Ural Airlines took part in the opening of the international forum on air travel network development Routes 2012; the event took place in Yekaterinburg on Sunday, June 24. On the first day of the forum, a plenary discussion was held on entering the CIS markets and the barriers and obstacles on the way, the airline’s press service reports. Ural Airlines was invited to join the discussion as one of the leaders on the CIS market with a large destinations network and many years’ experience in the field. Head of the International Flights Sales Department Marianna Galagura pointed out that the

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court’s hearing on Yekaterinburg Micro Eye Surgery Center’s eviction case will take place in July 2012. Russia’s Healthcare & Social Development Ministry insists on the center moving out of a number of buildings: A (13,401.6 sq m), B (347.4 sq m), and D (322.5 sq m) at 4a Bardin St in Yekaterinburg and on handing these buildings over to the ministry’s S.N. Fedorov Micro Eye Surgery Scientific Technical Center.

Itera O & G Company keeps negotiating with Viktor Vekselberg’s IES Holding regarding the acquisition of some natural gas-distributing assets in Sverdlovsk Region, Kommersant refers to Itera Chairman Vladimir Makeyev as saying. When asked about the progress of the negotiations at Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum, Makeyev said that ‘nothing has been paid yet’. He pointed out that eight natural gas-distributing organizations were operating in Sverdlovsk Region at the moment and said that both the authorities and the branch players were of the same opinion on the issue and that

Uralvagonzavod’s Foundry Shop 8 completed the installation of the Italian vacuum system Sibilia; the system is meant to make the cleanup of sand mixture spillage automatic. All the jobs amounted to over 14m RUR. Sibilia is a large industrial vacuum cleaner with the capacity of 37 kW. The dirt used to be blown off the production sites, but the new device will, on the contrary, suck the dirt inside a dust collector with the capacity of 4 cubic meters. The dirt will then be transferred onto waste disposal systems. This is actually not the first such facility Uralvagonzavod has installed. Some

Austria-based VTB Bank AG bought a 10% shareholding in Serov Ferrous Alloys Plant (a member of Kazakhstan-based raw stuffs holding Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC)), the plant reports. The bank did not use to have any stake in the plant before. ‘We believe it was ENRC who sold the shares to the bank, as about a month ago the holding informed us that they had sold a 10% shareholding in the plant,’ Interfax quotes a representative of the company as saying. It was reported that ENRC used to have a 78.5% stake in the plant, while OOO Industrial Metals held a 19.73% stake in the

Ural Airlines is going to act as the official air carrier of the international forum ROUTES CIS 2012; the forum will be held in Yekaterinburg on June 24-26, 2012. Ural Airlines is one of Russia’s largest carriers that keeps on expanding its network of destinations around the CIS, so it’s only logical that that the airline supports such a large-scale, important event in the aviation industry, the airline’s press service reports. The aviation forum Routes CIS will be held on the Russian territory for the first time this year. The event is usually attended by representatives of the major

The Consul-General of the Czech Republic in Yekaterinburg Miroslav Ramesh is going to resign. The Consulate-General informed the reporters that Rameљ would leave office in late July, by which time his replacement should be ready. Rameљ assumed office in Yekaterinburg in May 2008; prior to this appointment, he was head of the Czech Republic’s Internal Affairs Department Service Division.

Sverdlovsk Region Railways’ press service reports the company’s fleet of intermediate bulk containers has not been upgraded since 1996 and is now over 90% worn out. Most of these containers will be disposed of due to reaching their maximum life span by the end of 2012. At the same time, TransContainer cannot afford to renew or upgrade its fleet of intermediate bulk containers because they are no longer manufactured in Russia or the CIS member states. Other countries that do produce containers (for example, China) do not deal in the production of intermediate bulk containers. What is more, the

Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation will not be ready for privatization any time before late 2014, RIA Novosti refers to the enterprise’s Director-General Oleg Siyenko as telling the reporters in the course of Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. Now under the revised public property privatization plan, the state’s share in Uralvagonzavod is expected to go down from the current 100% to 50% plus one share by 2016. The initial plan provided for the state keeping a 75% stake in the enterprise.

