March 25, 2013. An agreement on the production of heavy-duty drilling rigs in Russia was signed by the founders of Honghua CIS, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation, VTB Leasing, and Sichuan-based Honghua Group Limited. Russia’s Vice Premier Dmitri Rogozin and Vice Premier of China’s State Council Wang Yang were present at the ceremony, Uralvagonzavod’s press service reports.

The corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko signed the agreement on behalf of Uralvagonzavod, VTB Leasing’s DG Andrei Konoplev signed the agreement on behalf of his company, and a corporation representative Yuan Hai signed the paper on behalf of Honghua Group Limited.

Under the terms of this document, the parties agreed to produce 28 heavy-duty echelon drilling rigs at their JV in 2013-2014. The expected sales revenues are estimated at over 13bn RUR. The parties also agreed to develop a set of measures that would help to localize the production of up to 100% of metal frameworks and of up to 50% of drilling rig components on the Russian territory.