Two new 210-ton pouring cranes were assembled at the arc-furnace plant of Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Novokuznetsk (part of Evraz Group), reports the spokesperson for Evraz. One of the cranes (the one used for the pouring bay and the ladle-furnace) has already been launched. The second crane (meant for two arc-furnaces) is going to start operating in April 2007; the company’s workers are getting the equipment ready at the moment. All this is part of the company’s modernization program that has resulted in replacement of five cranes so far. One more crane is to be replaced in the last

Sverdlovsk Region division of Federal Antimonopoly Service filed a criminal suit against Sverdlovsk EnergoGas Company regarding violations of antimonopoly law. The case is to be considered on March 21, 2007, reports the spokesperson for SverdlovEnergoSbyt. Federal Antimonopoly Service looked into the case of Valeriy Kudrin, head of Tugulym municipal district, on February 27, 2007. Mr. Kudrin demanded that the citizens of the district use Sverdlovsk EnergoGas Company as their electricity supplier, and the Service decided his actions were illegal.

‘Multi-faceted area development will cut costs and create nice room for living,’ claims Alexander Starikov, Rector of Ural State Architectural Academy. ‘The construction of the would-be Academic district of Yekaterinburg that employs this concept will also make housing much more affordable. As is well known, the prices on the real estate market are quite speculative due to the increased demand and limited supply. Large-scale construction projects may be a solution to the problem; in addition, they comply with the top-priority national program known as Affordable and Comfortable Housing to

Yekaterinburg Consumer Services Committee alongside with some other authorities managed to remove 57 game-playing machines from the city’s kiosks and pavilions, reports Oleg Zemtsov, the spokesperson for Deputy Mayor Viktor Konteev. There were 67 such machines in town at the beginning of 2006 and, in compliance with Mr. Konteev’s decision, a removal schedule was drawn up that included 69 items, 57 of which were rid of last year. The process of doing away with the playing machines that have no permits will continue this year as well.

RUSAL has recently completed the acquisition of the majority holding of Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (Alscon), which is going to increase its aluminum output by 150,000 tons a year. Buying Alscon also means RUSAL can now create a full production cycle in this regions and expand its client network as well as enter the new markets, reports RUSAL’s press officer. The company bought a 77.5% share holding that includes a plant with the planned production capacity of 193,000 tons of aluminum annually which has an electrolysis shop, an anodic shop, and a foundry; a port on the River Imo, and

‘We use highly professional architects for Academic construction project,’ reports project manager Stanislav Pridvizhkin ‘They are now working on the landscape and the street architectural designs to make sure the would-be district has a single concept and not a motley assortment of buildings. The general image is quite important. Different parts of Academic district will be designed by different designer teams, yet all of them are going to be supervised by Valode & Pistre that deals with the general image development,’ Mr. Pridvizhkin explained.

‘It’s a bit hard to say how effective online promotion is right now, since banks usually use more than just one or two distribution channels. Given, however, the fact that plenty of people have access to the Internet at the moment, and new users join the club daily, one could expect online advertising to be affecting the viewers,’ SKB-Bank’s Deputy PR Director Denis Zverik said to UrBC. According to the data published by MindShare Interaction (a Russian advertising agency) yesterday, the total cost of online advertising in the Russian segment amounted to $187 million last year, with the

Ural Bank of Sberbank of Russia decided to become the backer of the Bank Cards for Small Businesses conference that was held at the end of February and was devoted to how one could handle accounts, services, and salary-paying routines with the help of bank cards. The event was attended by representatives of the region’s leading banks and of the federal ones, executives from insurance companies and international credit card systems, and members of Sverdlovsk Region Government. ‘The introduction of bank cards for salary-paying routines saves companies a lot of money. It cuts costs related to

The Russian Federation Minister for Education and Science Andrei Fursenko announced the results of the innovation development programs contest held among Russian colleges within the framework of the National Education Project. 40 colleges received between 200 million and 930 million RUR worth of grants, with the total investments exceeding 20 billion RUR. Each college is to get money for a particular purpose, and each of them must raise at least 20% of the budget needed independently. There were four Ural colleges among the winners, namely, Ural State University, Ural State Technical

According to the spokesperson for Ural Airlines, more than 150 tickets a day have been bought through their online booking office this February. Experts believe the figure is to go up in the nearest future. ‘No fuel fees and considerable discounts for booking and buying online make the service quite attractive,’ says Deputy Commercial Director Dmitriy Lvov. What is more, online booking routines are being constantly upgraded, which now makes it possible for Chelyabinsk-based customers as well as English- and German-speaking clients to use the service.