Lithuania | Industry | R&D

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Stumbled upon an interesting thread of Gatis in the Latvian section and thought some might be interested to know what's going on out here too.

Will try to update the thread as often as possible.

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"Akmenės cementas", one of the largest cement producers in the Baltic sea region, is investing 350 mln Litas (€101.5 mln) into construction of new "dry process" production line.

"Akmenės cementas" in 2008



The new line will replace the technologically and environmentally outdated two "wet process" production lines that have an annual capacity of 1.2 mln tones of cement. The new "dry process" production line will have an annual capacity of 1.5 mln tones and will reduce the production costs by an estimated 30% and pollution by 25%.




Apart from the construction of new, the project also includes reconstruction of most of old, a total 40 buildings. The work is carried out by Lithuanian "PST", while €45 mln. worth of equipment is being supplied by "Siemens".

The new chimney will reach 125 meters of height.


a few more construction photos here

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Biotechpharma UAB is a Lithuania based private biotech company focused on contract research, process development and manufacturing in the area of recombinant proteins.

biotechpharma.lt

"Biotechpharma" is investing €16,2 mln into construction of it's new R&D center.


http://www.balsas.lt/naujiena/540161...tyrimu-centras

The new center will allow the company to employ 30 additional scientists as well as significantly increase it's financial well being.


http://www.kgc.lt/lt/biotechfarma

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"Baltic Solar Solutions", "Baltic Solar Energy" and "ViaSolis" - all subsidiaries of Lithuanian "BOD group", the largest CD/DVD producer in the region are investing €46,5 mln into a new R&D center.

The fat one in the middle


The new center will be the first of it's kind in CEE. 17.000 m^2 will be occupied by "ViaSolis" and two production lines of monocrystalline silicon solar cells based local technology.

The other 10.000 m^2 will be a research center occupied by "BSS" and "BSE".

By 2015, once both production lines are fully operational, the facility will turn in an estimated annual revenue of ~ €120.3 mln. By 2018, after further investment, the annual revenue of the solar energy cluster is estimated to reach ~ €464 mln. Around 500 new workplaces, mostly for people with high level of education, will be created by 2018.



360° pano of the construction site a month ago

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A new R&D center of Lith' company "Viltechmeda" was opened fairly recently in the Visoriai Information Technology park. An investment of €15.1 mln. 50 new people were employed at the center.

"Viltechmeda" produces infusion pumps for general ward, intensive care, anesthesia and pain control and sells 95% of it's production, under the "MOOG" brand, to 90 countries around the world.


(c)Vilnietizz, from miestai.net

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"Fermentas" is investing €11,6 mln into construction of a new 10.000 m^2 building next to it's existing facilities. The new building, apart from some office space, will house their new and improved molecular biology research center. 140 scientist will be employed there. The existing one allows an employment of only 80.



"Fermentas", part of "Thermo Fisher Scientific" family, is one of the largest Lith' biotech companies and a world pioneer in enzyme research and production.

two month old photo

(c)Jegermeister, from miestai.net

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"Sicor Biotech" is investing €22,6 mln into construction of a new production line that will double it's production capacity. 49 new workplaces will be created. The new line will open by the end of 2013.



"Sicor Biotech" is another large Lith' biotech company, part of "TEVA Pharmaceutical Industries" group. It's primary areas of expertise are research, development and production of various bio-pharmaceuticals. 95% of the produce from the new production line will be exported to USA and Japan.



Sorry, no construction pics yet.

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Lithuanian "SBA group", the largest producer of furniture in the region, invested €11 mln into expansion of "Germanika", one of it's 6 furniture factories in Lithuania.



The expansion finished only months ago and the factory now employs 400 people instead of previous number of 180.








The expansion was a result of an additional new contract "SBA" signed with "IKEA" in 2010. "Germanika" alone will satisfy the conditions - productional demand of the contract worth €43.5 mln a year.

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"Ryterna" is finishing construction of a new factory and an experimental development center in Kaunas FEZ.


(c)GediminasJa, from miestai.net

"Ryterna" is one of the largest producers of various garage gates, fences and doors in northern Europe.





(c)Čikupakas, from miestai.net

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Fortum starts planning cogeneration power plant project in Kaunas

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/goo...ess/?doc=51938

According to the Law on Energy, a 200 MW power plant, which is planned to be built in the Kaunas free economic zone (FEZ), is a project of public interest and it requires a development plan, reports LETA/ELTA.

