The media have been talking about some significant increase in metal goods prices since April 2008; Russia’s leading metallurgical enterprises raised their prices despite their customers’ strong dissatisfaction; pipe manufacturer and O&G companies (the pipe manufacturers’ end users), as well as the car and the building industries say more expensive metal will badly affect the country’s economic growth and could threaten economy with another inflation wave. In the meantime, Russian rolled steel makers only follow global trends. ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, raised the

Starting May 19, 2008, Ural Airlines resumed its Yekaterinburg-Anapa-Yekaterinburg flights. The carrier’s press officer reports the flight is to be operated every Monday and Saturday until mid-June, after which two more weekly flights will be offered. A TU 154 plane takes off in Yekaterinburg at 10.40 AM and arrives in Anapa at 11.55 AM, then leaves Anapa at 1.25 PM and lands in Yekaterinburg at 6.30 PM (local time).

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to private individuals for 31 to 90 days went down by 98.33% (from 3 million RUR to 50,000 RUR) in January-April 2008.

A number of local NGOs and environmental experts are going to present the results of their public environmental audit of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s steel-smelting complex in the town hall on May 21, 2008. The audit was originally initiated by the public in order to evaluate the possible environmental and socioeconomic impact the prospective construction of the complex may have on the local people, and in order to come up with the list of solutions to possible problems. The experts’ report is expected to provide an objective assessment of the project and of the measures the plant has taken

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to private individuals for 181 days to 1 year went down by 17.82% (from 16.3 million RUR to 13.395 million RUR) in January-April 2008.

ORMETO-YUMZ Heavy Engineering Joint Stock Co. (part of Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation) is to deliver a sintering machine (sintering area 408 square meters) for Visakhapatnam Steel Plant in India at the end of 2008. The corporation’s press officer reports the Indian sintering plant is expected to produce 456 tons of agglomerate every hour; the launch has been scheduled for June 2009. This is the first time any enterprise based in Russia or the CIS is going to design and produce a sintering machine of such capacity. The machine is based on a number of totally new technological solutions

‘We are planning to invest a total of $1bn in business development this year. Some $650m will be directed to industrial projects, including the construction of a number of plants in Leningrad Region. Then, $350m will be spent on the acquisition of some builders with their own stock or land allotments in the Russian regions,’ LSR Group’s General Director Igor Levit said to RBC Daily. The Group has already announced that it was going to set up a special entity meant for managing LSR’s Urals-based assets with headquarters in Yekaterinburg as soon as the summer of 2008. LSR Group owns an 87%

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit NGOs’ deposits in Tyumenenergobank valid for 91 to 180 days dropped by 66.16% (from 60.002 million RUR to 20.3 million RUR) in January-April 2008.

German Consul General in Yekaterinburg Tilo Klinner is going to visit Tyumen and Kurgan on May 19-23, 2008. The spokesperson for the German Consulate in Yekaterinburg reports Tilo Klinner will be accompanied by a group of German innovational enterprises’ executives; the agenda of the trip includes meeting the local authorities and visiting Tyumen, Kurgan, and Chelyabinsk Regions’ leading industrial enterprises. The upcoming negotiations are likely to dwell upon the Russian and German enterprises’ cooperation opportunities in the Urals, the spokesperson says.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development has managed to raise its assets by 23.9% so far this year, so these reached 47,430,319,000 RUR. The bank’s balance sheet total came to 53,649,386,000 RUR on May 1, 2008, which exceeds the figures for December 31, 2008 by 34.8%; its loan portfolio amounted to 30,820,501,000 RUR, which is 21.1% better than in December 2007. The volume of customers’ deposits went up by 6.5% and reached 32,130,016,000 RUR in January-April 2008 (private individuals’ deposits rose by 10.1%, coming to 22,199,984,000 RUR), while the bank’s stock grew by 12.8% and

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel attended the exhibition dedicated to the region’s major construction projects on May 17, 2008. This exhibition was coordinated within the framework of the 13th Russian Economic Forum devoted to the country’s regions’ investment policies as the key factor of Russia’s sustainable economic development. The forum was held in Yekaterinburg on May 16-17, 2008. Eduard Rossel checked out the stand of Renova-StroyGroup presenting the plan and the outlay of Yekaterinburg’s future Academic district. According to deputy project manager Alexander Laptev, this