Competition among suppliers of equipment and services for the Russian nuclear industry currently makes about five bids for one offer. On one of the trading floors – the Competitive Auction House – saving on purchases amounted to nearly 93 million roubles this November alone, thanks to the choice of possibilities, spokesman for the Competitive Auction House Anton Poletayev said.

The State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom has two official electronic trading facilities – Fabrikant and Roseltorg (Single Electronic Trading Facility). Several electronic facilities are needed for their development in competition with each other and bringing some new ideas.

“Our trading facility is renewed every three months in order to simplify the task for suppliers. And, in accordance with the uniform industry standard of purchases, a two-step reverse auction was introduced,” Poletayev said. He explained that the “two-step reverse auction is introduced in order to be able to initially examine the characteristics offered by each supplier, marked only by a serial number, and the part where the customer sees the name of the company is revealed only after the bidding takes place.”

The auction house representative said that electronic trading facilities make collusion between the supplier and the customer impossible. “This makes the Russian nuclear industry more attractive, including for foreign companies. We attract suppliers from Europe, the C.I.S. countries, and also actively work with Asia and Turkey,” Poletayev said. According to him, Rosatom is currently in negotiations in order to settle the last remaining issue with the organization of electronic trading – the electronic digital signature. So far no certification center issues digital signatures for non-residents that have no representative offices in Russia. When this question is settled, many more foreign firms will be able to enter the Russian market.

“More than 14 000 electronic trading procedures have already been conducted at out facility, the registration of participants takes one day,” said the Competitive Auction House representative. According to him, because of the trading between the suppliers, the price to the end customer is substantially reduced.

The head of Rosatom Sergei Kiriyenko said at the international forum of suppliers ATOMEX-2011 that the corporation expects to save this year up to 25 billion roubles by the introduction of the competitive procurement system. Kiriyenko recalled 19 billion roubles were saved in 2010 with the help of the procurement system. “Over the first nine months of this year, the effect of the competitive procurement system amounted to 17.4 billion roubles. As far as the 2011 results go, the saving could reach 23-25 billion roubles,” he said. This year, the forum was attended by more than 650 representatives of 300 Russian and foreign nuclear industry companies. The exhibition space houses 120 participating companies.

The International Nuclear Industry Suppliers’ Forum ATOMEX has been held already for the third time. The conference partner is Sberbank of Russia; the partner of the section session “Engineering researches, designing and construction of facilities using nuclear energy” is SOGAZ Insurance Group; the partner of the section session “Management systems on projects of facilities using nuclear energy construction. Information technologies” is SAP. The technical sponsor is ENERGOGARANT IC.

Director General of Kemppi Yevgeniya Kopoteva noted another change in the Russian nuclear industry policy: “Instead of trying to find the least expensive supplier, the nuclear industry sets the task to look for a reasonable balance of the price and quality.” “It is good that the supplier is now considered in terms of reliability, from the viewpoint that the company pays all the taxes, pays officially declared wages. It is very nice and comfortable to work in such conditions,” she admitted.

Vice president of Getinge Group for the work in the nuclear sphere Christophe Cellier praised the “openness and transparency” of Rosatom in the sphere of procurement. In his opinion, “the Russian nuclear industry is attractive to foreign companies by the domestic market and Russia’s product export potential.” “We see major opportunities in Russia. The Russian market is promising, because nuclear technology has been developed here for decades. And the second aspect is that the issues of safety and protection in the industry are among the most important here,” Christophe Cellier said.

The State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom incorporates more than 250 enterprises and scientific institutions, including all civil nuclear companies of Russia, nuclear weapons complex’s facilities, research organizations, and the world’s only nuclear-propelled fleet. Rosatom is the largest utility in Russia that produces more than 40 percent of electricity in the country’s European part. Rosatom holds leading positions in the world market of nuclear technologies as the 1st in the world simultaneous nuclear builder abroad; 2nd in uranium reserves and 5th in uranium mining; 4th in nuclear electricity generation, while providing 40 percent of the world’s uranium enrichment services and 17 percent of the world’s nuclear fuel market. Rosatom is also tasked to fulfil Russia’s international obligations in the field of the peaceful uses of atomic energy and the nuclear non-proliferation regime. Rosatom controls nuclear power holding Atomenergoprom, nuclear weapons companies, research institutes, and nuclear and radiation safety agencies. Rosatom manages the Russian fleet of nuclear icebreakers through Atomflot. OKB Gidropress, which develops the current Russian nuclear power station range VVER, is a subsidiary of Rosatom.