‘The Accounts Chamber has not found any capital tax violations performed by metallurgical companies of EvrazHolding Ltd.,’ the Accounts Chamber Auditor Vladimir Panskov reports. As for the rumors concerning the Chamber’s claims to EvrazHolding Ltd. members in terms of tax payments, Mr Panskov said that the companies’ accounting systems complied with the Russian legislation. Yet the recent inspection has proved that the existing tax legislation has to be improved. ‘The current wording of the clauses does not always clearly define certain terms and procedures,’ Mr Panskov said. It is

21 insurance companies lost their licenses in Ural Federal District in 2005, the spokesperson for the Regional Insurance Inspection said to UrBC representative. 8 companies lost their licenses in the first six months of 2005, namely, Protex, Santa, and Grand Policy of Sverdlovsk Region, ZlatoMax, Chelyabinsk Insurance JSC and Trekhgorniy Med of Chelyabinsk Region, Panacea and West Siberian Transport Insurance Company of Tyumen Region. 6 companies lost their licenses throughout July to September 2005, namely, Eurasian Insurance Company of Sverdlovsk Region, ZHASO-Medicine, Mega, and

The net wealth of ChelyabInvestBank JSC has gone down by 8.6% since the beginning of 2006; by February 1, 2006, it was estimated to be worth 8,927,082,000 RUR, according to the data presented at Severnaya Kazna JSC corporate website. The bank’s loan portfolio has also gone down by 1.7% and reached the point of 5,144,772,000 RUR; the investments coming from natural persons went up by .2% and came to 3,526,217,000 RUR. The bank’s internal funds comprised 1,131,236,000 RUR by February 1, 2006.

Sverdlovsk Railways (Sverdlovsk regional branch of Russian Railways JSC) brought legal action against Uralvagonzavod Federal State Unitary Enterprise to Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration. The object of the action is the recovery of 825,600 RUR from Uralvagonzavod for car detention. On its part, the defendant considers the penalty sum to be excessive and claims it to be miscalculated. So far, the Court postponed hearing of the case until February 28.

‘Flight performed by Carat Airline was not delayed due to money issues,’ says Chelyabinsk Airport spokesperson Denis Luzin. ‘Chelyabinsk-Eravan flight was delayed due to a technical failure last Wednesday. The flight was not canceled; it was only put off from 10 AM to 4 PM. Carat’s second aircraft (passenger-free) appears to have faulty undercarriage, so the technicians prohibit its use. The third aircraft hasn’t even been examined yet. This is an incident not exclusive to Carat Airlines, and it could happen to any carrier. The checkup and repair is going to take some time, and the company

On February 17, 2006, the Bank of Russia Board of Directors made a decision to refund the depositors of the Granit joint-stock commercial bank CJSC that was earlier declared bankrupt. Bank of Russia is going to pay 122.4 million RUR in total to 2,405 depositors. The payments are to be arranged through the mediation of Impexbank that established the smallest broker’s fee and provided the biggest branch network for the payments arrangement, the Bank of Russia External and Public Relations Department reports.

The mine pulling units of Evrazruda JSC (ore maker) Kazskiy subsidiary are to go through an overhaul from February 19 to February 20, 2006. The guiding parts of the units will be relocated from 90-meter-below to 430-meter-above height. According to the company’s spokesperson, such overhauls are carried out every two years and serve to maintain the mining equipment. The other repair tasks include dismantling of the old guides and installation of the new ones. While the Glavniy shaft is going to be out of use, the whole production will be performed by Kletyevoy shaft, but the subsidiary is

‘More mobile phones will be sold,’ Director of Simphonia mobile chain stores Nikolai Trusov said to UrBC representative. ‘Mobile phones tend to be replaced frequently, especially in terms of switching to a more updated version. New segments of buyers emerge all the time, which is why I disagree with some experts claiming that the regional markets are saturated and no more increases in sales are to be expected. I believe the sales records will only be going up.’ ‘As for the retail prices, even if there is going to be an increase in 2006, it’s not going to be a huge one. Since the new models

Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government and Minister of Industry, Power Engineering and Science Vladimir Molchanov met Deputy GD of Russian Post Gennadiy Kotov and Director of Sverdlovsk Region subsidiary Dmitriy Varchak on February 17, 2006. The meeting was aimed at summing up the subsidiary’s achievements in 2005. According to Mr Varchak, the year proved to be quite a successful one. The year 2006 is going to be devoted to further improvement of the profitability and economic success of the regional post office, some new services will be offered, too. For instance, some more public

As the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Tax and Duty Administration said to UrBC representative, Tagilvodka JSC is the only winery that has received the new format excise duty stamps so far. ‘The Administration has stamps for all types of drinks, including wine and vodka, yet only Tagilvodka obtained over 1 million stamps.’

