According to the spokesperson for First Power Generating Company JSC, the enterprise has invested 918.5 million RUR in modernization campaign over the seven months of 2006. The upgrading included the overhaul of No. 2 steam turbine, current repairs of No. 1 steam turbine, of No. 1 steam boiler, and of No. 2 steam boiler at Urengoyskaya state district power plant. The company has also sponsored the maintenance works of No. 2 and No. 3 power generating units at Permskaya power plant and of No. 1 power generating unit at Nizhnevartovskaya power plant. As for Iriklinskaya power plant, No. 2 and

Irbinskiy subsidiary of Evrazruda JSC (part of Evraz Group) received a new 55-ton truck as part of the technical modernization of the mine. This new vehicle will replace the obsolete 42-ton truck in transporting the muck, thus making it possible for the enterprise to achieve its annual production targets. The subsidiary now owns twenty-four trucks altogether, sixteen of them being 55-ton ones and eight being 42-ton ones. As the fleet of 42-ton trucks is rather worn out, the company is thinking of gradually putting them out of use and replacing them with the new 55-ton trucks. The fleet is

Hardware plant of Nizhniye Sergi CJSC is reported to be restored without any official permission. ‘The plant is located within the boundaries of the town, and its getting the permission can’t be taken for granted. This means that if the plant does fail to get it, all the buildings will have to be dismantled, or the project will have to be altered,’ Public Prosecutor for Environmental Issues in Sverdlovsk Region Kirill Ershov said to UrBC representative. Mr Ershov also observed that most violations recorded among industrial enterprises actually had to do with the lack of official documents

No. 5 coke battery of Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil JSC (part of Evraz Group) is now in the reset condition, that is, coke gas has started to burn inside. This was preceded by a two-month technological warm-up needed to heat the battery up to 800 degrees centigrade. The company’s technicians are currently busy with the balancing and commissioning, examining all the pieces of equipment, the inner enclosures of the battery, and the hydraulic and gas-supplying facilities. The battery will be put into operation within a few weeks’ time; it will supply coke to the new blast

Kupets Trade Center, the local retail chain, claims that the share of Baltika beer on the local market has gone down; thus, the share of Baltika produce dropped by 8% in large trade centers, by 5% in the supermarkets, and by 2% in stores-next-door in July 2006 compared to a year earlier, the spokesperson for Kupets said to UrBC representative.

Magnesite Industrial Complex JSC (part of Magnesite Group) will start producing calcined (caustic) magnesite customized for specific purposes in November 2006. This will make the company Russia’s first producer of the product, which has so far been only produced abroad (in China, Greece, and Spain). Magnesite Group has invested a total of 245 million RUR in R&D, equipment restoration and upgrading and technological design. The annual output of caustic magnesite is expected at 90,000 tons. Caustic magnesite is obtained through baking the substance at 800 to 1000 degrees centigrade. It can

Thirty-two students and faculty members from Technical University of Vienna took a tour of Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil (part of Evraz Group) today. The would-be graduates of Austria’s largest college major in industrial construction; this is why they were particularly interested to see the corporate buildings and facilities that are currently being renovated. The visitors also examined the converter shop, where four continuous-casting machines have been assembled in less than ten years; three of these machines were actually put up in cooperation with Voest-Alpine

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of credits given by UralTransBank to nongovernmental commercial organizations for a term of 91 to 180 days has gone down by 51% (from 278,905,000 RUR to 137,109,000 RUR) throughout January to July 2006.

Since the beginning of the year, Ural Airlines have impressively xtended their booking office network from 19 to 100 offices. New booking offices were set up in the retail outlets of Euroset and Salon SMS, two mobile phone traders, in a number of small towns in Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, and Perm Regions. These offices offer tickets for domestic flights and flights performed within the boundaries of the NIS.

A carriage loaded with iron ore derailed at Podvoloshnaya-Pervouralsk railway haul (local division of Sverdlovsk Railway) on August 26, 2006. In order to eliminate the consequences of the accident, all operations on the even rail had to be closed for 4 hours and 17 minutes. The odd rail operated as usual. The recovery operations caused a twenty-one-hour delay of eighteen freight trains and an almost seven-and a half-hour delay of seven passenger trains. To find out the causes of the accident, the expert team had to use special tools to examine the technical condition of the carriages, the

Sales Department of Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company collected over 5 million RUR following theft reports, says the company’s spokesperson. The department officers carried out 568 investigations of legal entities and found instances of illegal use of electricity in 146 cases. They also found such instances in 67 cases out of 240 investigations of natural persons. Since the beginning of the year, the officers from the Economic Safety Department have managed to retrieve approximately 5 million RUR from previously unregistered users onto the corporate accounts. Such ‘freelance’ users are

