Even though this is a rather difficult project, Rosnano feels that Russian Magnesium is an interesting and promising initiative. The company’s other stockholders and our company are currently working on structuring the deal and on the detailed assessment of risks,’ Rosnano State Corporation’s press officer Maria Silayeva told UrBC. The corporation was unable to provide more detailed comments. Sverdlovsk Region Government representatives announced in the spring of 2011 that the state corporation might become one of the founders of Russian Magnesium as soon as June or July 2011. The Minister

Sverdlovsk Region is working on the creation of a railway machine-building cluster that will allow Russian railways to get a modern set of carriages and locos. This means the region will become Russia’s key location for carriage- and locomotive-building, Governor Alexander Misharin announced at a plenary session of the 3d Railway Exhibition EXPO 1520. The Governor explained the emerging cluster would comprise over forty production, scientific, financial, and transportation organizations. The cluster is already affecting the region’s economy in palpable ways. In 2010 and 2011, these were the

Siemens experts are planning to help train employees for the railway machine-building industry once Russia’s second training center opens in the Mid-Urals. The agreement to this extent was reached by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin and Siemens Chairman of the Supervisory Board Peter Loescher, the Governor’s press service reports. Most significantly, the locals who undergo training in the center will be able to do an internship in Germany. Alexander Misharin explained that the new center will be set up in cooperation with Ural Federal University, Academy of Railway Transport,

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service instituted legal proceedings against UC RUSAL Trading House; the company is suspected of abusing its dominant position on the aluminum market. The FAS looked into a complaint placed by one of aluminum consumers and determined that UC RUSAL Trading House violated Article 10 (part 1, paragraphs 3 and 8) of the Competition Protection Act, namely, it infringed upon its contractor the terms of aluminum supply agreement that were not beneficial for the contractor or not related to the subject matter of the contract. What is more, the alleged offender created

Nazim Efendiyev has recently been appointed Deputy Director-General of MetalloInvest Management Company. The company reports he is now going to be in charge of MetalloInvest Holding’s interaction with the federal and regional authorities. Nazim Efendiyev worked in Yekaterinburg in 2007-2009 as the Director-General and BOD Chairman of Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation. He also was a deputy of the regional House of Representatives in Ordzhonikidzevsky District. Efendiyev was the Managing Director of Ural Steel prior to his latest appointment.

Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo International Airport is not facing any jet fuel shortage problems at the moment, and the current supplied should provide for the smooth operation of the airport for five to seven days. By now, 11,500 tons out of 14,000 tons needed for September have already been contracted, the airport’s press service reports. Moscow and Yekaterinburg airports faced some jet fuel supply problems at the end of last week. For one, the jet fuel suppliers did not confirm Koltsovo’s order applications that had been submitted to them in full. The suppliers referred to lack of

Sverdlovsk Region Railways handled 82.7m tons of shipments in eight months of 2011, which exceeded the figures for eight months of 2010 by 3.6%. The railway company’s press service explains the shipments of ferrous metals and chemicals decreased by 9% and 16.5% in August 2011 compared with the year earlier due to accidents at Nizhneserginsky Metal Goods Plant and Sredneuralsky Copper-Smelting Plant.

About 12,000 Sverdlovsk Region residents were not allowed to go abroad in the eight months of 2011. 2,000 of them had about 1.5m RUR worth of unpaid alimony, while the rest had unpaid loans, unpaid road accidents fines and so on,’ says deputy head of Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Court Officers Service Albina Sukhorukova.

It has recently been reported that the police officers allegedly engaged in some illegitimate activities during their raids and searches at Yekaterinburg-based Tagansky Ryad market; besides, a number of entrepreneurs with businesses based in this market placed their complaints with the regional public prosecution authorities. Therefore Sverdlovsk Region’s Public Prosecutor Yuri Ponomarev ordered that an investigation of the legitimacy of the police officers’ actions be conducted. An ad hoc committee was set up of prosecution officials and officers from Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service made Yves Rocher Vostok pay a 100,000-ruble fine for violating the advertising law, the FAS’s press service reports. The Service’s committee declared earlier that the cosmetics and perfumes ad by Yves Rocher was inappropriate because the advertisement drew unfavorable comparisons with the competitors’ products and offered inaccurate data on the natural origin of Yves Rocher cosmetics. Now content-related cosmetics and perfumes ads by Yves Rocher could be seen online, in Yandex and Google search engines in November and December 2010. The perfumes and

