Managing Director of West Siberian Metallurgical Industrial Complex Andrey Mokrinskiy will soon become the Operational Managing Director of Evraz Group. Former Operational Managing Director Valeriy Khoroshkovskiy became President on January 1, 2006, reports Interfax. Mr Mokrinskiy will be succeeded by R. Nugumanov.

Sverdlovsk Region industrial production index for January and February 2006 grew by 10.9% and 7.5%, respectively, against a year earlier, reports SverdlovksStat, the statistical agency. It was in the field of automobile production (2.7 times), rubber and plastic industries (55.6%), electrical appliances and equipment (42.8%), textiles (35%), radio and television equipment (19.4%), machines (14.2%) and publishing and printing business (11.8%) where the increase was most visible. The output of tobacco products and timber processing and wooden goods fell by 75.6% and 7.2%, respectively. The

60,200 square meters of dwellings were produced in Sverdlovsk Region in January and February 2006, which exceeds the figures for 2005 by 2.7%, reports SverdlovksStat, the statistical agency. The private builders put up a total of 46,100 square meters of houses (an increase of 8% compared to 2005). The share of private housing made up 76.6% of the total amount compared to 78.1% a year earlier. There were more buildings constructed in these two months than twelve months before in 28 towns and cities of the region.

‘Our comments on the need for protection of the author’s rights in TV advertising have to do with our wish to make every player on the market aware of the changes in the Russian Authors Association standards,’ said GD of Telets Advertising Agency Artem Drygant. ‘This should prevent the advertisers from the disloyal producers as well as fines. The TV channels will be able to produces timely and detailed records of the ads they put on air. The authors will be able to receive their royalties. The advertising market is developing and legal protection of intellectual property must become effective

Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration introduced competitive production in Yekaterinburg Winery JSC today. The company has up to now only had the external inspection and recently declared itself bankrupt. UrBC has already reported the statement by Deputy Minster of Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry Sergey Latskov which made it clear that the decision of the Court should result in appointing the company manager who would decide what assets and when should be put up to auction ‘Everything is to be done in accordance with the law,’ Mr Latskov said. The company was

Strong drinks will not disappear completely from Kupets supermarkets this week. As the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, their supplies should last them for another few months. In April or May, the issue has to be fully resolved. ‘We certainly do have some problems with imported produce as well as the rest of local market,’ the spokesperson said. The company is going to compensate the foreign strong drinks with their Russian counterparts. The foreign spirits may become 15 to 20% more expensive, which doesn’t have to do so much with the new legislation; it’s rather due to the

‘The current trend in mobile phone services is volume discounts on traffic prices, which is caused by more traffic,’ Deputy GD of Set Tsifrovikh Technologiy (Digital Technologies Network) JSC Alexei Bachurin said to UrBC representative. ‘Yet lots of major operators are not willing to give those discounts: there are only two of them on the market, so the competition is insignificant. If there appear more of them in the nearest future, let’s say another two, this will surely lead to more customer-friendly pricing policies,’ Mr Bachurin said.

Vice-president of Ural Regional Currency Exchange (URVB Stock Exchange) Maxim Kostylev has commented on the claim by Tatyana Kolotova, Head of Sverdlovsk Regional Department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service. Ms Kolotova claimed that no exchange was prepared to auction Government Purchases yet. ‘At the moment, Ural Regional Currency Exchange has licenses for auctioneering goods and standard contracts. Our infrastructure embraces complete set of hard- and software for commodity e-exchange. URVB has adopted and confirmed the Rules for Auctioneering in the Section of Commodity Markets. URVB’s

On March 16, 2006, Chelyabenergo JSC, Chelyabinsk Regional electricity Supplier, held a project team meeting concerning charges for connecting to the company’s networks. The meeting was visited by Chelyabinsk Regional and municipal governments’ representatives. According to GD of Chelyabenergo Evgeny Kryuchkov, there is a long felt need for connection charges. Numbers of networked electricity consumers as well as the demand for Chelyabenergo electricity networking have been growing during the last few years. This growth was induced by the general growth of Chelyabinsk Regional economies and

During February 2006, Seversky Trubny Zavod JSC (tube maker of Severka), member of Trubnaya Metallurgicheskaya Kompaniya, shipped over 46,000 tubes to its consumers. Total shipments since January 1, 2006 have exceeded 89,000 items, the spokesperson for Seversky Trubny Zavod said. Within February, the company produced 52,000 tons of steel. The company’s total steel production came to 108,000 tons in January and February 2006.

