Uralvagonzavod Scientific and Production Enterprise keeps cutting back on civilian goods production: in January-May 2009, the output figures only amounted to 58% of the output reached a year earlier. Within these months, the enterprise manufactured 1,070 cisterns and had to stop producing any carriages in May 2009. This information is available from the report on the state of Russian industry and retail trade in January-May 2009 that has been drawn up by the Russian Federation Ministry for Industry and Trade.

The Russian Federation Ministry for Industry and Trade reports the country’s virgin aluminum production output keeps going down due to decreased demand and falling prices on both the home and foreign markets. The production outputs dropped the lowest at enterprises located in the Urals and the European part of Russia. According to the data available, UC RUSAL Bogoslovskiy smelter’s output dropped by 35.7% in January-May 2009 compared with January-May 2008; the output figures also decreased by 28.8%, 26.5%, 15%, 5.1%, and 17.3% at Nadvoitskiy smelter, Kandalakshskiy smelter, Volgograd smelter,

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin visited Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) to look at the new LDP mill. The Governor was accompanied by the Soviet of the Federation member Andrei Komarov, Deputy Governor Yuri Klepov, head of the regional employment center Leonid Shusharin, and Mayor of Chelyabinsk Mikhail Yurevitch. First, Sumin checked out an electric welding department that has received over $150m worth of investments over the last few years. For one, two anti-corrosion coating production lines have been launched there. The workers presented one of these lines to the Governor,

‘The outcomes of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Yekaterinburg look rather dubious, to say the least. On the one hand, all the planned events did take place smoothly. On the other hand, knowing that the state and the local businesses have spent a total of about 60 billion RUR in preparation, one cannot help feeling that this is too much. Then, the summit was actually targeted at attracting investors but resulted in just one agreement: the China State Bank is going to offer us $1bn loan (instead of the earlier declared ?1bn, which would mean 33% more money). The loan is to be

‘Seventy rooms have already got commissioned at Ramada Ekaterinburg Hotel by now, with thirty more to get commissioned next week. There are 156 rooms in the hotel altogether,’ Director of Ramada Ekaterinburg Hotel Xavier Khlopovsky said at a meeting with the other local hoteliers. The hotel, formerly known as The Ukraine, is located next to Yekaterinburg-Koltsovo highway. It is now being renovated by Uralzarubezhservis and Mayak Corporation. The hotel had been expected to host a delegation of Chinese officials during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Yekaterinburg on June 15-16,

‘We were trying to get to the federal highway, but we were prevented from doing so by two hundred special police force officers, who blocked all the way to the road. We’ve only got four hours to make the authorities resume the natural gas supply to the plant. The thing is, our furnaces will cool down without the continuous supply of gas, and it will be impossible to get them going again once they’ve grown cold. We mean to make more attempts as to blocking the federal highway,’ Bogdanovitch china plant’s Production Director Nadezhda Ulyanova said to UrBC. The plant was faced with the

MICEX index dropped by 7.8% at the close of business on June 22, 2009 and therefore amounted to 937.98 points at 7:29 PM (Moscow time). This level is actually comparable with that of the end of April. The stock exchange reports the shares of Uralsvyazinform dropped the lowest, with the share price going down by 13% at the close of business. Meanwhile, RTS index decreased by 5% by the end of the day as well and came to 961.04 points. Analysts believe the market has already shrunk by 20% since early June (when the year’s maximum figures were reached). They feel the decrease has to do with the

The international rating agency decreased Uralsvyazinform’s long-term credit rating from ВВ- to В+ and took it off their CreditWatch list. The telecommunications provider’s rating was placed on the list with Negative Rating Outlook on March 2, 2009. Now the company’s Rating Outlook is Stable. ‘The rating demotion was caused by our concerns over the way the company’s liquid assets are managed: we find it aggressive and unfit for ВВ- rating category,’ says Standard & Poor’s analyst Alexander Gryaznov. ‘Then, Uralsvyazinform’s rating is threatened by the business’s low liquidity figures, the

The extraordinary general meeting of Yekaterinburg-based oil and mayonnaise producing company resulted in the decision to pass the dividend for 2008. In addition, the present stockholders elected the new Board of Directors, comprising seven members now.

