Ural Airlines came up with a special Veterans’ Tariff offer on April 9, 2008. The Great Patriotic War veterans (including people with disabilities) and people accompanying them can take one domestic flight from their home town and back free of charge between May 5, 2008 and May 25, 2008. This is seen as an opportunity for the war veterans to visit their children, relatives, and wartime friends. ‘Sadly, we’ve got very few war veterans left. They often have difficulty getting about, so a plane trip is a real chance to see their loved ones who live far away. This isn’t the first time Ural

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (ChTPZ Group’s largest tube and pipe manufacturers) supplied their consumers with 415,900 tons of tubular goods in the first three months of 2008, which falls short of the figures for a year earlier (that is, 467,300 tons) by 11%. ChTPZ Group sold 219,200 tons of tubes and pipes in the three months of the year, which falls short of the figures for a year earlier (that is, 255,300 tons) by 14%. These figures include a 25% drop in the amount of large-diameter pipes: this came to 108,600 tons compared with 145,000 tons of LDPs in

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Ural Innovational Commercial Bank to natural persons for 1 to 3 years went down by 23.06% (from 6.48 million RUR to 4.986 million RUR) in January-March 2008.

SKB-Bank is to start handling an issue of registered ordinary uncertificated shares on April 21, 2008. This additional share issue was registered on March 20, 2008 by the Central Bank’s Licensing Department (the state registration number is 10600705В012D). Each of the issue’s 471,630,000 shares has a face value of 1 RUR, while the selling price will come to 3.7 RUR apiece, even for shareholders with preemption rights; the shares are most likely to be acquired by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Sinara Group; the stock cannot be classed as the issuer’s bonds or options.

The midnight shift started again in Kalyinskaya, Novo-Kalyinskaya, Chermukhovskaya, and Shakhta-16 mines (all parts of Severuralsk Bauxite Mine, aka SUBR) on April 15, 2008. Following the mine workers’ numerous requests, a number of bauxite mines in Severouralsk were ordered to resume working. The night shift workers completed their jobs and were succeeded by the next shift of miners, so things appear to get back on track quite smoothly. ‘I support the miners’ decision to stop striking and start working. Life is getting back to normal,’ SUBR CEO Viktor Radko said to UrBC.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralTransBank to state-run for-profit organizations for 1 to 3 years dropped by 30.61% (from 103.306 million RUR to 71.68 million RUR) in January-March 2008.

SKB-Bank introduced a new ATM in Krasnoturinsk, Sverdlovsk Region. This has become the bank’s northernmost automatic teller machine in the region so far. Besides, the new ATM, located at 68 Lenin St. in the bank’s Krasnoturinskiy outlet is the city’s first and the Mid-Urals’ 193d machine. The town dwellers can now get some cash, check their account balance, and pay their mobile phone bills 24/7 using the new ATM. SKB-Bank has got over 250 ATMs in nine Russian regions at the moment. The machines can normally be found in big cities’ business quarters and residential areas as well as on premises

‘More Lexus cars are being sold in Sverdlovsk Region this year compared with 2007; RX series and AS250 makes appear to enjoy the greatest demand at the moment,’ Autoplus’s marketing expert Tatiana Shmakova said to UrBC. At the same time, the country’s average sales figures for expensive premium class foreign cars have shown less impressive growth dynamics this year against the year 2007. The sales figures for Land Rover, Infiniti, Cadillac, and Jaguar, however, rose by over 50%, while Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, and Volvo sales figures increased by less than 50%. Lexus sales went down

Sberbank of Russia, Visa International, and Aeroflot came up with a special offer known as Your Way to Beijing with Sberbank’s Visa Aeroflot; the offer is valid through May 31, 2008 and is dedicated to this year’s most memorable sports event: the Olympics to be held in China this summer. All of Sberbank’s cardholders who own Visa Classic Aeroflot and Visa Gold Aeroflot can take part in the prize-winning lottery provided they use these cards at least once to pay for their shopping. Prizes include two trips for two to the Olympics in Beijing. In addition, for every 30 RUR, $1, or ?1 you spend

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to nongovernmental financial institutions for 181 days to 1 year went down by 20.5% (from 19.635 million RUR to 15.61 million RUR) in January-March 2008.

