‘Thanks to our long-term contracts, we have no shortage of raw materials at the moment,’ says BOD Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov. He says these contracts cover most of the company’s needs in terms of iron ore, baking coal, scrap metal, and natural gas, which guarantees stable supply and ensures a better calculation of the enterprise’s production expenses. For instance, MMK has a ten-year contract for the delivery of iron ore materials, supplied by Sokolovsko-Sarbaiskoye ore mining and processing enterprise based in Kazakhstan. MMK Management Company’s

Ural Airlines gives its customers a chance to book and buy their tickets for Yekaterinburg-Saint Petersburg-Yekaterinburg flight well in advance. At the moment, tickets are available at lower prices: if you book and buy ten days before the flight or earlier, one single ticket will only cost you 4,075 RUR (excluding the fuel fee).

The Federal Subsoil Resources Agency (Rosnedra) informed the Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Yuri Trutnev that a number of enterprises dealing in subsoil resource development were going to lose their licenses. For instance, Zelen Kamen’s license allowing it to develop emerald and beryllium Malyshevskoye deposit, Sverdlovsk Region, expires on June 2, 2008. This results from the inspection conducted by Ural Federal District’s division of Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) in the fall of 2007. It was detected that Zelen Kamen failed to meet Rosnedra’s demands

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of nongovernmental financial organizations’ deposits in Bank24.ru valid for 91 to 180 days plummeted by 100% (from 19,000 RUR to zero) in January-April 2008.

The volume of SKB-Bank’s net assets came to more than 31.11 billion RUR on May 1, 2008, which is 11.7 billion RUR better than on May 1, 2007. In addition, the bank’s loan portfolio went up by over 9 billion RUR and reached more than 22 billion RUR in May 2008. Apart from that, SKB-Bank has managed to attract 26.82 billion RUR worth of investments (including over 10 billion RUR deposited by private individuals) by May 1, 2008. All in all, SKB-Bank improved most of its development indicators by over 50%, while its own funds rose by more than 150%. Some of these indicators have secured the bank

Russian Copper Company (a joint venture set up by Russian Railways Public Company, UMMC, and Vnesheconombank) applied for the development of Udokanskoye copper deposit. The application was placed with the Federal Subsoil Resources Agency, Russian Railways Public Company’s President Vladimir Yakunin announced in the course of 1520 Strategic Partnership forum in Sochi.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to private individuals despite overdraft went down by 22.18% (from 31.178 million RUR to 24.264 million RUR) in January-April 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank Uralfinance to private individuals for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 35.33% (from 165.524 million RUR to 107.032 million RUR) in January=April 2008.

The officers of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Migration Service started accepting the regional dwellers’ applications for the new generation international passports in March 2008. Their office was fitted with four booths meant for taking photographs of applicants and accepting and processing their application forms. Only 206 people applied for these new passports in March 2008, yet the figure has soared to 2,027 people by now, and the number of applicants keeps growing. For the time being, the new passports can only be obtained at the Service’s Yekaterinburg headquarters at 2

UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics has recently received a letter from Aston, the local developer. The letter appears to be a response to the news regarding the company the agency made available online. The letter says: ‘Dear Sirs, Thank you for the attention you’ve been paying to one of our projects, Aston Plaza, located at the intersection of Gurzufskaya and Radischev St. in Yekaterinburg. Let us point out, however, that the news regarding the public prosecution authorities’ demand that the construction process should be stopped was presented in a rather one-sided

Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works’ Board of Directors suggested that the works’ only shareholder should pay the dividends for the first quarter of 2008. The figure comes to 4.45 billion RUR and is to be paid in rubles or U.S. dollars (upon the shareholder’s written request) in accordance with the Central Bank of Russia’s exchange rate.

Moscow, 22 May 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce the investment of around USD 50 million into the expansion of cast-house production at Irkutsk Aluminium Smelter. The expansion is required due to the previous introduction of two new potrooms, which increased production capacity of the smelter by 170,000 tonnes of aluminium per annum. The new cast-house workshop will be put into full operation at the end of 2008. The cast-house workshop will have two new cast-house complexes. Each will contain a Remetal (Spain) cast-house conveyor and

It appears that the apartments in Aston Plaza, located in Radischev and Gurzufskaya St. in Yekaterinburg, do not enjoy great demand. Aston’s Chairman Vyacheslav Trapeznikov admitted in the course of a TV interview that only one-third of apartments had been sold so far, even though the commissioning has been scheduled for the third quarter of 2008. A number of experts report there may be several reasons for this. Firstly, the land allotment where Aston Plaza is located actually borders with Ivanovskoye cemetery, and this is believed to decrease an apartment’s popularity. ‘If an apartment is

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ demand deposits in UralFinPromBank went down by 36.94% (from 5.597 million RUR to 3.529 million RUR) in January-April 2008.

A number of local NGOs and environmental experts presented 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 event was attended by the board of experts, Mayor of Pervouralsk Maxim Fedorov, ChTPZ Group’s Deputy GD and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s CEO Melik Mori, ChTPZ Group’s chief engineer Dmitriy Markov, some environmental experts, NGO members, and reporters. The audit was originally initiated by the local NGOs as part of their cooperation agreement with Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant that was signed on

SKB-Bank keeps on with its VIP expansion: new Elite-Banks have recently been introduced in Chelyabinsk and Perm, and now this top quality customer service is available to dwellers of Tyumen, Surgut, Rostov-on-Don, and Volgograd, the bank’s press officer reports. The new VIP service centers will be located in the bank’s Tyumenskiy office at 61 Respubliki St. in Tyumen, in Surgutskiy office at 23 Lenin St. in Surgut, in the bank’s Taganrog branch’s Rostovskiy office at 164a Bolshaya Sadovaya St. in Rostov-on-Don, and in the bank’s Volzhskiy branch’s Volgogradskiy office at 16 Kommunisticheskaya

Aston Group appears to have failed to design its Yekaterinburg-based Aston Plaza in such a way that provides enough sunshine to the neighboring apartment buildings. Aston’s Chairman Vyacheslav Trapeznikov announced in the course of a TV interview that, according to the technical requirements, any one room in any building must get at least two hours of sunshine a day. However, he claimed that the buildings next to Aston Plaza only got one and a half hours of sunshine even prior to the beginning of the construction process. The Chairman did admit, though, that their building has deprived its

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UniCreditBank to sole traders for 91 to 180 days dropped by 66.31% (from 128.385 million RUR to 43.246 million RUR) in January-April 2008.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development changed the terms of its Great Profit deposit, so now one can deposit one’s money for a shorter period of time, for instance, for sixty-one, seventy-one, eighty-one, or ninety-one days. In addition, the interest rates offered on this deposit type and on the fixed-term deposit (the term varying from 61 to 270 days) were raised. The bank has also modified the terms of its Liquid deposit; one can now deposit one’s money for 31 to 120 days; the topping-up and the partial withdrawal options are provided.

Federal Antimonopoly Service’s Sverdlovsk Region division took legal action against Sberinvestbank, claiming the latter has violated the federal advertising legislation, the spokesperson for the Service reports. The Service believes the bank’s car loan ads do not provide any information on the additional expenses the customer would have to bear.