‘Software sales cannot become an independent business right now’, GD of Uraltone chain stores Evgeniy Furashov said to UrBC interviewer. ‘We offer different kinds of e-translators and posting services, that is, the licensed versions that our customers can afford. These software items do not cost any more than a hundred dollars. We have tried selling 30 copies of Windows operational system for a year but and have not been able to do it. The retail price of the package is 7,500 RUR, which is not very cheap, given especially that a pirate copy can be bought at a mere 100 RUR. Even the big

Sverdlovenergosbyt JSC is going to become the Region’s guaranteeing electricity supplier, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. To acquire this status, the company must be economically stable and operate on the whole territory of the region. According to the company’s spokesperson, Sverdlovenergosbyt JSC cooperates witl all municipal units of Sverdlovsk Region and has been serving over 700,000 clients, including 20,000 legal entities, in February 2006.

All the orders for metal goods, building materials and machine-building produce coming from Chelyabinsk Region were fulfilled in 2005, and businesses provided for the regular regional metal-roll produce supplies (the total of 78,100 tons plus 206,400 tons of cement). 28 businesses took part in the order completion altogether. This year, the companies keep working on the regional orders; thus, the metal-roll supplies agreement is to be signed by the regional metallurgical enterprises and Governor of Chelyabinsk Region. According to the Governor’s decree on the cement supplies, Uralcement JSC

The first segment of Martinite aggregation production line designed for balancing and commissioning was launched after the tubular carrier chains and aspiration systems had been installed at Magnesite Industrial Complex. As Magnesite Group representative explains, the aggregation will be produced on a large scale starting April. The special production line will allow to increase the aggregation output from 3,600 to 12,000 tons annually, with 4.500 tons produced in 2006. The line construction is part of the Investment Program for 2005 and cost 80 million RUR. Additional equipment was installed

N.A. Semikhatov Scientific Production Association of Yekaterinburg will soon be exporting launchers to France, reports Rocket and Space Deputy GD Lev Belskiy. The equipment is to be used at the French Guiana space-vehicle launching site of European Space Agency, Mr Belskiy says. The Association (alongside with V.P. Makeev design office of Miass, Chelyabinsk Region) is also going to sign a contract with Brazil in February 2006. The agreement concerns modernization of Brazilian carrier rocket under the auspices of RosAviaCosmos, Mr Belskiy explained.

Billing Center Ltd. is to be wound up, and the site is to be used for KESK Multienergetika Ltd. and Kompleksniy Raschetniy (Complex Calculation) Center Ltd. subsidiaries, the spokesperson for KES Holding reports. All personnel members will be reemployed by the new enterprises, the first human resource shifts and changes are not to take place until after a few months. Billing Center Ltd. used to be part of KES Holding and dealt in production distribution as the middleman for energy suppliers and Sverdlovskenergosbyt, TGK-9, natural gas businesses and management companies.

Uralskaya Kusnitsa JSC, a smithy in Chelyabinsk Region, has been audited by AAR for meeting ААR М -1003 quality specification requirements, which is an indispensable proviso for companies willing to supply forged pieces of engine crew wrist pins onto the North American market. As the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, on his first visit to the smithy (and Russia, coincidentally), AAR leading auditor Thomas Dedeck checked out the Technical Management, Technical Supervision Department, the corporate laboratory, the forge-and-press workshop and the disc cutting shop. He examined

Unichel CJSC, a shoe factory of Chelyabinsk, was visited by some Czech executives in February 2006. The visit was aimed at introducing the new CAD-Cobbler computer equipment for shoe graduation and design. As the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, CAD-Cobbler software provides for meeting technological requirements as well as norms and standards. Over 1,000 Czech software sets are currently used by shoe factories abroad. This equipment will ensure better design and allow the firm to develop and introduce fashionable and technically sophisticated shoe models.

SUAL Group signed a cooperation agreement with Alu Menziken Aerospace/UAC and Corus Aluminium Rolled Products on February 13, 2006. The parties agreed to join their efforts in terms of developing and producing extruded and rolled items made of aluminum and lithium alloy. SUAL Group is rather experienced in this particular field of production; whereas Alu Menziken Aerospace is the leading extruded products supplier for aerospace (it supplies innovational alloys and specific utilities, among other things). Corus Aluminium Rolled Products produces high-quality plate and sheet products for space

Fireproof Works of Kyshtym (part of Magnesite Group) sold 2.5 times more produce than in the last three years (61% more of chamottes, for instance) in 2005. This means that the works managed to achieve their goal of doubling their gross output in less than 3 years; the company is now rated as profitable and gradually breaks into the fireproof markets of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. According to GD Vladimir Zaitsev, the works will launch some new items in 2006 which should make up one third of the total output. The company’s gross output comprised 8,973,000 RUR in January 2006. The production