Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) keeps putting up its cold-rolling Mill 2000 within the framework of the company’s cold-rolling facilities investment project. The mill is mainly meant for the production of high-quality cold-rolled and zinc-coated automobile body sheets as well as of materials for home appliances manufacturers and for the building industry. The facility’s capacity has been estimated at 2 million tons of goods a year. According to MMK’s PR Department, the workers have nearly completed the excavation and are now putting up equipment foundations as well as making and

A-Win Consultants Limited recently bought a 15% shareholding in Yekaterinburg non-ferrous metals processing plant. At the same time, the share of Indesticoplaz Trading Limited in the plant’s capital was reduced from 86.29% to 71.29%, the issuer reports.

The official visit of Sverdlovsk Region’s delegates to Mongolia that had been scheduled for April 21, 2010 was postponed. The delegation was to have consisted of the regional government’s ministers, representatives of the local business community, and some university professors. Some of the delegates report they have been informed that their visit was suddenly put off till May 23, 2010 upon the host country’s request. In the meantime, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin is to attend a joint meeting of the Russian Federation State Council’s presidium, the presidium of Science,

Czech Airlines’s Prague-Yekaterinburg flight arrived safely in Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport on Tuesday. Last week, a volcanic eruption in Iceland that left most of Europe covered in an ash cloud made most companies cancel their flights from or to Europe, including those operated to or from Yekaterinburg. However, it was recently announced that things were getting back to normal.

The net profit of OOO Uralvagonzavod-Finance decreased by 83.33% over one quarter. The figures dropped from 12,000 RUR in the last quarter of 2009 to 2,000 RUR in the first quarter of 2010. OOO Uralvagonzavod-Finance explains the drop in net profits has to do with increased general running costs and other expenses.

Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Anatoly Gredin organized a governmental sustainability committee meeting in order to discuss the financial situation at Auchan, IKEA, METRO Cash & Carry, and OBI’s local subsidiaries with their representatives. The officials also wanted to assess the government and the enterprises’ cooperation prospects, including those concerning a number of social welfare projects, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Governor reported. Anatoly Gredin said the foreign retail chains did not fully provide the region’s trade ministry with the data on their activity.

‘Finnair normally operates its Yekaterinburg-Helsinki flight three times a week, that is, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The flights scheduled for Monday, April 19, and for Wednesday, April 21, have already been called off. The Friday flight, however, is still on the timetable for the time being,’ deputy head of Finnair’s Yekaterinburg representation Vladimir Krivozhikhin informed UrBC. ‘The passengers are normally informed about a cancellation via telephone. They are usually offered to use another flight, a transfer one, or they can refuse to travel altogether, in which case Finnair

Following a massive volcanic eruption in Iceland that made flying over Northern Europe impossible, Ural Airlines had to postpone its Moscow-Rimini and Yekaterinburg-Prague-Yekaterinburg flights. One of the carrier’s planes bound for Rimini had to land in Vienna, the airline’s press officer said to the UrBC reporters. ‘We have just been notified that things are now getting back to normal and that the European skies are open for the planes once again. Our U6-701 flight is to be operated at 9 PM on Monday; we are also coordinating a number of chartered flights from Moscow to Rimini at the

Air China Limited cancelled its latest Beijing-Yekaterinburg flight. According to Koltsovo Airport’s announcement board, the plane from Beijing was supposed to have landed in Yekaterinburg at 10:25 PM on Monday. Meanwhile, Finnair Oyj and Czech Airlines have also called off their flights from Yekaterinburg to Helsinki and Prague, respectively.

Finnair Oyj and Czech Airlines called off their flights from Yekaterinburg to Helsinki and Prague, respectively. According to Koltsovo Airport’s announcement board, the first planes were supposed to have left Yekaterinburg at 5:55 AM and 4:30 AM on April 19, 2010.

