Good afternoon, Madam Chair.
I'm pleased to speak to you today about the impact of the Russian‑Ukrainian war and economic sanctions on my company, STAS, in Saguenay, Quebec.
I had prepared a document but unfortunately I can't present it to you due to technical problems.
I will briefly introduce my company. STAS is a provider of high-tech equipment and solutions to the global aluminum industry. We're headquartered in Quebec and we have a subsidiary in France. Before COVID‑19, we had 220 employees and sales of over C$60 million. We are active in 40 countries with extended service points and global suppliers.
Over the past 30 years, we've delivered over 2,000 pieces of equipment and completed tens of thousands of projects around the world. We have a presence [Technical difficulty] in all sectors of the aluminum industry, including carbon, electrolysis, casting centre, secondary processing and recycling.
Things are different today. In Canada, STAS has been significantly affected by the pandemic. Our sales are down over 40%. Our total sales are now $35 million, including $10 million in Russia, which receives 85% of our exports.
We have a global footprint in North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. We regularly monitor all global projects in the aluminum industry. For the past 20 years or so, we've been active in the Middle East, India, China, Saudi Arabia and Russia, which I will come back to later.
We have a diverse, specialized workforce. More than 120 people work at STAS in Quebec.
This crisis, this war, is having a very significant impact on us. Here are the main factors involved.
First, Russia was our only stable market during the COVID‑19 health crisis, and this led us to look more to that market.
Second, the crisis was unforeseeable and it came out of nowhere. We carry out our projects over an 18- to 24-month period. We had already made commitments to our Russian customers a long time ago.
Third, the banking sanctions are now keeping our client from paying us for work we've already completed.
Fourth, it's impossible for us to ship equipment we've already assembled because of the ban on cargo shipping between most Western nations and Russia.
The final factor relates to supervising construction projects in Russia. It's now very dangerous for us to send skilled labour to Russia to do the work needed to install our machinery and equipment.
We believe that the impact of this crisis on labour and production will be felt by our company for two to three years. So we're dealing with a very significant crisis. We've determined that financial impact of us shutting down Russian projects is approximately C$4.4 million. We stand to lose several years of growth and diversification.