THEORY OF ORGANIC COMBINATIONS

The director of Kazanorgsintez was exceptionally wary of us when we met first.Having ascertained that we were not some scoundrels he quietly said: «Actually we don't need advertising»

THEORY OF ORGANIC COMBINATIONS

This year Nail Yusupov, who has been General director and president of the public joint stock company Kazanorgsintez for sixteen years already, turned seventy-two. Having verified our best intentions he became considerably friendlier, invited us to seat and showed us a newspaper table on which a number of surnames were highlighted with a marker.

— This is today's issue of «Kommersant», we received it today. The table was called «Top 1000 Russian managers» and No 59 said «Nail Yusupov, Kazanorgsintez», chemical industry, Tatarstan.

The second half of the XX century in our country was marked by the development of organic chemistry. It was the time when finally the famous quote from Mendeleyev: «Oil is not fuel. If you reason otherwise, why not burn money?» — came true. The Soviet government ceased to treat oil and gas only as material for production of fuel.

May 1958 Plenary session of the CPSU Central Committee resolved to accelerate the development of chemical industry. As a result of this decision in August of the same year construction of a new chemical enterprise commenced to the south of Kazan. Five years later the fist production line was commissioned and produced its first phenol and acetone.

Now there are five plants on a territory of 420 hectares. Ethylene plant produces ethylene of various grades as well as propylene, phenol and acetone. The high and low density polyethylene plant produces different types of granulated polyethylene, ninety percent of which is sold and ten percent is processed to make pipes, bags and containers at the plastic production plant. The fifth plant produces organic goods such as various de-emulsifiers, catalysts, initiators and other chemicals with names that sound familiar to chemical industry professionals only though it would be impossible to imagine any chemical enterprise without these chemicals.

We moved around the territory of the complex in a car. By foot it would have taken us about an hour to get to the polyethylene pipe producing plant. The landscape surrounding us was very typical of chemical production — pipes, big and small, intertwining on the ground and in the air, high and low, merging and channeling off, and lots and lots of cisterns, which the chemical industry professionals call «tanks». The only unusual thing is its expanse.

Polyethylene pipes are one of the enterprises main products. Despite the fact that they account for only four percent of overall production only, the pipes are not the least in significance, quite the opposite in fact. First of all Kazanorgsintez is one of the few producers of polyethylene pipes of various diameter in Russia and it is certainly the biggest producer of polyethylene pipes. Secondly, the issue of replacing steel pipes with polyethylene pipes is significant for all Russians without exceptions.

According to V.S.Romeiko, associate member of the Russian ecology academy, over 70 percent Russias water pipe network fails to meet quality standards as well as basic safety rules. As a result of wear and tear of water pipes Russia looses 314 billion rubles annually, of which the loss of water in transportation accounts for 210 billion, excessive use of electricity required to pump water over rusty and residue-silted pipes accounts for 34 billion, and losses in heating network account for 70 billion. 314 billion rubles is equivalent to 10 billion dollars. This amount is almost the same as the total budget of the country. Many researchers and ecologists believe that the poor state of Russian water pipelines is one of the main reasons for the economic crisis in Russia. Our country's record of the daily drinking water consumption of 500 liters per person results primarily from water loss rather than the wastefulness of our compatriots. A Muscovite taking a bath spends as much water as a New-Yorker taking a Jacuzzi, but despite the fact that Americans are the second biggest water-consuming nation, per capita consumption is only 190 liters, or 2.5 times less.

This stunning gap can be explained exceptionally easily — steel water pipes are not used in virtually any country of the world. It has been known for a long time that polyethylene pipes are much better than steel ones when a whole range of parameters are compared. Their minimum lifetime is longer several times over, they do not have and cannot have any internal buildup of organic and non-organic residue, they have much better heat insulation, they are more elastic and less prone to fractures. They are better than steel pipes in every respect — other than being more expensive. Not much more expensive, true. In the old Soviet times the government spared no effort to create a myth that life in the country of Soviets was better than in any other corner of the world. One of the ways to strengthen the myth were laughable prices for water and electricity. While a cubic meter of water cost more than one dollar in various countries of the world (in Holland — one dollar, in Germany and USA — 2 dollars, in Denmark — 3.5 dollars), in Moscow the cost of one cubic meter of water until recently was 90 kopecks, or 3 cents. The Soviet government used all available methods to achieve these unbelievable results, and was not stopped by harming the health of its people. The cheapest materials were used in laying water pipes, no one was concerned that the maximum lifetime of steel pipes is eight years while polyethylene will last fifty years. The country was saving kopecks and wasting much bigger amounts, which came out of peoples earnings.

Sadly, the tradition of laying down steel pipelines is still alive in our country. Many managers are guided by immediate benefits when making decisions and immediate logic tells them that steel pipes are cheaper. Therefore thousands of kilometers of metal are rusting under the ground and the products of metal oxidation are entering our bodies. It does not take long to establish that laying down polyethylene pipes is significantly cheaper than laying steel pipes down since plastic pipes weigh less and are easier to operate. Never mind the task of cleaning and maintenance — polymeric pipes have an endless number of advantages in this respect. Do you know the amount of various residue types, which are cleaned out during the annual maintenance of steel pipes? The minimum is half a kilogram and the maximum is fifteen kilos of rust, metal bacteria and silicon earth per meter of pipe. Plus there is the cost of pipe replacement, which is traditionally done every five years?

The Kazanorgsintez works produces pipes for water, gas, sewage and other networks. Current output is 35 thousand tons per annum and it keeps growing.

While the Russian economy is going through a crisis the works is still in its growth stage. In 1996 another type of production was launched here: weaving, and this should not be surprising. Shareholders resolved that producing bags for packaging granulated polyethylene would be cheaper than purchasing the bags. The new line produces both polypropylene bags and soft big soft bags (such as those used by shuttle traders). The production went so well that soon the plant was able to sell most of its packaging products to producers of mineral fertilizers and food supplements in a short while.

— Do you know why we work so well here?» — asked Shamil, a pipe production equipment operator who has been working at the enterprise for 17 years already. — «Because our managers are businesslike, they take care of the workers. Not a single person was dismissed during the perestroika years. I earn five to six thousand rubles here, where else would I get a similar salary? The old management was only thinking about itself, but the new management is thinking about people and about the future. It's a pleasure to work for such people, you don't want to fail them.

Ravil ATZHANOV