Uralskiy Zavod Khimicheskogo Mashinostroeniya (Ural Chemical Engineering Works) JSC Board of Directors appointed Sergei Baiburin, former Head Economist of Uralinvestenergo Group, General Director. The former GD Valeriy Antoniadi was dismissed early, reports the company’s spokesperson.

A share holding of Commercial Bank Gran is reported to have possibly been bought by a financial holding of Moscow. Converse Group Holding appears to be the likeliest buyer, says UrBC private source. According to the facts available so far, the transaction has already been made and the legal proceedings are to have been finalized by the end of February 2006. The arrival of the new owner may result in Gran entering the holding and the introduction of the new bank management. As the holding official website has it, Converse Group currently consists of thre Russian financial enterprises, namely,

According to the data presented by Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, Sredneuralskiy Vinzavod (Winery of Sredneuralsk) Ltd. produced 125,080 decalitres of grape wine in 2005, which makes up 51% of the output for 2004 (245,100 decalitres).The output of wine produced by the company in December comprised 9,320 decalitres, which makes up 26.7% of previous December’s output, of which 6,520 decalitres had not been sold by January 1, 2006.

The petrol prices appear not to have gone up during the last few days. According to the spokespersons of Ural District oil dealers, the prices have not changed in comparison with the beginning of the year. ‘Some private companies might have actually raised their prices, but the larger ones have been maintaining them and are planning to keep doing so,’ said the spokesperson for Yekaterinburg subsidiary of LUKOIL Permnefteproduct Ltd. Yet as Kortes information agency reports, the market prices have gone up by 6.45% throughout January 14 to January 20.

According to the company’s spokesperson, Chelyabisnkgorgas JSC assessed its success in providing for the company’s industrial safety. The total amount of natural gas transmitted via local gas pipelines comprised 3.295 billion cubic meters in 2005. There were 4 accidents that were not, however, the company’s fault, and the problems were fixed promptly. Chelyabisnkgorgas JSC employees examined 187 kilometers of pipelines using special equipment, to make sure they were airtight, among other things. 38 insulation finish defects and 22 faulty shutdown devices were fixed and sacrificial anodes of

Uralsevergaz JSC, local natural gas supplier, decided to go down to the previously scheduled amount of gas supplies in Sverdlovsk Region starting January 24, 2006. The company had been supplying the agreed amount and the extra 7 million to 13 million cubic meters a day throughout the bitterly cold January 14 to January 24. Yet, as Uraltransgas Ltd. reports, the unusually low temperatures observed in virtually all of Russia resulted in an acute shortage of natural gas within the Russian Federation United Gas Supply System, which now makes it necessary to do something to prevent a general

‘An increase in sugar prices destabilizes the production but this could actually become our competitive advantage: our plant managed to keep up the regular output due to some reserve and, more importantly, we could afford not to raise the prices whereas most of the other producers had their prices go up by an average of 33% shortly after New Year (the average seasonal increase being only 5%). We are now targeted at sticking with the price segment we are currently in,’ Sales Manager of Confectionery of Vishnevogorsk (Chelyabinsk Region) Yana Stroeva said to UrBC representative. ‘It’s too early

The quotas are approved for Aleksandrinskaya gornorudnaya kompaniya JSC and Miasszoloto JSC. Their total limit is 635 kilos of gold, 22 tones of silver and 1 kilo of platinum. The projected returns to the regional budget should be about 12 million RUR. According to the report made by Chelyabinsk Minister of Industry and Natural Resources Evgeny Teftelev, on December 30, 2005, the regional commission for examination of applications and suggestions on quotas allocation considered and approved application documents of the mentioned companies, and found no complaints to file against their mining