The Orsha Flax Mill is completing the third stage of modernization

Orsha Linen Mill is completing the third stage of large-scale modernization. Approximately $200 million has been invested in production renewal, equipment purchase, and other purposes during its long period, the Deputy General Director for Ideological Work and Social Issues of the enterprise, Sergey Sidin, told a BELTA correspondent.

According to him, last year, among the main tasks of the mill was to maintain the set pace of modernization, which began in 2009. "Now, its third stage, related to the modernization of the main production facility - Factory No. 1 (the mill has five factories in total. - BELTA's note) - is actually ending. This production facility has not undergone a total renewal, so during a visit to our enterprise in 2018, the head of state set clear tasks for further processing of short fiber, which at that time was in surplus in the country. A decision was made to increase the volumes of short fiber cottonization with the production of an innovative product that could be used for medical purposes. For this, in 2022, we purchased two cottonization lines. They were installed and commissioned," the Deputy General Director noted. "We also launched lines for bleaching cottonized fiber, which allowed us to obtain a new product that had not been produced in Belarus before."

The modernization of Sewing Factory No. 2 (formerly the Artistic Crafts Factory) has also been completed. Currently, according to Sergey Sidin, it uses the most modern sewing equipment in the country. "We carried out large-scale construction work, the factory has practically been completely transformed. We installed a range of new equipment at the finishing factory, which allowed us to obtain products with added value and new consumer qualities. This means that all investment targets for modernization have even been exceeded. We also completed the work on our own boiler house, which makes our enterprise a zero-waste production facility – not a gram of waste is disposed of outside the plant. Everything is burned in our boiler house, which was commissioned in December 2022. We have completely switched to a closed-loop production cycle," he added.

Despite the difficulties encountered last year, the enterprise managed to fulfill the plan in almost all areas. "The main problem was the shortage of raw materials, which we felt more acutely than ever in 2022. For the first time in recent years, we began to feel a shortage not only of long fiber, which has always been talked about, but also of short fiber. At the end of the year, the plant was operating practically on a just-in-time basis, with no raw materials in stock at all, but thanks to the measures taken by the management, the issue was resolved, and all forecast targets set by the concern "Bellegprom" and the government for our enterprise were met. In fact, the year closed with positive data across all production lines, both in terms of volume and quantity. The only thing that could not be achieved was exports. We are operating under sanctions from our former partners, and considering that the flax mill is an export-oriented enterprise (about 84% of all manufactured products are exported), we slightly missed the export-related targets," explained Sergey Sidin.

At the same time, he noted that last year the combine began to supply more products to Russia - sales of both yardage fabrics and finished products increased. The goods were redirected to the markets of other states, which made it possible to stabilize the situation at the enterprise, prevent any breaches of collective agreement promises, including incentive payments. In December, the average salary at the combine was over Br2.1 thousand.

Today, almost 3.6 thousand people work at the Orsha Linen Mill. The largest textile enterprise in Europe holds an 8% share of the global market.