The losses of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Enterprise reached about 7 billion RUR last year, of which 6 billion RUR was actually the previous years’ accumulated loss, the company’s General Director Oleg Sienko announced at a recent briefing, RIA Novosti reports. ‘All in all, our losses have amounted to something like 7 billion RUR, that is, over 6.5 billion RUR worth of the earlier years’ loses aggravated by our inability to pay off the body of our loans. In fact, we took out our loans rather expensively at the time, and now we have to pay off over 8 billion RUR worth of loans

The steel output of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) went up by 7% in the first quarter of 2010, so the figures reached 2,732,000 tons. In addition, the enterprise’s commodity output rose by 5% and amounted to 2,453,000 tons. Also, the amount of high-value-added goods produced by the company increased by 5%, even though such goods still make up 30% of MMK’s entire product range. ‘MMK keeps building up on the heavy plate production using the Mill 5000. For one, we manufactured 176,000 tons of heavy plate in the first quarter of 2010 alone, which was 35% better than in the last quarter

‘Once Avtoland Holding’s license hasn’t been renewed and the company can no longer represent Land Rover or Jaguar in Yekaterinburg, we have been getting considerably more customers. For one, the number of car owners who need the services of Krasnolesye car center has recently gone up by 1.5 times,’ Krasnolesye’s After-Sales Manager Alexander Koryukin informed UrBC. Koryukin said the earliest appointments with the mechanics dealing with these particular brands were only available in May 2010. ‘After Avtoland Holding had stopped being these brands’ official dealer, some of Land Rover and Jaguar

Finnair’s flights from Yekaterinburg to Helsinki and back were cancelled on Friday because of the ash cloud produced by a volcanic eruption in Iceland. Koltsovo Airport’s announcement board stated that the arrival of flight ERJ-190 in Yekaterinburg that was scheduled for 5.55 AM (3.55 AM Moscow time) and the flight’s departure on 6.50 AM (4.50 AM Moscow time) to Helsinki had been cancelled. The airline explained that the flights were called off because the volcanic eruption in Iceland had made it impossible to fly above Northern Europe. The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano located

The net profit of RTI, the Urals-based rubber goods plant, decreased by 47.492 million RUR, or 721.4% over one quarter. The figures plunged from 6.583 million RUR worth of profit in the third quarter of 2009 to 40.909 million RUR worth of losses in the last quarter of 2009. The plant says this increase in net loss in the last quarter against the previous quarter of 2009 had to do with the way the figures were presented after the tax officials’ inspections in 2006-2007, with the seasonal drop in revenues, and with the increased heating expenses in winter.

The turnover of foreign goods handled by Yekaterinburg Customs in the first quarter of 2010 amounted to $1.6bn. The share of goods exported to or imported from the far abroad comprised 85.5% of the total foreign turnover volume, or $1.3bn. The share of goods delivered to or from the CIS reached 14.2%, or $221.1, the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration reports. Imported goods came to 21.6% of the foreign trade turnover volume, or $336.6m, the share of exported goods came to 78.4%, or $1.2bn. The freight turnover reached 829,500 tons in the first quarter of 2010. 62.9% of goods (or

Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) produced 6% less steel in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the last quarter of 2009 and reached 2.8 million tons. The enterprise’s production of finished goods also dropped by 6% and amounted to 2.8 million tons, NLMK stated in its quarterly report for January-March 2010. In addition, NLMK’s cast iron sales shrank by 59.6% in the last quarter of 2009. On the whole, however, the company sold 2.8 million tons of finished goods in the first quarter of 2010, which was 1% than in the last quarter of 2009. Among these goods were 1 million tons of

Sverdlovsk Region intends to meet its obligations towards LUKOIL Oil Company in terms of providing the business with a number of land allotments, Head of the region’s Government Anatoly Gredin announced at his meeting with OOO LUKOIL-Permnefteprodukt’s acting General Director Mikhail Kobylko and the company’s representatives. Sverdlovsk Region and LUKOIL signed a cooperation agreement that stated the oil company would implement a number of socially important projects, while the regional authorities would help the business by offering the company some land allotments for setting up fuel

UralTransBank announced that OOO A-Service’s petition to declare the bank insolvent had no legal grounds. What is more, the bank intends to contest the court’s decision that the organization should pay about 1.4 million RUR worth of unjust enrichment back to A-Service. On April 12, 2010 OOO A-Service placed an application with Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court, asking to declare OAO UralTransBank bankrupt. ‘We see this application as an attempt of rights abuse,’ the bank’s official press release states. OOO A-Service has already managed to obtain over 1.38 million RUR worth of unjust

The net profit of Yekaterinburg’s oil plant decreased by 95.677 million RUR, or 42.2%, that is, from 226.615 million RUR down to 130.938 million RUR. However, the company does not explain whether this drop occurred over a period of one quarter or one year. The oil plant says their drop in net profit has to do with shrinking sales.