Ural Plant of Rubber Technical Goods JSC held extraordinary general meeting that resulted in electing the new Board of Directors: the shareholders elected GD Sergey Zyryanov, First Deputy GD Viktor Sentsov, and Commercial Director Vadim Ovsyannikov. These people are said to have connections with Renova Group. Interboss Holding Ltd. bought some of the company’s shares from Russian Credit Bank of Moscow in July 2006 and now owns a 50.4% share holding. Another 38% are owned publicly (they belong to Russian Federal Property Fund that has already tried selling the holding twice). The remaining 12%

Mechel Bank JSC changed its natural person dollar deposit rates of interest and terms. As the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, the bank raised the interest rates from .5% to 2% for 61-days Vacation deposit, 91-days Vacation deposit, Time deposit, Savings deposit, Pawnbroker deposit, Capital deposit, VIP-Deposit, Specific Child deposit, Retirement deposit, and Your Success deposit. According to the bank employees, this decision was caused by the general trend on the banking services market. The bank has already raised its ruble deposit rates of interest: this happened in

Mineral-Chemical Company EuroChem JSC (Moscow) that deals in agricultural chemical fertilizers has sent Zinc Plant of Chelyabinsk JSC a long-term contract offer. EuroChem management is willing to buy a fixed annual amount of sulfuric acid at a fixed price for the next five years. The approximate annual amount is estimated at 100,000 tons, the spokesperson for PROMASS, the Organization of Employers of Chelyabinsk Region, said to UrBC representative. ‘We have indeed received such an offer, and we are now considering it,’ the press secretary of Zinc Plant of Chelyabinsk Mikhail Bendyak observed.

The village of Severouralsk celebrated Miner’s Day last Sunday. During the ceremony, Production and Strategic Development Director of SUAL Holding Anatoliy Zharov announced on behalf of his company: ‘Our Investment Department considered and approved of SevUralBauxiteRuda development project that provides for faster improvements of Novo-Kalyinskaya mine and construction of Cheremukhovskaya-Deep mine. The project is expected to help this regional ore maker to significantly increase the amount of ore they extract and raise their annual ore output to 4.2 m tons within the nearest seven years.’

Coke JSC borrowed 295m RUR from Ufaleynickel JSC (both companies are part of Industrial Metallurgical Holding Managing Company); the decision to give the money had been approved by the shareholders of Ufaleynickel at the annual general meeting. The transaction was performed on August 25, 2006 and came to 16.47% of the issuer’s assets.

Power generating unit BN-600 was set at nominal capacity after eliminating some defects on August 28, 2006. The power of the unit was first lowered in the evening of August 24, 2006 down to 400 megawatt by switching off one of the reactor three loops. This was done in order to remove the defect in the drain conduit located in a section of the steam generator. The defects in the steam generators do not affect the environment in terms of radiation. The incident was classified as a zero event on the international INES scale, which means the deviation from the norm is not going to influence the

Presentation of the new office of Russian Hotel Association in Sverdlovsk Region will take place in Yekaterinburg on Tuesday, August 29, 2006. The presentation will be attended by the Association’s Executive Director Gennady Lamshin, reports the spokesperson for Vice-Mayor Viktor Konteev. Seven local hotels have joined the Association so far, including the Vis-à-vis, the Iset, the Oktyabrskaya Hotel, the Sverdlovsk, the UralHotel, the Alexandrovskiy Park-Hotel, the Magister, and a vocational school of trade and economics as well. In order to decide whether to join the Association, the hotel

The applications for the open negotiations on rendering the Board of Directors of TGK-9, a power generating company, a service of floating the additional share issue could be placed throughout July 28, 2006 to August 18, 2006. On August 23, 2006, TGK-9 held talks with the representatives of six companies: Troika-Dialog Investment Company CJSC, RosBank JSC, Morgan Stanley and Co. International Ltd, Credit Swiss Securities (Europe) Ltd., Deutsche Bank GmbH, and a bank consortium represented by JPMorgan and GazpromBank CJSC. The selective committee has to decide on the company they will prefer

Due to the company having gone bankrupt, MZHKO, Chelyabinsk-based municipal unitary enterprise, put its accounts receivable (coming from both legal entities and entrepreneurs) worth 253,457.99 RUR (the opening bid is 70,000 RUR) and production vehicles (the opening bid 443,500 RUR). The auction will take place on September 27, 2006.