Most of the main building work is now in place to shelter the project from the worst of the winter to come. Work is now underway to build the furnace, with the foundations for the batch plant safely installed and the warehouse area secure.
BP Engineering Vice President Vittore de Leonibus said 'We now have over 850 Pilkington staff and contractors on site and work is well advanced with good progress made. The main building superstructure is now largely erected, with only small portions to be completed in the lehr and stockroom areas. A priority has been to seal the building against the elements anticipating worse weather into the new year and this has been largely completed'.
The plant, which will have a sales capacity of around 240,000 tonnes a year, is being built by and will be operated by Pilkington on behalf of a joint venture with Emerging Markets Partnership (EMP).
Russia float takes shape
Despite the onset of the Russian winter, with temperatures already dropping to minus 20 degrees C, work on the first Pilkington float plant in Russia, being built at Ramenskoye, in the Moscow region, is well on track for the projected launch in 2005.