On August 28, Minsk / Ekaterina Markovich - BELTA /. OJSC "Keramzit Gravel Plant of Novolukoml" (Vitebsk Region, Chashniksky District) plans to increase the enterprise's production capacity fivefold. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by the enterprise director Mikhail Lazarashvili. According to the head of the company, a new workshop for the production of expanded clay concrete products will be launched in November 2012. "The implementation of this large-scale investment project will allow us to increase the production volume of expanded clay concrete blocks to 75 thousand cubic meters per year in 2013, which is five times more than is produced today," noted Mikhail Lazarashvili. The supply of equipment and the complete setup of the workshop are provided by the German company Hess, which is the largest manufacturer of concrete molding machines in Europe. "The necessity of implementing this investment project was primarily driven by the fact that in recent years, even despite a certain decrease in the volume of housing construction in the country, individuals and legal entities wishing to purchase expanded clay concrete blocks were queuing up to us. The number of applications submitted twice exceeded the production capabilities of our enterprise," he explained. In addition to meeting consumer demand, the launch of new production capacities will, according to the director, significantly reduce the cost of production, as the new equipment is many times more productive than what is currently available at the plant. "It will give us the opportunity to tangibly improve the technical characteristics of the products and make them even more competitive," noted Mikhail Lazarashvili. In addition, the implementation of the project will allow us to master the production of promising types of expanded clay concrete blocks. The plant also plans to master the production of paving slabs using expanded clay according to Slovak technology. "According to our partners from Slovakia, such tiles can solve the problem of icy roads, but they need to be tested in our climatic conditions. We will produce trial samples, evaluate their technical characteristics, and conduct tests in real conditions. If the tiles meet expectations, we will establish their production in the future," said the enterprise director.