Vanadium Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise of Kachkanar (part of Evraz Group) has recently put into operation the new portals meant for dismantling and assembling wheel-motor blocks. These portals are a complex set of mechanisms that raise the quality of repairs and reduce the time needed to do them. Prior to the introduction of the portals, the dismantling and assembling procedure was performed manually and was extremely time-consuming. Now it is fully automated. The portals were designed based on the special order of the enterprise and include all-purpose equipment that allows to repair

The public prosecution authorities of Ural Federal District have assessed the results of environmental monitoring of the regional businesses. It appears that the environment of the Urals is still in very poor condition, which has been proved by over 6,500 instances of companies violating the environmental legislation in 2006 alone. According to the spokesperson for the Public Prosecutor, the violations occur all over the region and involve misuse of forestry, water bodies, and other resources as well as their pollution; besides, companies ignore environmental norms when constructing and using

By the end of the year, 17,000 visas to Czech Republic will be issued in Sverdlovsk Region. This was mentioned by Mr Karel Haranza, Consul General of Czech Republic to Yekaterinburg, during the recent press conference.

Vanadium Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise of Kachkanar JSC, part of Evraz Group, is carrying out acceptance tests of a new type of primed demolition blocks. By order of Rostekhnadzor, the pilot lot of the blocks manufactured from ballistite-type propellant is to be tested at the company’s explosives production plant within a week. It is the second pilot lot of primers received by the Enterprise, both lots come from Bashkiria. According to the order of the Enterprise, the manufacturer made the primed demolition blocks more secure and efficient by placing them into plastic cartridges. The

On September 21, 2006, Chelyabinsk Region Court of Arbitration carried out a preliminary trial of the lawsuit brought by Chelyabinsk Cellular Communications Ltd. (the company uses Tele-2 as its trademark) against Chelyabinsk Department of Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service. The lawsuit concerns an order issued by the defendant that is now being disputed by the plaintiff. The region’s three major cellular communication operators, MTS, UralSvyazInfrom, and Beeline, had earlier complained about Chelyabinsk Cellular Communications Ltd. using a disputable slogan (Tele2 is always cheaper), which

UralFinPromBank decided to expand the range of loans to small-scale business. Their new program allows for an increase in the company’s floating assets as well as provides opportunities to buy things from equipment to real estate and to upgrade the production facilities. The loan could be offered for any term not exceeding three years, with the annual interest rate determined uniquely in each particular case. The loan ranges from 300,000 RUR to 10,000,000 RUR. The preliminary decision as to whether to give a loan is reported to a client within twenty minutes. The obvious advantages of this

The company’s fixed assets have come to 22,995m RUR in the six months of 2006, with 19,232m being the permanent assets and 138m being the financial ones. The floating assets amounted to 9,128m RUR, of which 2,820m were inventory holdings and 5,037m were accounts receivable. Thus, the total assets of the regional potassium maker came to 32,123m RUR. The company’s long-term liabilities come to 7,184m RUR, its short-term liabilities to 5,099m; with short-term loans amounting to 2,593m, bills payable to suppliers and contractors coming to 2,372m, and income tax debt coming to 43m RUR; the other

Former GD Vitaliy Kotenok resigned in order to become Regional Network Director in the company’s headquarters. Maxim Abushaev was appointed acting GD. He says that the appointment of the General Director will have been settled within a month.

‘Chelyabinsk Region market mainly gets strong drinks from the North Caucasus (Beslan and Vladikavkaz), Saint Petersburg, and Chelyabinsk. The latter has two companies that deal in producing non-refined spirit (Veles Ltd. and Alexandra Ltd.). So far, 99% of the recent poisonings have been caused by the juniper-flavored drink produced by these two manufacturers (as far as the label claims),’ Head of Chelyabinsk Region Department of RosPotrebNadzor (a consumer rights surveillance service) Anatoliy Semenov announced at the press conference. ‘However, the investigation of the poisonings revealed

The construction of No. 5 blast-furnace at Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhny Tagil JSC (part of Evraz Group) has reached its final stage. The builders completed mounting of the stoves, the furnace unit and the casting beds. All parts of the blast-furnace equipment, including the software, have already been tested. The first hot proving of all the furnace complex units is scheduled for September 26, 2006. The blast-furnace will be able to produce about 1.7m tons of cast iron annually. It is equipped with the fully enclosed casting beds and a new external cooling system; it will also

The industrial enterprises of Sverdlovsk Region have produced 46.3bn RUR worth of goods (apart from weapons and ammunition) in the eight months of the year. The production of oil field equipment has gone up by 60.9%, that of drilling rigs by 58%; the volume of ac generator output has increased by 39.4%, that of large motor generating units by 15.8%, that of medical equipment by 67%, that of computer-aided facilities and appliances by 53%, that of haulers by 36%, reports the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Industry, Power Engineering and Science.

