Company briefs - 2010-02-03

U.S. firm Energtek is in the initial stages of opening a new gas cylinder production company in Riga with a 9 million dollar investment over the next two years, reports LETA. The company plans to manufacture the gas cylinders for export. It is planned that the company will employ more than 100 persons. Energtek has approached Riga City Council with a request to purchase a 1.5 hectare plot of land for the factory. Latvia was chosen for the project due to its “perfect geographical location, favorable entrepreneurship conditions, EU funding availability and preliminary support from Riga City,” says spokeswoman Irena Gritzevsakya.

According to pre-audited reports, in 2009, the Lithuanian banking system operated at a loss of 2.9 billion litas (853.4 million euros), reports ELTA. In 2008, the banks earned a profit of 870 million litas. Without taking into account the additional investments made by shareholders of SEB, the total losses of the banking system would have reached 3.6 billion litas. The losses incurred by the banks in Q4 of 2009 alone stood at as much as 2.2 billion litas, excluding the losses covered by shareholders. The most important factor leading to losses last year was the drop in the value of assets held on the banks’ books.

According to preliminary data, cereal production in Estonia totaled 879,000 tons in 2009, writes Statistics Estonia. This was 2 percent more than during the previous year. The yield of rape and turnip rapeseed was the largest in the past decade – a total of 135,700 tons. In 2008, the yield in cereals was affected by a rainy harvest period. This was why, particularly for the spring crop, production was smaller than expected. However, in 2009 the climate conditions were relatively favorable for harvesting and the harvesting period was timely. Of the total cereal production, 39,100 tons of rye, 345,600 tons of wheat and 379,900 tons of barley were produced. In the year-on-year comparison, the production of rye decreased and production of wheat and barley increased.