Siemens expressed an interest in the project on putting up a high-speed railway link between Moscow and Yekaterinburg, Siemens LLC Russia Central Asia Director-General Dietrich Moeller says. ‘We’ve got good carriage solutions and infrastructure proposals. Siemens has a lot of experience as far as the implementation of such projects is concerned, for example, we were involved in such projects in Germany and the Netherlands,’ he said. Moeller explained the tender had not been announced yet, so it would be necessary to look into its terms. ‘In any case, we are quite interested in this field,’

National Settlement Depository is taking the shares of Concern Kalina out of the depository link scheme involving NKO ZAO NRD, ZAO DKK, Citibank, and ING Bank (Eurasia) because the company is planning to launch a buyout. The current list of securities involved in the depository links among NKO ZAO NRD, ZAO DKK, Citibank, and ING Bank (Eurasia) is available via NKO ZAO NRD’s website.

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Metalloinvest Company intend to expand on their cooperation within the next three years. The parties agreed to have more flat stock shipments from Metalloinvest’s Ural Steel to Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant. Metalloinvest will become one of the main suppliers of flat stock meant for the production of pipes that will be used in the main connecting Purovsky condensate processing plant and Tobolsk Neftekhim (the project is currently implemented by SIBUR). Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant signed a three-year contract with SIBUR for the delivery of 170,000 tons of

Ural Airlines is launching a unique cockpit simulator center in order to train its pilots, the company’s press service reports. The most advanced cockpit simulator to date was purchased in the Netherlands. The unit was made specially for Ural Airlines by one of the world’s major manufacturers SIM Industries, which joined Lockheed Martin recently. The equipment cost ?7.5m. The new flight simulator center will allow the company to enhance the efficiency of its flights. What is more, pilots will be able to train as much as they need, while training in Europe is always limited in time: a standard

UTair Airlines’ Boeing 737 had to perform an emergency landing in Yekaterinburg because of the right engine failure, the press service for Ural Investigative Administration for Transportation of Russia’s Investigative Committee told reporters. UTair Aviation Company’s press officer confirms this information is accurate. ‘The sensors indicated the engine was unstable. A landing was performed at Koltsovo Airport to look into the causes of the problem. There were ninety-one passengers and seven crew members on board. The landing went through smoothly,’ the airline says.

The losses incurred by Sredneuralsky Copper Smelting Plant (SUMZ) in the financial year 2011 came to 207.75m RUR. These data were announced in the course of the recent annual general meeting. It was decided that the losses should be made up for by using the future profits; it was also decided not to pay any share dividend for the year 2011.

Mayor of Yekaterinburg Alexander Yakob met Mayor of Kostanay (the Republic of Kazakhstan) Gauez Nurmukhambetov. The officials from the near abroad arrived in Yekaterinburg to look into the city’s experience in the field of housing construction. The Kostanay delegation also comprised head of Kostanay Region Architecture & City Planning Administration Sara Umarova, head of Kostanay Council Construction Department Raikhan Urdabayeva, and some representatives of the building industry. Nurmukhambetov said Yekaterinburg proved an impressively developing city, which included the housing field.

The rating agency Expert RA is calling off Express Garant Insurance Company’s rating because the company decided not to have the rating confirmed any longer. The insurer used to have a B++ (Acceptable Dependability Level) before, with Stable rating outlook. According to Expert RA, the company’s assets amounted to 812.18m RUR on March 31, 2012; its own funds came to 578.79m RUR.

Yekaterinburg is planning to switch to a closed heat supply system by 2018; this is an experimental project at the moment. Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Energy & Communal Housing Services held a work team meeting dedicated to the development of programs aimed at enhancing the energy efficiency of Yekaterinburg’s heat supply system. In addition to the representatives of the most interested parties (the city’s main heat supplier IES and the city council), the meeting was also attended by Russia’s Deputy Energy Minister Alexander Dybov and the German-Russian energy concern RUDEA’s

The Frankfurt-based Deutsche Boerse will make a tour around a number of Russian cities. At the seminars coordinated by the organization, regional investors will be able to take a closer look at the advantages of working with the tools Europe’s largest financial trading floor offers. The seminars started in Samara in mid-June and will also be held in Yekaterinburg, Magnitogorsk, and Ufa in the next few weeks. In the Urals’ capital, the seminar will take place on July 3, 2012. During this tour, head of the bourse’s Moscow representation Roman Kirindasov will introduce investors to the benefits

The 17th Arbitration & Appeals Court supported the ruling pronounced by Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service in Perm Territory; the FAS’s division declared that the Russian Sberbank and ROSNO Insurance Company engaged in collusion. The court also ruled that the antimonopoly agency’s order to the bank and to the insurer to transfer the illegitimate profits (293m RUR and 40m RUR, respectively) to the federal budget was lawful. It is reported that in November 2011 Perm Territory division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service declared Sberbank and ROSNO had violated the law in that the