Since the arrival of freezing weather, electricity use has gone up by 10%, Ekaterinburgskaya electrosetevaya Kompaniya (Electricity Supplier of Yekaterinburg) JSC reports. ‘There are some local power cuts within 0.4 kilowatt network due to more heaters being used by consumers. Some areas find themselves cut off because of the overloaded networks,’ the company’s spokesperson says. For instance, Rzhevskiy area was cut off at 7 PM yesterday, Shaumyan, Volgogradskaya and Voenniy Flot streets were cut off at 10.35 PM. The company was unable to fix the problem at nighttime, but the emergency team

Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration disclaimed petition submitted by VSMPO-Avisma Corporation on January 17, 2006. The petition contained a request to call off the protective measures employed because of Lamane Trading Corporation (member of Renova Group) lawsuit. These measures included seizure of 73.4% of the company’s shares. Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration is going to consider the identical case of Troika-Dialog on January 19, 2006.

‘I believe construction specialists should be Russian citizens and not immigrants,’ says Real Estate Managing Director of Mayak Corporation PLC Marina Konkova. ‘We should first of all think of young qualified staff, so it is essential that vocational education systems be restored and improved,’ Ms Konkova said. ‘We are experiencing a lack of skilled workers, and, should a student have a position with us, he or she may soon become a team-leader or foreman, which will let us have young professionals within staff in the course of 2 or 3 years. We are also willing to employ immigrants, but they

As the spokesperson for EuroCement Group reports, Nevyanskiy cementnik JSC (part of EuroCement Group) assessed its achievements for 2005: their output comprised 1.09 million tons, which is rather close to the previous year’s level. The plant’s productive capacity comes to 1.1 million tons, and this very amount of cement was produced in 2004.

According to the spokesperson for Wimm-Bill-Dann JSC, the company is not considering buying any dairies in Sverdlovsk Region. ‘We are interested in the region, but we haven’t bought any milk plants so far,’ the spokesperson says. Moreover, the report of company representatives meeting Sverdlovsk Region Governor Eduard Rossel on January 19, 2006 was not confirmed. ‘The meeting might actually take place, but it’s not likely to become much more than a small talk,’ the company’s spokesperson reports.

On January 17, 2006 Heineken group in Russia announced Viktor Pronin dismissed from the position of Patra JSC General Director following his leaving for a new job position. As from January 17, 2006 the position of Patra JSC (acquired by Heineken in May 2005) General Director will be handed over to Andrey A. Fedorchuk. Prior to this appointment, Mr Fedorchuk took up different posts in Zolotoy Ural JSC (Chelyabinsk). Between July 2004 and January 2006, he held a position of Chief Engineer at one of Chelyabinsk factories.

During its meeting in Moscow on January 14, 2006 Mechel JSC Board of directors came up with the decision to prolong the term of the company’s GD Vladimir Yorikh for one more year. Mr Yorikh has been holding this post since January 2004.

Austrian Airlines will start performing regular Vienna-Yekaterinburg flights on March 27, 2006. There are going to be three flights per week offered on even weekdays. The slots needed have already been reserved for the company by Koltsovo airport. According to the carrier’s spokesperson Ivan Trukhin, flights will be performed using Boeing 737 aircrafts fit for 130 people. An official Austrian Airlines representative office will start operating on February 1, 2006.

Chelyabinskiy Truboprokatniy Zavod (Chelyabinsk Tube Making Works) JSC had a sales record of 772700 tons of tubes in 2005 (which is 3% more than in 2004), 408600 tons (an increase of 5% compared to 2004) coming from large-diameter pipes and tubes. The plant output comprised 782700 tons of tubes (an increase of 4% against the previous year’s figures) in 2005, with 407800 tons of tubes being large-diameter ones (which exceeds the figures for 2004 by 6%). The plant shipped 71200 tons of goods in December (a 40% increase against the previous year’s corresponding period), 49,000 tons of tubes

The arrival of bitterly cold weather in the Urals makes it necessary for the electric power station workers to do their very best. According to Yekaterinburgskaya Elektrosetevaya Kompaniya (Electric Supply Network Company of Yekaterinburg) JSC, residents of Shirokaya Rechka area got it bad last night due to the unusually low temperature which caused part of the electric power plant equipment to break down. Since the boiler house that provided for the heating was connected to the power station and thus failed to work, a Diesel generator had to be urgently installed instead, with all the

