The net profit of Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) declined by 91% in 2009: the figure went down to $215m against $2.279bn in the year 2008, the company’s report states. ‘Troubles on the global market and having to take a share in the losses of our JV Steel Invest and Finance S.A. (with most of their losses sustained in the first half of 2009) were the main causes of dropping profits last year,’ the company explains. NLMK’s revenues decreased by 48% in 2009; the figures reached $6.14bn compared with $11.699bn in 2008. The enterprise’s gross profit shrank by 63% and amounted to

‘This year, our chain store is planning to improve the interior and design of our outlets and to open some new shops that will meet the unified corporate standards. Sverdlovsk Region is one of our top priority development locations,’ Eldorado electronic goods store’s PR Director Sergey Pavlov informed UrBC. However, the executive was unable to speak of any specific projects or the number of stores to be set up in the area. ‘Our company is now considering all the available options and negotiating with the shopping area owners. Eldorado’s new outlets have to meet our standards, that is, the

‘It’s true that we’ve got a problem with confirming the availability of resources in some of the deposits involved in the project. Some ten deposits still need to be explored further, and the only deposits we are 100% sure of are those of brown coal and chromite ore. Also, the deposits of polymetals, manganese, barites, and rare-earth metals still need some further exploration as well,’ Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Nikolai Vinnichenko said in his interview to Vedomosti regarding The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals program. ‘We cannot

Emirates, the United Arab Emirates’ international airline signed an electronic interline agreement with Ural Airlines, one of Russia’s major carriers. The agreement means that the passengers from the Urals and Volga Regions can now buy a single e-ticket for both companies’ connecting flights and travel from Yekaterinburg or Samara to Dubai and over 100 other destinations offered by Emirates. What is more, this interline agreement provides for the bargain prices on Emirates and Ural Airlines’ flights. The two carriers have been cooperating since 2002, and now the latter operates one

‘Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation is planning to make 500 managers, experts, and lower-level employees redundant. This is done within the framework of our personnel optimization program. The workers will be offered the positions of machine-tool operators, crane drivers, press operators, core makers, electrical/gas welders, and so on, with the training provided by our employee training department on the plant’s premises,’ the company’s official press release says. ‘In order to protect our younger workers and to ease the socioeconomic tension at the plant and in town, we