22 November 2008, 13:56
In North Ossetia, enterprises lay workers off because of crisis
North Ossetia is affected by the global financial crisis. Today, it is manifested, first of all, through cutting of jobs by the major local enterprises.
In particular, the "Electrozinc" factory, located in Vladikavkaz and making part of the Urals Mining and Metallurgical Company, has announced a significant lay-out. On preliminary data, they plan to dismiss about 400 workers. The problems of the factory are caused by a sharp drop of prices on its products. If a year ago at the London Metals Exchange (LME) a ton of lead stood at 2876 US dollars, now it is 1170 US dollars. During the same period, zinc went down from 2214 to 1131 US dollars per ton.
The "Caucasian Knot" was told at the Ministry of Industry, Transport and Communications of North Ossetia that today the republic has 50 enterprises, which are active in export-import operations with counterparts from close and far foreign countries. In the long term, the global financial crisis can damage those enterprises of North Ossetia, which use metals or raw materials purchased for currencies abroad in their technological cycle. However, so far none of their managers has declared any plants to curtail the output.
Author: Dmitriy Tamerlanov, CK correspondent