The Board of the Finnish energy company decided to start forming a power plant development plan in the beginning of January. It is to be finished until September. Then the development plan will be submitted to the minister of energy.

Building a new power plant is planned to be finished until 2016. The project might cost around EUR 200 million.

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Enwipellets to invest EUR 38 mln in Kaunas

http://www.15min.lt/en/article/busin...nas-527-197649

Enwipellets is set to invest 131 million litas (EUR 37.97 mln) in the production of hay pellets in Lithuania, the Verslo Žinios business daily reports on Monday.

The company, which uses the funds of an undisclosed Scandinavian investment fund, plans to launch the construction of a hay pellet plant in the free economic zone of Kaunas in fall.

Manufacturing is expected to be launched next year.

With the second expansion stage completed in 2014, the annual capacity of the plant will grow to 480,000 tons.

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"Pienas LT" plans to invest €29 mln into a milk processing factory in Kaunas FEZ

http://verslomainai.lt/investicijos/...investiciju-36

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Danspin makes 40 mln litas investment

http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/2011...as-investment/

Danspin, a Danish carpet and wool spinning company, will invest more than 40 million litas (11.6 million euros) into the development of a carpet yarn spinning factory in Raseiniai where they plan to create 200 new jobs and establish an research and development centre.

Up to 5 million litas has been earmarked from EU structural support funds to implement the project, the Ministry of Economy reported. The investment is a positive sign for Lithuania’s manufacturing industry, which was heavily hit during 2008-2009 and is yet to fully recover.

Minister of Economy Rimantas Zylius said that his ministry would aim to bring in more similar investments in future.

“Investment attraction to Lithuania is among the government’s priorities. We are especially delighted that investments come to our region; the Danish company has decided not only to create several hundred new jobs in Raseiniai but also establish an R&D centre to develop new technologies,” the minister said in a press release.

“We will continue working this way and seek that Lithuania be even more distinct on the investment map able to attract more companies capable of creating new jobs,” Zylius said.

Danspin’s CEO said that the Lithuanian government’s incentives had been a key reason to choose the country for investment.

“Support from Invest Lithuania and the government was among the most important criteria for us to select Lithuania. Invest Lithuania were with us from the beginning to the end of the project and their professional assistance helped make the project a real investment,” Lars Petersen, CEO and co-owner of Danspin said.

Danspin was founded in 1931 and has subsidiaries in Denmark and Estonia. Since 2002 a factory in Raseiniai has successfully operating in Lithuania.

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"Vičiūnų group" invested €9 mln into it's third food processing factory in a town of Plungė.



The new factory opened a month ago and initially employed 250 new people, however that number will rise to 400 in the nearest future.

The facility has an annual capacity of 14.000 tones of processed food. 65% of it's production will be exported.

http://www.viciunaigroup.eu/apie-mus...uvies-fabrikas

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"Vičiūnų group" is one of the largest food processing companies in the region. Growing at an impressive rate of 20% or more year after year, the company reached a turnover of over €600 mln in 2011.



"Vičiūnų group" employs 6500 people. Has subsidiaries in 17 countries and exports it's produce to 46 countries world-wide.





"Vičiūnų group" is also about to start construction of two more food processing factories. A €20 mln fish processing plant in Kaunas with 150 new workplaces. It's produce will go to export.

There's also a €23.2 mln egg processing plant in Telšiai about to go u/c. It's entire produce will be aimed at satisfying the needs of the company.

The company is also planning a construction of 3 more food processing factories in Lithuania somewhere in 2014-2015.

http://www.viciunaigroup.eu/apie-mus...metu-projektai

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"Margasmiltė" is planning to invest €60 mln into a construction of Anhydrite mine at Pagiriai deposit near Kaunas.


*All of the photos are from the company's official site. The minerals in the photos are "Lithuanian" too.

Anhydrite is a colorless, white, gray, blue, or lilac mineral of anhydrous calcium sulfate, occurring as layers in gypsum deposits. The mineral is similar in it's qualities to marble and is mostly used in production of construction materials.




Kaunas-Prienai basin, at an estimated over trillion tones, is one of the largest anhydrite deposits in the world. It is also the most valuable as a lot of it is blue anhydrite, which is considered to be the most valuable and right now sells at €5000 per cubic meter.




