Business news

STARYYE DOROGI, 22 September (BelTA) – Belarus’ first factory for making brake shoes and brake lining was opened by the SOOO Beltribo Company in Staryye Dorogi, Minsk Oblast on 22 September, BelTA has learned.

Belarusian Industry Minister Vitaly Vovk was pleased with the successful cooperation of Belarusian and Ukrainian sides in implementing the investment project to set up the enterprise. “It is a unique manufacturing facility in Belarus because such products have never been made in the country for the mechanical engineering industry up till now. All the conditions have been enabled for these products to be competitive and sell well not only on the home market but abroad,” said the official.

Konstantin Yefimenko, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Tribo Group (Ukraine), noted that Beltribo Company will have to reach the trade turnover of $5 million within two years. Initially the enterprise was intended to make parts only for BelAZ haul trucks. However, the founders decided to expand the product range. In addition to brake shoes for haul trucks the factory will have to make brake shoes for Minsk Metro and the Belarusian tractor maker MTZ. The Beltribo factory will have to make brake shoes for the BelGee car factory in H1 2018. Apart from that, there are plans to make brake shoes and clutch discs for Gomselmash agricultural machines and for Belarusian Railways. Additional equipment will be installed in order to expand the product range. More money will be invested and the duration of the investment contract will be extended. Apart from that, the factory in Staryye Dorogi intends to start making brake shoes for railways and sell them to Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Earlier the Ukrainian founder of Beltribo Company signed a three-year contract on direct sales of these brake shoes to the railway administrations of the Baltic states, specified Konstantin Yefimenko.

Piotr Parkhomchik, Director General of OAO BelAZ, the managing company of BelAZ Holding, stressed that BelAZ will be one of the main customers of the new factory. The locally made brake shoes will make BelAZ haul trucks less expensive in addition to giving the truck maker a higher profit margin. So far the factory in Staryye Dorogi has installed 30% of the required equipment. The factory is supposed to reach its designed output capacity in six months. About $2.5 million will be invested in the next two years.

The Belarusian-Ukrainian joint venture SOOO Beltribo was registered by the Minsk Oblast administration on 23 October 2013. The founders are the Staryye Dorogi mechanical plant, which is part of the holding company BelAZ, and the Ukrainian brake shoe manufacturer Tribo. Their shares in the joint venture’s charter capital are 26% and 74% respectively.

Investments poured into SOOO Beltribo stood at $1.8 million as of 15 September. The new enterprise has created 21 jobs. The brake shoe manufacturing process has been certified by the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A pilot batch of brake shoes for haul trucks has passed all tests at a BelAZ lab. The Ukrainian company Tribo will supply Beltribo with mixtures for manufacturing brake shoes in 2017-2018.

SOOO Beltribo has contracted to make Br500,000 worth of brake shoes for BelAZ by the end of the year. In August the factory decided to use its spare premises to make thermal protection shields for BelGee cars.