Following the mine workers’ numerous requests, a number of bauxite mines in Severouralsk (parts of SUBR) were ordered to resume working on April 11, 2008, UC RUSAL’s press officer for the Urals Roman Lukichev said to UrBC. Lukichev reports the miners have to strictly comply with the safety and labor protection regulations, besides, the mines have to be examined and be given Rostechnazor’s permits first. The ad hoc committee created to handle the recent miners’ strike is still looking for ways out. The committee has to think of and introduce the mechanisms that could prevent the occurrence of

Ural Treasures Bank came up with a special V-Day offer for customers who use its Pensioners’ Deposit scheme. The offer is valid from April 14, 2008 to May 31, 2008. To use the offer, you have to deposit at least 1,500 RUR for anything between 180 days to 1,080 days; the interest rate varies from 11.5% to 13.5% a year and is subject to the existing tax regulations. You can top up your deposit account any time you like. The interest is paid monthly and can be withdrawn easily; besides, after the deposit period expires, the deposit can be prolonged automatically. However, your interest will only

‘There are only five or six Russian airports at the moment capable of supporting an airline and offering ground services to the passengers in case a flight has been delayed; regrettably, most other airports are simply unable to meet the new regulations,’ Ural Airlines CFO Kirill Skuratov announced at a conference devoted to local carriers’ successes and challenges on April 14, 2008. ‘In case all the rooms in the airport hotel are booked, we normally try to place our passengers with the city’s hotels and make sure their have some telephone connection. In addition, we are planning to add a new

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to sole traders for 31 to 90 days plummeted by 100% (from 600,000 RUR to zero) in January-March 2008.

MOTIV Telecommunications Group, backed up by RAO UES of Russia, was able to complete the first stage of putting up its own fiber-optic communication network between Yekaterinburg and Nizhniy Tagil along Sverdlovenergo’s power lines. The length of the network came to over 600 kilometers; it was built using a 96-fiber optical cable with great carrying capacity. ‘If you put all the lengths of MOTIV’s existing fiber optic networks together, the total length will come to twice the circumference of the globe. This is the Urals’ first large-scale fiber-optic network, and having such

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) carried out scheduled inspections of Krasnouralsk-based Svyatogor on March 17-28, 2008. The inspections were targeted at checking the enterprise’s compliance with the terms of its five subsoil use licenses, the spokesperson for Rosprirodnadzor says. Four violations were detected in the course of the inspections; for instance, Svyatogor turned out not to have any agreement with Kushva’s municipal council regarding the development of the town’s infrastructure. Rosprirodnadzor’s PR Department also reports the

Bank Uralsib’s net profit decreased from 1.95 billion RUR in January-March 2007 to 1.71 billion RUR in the first quarter of 2008, or by 12.5%, with the data calculated on the basis of Russian Accounting Standards. At the same time, the figures for January-March 2008 fall short of the bank’s net profit in October-December 2007 (that is, 1.998 billion RUR) by 14.7%, Uralsib reports. The bank explains this drop in profits by getting fewer revenues from their security transactions.

‘We are not sure yet just when our insulin production will actually be launched,’ chairman of Novouralsk-based Medsintez Alexander Petrov announced at a press conference devoted to the prospective launch of Russia’s first insulin production facility. ‘The construction of the plant will probably have been completed by November 26, 2008. However, it’s a bit early to speak of the actual launch; insulin production is a science-intensive, computer-aided, robotic activity that needs much more research,’ he added.

‘Having a plate mill constructed still sounds like a good idea; Russia can now boast a shipbuilding holding, but all the sheets have to be bought abroad, while the amount needed comes to over 1 million tons a year. Apart from that, a lot of bridges are being put up, and we could produce bridge metal for them, too,’ says Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (part of Evraz Group) CEO Alexei Kushnarev. However, the future of the project (known as Mill 5000) is still uncertain at the moment, he reports. According to Evraz Group’s press officer, the final decision will be taken at the BOD meeting

MSA a.s., one of the Czech Republic’s leading pipeline fittings manufacturers and part of ChTPZ Group, launched the production of new vane valves for trunk pipelines, the spokesperson for ChTPZ Group reports. The new valves (DN500-700, PN1.6-4.0 MPa varieties designed in accordance with technical conditions 29.13-МSА-120/06-А) are based on DN500-1000, PN8.0-10 MPa standard size valves that have been thoroughly tested for durability and seismic resistance and comply with the strictest technical standards employed at Transneft. These valves are unique in that they have an air-gas channel