Company briefs - 2008-04-23

  • 2008-04-23
Officials from the Tallink Group and Estonian Sailors Independent Union failed to reach an agreement on a salary dispute. Tallink said the union's demands were too exorbitant. Employees want wages on Tallink's Estonian-flagged ships and Superfast boats to be evened out; currently the gap ranges from 20 to 200 percent depending on the job, union officials said. More than 1,200 Tallink employees belong to the union. Negotiations between the two sides began in January

Mexico's Cemex said it planned to build a cement plant in Latgale, near Daugavpils. Eriks Matulis, company official, told the Diena daily that the company was currently choosing the plant's future location. Cemex already owns a cement plant in Broceni, in the southern part of the country, and is building a new facility in the same town. The company is also reconstructing a terminal in Liepaja for exporting and importing.

The Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant returned to normal operating capacity of 1,350 megawatts on April 17 after an unexpected turbine shutdown reportedly caused by human error. The incident forced Lithuania's grid operators to import electricity from Latvia and Russia. The reactor's other turbine continued working throughout but could not supply sufficient output to meet the country's needs.

Latvia's cosmetics retailer Kolonna purchased Germany's Fribad Cosmetics Group, a cosmetics producer. Chairwoman Ieva Plaude did not disclose the value of the deal, saying only the sum was "big." "The new development vision of the Kolonna group provides for shortening products' path from the producer to consumers. The purchase of the cosmetics plant will also facilitate our expansion in the Western market, as we want to become a well known cosmetics holding in Europe," Plaude told journalists. She said Fribad has a large plant in Baden-Baden that makes cosmetic brands well known in Latvia, as well as others that have not been available in the Baltic state.