In the first quarter of 2010, OOO NLMK-Sort that now comprises all of Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works’ section iron divisions raised its home market sales to 277,000 tons of metal goods, which was 28% better than in the first quarter of 2009, the company’s press officer reports. The company’s domestic customers bought 225,000 tons of reinforcing bars, which was 26% more than in January-March 2009. Also, they bought about 8,000 tons of wire rods, which exceeded the figures for the first quarter of 2009 by 27%, and over 40,000 tons of metal goods, which exceeded the figures for the first

Severouralsk Investigative Division of Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities completed its pre-inquest investigation of the accident that occurred at OAO Sevuralboksitruda’s Krasnaya Shapochka mine on March 10, 2010. The accident left the company’s twenty-eight-year-old shaft man badly injured, allegedly because the safety regulations were not complied with during his shift. Following the investigation, Severouralsk Investigative Division of Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities instituted a criminal lawsuit, with charges based on Article 216 (part 1) of the Russian

The representatives of the European airlines that operate flights to or from Yekaterinburg refused to attend a press conference on Wednesday. The press conference on who should be responsible for solving the problems of local and foreign tourists stuck in different places due to the Iceland volcano’s eruption took place in Yekaterinburg on April 21, 2010. The event was attended by the representatives of the Federal Migration Service and of the local travel agents. However, the announced airlines executives never showed up. According to Vice President of the Ural Tourist Association Sergey

Finnair’s Yekaterinburg-Helsinki flight was not operated on Wednesday, April 21, 2010, the spokesperson for Koltsovo Airport informed UrBC. The airline had actually warned its customers in advance that this could be the case. The carrier operates its Yekaterinburg-Helsinki flight three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. So far, Finnair has had to cancel the flights that were to have been operated on April 19, 2010 and April 21, 2010. The company has not provided any comments on whether the Friday flight will be operated yet.

Sverdlovsk Region Duma agreed to accept the region’s share of one commercial estate in its public treasury. The share in question comes to 16.38% of Uspenskiy Mall, located in the center of Yekaterinburg and run by Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the State Property Ministry State Unitary Enterprise up to now. This share’s balance-sheet value has been estimated at 145.05 million RUR, while the shopping areas rented by various tenants yield about 2.2 million RUR worth of profits every month. At the moment, the above-mentioned State Unitary Enterprise only transfers 20% of its net profits to the