Rimera (the oil and gas division of ChTPZ Group) will soon deliver its O&G machinery to Lithuania for the first time. In late July, the company signed an agreement with the Danish-Lithuanian JV Minijos Nafta for the delivery of Alnas-manufactured electric-centrifugal pumps meant for oil production onto the joint venture’s oil deposits. The first shipments are expected to be processed this August. The signing of the agreement and the first steps towards its implementation will allow Rimera to expand its delivery network onto the European market and to strengthen its ties with the other

An arms exhibition is about to open in Nizhniy Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region, with over three hundred participants presenting about 3,000 exhibits and 350 full-scale specimens. The 8th international arms, military vehicles, and munitions exhibition called Russian Defence Expo Nizhniy Tagil 2011 will impress the visitors with its one hundred wheel/track vehicles, Sverdlovsk Region’s Vice Premier and Minister for Industry & Science Alexander Petrov said at a recent exhibition coordination committee meeting. Foreign enterprises were encouraged to take part in the event, and over a hundred

TNK-BP applied to Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Government Foreign Investment Control Committee, asking for a permission to buy a stake in Itera Oil & Gas Company, a source in the know of the situation told RBC. TNK-BP’s press service reports the company is currently negotiating for a number of options in the field of its natural gas division development. Among the options considered are some joint projects with Itera, and the petitions to this extent have indeed been placed with the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Government Foreign Investment Control Committee. The

UTair Airlines made 80.83m RUR worth of net profit (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) in the first half of 2011, the company’s report states. This is 30% lower than before. The revenues came to 20.75bn RUR, which was 18% better than earlier.

Ural Plant EMA reports its net profit slumped by 39.28% in the second quarter of 2011. The company explains this has to do with the growing basic assets repair expenses and the need to build up a bad debts reserve fund.

Kyshtym Copper Electrolysis Plant (a part of Russian Copper Company, based in Kyshtym, Chelyabinsk Region) spent about 8.5m RUR on environmental safety projects in the first half of 2011. For one, two filter presses were replaced with new ones in the industrial waste water purification department, new filter sleeves were installed in the gas-cleaning facility, and new pulse chamber was fitted in the Maerz copper smelting furnace’s gas cooler unit. New filter sleeves were also installed in the copper electrolysis shop. The company expects to direct about 40m RUR to environmental projects in

The trade union of EVRAZ VGOK (Vysokogorsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise) intends to struggle for better working conditions and more labor safety for the daughter enterprises’ workers as well as for their greater social security. Besides, it was decided to try and convince the owners of the business that outsourcing passenger bus transfer services and the carriage-repairing depot is inefficient. These decisions were made at the 26th trade union conference, Russia’s Mining & Metallurgical Trade Union reports. All in all, the quality of interaction between the trade union and the

The rating agency Moody’s demoted Uniastrum Bank’s long-term deposit rating outlook to Negative due to the demotion of the bank’s parent enterprise Bank of Cyprus’s rating, RBC daily reports. The bank’s long-term deposit rating given by Moody’s has been affirmed at Ba3, but the rating outlook has been changed from Stable to Negative. The agency’s analysts report the outlook had to be reconsidered because of the problems faced by the parent company Bank of Cyprus that owns 80% of Uniastrum Bank. The former proprietors Gagik Zakaryan and Georgy Piskov own a 10% shareholding each. Moody’s

Sverdlovsk Region does not need to buy automobiles like the one purchased for Governor Alexander Misharin, with the back-rub-in-the-back-seat option. We have other, more pressing social needs to meet, for example, offer housing to orphans,’ says the regional public prosecution authorities representative Maria Protasova. Now Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court Justice Maria Toporova refused to sustain the claim laid against the region’s Governor; the case had to do with the purchase of a premium class automobile for him. The prosecution authorities insisted that the purchase of this Mercedes

VUZ-Bank now performs transactions involving the Chinese currency. The bank’s business customers can now enjoy clearing settlements, including exchange of currency, opening and closing of the transaction export and import passes in the Chinese yuans. This means the bank’s customers can make yuan payments to their partners in China promptly and inexpensively. The Chinese economy is now one of the world’s most dynamically developing ones, the Chinese national currency has an important role to play on the global financial market, so there is every reason to believe that the need for yuan

The Russian automobile market’s growth had a dramatic slow-down in July 2011, says the European Business Association that provided the data on the new car sales in Russia. The second half of the year started off with a noticeable growth drop, as the sales only increased by 27% (224,600 cars) against 40% in June 2011. In July, the greatest share of cars (50,500) was sold by AvtoVAZ as usual, yet Lada sales declined by 3% for the first time since the end of the recession. As for foreign automobiles, Chevrolet is still the market leader, with its increase in sales coming to 76% (15,800 cars).

