Russia: Eurocement President Mikhail Skorokhod visited several key cement plants in the Leningrad region recently.

Key performance indicators of Peterburgcement were evaluated positively at the end of August 2015. "The company shows strong growth and consistently high product quality. This is the result of the work of a highly professional close-knit team. Today, the team is facing new tasks and new challenges and it is planned to reach the historical record and produce 1.86Mt of cement in 2016," said Mikhail Skorokhod. Reducing costs and consistently high product quality, according to Skorokhod, will allow Peterburgcement to increase its market share in the Leningrad and neighbouring areas and reduce imports of inferior quality cement from neighbouring countries.

During his visit, Skorokhod appointed Dmitry Zibaev as the new Peterburgcement plant CEO. Skorokhod said that Dmitry Zibaev has considerable experience in the industry and in-depth knowledge of all processes of cement production. Dmitry Zibaev graduated from Belgorod State University of Technology. He started his career as a Maintenance Foreman in Lafarge Cement. He moved from Mechanical Engineer to the Deputy General Director of Peterburgcement.

Skorokhod also inspected the production process at Pikalevskiy Cement plant during his visit to the Leningrad region. He set the task to increase control over the quality of clinker. "Pikalevskiy Cement has high trust and reputation among customers and clients. The plant staff should not only meet the customers' expectations, but also raise the bar," said Skorokhod. He expressed the view that the decision taken recently by the Russian Government to introduce mandatory certification of cement will set the barrier to low-quality and counterfeit basic construction material and it will lead to higher work level of the plant. Technical Engineers of Pikalevskiy Cement have improved the clinker quality in recent months. Talking about the construction of a new dry line at the plant, Skorokhod said that the company intends to consistently implement its modernisation programme at its plants.