Power generating companies of Chelyabinsk and Tyumen (members of TGK-10) produced 3 277.6m kilowatt-hours in January and February 2006, which is 243.5m kilowatt-hours (8%) more than had been planned. The release of electricity came to 2.944m kilowatt-hours (2 154.4m greater than usual), the General Director of TGK-10 Andrey Shishkin announced at today’s press conference. Mr Shishkin said that the company had produced 6,582,100 gigacalories of heat enerrgy, which exceeds the Russian Federal Tariff Service plan by 892,600 gigacalories, or 15.7%, in the first two months of 2006. The release of

Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil (part of Evraz Group) has been developing a project for reclaiming soil affected by refractory production dumps. The production has been maintained in the city since March 1934 when the first block of furnaces for scorching refractory goods was set up. Since then, the plant has grown to become a large enterprise with the annual output of over 200,000 tons of refractory, fire clay, and magnesia goods as well as unmolded mixtures. The refractory production dump had been located and used in the vicinity of the plant for a long time, which

Ural Turbine Works Ltd. (part of Renova Group) received a long-term loan from TransCreditBank to finance their contract with Muller Machines SA of Switzerland. The loan comes to 2,125m Swiss francs given for a timespan of 5.5 years. The Works is going to buy some special equipment for production of steam and gas turbine blades. The contract has been signed within the framework of Financing Program for export of Swiss goods and services. The guarantors of the contract are Swiss Risk Export Guarantee (ERG) and Credit Suisse of Zurich

Metallurgical Works of Chelyabinsk JSC is now renovating its 300-2 hot-rolling mill with the capacity of 300,000 tons a year and meant for medium section production, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. The project is part of Mechel JSC (the works owner) strategic investment program, aimed at increasing the works’ production capacity for plain rebar and die-rolled section and widen the assortment of goods produced in compliance with the international standards such as DIN-EN, ASTM, BS. After the reconstruction, the output is predicted to rise to 400,000 tons annually. At

Dengi magazine has recently published the Russian top 100 (in terms of job prospects) colleges. Four Yekaterinburg colleges were on this list, with Ural State Technical University getting the 5th place, Ural State Academy of Mines getting the 25th place, Ural State University getting the 49th place, and Ural State University of Economics being on the 60th place. The rating was based on the survey carried out among 300 Russia’s largest companies, of whom 120 responded. The survey summed up the data available on 6,732 college graduates employed by these companies last year.

Starting mid-March, VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation has been reporting to Moscow tax inspectorate for largest metallurgical companies, said their PR and Legal Issues Director Artem Kislichenko. Mr Kislichenko says this change is not going to affect the tax-paying routine; it’s just that the payments will now go directly to the federal budget and then be distributed among regional and local budgets.

Federal Antimonopoly Service in Chelyabinsk Region rejected the application of Astra-Metal of Magnitogorsk to buy 98.45% of Yuzhniy Ural Medical Insurance Company today. The Service had conducted research on the state of competition in the field of obligatory medical insurance in Chelyabinsk Region and found out that Astra-Metal already possessed the 76.9% share of the regional market. The transaction would result in the merger of the two companies and together, they would have 81.8% percent of the market, which would highly concentrate it, made the two companies dominant and eliminate any

Agropromcredit Ltd. will set up a subsidiary in Yekaterinburg in April 2006. This subsidiary will provide the full range of banking services such as opening accounts, cash and credit cards, consumer lending, including express-lending and overdraft, and billing. Emphasis will be laid on automobile loans and express lending, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. Agropromcredit Ltd. takes part in the Federal Housing Program and is one of the five Russian banks that accepts housing certificates. The opening of Yekaterinburg subsidiary is performed within the regional expansion

Vanadium ore mining and processing enterprise of Kachkanar (part of Evraz Group) started assembling the new electrostatic cleaner as part of gas cleaning of agglomeration shop in March 2006. As the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, the gas cleaning facilities have been being replaced since 2004. All six electrostatic cleaners will have been replaced by 2007, which will reduce dust exhaust by 930 tons a year. At the moment, three of the new cleaners have already been assembled, two more will have been installed by the end of 2006.