Sverdlovsk Region-based Piastrella was fined for an administrative offense on the securities market; the fine amounted to 500,000 RUR. The decision to this extent was taken by Ural Federal District division of Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service.

A criminal lawsuit is now being processed in Sverdlovsk Region, with charges of labor safety violations resulting in a man’s death. The accident occurred at Sredneuralsky Copper-Smelting Plant’s copper-smelting shop at 11:30 PM on August 7, 2011. The copper-smelting furnace was partially destroyed due to violations of the technological procedures, and some molten metal burst out, leaving a forty-nine-year-old dust – and gas-trapping unit operator with severe thermal burns; shortly after, the worker died at the scene of the accident. What is more, some thirty-five-year old furnace operators

An ad hoc committee is now looking into the accident that left one worker killed by an outburst of motel metal out of a copper-smelting furnace, UMMC Holding’s press service reports. The final conclusions as to what caused the tragedy and who is to blame can be made no sooner than in two weeks’ time, after the ad hoc committee completes its work. To detect the causes of the accident and to give its evaluation, the copper-smelting shop was halted, while all the other plant departments keep operating as usual.

About three hundred Russian and foreign enterprises confirmed their intention to take part in RussianExpoArms 2011, Concern Sozvezdiye, Tactical Missiles Corporation JSC, Concern PVO Almaz-Antey, Military Industrial Company, Oboronservice, and KAMAZ among them. A number of installations will be presented at the exhibition, including some demonstrations of full-scale specimens manufactured by a few foreign companies, for example, by Iveco Defense Vehicles, Renault Trucks Defense, and Nexter. Besides, France, Ukraine, and Byelorussia will provide their unified ‘by-country’ show rooms.

A contract was signed recently between Karabashmed and the German Linde AG Gas and Engineering for the delivery of two blocks of an oxygen plant with the total capacity of 10,000 cubic nanometers of process oxygen per hour. The implementation of this contract is part of a reconstruction program for Karabashmed’s chemical and metallurgical facility that will allow not only for more copper concentrate to be recycled with the help of Ausmelt furnace but also for larger-scale recycling of the harmful production waste. The launch of the new vitriolic shop, expected in December 2013, will ensure

Sinara Group and Siemens’s joint venture Ural Locomotives is going to receive a certificate entitling the company to manufacturing Granit 2ES10, the new electric locomotive, in the second half of September, Russian Railways Senior Vice President Valentin Gapanovitch believes. The new loco, complete in three sections, recently performed a pilot ride with a 9,000-ton train attached to it from Yekaterinburg-Sortirovochny to Balezino. In terms of traction performance, 2ES10 is nearly two times superior to the existing DC locos, including the VL11 one, yet it costs 20% less to maintain. The

A sight decrease in VIZ-Stal’s revenues against the previous quarter has to do with the shrinking sales of transformer steel rolled products, which, in its turn, results from the fact that the sale of exported goods was only admitted as such later than expected. The revenues actually went down by 23% in comparison with the second quarter of 2010 due to smaller shipment volumes and lower prices, NLMK Group’s press service reports. At the same time, the sales revenues grew by 12% mainly due to cutting down on managerial expenses. The company’s net profit rose by 64%, partially thanks to

The net profit of Russian Railways Public Company (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) declined by 30% in the first half of 2011 and amounted to 45bn RUR, a source within the company informed Prime.

Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Antimonopoly Service might take legal action against Foratek EnergoTransStroy, Yekaterinburg Duma Deputy Leonid Volkov wrote in his blog. His complaint can actually serve as the ground for the action. Now Volkov placed his applications with Sverdlovsk Region branch of the FAS and with the Ural Federal District division of the General Prosecutor’s Office, asking to investigate the possible cartel agreement in the field of road construction tenders. According to the data available to the official, Foratek EnergoTransStroy could be one of the colluding