As Dmitriy Basov, General Director of Dmitriy and Partners Company believes, NTV (Russian Independent Television) probably decided to cooperate with Alkasar Advertising Agency hoping to increase its profits. ‘An average local TV viewer gets to see very few minutes of their broadcasting, so NTV could be hoping to do better on the federal level. Yet increasing their sales in Yekaterinburg is going to be extremely difficult.’ ‘We agreed to work with this channel since it is my utmost creed that advertising market should be as demonopolized as it can possibly be,’ Mr Basov says. ‘NTV is bound to

As the spokesperson for EuroCement Group reports, Katavskiy Cement JSC (part of EuroCement Group) assessed its achievements for 2005. The plant produced 884000 tons of cement, which is 7.8% more than in 2004 (Namely, 820000 tons were produced then. This figure was 5.7 times bigger than the output for 2003.)

As the data presented by Uralsevergas CJSC, most of their debtors are municipal establishments; their aggregate debt had already comprised 599.6 million RUR by January 17, 2006. The company’s main debtors are the towns of Nizhniy Tagil, Severouralsk, Ivdel, Prigorodniy District, and Asbest. According to the company’s spokesperson Oleg Vlasov, they are not going to stop supplying the clients while the weather is still freezing, but it is strongly recommended that they pay their bills in full. Mr Vlasov also called for wiser and more economic use of their supplies.

‘Nizhnetagilskiy Metalware Works JSC produced 129000 items fit for building and technological purposes in 2005,’ the company’s Financial Director Vitaliy Parfenov said to UrBC representative.

‘NTV Media cancelled their contract on right to sell advertisements with Telets Advertising Agency and signed a new one with Alkasar Advertising Agency of Moscow,’ reports Elena Kukharchuk, GD of Alkasar Advertising Agency’s subsidiary in Yekaterinburg. ‘Our company is one of Moscow Agency’s six subsidiaries created last December. We now need to promptly build strong customer partnerships observing the ‘NTV product’ fair pricing policies and keeping our clients delighted despite the new seller. These tasks are challenging yet feasible,’ Ms Kukharchuk says.

The extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of Kalina Concern JSC that took place on January 12, 2006 resulted in electing the new Board of Directors. As the voting results have it, the Board now includes the company’s R&D Director Nikolai Geller, the company’s GD Timur Goryaev, Finance and Economics Director Alexander Petrov, member of Dr.Scheller Cosmetics AG Board of Directors Reinhold Schlennsock (a German citizen), Johan Grietsen, Hendrick Freiman (the Netherlands), Christoff Clavet, and KIT-Capital Director Mark Allan Bush (the United States). This meeting also lead to the

Peschanaya substation located near Nizhniy Tagil within hydroelectric power plant of Verkhniy Tagil to Pervomayskaya power line was cut off due to the lightning protection cable coming detached yesterday. As the spokesperson for Sverdlovskenergo JSC said to UrBC representative, the consumers did not experience any interruption in the electricity supplies though as the power backup came on immediately. An emergency team arrived at the sight of the accident and spent about five hours fixing the cable, so the hydroelectric power plant of Verkhniy Tagil to Pervomayskaya power line was linked up

Two joint-stock companies of CHTPS Group (Tube rolling plants of Chelyabinsk and Pervouralsk) shipped 1,516000 tons of tubes and other goods in 2005. To be more precise, the plant of Pervouralsk had sold 743300 tons of tubes over the months of January to December 2005, with 60200 tons sold in December. The plant’s output comprised 731600 tons of tubes in 2005, which exceeds the figures for 2004 (namely, 678300 tons) by 7%. 57200 tons of tubes were sold in December only.

‘Despite freezing weather, all of the company’s cars are being used as scheduled. We leave them in well-heated boxes for the night, so starting the car in the morning isn’t a problem,’ General Director of Yekaterinburgskoye Taxi JSC Vladimir Komissarov said to UrBC representative. Mr Komissarov also says that, in order to lower the breakage risks, all taxis are currently using petrol, which has already made the fuel costs double. The company is not going to have the fares go up, however. ‘It is already clear that the arrival of unusually cold weather led to more taxis being hired for local

Severskiy Trubniy Zavod JSC (part of Trubnaya Metallurgicheskaya Kompaniya (Tube-Making Metallurgical Company)) shipped 609900 tons of steel tubes in 2005, which is 15.8% more than in 2004. 662000 tons of steel had been cast over the twelve months of 2005, which means a 4% increase in casting as opposed to the year before, the spokesperson for Trubnaya Metallurgicheskaya Kompaniya said.