UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 14, 2018. The number of brick-making plants and reinforced concrete goods manufacturers dropped by 1.5 to 2 times in Sverdlovsk Region, the Executive Director of Sverdlovsk Region’s Union of Building Industry Enterprises Yuri Chumerin told UrBC.

According to Chumerin, the plants proved unable to go through with tech upgrades are gradually closing down.

‘Only the most competitive companies can still keep afloat. These are the plants that invested in production upgrades in good time. They can now make good quality produce at minimal labor expense. The rest of the businesses are forced to go into liquidation. For one, we only have two actual brick plants operating in the area at the moment: Bogoslovsky and Revdinsky, rather than the six or seven plants we used to have earlier. The companies that still rely on obsolete technologies just cannot compete and get replaced by modern businesses that gradually build up on their share of the market,’ Chumerin said.