Starokramatorsk Machine-Building Plant SKMZ

At the "Weapons and Security 2019" exhibition, PJSC "Starokramatorsk Machine-Building Plant" (SKMZ) presented 125-mm and 152-mm gun barrels, mortar barrels, as well as the 120-mm "Buchard" mortar at the joint stand with the Kramatorsk Heavy Machine Tool Plant. SKMZ had been supplying serial 125-mm guns for "Oplots" and tanks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as 152-mm guns for 2C3 "Akatia" self-propelled guns for a year and a half. In addition to guns for tanks and self-propelled artillery installations, the Kramatorsk plant also produces barrels for 60, 82 and 120 mm mortars.

Many were sure, especially in Russia, that it is not possible to manufacture major caliber artillery barrels in Ukraine. First, the country had no experience, and secondly, there are only about ten countries in the world that have the appropriate technologies and no one will share them. Nevertheless, contrary to estimates and statements, domestic enterprises, including "Starokramatorsk Machine-Building Plant" and "Kramatorsk Plant of Heavy Machine Building", still managed to master the production of 155 mm barrels. Ukraine independently designed and manufactured a tapping machine and created (partially purchased) all the necessary equipment for the production of the barrel for the newest self-propelled guns. Moreover, for the production of the entire range of barrels, both artillery and tank calibers from 100 to 155 mm.

The "Starokramatorsk Machine-Building Plant" enterprise mastered the production of 152-mm caliber barrels for 2C3 "Akatia" self-propelled artillery installations. Taking into account the situation with heavy wear of barrels of Ukrainian self-propelled guns, which occurred due to active hostilities in Donbas, most of the vehicles simply exhausted their resource from firing. Similar production helps restore the combat capabilities of the armed forces brigades by replacing still Soviet barrels with new, "unfired" ones, which significantly extends the service life of the self-propelled guns available in the Ukrainian army.

The counterparty PRJSC "SKMZ" was registered on 05/29/1995 at the legal address Ukraine, **2, Donetsk region, Kramatorsk city, CONRAD GAMPERA STREET. The size of the authorized capital is UAH 59,017,448.00.

For the first time, the beep of a mechanical plant, built in 1896, a verst from the railway at the Kramatorsk station, sounded in September 1896, and on April 23, 1899, the plant became a joint-stock Kramatorsk Metallurgical Society (KMO).

Here is how the Russian magazine Gornozavodskoy Listok reported about the formation of the plant: “Near the Kramatorovka station of the Kursk-Kharkovo-Sevastopol railway by the well-known company“ V. Fitzner and K. Gamper ”a mechanical and boiler plant is being set up in Sosnovitsy to meet mainly the needs of the mines and factories of the Donets basin for various mechanisms and boilers.” The plant fulfilled orders for the mines of the South of Russia.

Society "V. Fitzner and K. Gamper ”was really famous in those years. It had the right to depict the state emblem of Russia on its products, which served as a kind of quality mark. And the new plant did not break the tradition of the company. Twice - in 1900 and 1910 - at the international exhibition in Paris, equipment produced in Kramatorsk was awarded the highest award - the "Grand Prix"! Since 1902, the plant began to produce rolling equipment, and since 1907 - rolling mills.

In 1914 the First World War began. She changed the range of manufactured products: the plant was subordinated to the defense industry of Russia. A workshop for stamping shells was opened here. Looking ahead, it must be said that defense orders will be issued at SKMZ for a long time to come - both immediately after the October Revolution, and during the Great Patriotic War, and in Soviet peacetime. And this is another confirmation of the high level of the plant. SKMZ had a powerful production base, which was necessary for the production of weapons.

Already in 1919, by the decision of the Revolutionary Military Council, the machine-building plant became a center for the repair and production of armored trains of the army of the Southern Front. And in 1920, the plant was nationalized and transformed into the Kramatorsk State Machine Building and Metallurgical Plant (KGMZ). The plant produced rolling equipment. In 1931, a 120-ton frame for the first Soviet blooming (continuous rolling mill) was manufactured.