The Plant will be located right next to Via Baltica highway.




An estimated 38 train wagons and 33 trucks carrying anhydrite will leave the mine daily.




"Margasmiltė" has already secured all the necessary mining permits and money and is now in a process of finishing the technical plan of the mine and securing the detail plan of the land plot from the municipality of Kaunas district. They plan to start construction of the mine during the summer of 2013.




The mine will employ 700 people and pay to the government in form of taxes up to €50 mln annually. It will also facilitate construction of two anhydrite processing factories in Kaunas, something that is also in the future plans of the company.




Depending on the state of construction industry world-wide and on the success of the first - Pagiriai mine, we're talking about, potentially, billions upon billions of euros and hundreds if not thousands of workplaces as a boost to Lith' economy over the next decades. We'll see, fingers crossed.


Judging by the amount of very detailed information on their site, "Margasmiltė" seems to be a serious company with well thought out plans.

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A little over a year ago, "Eternit Baltic" completed a €20 mln reboot of it's old facilities.

Located next to "Akmenes Cementas" (see post nr.1) for an obvious reason, "Eternit Baltic" is the only fibrecement roofing and facade materials producer in the region.



Production capacity increased 3 times and 110 new workplaces were created. The new plant is 100% green.

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Fortum Invests in a Waste-To-Energy CHP Plant in Lithuania

http://www.fortum.lt/news-klaipeda/f...t-in-lithuania

Fortum is building a new combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Klaipeda, Lithuania. The value of the power plant investment is EUR 140 million euros, and the plant is expected to be completed by January 2013.
The new CHP plant, fuelled by municipal and industrial waste and biomass, will have a capacity of approximately 50 MW heat and about 20 MW electricity. The district heat produced at the plant will replace natural gas-based heat production capacity.

Switching to combined heat and power production will increase the efficiency of the energy production and will decrease the CO2 emissions in the area by about 10,000 – 36,000 tonnes a year. Fortum's new CHP plant is the first waste-to-energy plant in the Baltic countries.

The production plant will play a key role in the city of Klaipeda's waste management and will significantly reduce the disposal of waste in the local landfill.

(c)Eimantas, from miestai.net

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Lith' biochem' company "Amilina", one of the largest producers of high quality starch and gluten in Europe, is investing €84 mln over the next 3 years to allow the company to further increase it's productivity and almost triple wheat processing capacity to 600.000 tones annually.

• €44 mln will be spent on a construction of new wheat processing plant that will produce syrup. 50 new work places for people with higher education.
• €13 mln will be spent on a construction of a new 40MW biofuel power plant, to achieve energy independence.
• €27 mln will be spent to increase starch production capacity

http://www.veidas.lt/tag/amilina




This might sound strange to some - million of euros to produce starch, syrup and gluten... They're actually considered to be a high-added value products, and "Amilina" as a company, financially, is doing very well.

The company expects to exceed a turnover of €200 mln by 2015, and €300 mln by 2018-2020.

R&D center.

• The company now employs 318 people.
• Average wage - €1000
• Annual productivity per employee - €0.52 mln

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"Lotos Geonafta", owned by Polish "Lotos", will invest €9 - 14.5 mln in the next couple of years drilling up to 20 exploratory wells in Klaipeda county and Lithuania's sea shelf.



http://forex.lt/component/content/article/30476

USA's "Chevron" has already registered a company in Lithuania and a number of other companies are said to be interested. Lithuania's Geology Council should announce, in a matter of days, an international tender for exploration/extraction of shale gas of one potential site at the southern tip of county of Klaipeda.

Recoverable (technologically and financially) shale gas deposits in Lithuania are estimated, by Lithuania's Geology Council, to be at around 55 bln m^3 to 85 bln m^3, but nothing is certain without some decent exploration. If the initial estimates do pan out, we're talking about an inflow into Lith' economy of over €20 bln. euros.

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"Renerga", owned by the third largest Lith' company "Achema group", last summer, finished the expansion of it's Benaičiai wind-farm in the district of Kretinga. Investment into expansion reached €58 mln, while the total investment into the construction of Benaičiai wind-farm exceeded €87 mln.


(c)lrytas.lt

The wind-farm has an electricity generating capacity of 50MW - enough to satisfy the needs of entire Kretinga district (pop. 41.000)


(c)lrytas.lt