‘The All-Russian Union of Insurers is going to take part in the meeting of the Federal Insurance Surveillance Agency’s committee regarding the dispute between the insurer and the bank. We have already received the report on the independent examination of damage done to UralTransBank prepared by FBK Company Ltd. and the official response of UralTransBank,’ Pavel Bichiakishvili, the Legal Issues Director of the All-Russian Union of Insurers said to UrBC representative. The second meeting of the committee has been scheduled for January 18, 2007. It is expected to be attended by the

Eight people were killed and ten people were injured in the pickling line accident at the sheet-rolling shop of Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Magnitogorsk on November 28, 2006, reports the spokesperson for Rostechnadzor (Russia’s state environmental and technological safety watchdog) in Ural Federal District. An ad hoc committee completed the investigation of the hows and whys of the tragedy on December 29, 2006 and found no violations as far as the performance of the pickling line was concerned. Prior to the roof failure, all the equipment had been operating properly, and no computer

As the spokesperson for Predein and Partners, a PR agency, said to UrBC representative regarding last year’s car sales in Russia, Krasnolesie car center sold 620 foreign cars in January-November 2006. 159 cars were sold at under 1m RUR, 364 vehicles were sold for 1m RUR to 2.5m RUR, and 97 automobiles were sold for over 2.5m RUR. This included 80 Jaguars, 222 Land Rovers, and 318 Volvos.

The report on the state of the environment and the way environmental factors affect the health of Sverdlovsk Region population indicates that Sredneuralsky Copper Smelting Plant (part of Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC)) is the top air polluter in Revdinsky district, Sverdlovsk Region. Its share in the total amount of harmful emissions released in the air comes to 93.2%. Revdinsky district-based enterprises that emit waste gas without recycling it first have already dumped 18,728 tons of pollutants, with 347,999 tons received by the dust- and gas-cleaning installations, of which

According to the report on the state of the environment and the way environmental factors affect the health of Sverdlovsk Region population, Polymetallic Production, the subsidiary of Uralelectromed (part of Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company), is the top air polluter of Kirovgrad, Sverdlovsk Region. Its share in the total amount of harmful emissions released in the air comes to 95.2%. The company dumps 98.8% of local sulphur dioxide, 51.3% of the area’s nitrogen dioxide, 77.4% of the total amount of carbon monoxide, and 100% of locally emitted lead.

The Russian Federation Federal Antimonopoly Service decided to give the general approval to the merger of RUSAL, SUAL Holding, and Glencore. SUAL Group creditors have officially confirmed their agreement to the changes in the company’s shareholder structure. RUSAL shareholders, for instance, will own 66% of the new company, SUAL Holding shareholders will get a 22% share of the assets, Glencore shareholders are to own 12% of the company’s shares. The merger is going to raise the net debt and change the debtors’ financial ratios for a while, which has also been agreed upon by the creditors.

UralTransBank’s point-of-sale terminal located in Krasnoufimsk office of EnergoSbyt and EnergoNadzor (part of Russian Railways) at 1 Sportivnaya St. closed down on January 10, 2007.

After the new tariff schemes come into effect on February 1, 2007, the landline and mobile communication is going to cost virtually the same, which means that some landline users might want to unsubscribe from UralSvyazInform, the major regional stationary operator. ‘This client reflux is only natural, but the percentage of people that will stop using the service is hard to determine as of yet,’ Deputy GD of UralSvyazInform and Director of Yekaterinburg telecommunications Leontiy Yakovlev announced at a press conference.

‘We haven’t been informed about the possible closing down of Mega Trade Center in Yekaterinburg,’ Nadezhda Kiseleva, the spokesperson for M.Video, the consumer electronics retail chain, said to UrBC representative. ‘We do know that Mega conducted all the examinations of compliance with the fire safety requirements; we are also aware of the fact that not all of the requirements were actually met. Yet Mega is a large international company that has a lot of market experience, so we hope it will be able to work things out in the nearest future,’ Ms Kiseleva said. The State Fire Surveillance

‘Such cost-cutting practices as lean production, kaizen, or ISO management do not work effectively in isolation. This is why no company using the system can implement it in its full format,’ Evgeniy Shchepetov, Deputy Business Process Re-engineering Director of Kamensk Uralskiy Metallurgical Plant, said to UrBC representative. ‘One often hears of companies who have successfully used Toyota’s strategies in Russia. I personally think this isn’t feasible, as this car maker’s experience is unique. If a business wants to cut its production costs, it is better off trying to come up with its own way