In the autumn of 1929, a ceremonial laying of the future giant of the Soviet engineering industry, the Novokramatorsk Machine-Building Plant, took place in Kramatorsk. Its first builders and specialists were the employees of KGMZ. The most famous and respected factory workers were sent to build a new plant. The new plant needed more than twenty thousand machine builders. The main burden in the problem of providing personnel fell on KGMZ: dozens of workers who received the title of master in the school of socialist labor that worked at KGMZ were transferred to the new plant.

In 1934, the current SKMZ was separated into an independent machine-building plant and became known as the "Old Kramatorsk Machine-Building Plant". Since 1935 it has been named after Sergo Ordzhonikidze.

Shortly before the start of the Great Patriotic War, a workshop specializing in products for military needs was put into operation. With the beginning of the war, the entire plant was transferred to defense rails. In Kramatorsk, the manufacture of aerial bombs, shells, machine guns and orders for the Navy was organized. In October 1941, the plant was evacuated to Irkutsk, where the production of military products was again launched. After the liberation of Kramatorsk, the specialists of the plant returned to their city, and the restoration of the SKMZ from the ruins began.

In 1946, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the plant was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. And already in 1947, for the first time in the world, SKMZ manufactured a unified ore-coal loader of a welded structure. In 1949, for the first time in the USSR, SKMZ made a fine glass disintegrator and gas stacks for the metallurgical industry, which was sent to Azovstal. Export deliveries have begun. In 1952, the first stamping 10-ton steam-air hammer was manufactured. Orders for Zaporizhstal are being fulfilled. In 1958, SKMZ products were presented at VDNKh in Moscow, where they were awarded a special diploma.

In the 1960-80s, the plant mastered the production of a large list of rolling, finishing and precision equipment: cold rolling mills, precision flattening mills, cutting units for hot-rolled strips, strips made of aluminum, non-ferrous metals and alloys; profile bending units and turbine mills; separate straightening and cutting machines for sheet and section mills. Products bearing the SKMZ brand were exported to India, Pakistan, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Korea, Japan, Iran, Turkey and other countries.

In the 1990s, the years of perestroika, SKMZ lost its main sales markets. The plant no longer produced rolling equipment in the same quantity as before. Executives were looking for new profit opportunities. In 1990, a metal products workshop was opened and a unit for the production of bimetallic tiles was launched. In 1993, a building materials workshop for the production of cinder blocks was opened. In the mechanical workshop, the production of gas water heaters was launched.

In February 1995, the privatization of the plant began. On May 29, SKMZ was reorganized into Starokramatorsk Machine-Building Plant Open Joint Stock Company. In 1999, the plant began to establish contacts with Ukrzalizn and Tsey. Specialists of SKMZ have mastered the production of machines working on the railway.

In 2002, for a significant contribution to the development of domestic mechanical engineering , the plant was awarded the Badge of Honor by the International Personnel Academy.

For a long time it was believed that SKMZ directly belongs to Sergey Bliznyuk. The son of the former governor of the Donetsk region owns 25% of the company's shares. He is allowed to have a controlling stake by an offshore company registered in the Caribbean island state of Saint Kitts and Nevis Ganado Trade, INC, which has a 25% stake. The extract from the USREOU states that Lyudmila Ulyashchenko is also the beneficial owner. But first things first.

Offshore company Ganado Trade, INC received its stake back in 2007. In addition to control over SKMZ, the Kramatorsk Motor Transport Enterprise 11410 and the Moscow company UMZ are also registered on this offshore. Ganado Trade is not the only offshore that provides for the interests of the Bliznyuk family, but in Kramatorsk, most of the transactions go through it.

The main intermediaries in the transactions are two companies registered in Moscow: UMP and Trading House KZTS. The CEO of both companies is Vladimir Panchenko. It is noteworthy that UMP also sells the products of another Kramatorsk plant - Energomashspetsstal. Lyudmila Ulyashchenko, who works at this plant as director for economic issues, is also directly connected with EMSS. She is also an assistant on a voluntary basis to the former general director of EMSS, and now people's deputy Maxim Efimov.

It is normal practice for SKMZ to sell products to its structures under the guise of "blanks" and then resell them to target buyers. Blanks are actually raw materials from which you can produce the necessary parts or equipment. The difference in price between the blank and the finished product is about 30%, and this difference after resale is taxed. Offshore companies are also used to withdraw foreign currency from the country. In the future, finances are returned to enterprises in the form of investments, which allows bypassing taxation in Ukraine.