime costs of products. They will also be used to purchase new and refurbish existing equipment for the manufacture of ferro-concrete products in the Modernized 137 Series.

This is due to DSK Blok’s intention to increase its presence on the prefabricated, panel constructed residential housing market in St. Petersburg and expand the amount of residential housing being built.

All in all, in 2006 DSK Blok will continue to promote a complex of measures aimed at implementing the programme to modernize production capacity at the plant and optimize production processes, which began in 2002.

Among its priority targets, the Combine management sees the building of its own boiler. This will make it possible to effect considerable reductions in the cost of energy saving during the production of ferro-concrete products and, consequently, reduce primary production costs. It is also planned to acquire cartridge flat pads, install automatic compressors and modernize the six gantry cranes.

Over the course of the year, the factory plans to increase its output of ferro-concrete products by 60.6% over the previous year. According to the DSK Blok management, the combine will continue to increase its production.

In 2005, total investment in production development amounted to approximately 23 million roubles. The greater part of these funds were put into modernizing six gantry cranes, acquiring ten heat trays, and installing a new cooling tower. Part of the investments also went on setting up a section for conducting major repairs on the moulds as well as purchasing metal-cutting equipment in which products of the Modernized 137 Series are made.

In 2005, DSK Blok was able to implement a project to create a new section designed to produce individual products for assembling the 137 Series, thus making it possible to develop new prefabricated, panel constructed houses and manufacture non-standard unit sections for use with individual products. This fact has allowed architects to design new houses that fit into the overall planning of a housing quarter and make optimum use of the land available with regard for its characteristics and configurations. In particular, last year there appeared a new type of prefabricated, panel constructed house in the 137 Series — the Butterfly — which is being assembled in housing-quarter № 50 of the Rzhevka-Porokhovye District.