Starting October 5, 2011, Ural Airlines will operate direct scheduled flights from Chelyabinsk Airport to three international destinations: Vienna, Dubai, and Harbin, Ural Airlines’ press officer reports. The airline was chosen by Chelyabinsk Region Government and the management of Chelyabinsk Airport as their main international carrier. Ural Airlines has a long-standing reputation on the international market; the airline holds an IOSA security standards compliance certificate and is a member of IATA Clearing Chamber as well as of MITA, the multilateral interline agreement. The air carrier is

Rosimushchestvo put up to auction 100% of Ural Hydro-Geological Expedition’s shares; this news is available via the agency’s official website. The shares are expected to be sold in a single lot; the opening bid comes to 52.5m RUR. Ural Hydro-Geological Expedition specializes in research and practical tasks in the hydro-geological, geological engineering, and geo-environmental fields.

Russia’s top thirty banks facilitated the export of $20bn from Russia in the first half of 2011; Sberbank and the Bank of Moscow crown the list, Deputy Director of the Central Bank of Russia’s Financial Stability Department Sergey Moiseyev said at the International Banking Forum in Sochi. We see a two-way trend: on the one hand, banks are trying to find new niches and segments where they can successfully offer loans with tolerable risks, and on the other hand they play an active part in the export of capital. Thus, the country’s thirty largest banks facilitated the outflow of about $20bn in

Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport is not facing any jet fuel supply problems at the moment, but existing supply difficulties might lead to some shortage, the airport’s press service informed Interfax. We currently have enough jet fuel to keep us running for seven days,’ the press service representative explained. He confirmed Rosaviation’s warnings that Koltsovo might be faced with jet fuel shortage just like its Moscow counterparts. Out of 14,000 tons of jet fuel needed in Koltsovo for this month, only 6,000 tons have been contracted, and the data on the delivery of the rest of the amount

The Ural Federal District division of Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service conducted an in-house inspection of BauerHof to see whether the company complies with the Russian Federation securities legislation, namely, with the Federal Financial Markets Service’s Order 09-33/pz-n dated August 13, 2009. Following the inspection, the joint stock company was sent an order to eliminate the detected violations of the Russian Federation law.

SKB-Bank has once again topped a credit rating representing Sverdlovsk Region’s financial services market. RusRating affirmed SKB-Bank’s BB+ credit rating on September 2, 2011. This is the best rating result among the credit institutions based in Sverdlovsk Region. A few months ago, SKB-Bank’s rating outlook was promoted from Stable to Positive as well. SKB-Bank’s rating stems from its well-developed and stable regional market position, its financially strong proprietors and the likelihood of their support for the bank, and its impressive business development dynamics. The rating agency’s

We keep investing in production while still introducing new principles into the way the enterprise’s budget is structured,’ the Director-General of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Boris Dubrovsky said in his interview to Magnitogorsky Metall. We couldn’t make do without borrowed funds when MMK invested considerable amounts of money in the construction of new production facilities; this is a practice adopted everywhere around the world. Now our task is to reduce the debt burden, so the budget for 2012 is expected to come out deficit-free and well-balanced,’ he noted.

RBC.Rating came up with a rating of Russia’s largest banks in the first half of 2011. Russia’s five hundred banks were ranked on the basis of the following: the volume of their net and liquid assets, their lending portfolio, volume of loans offered to private individuals and legal entities, and outside funds. VUZ-Bank was one of the country’s Top100 banks as usual and was given the 89th position on the list. The rating’s other performance indicators demonstrate the bank’s stable financial development as well. In terms of its lending portfolio, VUZ-Bank is one of Russia’s Top200 banks. It is

Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) announced its intermediary consolidated performance results for the first half of 2011, that is, through June 30, 2011. The performance report was drawn up in accordance with the International Accounting Standards (IAS). The company’s press service reports that its revenues increased by 38% in comparison with the year earlier and amounted to $3,547m mainly due to growing prices and improvements in the range of produce on offer. 57% of accumulated revenues came from the sales of weldless pipes – the company’s key product.

The Ukrainian Consulate-General for Siberia and the Urals is going to relocate from Tyumen to Yekaterinburg; this proposal was approved by Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yekaterinburg City Council’s press service reports. The Russian Federation Government is currently preparing a provision on the relocation of the diplomatic representation. Director of the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Press Department Oleg Voloshin explained that, in addition to interacting with the local Ukrainians, Yekaterinburg consulate will mainly deal in economic issues, since the consulate’s new location