Ural Railway Machine Building Works (part of Sinara Group) produced 5,600 tons of goods in 2005, which exceeds the figures for 2004 by 84%. More metallurgical and building hardware orders were placed, too, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. The company also set to work on Electrovoz project last year. The major units and some elements of 2ES4K dc freight locomotive assembling process started as well. Two experimental samples of modernized bogie frames, currently tested at a research institute in Kolomna, were produced. Moreover, the plant also managed to upgrade three

Within two days after the control over the 75%-share holding of United Machine Building Works JSC was consolidated by a group of investors, one of them being Gazprombank, two Members of the company’s Board resigned. Sergei Skatershikov and Alan Kazbekov explained this by being concerned about the company’s possible delisting on the Russian and international stock exchanges and the likely transformation of the works from the open joint stock company to a close one, the company’s spokesperson reported.

The negotiations between Koltsovo Airport and Siberia Airlines are still in progress. ‘The airport wasn’t able to provide the slots Siberia had asked for as the time they want is overloaded enough as it is, so we just cannot go beyond our capacity. Yet we are willing to offer the carrier another time or, better still, another direction,’ the company’s spokesperson Yulia Fedotova said to UrBC representative.

‘The regional subsidiary of ROSGOSSTRAKH Ltd., Russian State Insurance Company, has been working on the offset of debt for the last six years. Our net profits have already allowed us to cover 34 million RUR, and we’re still improving,’ Director of ROSGOSSTRAKH Ltd. Ural subsidiary Evgeniy Ostapenko announced at the press conference.

‘We have already performed the first stage of the power engineering reform that had to do with departmentalizing AO-Energo according to types of tasks done, that is, energy production, distribution and sales. Besides, after the interregional integration took place on December 1, 2005, TGK-10 became the exclusive executive setting for Generating Companies of Chelyabinsk and Tyumen,’ TGK-10 GD Andrey Shishkin said at the press conference devoted to heat supply issues in Chelyabinsk. According to Mr Shishkin, the second stage presupposes the unification of the two companies’ shares and

In the second half of 2005, Chelyabinsk Region Subsoil Resources Agency annulled some of the entrails use licenses due to their expiry. Thus, the licenses issued to Yuzniy Rudnik Mine (given to promote exploration and extraction of vein quartz in Tashtybutakskiy deposit), to Miasszoloto JSC (given for alluvial gold mining in Iremelskaya placers), to UralTechnoPlus 2000 Ltd. (given for geological research of barium ore in Khutorskiy lot), to SouyzNefteEcologiya Ltd. (given for geological research of mining and precious metals processing wastes in Soymanovskaya Valley) were canceled.

Chelyabinsk Region is going to be visited by the Trade and Economic Mission of Austria on February 13 and February 14, 2006. The Mission will be headed by the Director of Eastern Countries Department of Austrian Chamber of Economics Guido Stock and Johann Kausl, Austrian Trade Commissioner for Russia in Moscow, the spokesperson for Regional Ministry of Economic Development said to UrBC representative. 28 Austrian companies are going to send along their representatives, VAMED Engineering GmbH & Co KG (dealing in all-inclusive hospital building, medical equipment, hospital modernization and

KESK Multienergetika Ltd. has been suffering continous losses due to regular electricity thefts, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. 1,038 cases bringing the company the damage of 6,630,816 RUR were registered in the eight months of 2005 alone, and only 1,678,200 RUR ahs so far been paid back after 477 bills of theft had been drawb up. The total electricity loss amounts to 4,176,745 kilowatts per hour, and only 1,218,251 kilowatts per hour have been paid for. The company is going to track all the incidents of theft due to the introduction of the multilayered prevention