The Federal Insurance Surveillance Service confirmed the fact that the license of Uveren.ru Insurance Company (the asset of Bank24.ru) was halted temporarily. The Service’s official website states that the insurer’s license С № 1396 66 as of March 31, 2008 was halted due to the company’s failing to meet the orders issued by Ural Federal District’s Insurance Surveillance Inspectorate in due time. Order 310 that halts the license was issued on June 10, 2009; it has already been signed and has come into effect. According to this order, the insurer has thirty days to eliminate the existing

‘From its very start, the Academic construction project had a lot of support from both the regional and federal state authorities. I believe the project’s special status is being even further fortified now,’ Unicom Partner Investment and Finance Company’ Deputy General Director Dmitriy Zemerov said to an UrBC reporter. In fact, Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev visited the construction site (maintained by Renova-StroyGroup) during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Yekaterinburg and spoke very highly of the project’s achievements. ‘Firstly, this means that the project will be

On June 27, 2009, Bank Severnaya Kazna (the asset of Alfa-Bank) will not be servicing customers in any of its subsidiaries or additional offices, the spokesperson for the bank reports. The bank claims they had to take this step due to production necessities.

The international rating agency has recently placed the ratings of five bonds issues coordinated by Alfa Diversified Payment Rights Finance Co. S.A. (Alfa-Bank’s trust company) on CreditWatch list, with Negative Rating Outlook. Standard & Poor's reports this was a follow-up on putting Alfa-Bank itself on the same list. ‘These ratings show how the agency feels about the issuer’s financial stability as well as about the existing overcollaterization (which actually ensures a better credit quality of the payment flow) and the other elements of the bond transaction that reduce the risk of

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin visited Zlatoust Metallurgical Plant (ZMZ) to evaluate the efficiency of the actions taken by the management to bring the plant back to life. Sumin inspected the first and the third steel-smelting shops that resumed operation a week ago. At the moment, only four out of nine furnaces are operating. The plant’s GD Sergey Khomyanin also invited the Governor to check out the rolling shop. The GD explained the plant would deliver 2,500 tons of ready goods to customers by the end of the month. In July, the shop’s steel output is expected to reach 10,000

‘Severouralsk Bauxite Mine (SUBR) is struggling with a lot of problems at the moment, the major ones being the wages and the labor safety. The thing is, the workers’ wages have gone down by about 20% compared with May 2009. As for labor safety, the violations of the existing rules have resulted in a recent fatal accident in one of the mines,’ Chairman of UC RUSAL SUBR independent trade union Valeriy Zolotarev said to UrBC. ‘We were visited by two UC RUSAL representatives today, one of them being the HR Director. We explained everything about the problems SUBR has been faced with. At the end

The Arbitration Court keeps looking into the insolvency application laid by Leader Holding Company. Since the debtor must provide additional evidence of the company’s state, the court has had to put off the hearing in accordance with Article 158 of the Russian Federation Arbitration Code of Practice and Article 32 of the Federal Insolvency Act. Leader Holding Company placed its case with the arbitration court, asking to be declared bankrupt. The company’s application states that their creditors’ claims amount to 3,800,758,516.74 RUR (including 1,786,421,132.78 RUR worth of overdue debts). The

‘By introducing the new terms of paying off debts, AKB Absolut Bank is probably trying to reduce the amount of bad debts on the given loans, since the bank’s borrowers can now make these payments voluntarily. As a matter of fact, the new terms can be seen as a sort of peace settlement that provides for the debtor paying off one-tenth of the debt in exchange for cancellation of fines and sanctions,’ Unicom Partner Investment and Finance Company’s Deputy GD Dmitriy Zemerov said to an UrBC reporter. AKB Absolut Bank has recently announced that those of their customers who have delayed their loan

Standard & Poor's, the international rating agency, put Alfa-Bank’s ratings on CreditWatch list with Negative Rating Outlook, claiming this has to do with their general downgrading of the Russian banks’ asset quality estimates. According to the agency’s research findings, the great loan losses might make the Russian banks undergo re-capitalization. Standard & Poor's analysts believe that over the next three years, the total volume of these banks’ toxic assets (including restructured loans) might reach 38% of the overall total volume recorded at the end of 2008.

Uralvagonzavod Scientific and Production Association was given a four-billion-ruble state loan, Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Nikolai Vinnichenko announced on June 18, 2009. This means that the enterprise’s total debt volume now comes to about 43 billion RUR. Meanwhile, Uralvagonzavod’s General Director Oleg Sienko said in his interview to RBC daily that the plant’s top executives were considering the idea of launching an additional four-billion-ruble share issue, with shares to be sold to the state.

URSA Bank’s customers located in Ural and Siberian Federal Districts can now use the advantage of the bank’s new mortgage offer: they can now use the so-called maternity capital (the sum of money a family upon having their second and consecutive child or children) to pay off their mortgages. This June, they have started using the money transferred by the Retirement Fund’s local divisions to pay off mortgages early, the bank’s press officer reports. ‘Our customers can choose the option that suits them best: they can either use the sum to pay off a portion of their debt in one installment or