Board of Directors of Chelyabinsky Trikotazh appointed the annual stockholders meeting for May 5, 2006. The agenda includes discussing the results of the company’s financial and economic activities during 2005, and of the dividend non-payment question. The stockholders will also elect the company’s Board of Directors as well as the members of auditing commission.

Chelyabinskaya Ugolnaya Kompaniya JSC, a coal maker, extracted 229.200 tonnes of commercial coal. Kapitalnaya and Korkinskaya mines excelled the plan by 21% and 14.3%, respectively. The daylighting came to 284,000 cubic meters. The plan for development drift was excelled by 31 meters, with the total number of meters being 801 meter. The consumers received 214,700 tonnes of solid fuel, most of which (101,700 tonnes) went to Yuzhnouralskaya State District Power Plant, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative.

UTair Finance Ltd. allotted the second bond issue with a par value of 1 billion RUR on March 14, 2006 via Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MMVB Stock Exchange) in the course of an open auction aimed at determining the interest rate coming from the first warrant. 52 investor applications were presented altogether, the total demand coming to 1,953,000,000 RUR with first warrant interest rate ranging from 9.70% to 10.6% a year. Most applications fell into the 7.9% to 8.0% bids. The emitting company set the first warrant interest rate at 10.4% a year (25.93 RUR per bond), the interest rate of

Within two months of 2006, the calibration plant of Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, and MMK-Metiz JSC have managed to produce 64,100 tonnes of goods. The first plant produced 21,500 tonnes in February and 38,800 tonnes since the beginning of the year. The second company produced 14,700 tones in February and 25,300 tonnes since the beginning of the year. According to the spokespersons, there appears to be a slight drop in production compared to a year earlier, yet both plants intend to make up for this in March by producing 40,000 tonnes of goods.

‘Sverdlovsk Region Court vacated the sentence upon Sergey Pavlov and Alexei Yermolenko who run KOR Company. The two had been convicted by Kirovskiy Court of Yekaterinburg following the charge based on Clause 111 of Russian Criminal Code with assault and battery of Alexander Kostyukov, an entrepreneur, that resulted in his death. Mr Pavlov was then sentenced to 12 years in prison, Mr Yermolenko to 8 years,’ reported the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Court Galina Subbotina. ‘The case has been returned to Kirovskiy Court of Yekaterinburg to be reconsidered by a new constitution of the court

The № 2 department of the company’s hydrometallurgical shop is having its automation and control system upgraded. According to their spokesperson, the new system will make possible the more detailed and precise record of the technological processes as well as error analysis and management in case of a breakdown. This information will be available on the corporate site in real time format and is to be viewed by the workers of the operational department. The central server will save all the data and thus allow the specialists to check the working status every sixty seconds. The project will

Nizhnetagilskiy Metallurgichesliy Kombinat JSC, Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil, received the equipment needed for assembling the second ultrasound quality inspection unit. According to the company’s spokesperson, the first such unit was installed in June 2004 and has already proved highly efficient. The system is capable of testing a wheel according to 13 different criteria (determined by the Russian Railroad, the international and national standards, and American, German, and French specifications) within just one minute. Both RWI (Railroad Wheel Inspection) units were

The tripartite water-recycling cooler is currently under overhaul at the energy power shop of Ufaleynickel JSC; it’s at its first stage of improvement at the moment, that is, all the obsolete metal parts are to be dismantled as well as the sheeting and the pipelines, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative.

Stage 1 of Skipovoy shaft overhaul has been completed at Gorno-Shorskiy subsidiary of Evrazruda, an ore maker. According to the company’s spokesperson, both conductor threads were replaced at the beginning of March, with the total length of 96 upgraded conductors coming to over 1 kilometer. The new skips placed at the curb level were lined with armour to improve their durability and are now fit for being installed. The old skips are to be dismantled between March 17 and April 1 and replaced with the new ones having the sliding shutter rather than the flap gate. The final stage of the overhaul

Vyacheslav Prakin, former executive director of Sverdlovsk regional branch of Rossiyskie Kommunalnye Sistemy JSC (Russian public supply systems) is appointed GD of Regionalnaya Teplosnabzhayushchaya Kompaniya, a member of KES-Holding. The appointment was reported by the company’s PR-department. According to the company’s spokesperson, it’s been evoked by the on-going merger of housing and communal services business of KES-Holding with Rossiyskie Kommunalnye Sistemy JSC.