The French visitors will take part in the proceedings of a business forum in Yekaterinburg on September 25, 2006. A similar event will take place in Moscow as well. The local forum will be attended by the French Minister for Foreign Trade Christine Lagarde, who is going to meet the local entrepreneurs interested in doing business with their French counterparts. The Minister is planning to have a look at the construction site of Auchan and a five-star premium class hotel. The French party includes representatives of over 30 companies dealing in metallurgy, construction activity, woodworking,

Former CEO of Klyuchevsk Ferroalloy Works Sergey Odinokov was appointed First Deputy GD of Russian Special Alloys Management Company. He will now assist the current General Director Sergey Gilvarg. Vladimir Dorokhov was appointed the company’s Financial Department Director, Maxim Balakin was appointed Economics Department Director, and Nikolai Kuzmin became CEO of Klyuchevsk Ferroalloy Works. A number of top managers from Russian Chrome 1915 will now combine their jobs with the positions in the management company. Valeriy Ladygin was appointed Chrome Compound Production Counselor to GD, Yuriy

‘Unfortunately, Eureka Mining is not the most transparent company in the world; this is why it is rather difficult to get any information on its finances. It certainly is involved in a lot of projects all over the world, yet developing Mikheevskoye deposit will require at least $300m,’ the expert of FINAM Investment Company Alesya Breenkova said to UrBC representative. ‘Given the money the company has already invested in the project, it might be actually short of money, which is why Eureka Mining is likely to cooperate with a large Russian mining and metallurgical enterprise. Besides, Eureka

The public prosecution bodies of Yamal intend to appeal from the judgement of Court of Noviy Urengoi concerning Chairman of EuroGreen Ilya Gaffner due to lenient penalty. The accused was charged with arrears of wages to employees of SevTumenTransPut and got three years on parole. The plans of the public prosecution authorities were reported by Senior Assistant to the Public Prosecutor Evgeniy Zalov. ‘The Prosecutor was asking for three and a half years in prison and the non-eligibility period of two years that would prevent Mr Gaffner from serving in senior positions,’ Mr Zalov said. After

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of credits given by UralTransBank to state-owned commercial organizations (except for those owned federally) for a term of 181 days to 1 year has gone down by 65% (from 287,000 RUR to 100,000 RUR) within January to August 2006.

SibAcademBank and UralVneshTorgBank held a press conference called The New Banking Brand; New Name of SibAcademBank & UralVneshTorgBank in Moscow on September 21, 2006. The conference was devoted to the recent merger and re-branding, reports their spokesperson. The reports were presented by Chairman of SibAcademBank, Chairman of Supervisory Board of UralVneshTorgBank Igor Kim, Board Member of SibAcademBank, Chairman of ZhelDorBank Alexander Taranov, General Director of SibAcademBank Kirill Brel, the Director of Russia, Central Europe and Specialized Branches Business Group of European

Airline Business magazine published its traditional rating of the world’s best carriers for 2005. Only eight Russian companies were included in the 200-position rating, based on their passenger turnover, and one of them was Ural Airlines. According to the company’s Commercial Director Kirill Skuratov, Ural Airlines are determined to hit the Top 200 rating next year as well. This claim appears to be well-grounded as the carrier has been quite successful over the last months. It has already serviced 12% more passengers since the beginning of the year than in the eight months of 2005, regardless

According to the data provided by the Ministry for International and Foreign Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region, the regional and Kazakhstan’s foreign trade turnover amounted to $468,946,000 in January-June 2006, which gets the region the third position on the turnover list. Its share of the turnover came to 11.11%, with $260,998,320 worth of export, $207,947,680 worth of import, and amount of balance reaching the point of $53,050,640.

‘The verdict concerning Ilya Gaffner who had been charged with arrears of wages to employees of SevTyumenTransPut was returned at 9 AM today. The guilt of the accused was proved, so Mr Gaffner got three years on parole with a 12-month probation period,’ the spokesperson for the Court of Noviy Urengoy said to UrBC representative. The judicial hearing preceding the verdict was resumed on September 12, 2006. Mr Gaffner was charged with failing to pay the employees of SevTyumenTransPut around 47m RUR (Article 145-1 (Part 2) of Russian Criminal Code).