OREANDA-NEWS. On February 06, 2007 the leading fuel and energy business in Ukraine DTEK has signed an agreement to produce and deliver hydraulic props and advancing cylinders used in mining business that are made by Ostroj company (the Czech Republic), reported the press-centre of SCM.

The equipment will be installed at Pavlogradskaya and Zapadno-Donbasskaya mines of Pavlogradugol. The amount of purchase makes over ?2,8m. The mechanisms will help cut noticeably maintenance costs of powered support units and their useful life before the first overhaul that exceeds lifetime of units produced in Ukraine six-fold.

This has been the second big equipment modernization project at coal assets of DTEK in 2008. In January, the company signed an agreement to produce and deliver plough longwall set for Pavlogradugol with the global leader in this sector Bucyrus DBT Europe GmbH (Germany). The amount of the contract totalled over ?29m.

DTEK buys mining equipment through a documentary L/C with post-funding. Swedbank (Ukraine) is a financial partner of DTEK in the agreement with Bucyrus DBT Europe GmbH, while the contract with Ostroj is funded by Alfa-Bank (Ukraine). “Using such a financial tool as documentary L/C helps make big purchases to step up efficiency of mines operations with minimum withdrawal of working capital. This helps significantly cut the price of funds raised to this goal and make them long-term”, said DTEK’s Director of Finance Yuriy A. Ryzhenkov.

“DTEK is working in many areas to modernize assets in line with a five-year development strategy”, said Coal Production and Enrichment Director Evgeniy Romaschin. “We are going to invest $1,1 bn in coal business development by 2011. This will improve its competitiveness both in Ukraine and on the international market”.

Information for journalists:
Donbass Fuel-Energy Company (DTEK) is the first private vertically integrated energy company of Ukraine, comprising coal-production (Pavlogradugol, Komsomolets Donbassa Mine), power generation (Vostokenergo) and electricity supply enterprises (PES-Energougol, Service-Invest).

Pavlogradugol is the largest coal-mining company in Ukraine. It includes 10 mines and other structural divisions. According to results of 2007, the coal output of Pavlogradugol accounted for 16,4% of total Ukrainian coal production.