KYIV. Dec 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Some 50-70% of the constructions in the territory of the Etalon Corporation's plants in Chernihiv were destroyed by direct strikes as a result of active hostilities and shelling of the city in February-March 2022, the damage is estimated approximately at EUR 30 million, President of the Etalon Corporation Volodymyr Butko has said.

"The amount of damage is estimated, not by experts, approximately at EUR 30 million for restoration with available materials. Speaking about the construction of new facilities, around EUR 160 million is needed. Despite everything, in April we made a decision to restore the enterprises. Now we cannot speak about the restoration, however, we already fulfill available orders and continue repair and restoration works," he said at a press conference hosted by the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency on Thursday.

Butko recalled that three plants of the corporation are located in Chernihiv: Chernihiv Automobile Plant LLC bus manufacturer, Ukrainian Cardan LLC plants and Chernihiv Forging Plant LLC.

According to Director of Chernihiv Automobile Plant LLC Andriy Savchenko, the enterprise suffered severe damage to its buildings, equipment and finished products, which significantly affected its competitiveness in the production of buses.

"The enterprise is applying huge efforts to resume the production of transport, therefore one of the main directions is the production of school buses. At the same time, despite the difficulties of wartime, Chernihiv Automobile Plant passed 19 new buses to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in order to carry out military transport mobilization," he said.

Savchenko also noted that the plant staff and the branch of the bus building research institute Etalon (Lviv) continued to develop new buses. In particular, a prototype has already been made, certification tests of an intercity bus have been carried out on the units of the Indian Ashok Leyland, the Euro 5 environmental standard, with the possibility of transporting passengers in a wheelchair using an electric lift.

In addition, a 9.3-meter-long Euro5 city bus with a low entrance, with a total passenger capacity of 72 people, was developed.

"We hope that such a bus will be in demand given the acute shortage of urban transport," Savchenko said.

According to him, in 2023 it is also planned to introduce a 10.7-meter-long tourist bus with a passenger capacity of 44 people and start developing, together with the Informbusiness company (Moldova), an urban electric bus with a passenger capacity of 54 people and a power reserve of at least 200 kilometers.

Director of Chernihiv Forging Plant LLC Vitaliy Treytiak, in turn, said that at the beginning of the year the plant developed partnerships with enterprises from Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Serbia, contracts were signed with five new contractors, however, the active hostilities that began stopped the plan and called into question the existence of the plant.

"As a result of the bombing, the main buildings, substations were practically destroyed, the administrative building was destroyed by 50%, the power supply systems were destroyed. Today, some sections have been put into operation at 50% of pre-war production," he said.

At the same time, Treytiak stressed that the company first of all needs government orders.

"We can supply parts for Ukrzaliznytsia, car repair enterprises. We invite Ukrainian and European machine builders to cooperate," he said.

According to Director of Ukrainian Cardan LLC Anatoliy Potapenko, the level of destruction at the enterprise is around 48%, i.e. out of 55,000 square meters of production area almost a half was destroyed, and the staff was laid off by two-thirds. Power supply was restored only in June, which allowed to partially resume production.

"We are now the only company in Ukraine producing parts for cardan products, but the main problem today is the loss of markets. Previously, 75% of products were exported to the CIS countries, and you yourself understand which countries... Therefore, now we are engaged in the European direction – before the war there were developments: we have been working with German companies for 30 years, also with Poland and Romania. We need government orders and orders from European partners," Potapenko said.

In turn, Butko said that Etalon applied in writing to more than ten countries for help in supplying at least used equipment, but the answers came only from a few countries and not with specific assistance. Unanswered, according to him, were appeals to specialized Ukrainian associations, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"One of the problems is also untimely payment for products. For example, Chernivtsi owes us UAH 28 million for the delivered school buses," the president of the corporation said.

Butko also noted that partial relocation of enterprises was not considered both due to the difficulties of transferring equipment, and taking into account the fact that almost all regions of Ukraine are currently not immune from enemy shelling.

In addition, he said that out of 1,150 employees who previously worked at three enterprises, around 500 jobs have now been restored. Wages remain at 2021 levels for the time being.

"I think that in the second quarter of 2023 we will be able to resume production activities at the level of the pre-war 2021," Butko said.