‘SverdlovEnergoSbyt has become Sverdlovsk Region’s guaranteeing supplier, with the guaranteed amount of electricity coming to 95% for the year 2007,’ announced the presenters at the conference devoted to the introduction of the new competitive electricity market. According to Provision of the Russian Government on rules and regulations for the performance of retail electricity markets during the transition period, Sverdlovsk Region is only allowed to have one guaranteeing supplier. The new market is expected to expand by 5 % to 10% every year.

Tube Works of Pervouralsk assessed the results of its activity in January-August 2006. For instance, the company has shipped 499,000 tons of goods since the beginning of the year.

Russian Department Director of Auchan Gérôme De-Pey met Mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkadiy Chernetskiy to discuss the delayed opening of Auchan hypermarket that is going to be located on the premises of Mega trade center, constructed by IKEA. M. De-Pey said that Auchan was planning to introduce two more stores in Yekaterinburg within the next one and a half or two years. One of them is going to be a large 18,000-square meter store; another will take up 8,000 square meters. The company is currently looking for the most suitable sites, choosing among eight options offered by the city council. The

Commercial Director of Ural Airlines JSC Kirill Skuratov spoke on the introduction of flights to new destinations (India, China, and Thailand) at today’s press conference called What Ural Airlines Have in Store for the Coming Fall. ‘There isn’t going to be any fuel fee for these destinations, nor will we charge for that on Egypt-bound flights. The cheapest ticket to India, China, and Thailand will cost $849, $549, and $899, respectively,’ Mr Skuratov said.

ChelyabEnergo, the supplier of Chelyabinsk Region, initiated the work of the committee whose task is to examine how prepared the subsidiary network is for the coming fall and winter. The examination includes all-round and fair assessment of all the parameters of the mains in terms of how well they will be able to operate in very low temperature. The committee reports will lead to the subsidiaries receiving or not receiving special preparedness certificates for 2006/2007, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. The company has already spent 400m RUR on repairs and renovation

Tube-rolling plant of Chelyabinsk sums up its achievements in eight months of 2006. The company sold 611,900 tubes, including 317,300 tons of large-diameter tubes. The works shipped 106,500 tons of goods in August 2006, including 53,600 tons of large-diameter tubes.

Commercial Director of Ural Airlines JSC Kirill Skuratov spoke on the results of the company’s recent re-branding at today’s press conference called What Ural Airlines Have in Store for the Coming Fall. ‘So far, the company has serviced 700,000 passengers after the completion of the campaign, which is 12% more than in the same period of 2005,’ Mr Skuratov said.

Russian ore maker Evrazruda (part of Evraz Group) puts up ventilation and hot-air generator at its Tashtagolskiy subsidiary within the framework of long-term development program. The construction of the generator, meant for Novocapitalniy groove, was started a few years ago but had to be stopped and was only resumed this summer. The generator was designed by SibGiproRuda, with Novokuznetskstroy Ltd. acting as the general contractor. The new facility will replace the worn-out generator and provide reliable and uninterrupted mine ventilation. In winter, the generator will produce hot air to

18 representatives of World Association of Nuclear Operators coming from seven different countries had been examining the station for two weeks (September 3 to September 15). This was followed by a press conference held for the local mass media, with reports presented by the Director of the station Nikolai Oshkanov, Director of WANO in Moscow Farit Tukhvetov, the leader of the international expert team Yaroslav Vokurek of the Czech Republic and Production Director of NAEK Ivan Foltov of the Ukraine. The experts commented on the great level of operation and safety; they concluded that all the

The bank assessed the results of its activity throughout January to August 2006. Its balance sheet total went up by 70.5% and amounted to 9.29bn RUR on September 1, 2006 (compared to 5.45bn on January 1, 2006). The bank’s owned capital rose by 45.2% (or by 893.84m). The net wealth increased by 53.5% and amounted to 8.06bn RUR (5.25bn on January 1). The volume of the bank’s income-earning assets came to 6.11bn RUR, with the growth of 46.2%. The loan portfolio went up by 36% and came to 4.28bn RUR (3.15bn on January 1, 2006). The securities portfolio reached the point of 1.8bn RUR, which

The Board of Directors of TGK-9, the power generating company, decided on the consultants who will assist the enterprise in public offer of the additional share issue. These consultants come from Morgan Stanley and Co. International Limited and Troika Dialog Investment Company. Baker and McKenzie CIS Limited are going to act as the company’s legal advisors, reports the spokesperson for TGK-9. The consultants were chosen after the open competitive negotiations that took place in August 2006. The applicants for the task had to have some experience in working on the international and Russian

Ural Airlines looked at their achievements in the eight months of 2006. The company’s re-branding, for example, led to the average 73.8% of seats used within an aircraft each flight, which is 4.7% better than in January-August 2005, says Commercial Director of Ural Airlines JSC Kirill Skuratov. According to the carrier’s recent press release, the company sees breaking into the global market and becoming a truly international company as its top strategic priorities. This includes world-class service and fleet as well as flying all over the globe. In order to achieve these goals, the company

A new colour ultrasound HDI-5000 diagnostic machine has recently been installed at the medical center of Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil (part of Evraz Graoup). It is much more sensitive and has a better ‘vision’ than the earlier generation devices, this is why the machine can trace a whole range of various diseases at a very early stage as well as examine the viscera and blood vessels. This new diagnostic system is quite unique. The company’s medical center is now the only place in Nizhniy Tagil that actually has it, as such devices used to be only installed in major

The Board of Directors of TGK-9, the power generating company, appointed former Sales Director Andrei Makarov General Director, reports the company’s spokesperson. Former GD Valeriy Rodin left his position because he was promoted to General Director of TGK-1.

Beloyarskaya nuclear power station summed up the results of its activity in August 2006. BN-600 power generating unit operated at the nominal capacity level. It had to be reduced for three days (August 24 to August 27) from 600 to 400 megawatt in order to eliminate some defects in the drain conduit. These defects did not affect the level of radiation and were classed as a zero event at the INES scale, which means the incident was non-core to safety. According to the spokesperson, there weren’t recorded any safety or limit violations, and the rare gas activity breakthrough in August comprised

Ural Turbine Works (part of Renova Group) is going to re-enter the Ukrainian power facilities market. Tendering for the supply of a 250-megawatt turbine to one Ukrainian enterprise in the nearest future is to be the first step forward. The Ural turbine makers have supplied the country with 45 turbines with the joint capacity of 2,937 megawatt altogether, yet then there seemed to be no cooperation for a while. Last year, the company tried to offer its turbines to Byelorussian businesses, and it is now working on K-63-90 steam turbine that will be bought by power station of Minsk, reports the

Oleg Zakharushkin was appointed the new director of Yekaterinburg subsidiary of SOGAZ Insurance Group. He succeeded Alla Rodygina, who moved to the company’s headquarters to become the Regional Network Management Director, reports the spokesperson for the company. The new director will have to look at the ways to develop personal insurance and risk insurance (including financial and construction risks); the Group still puts great emphasis on the business entities, as far as Yekaterinburg is concerned.

BN-600-power unit of Beloyarskaya nuclear power station will go through the scheduled outage for refueling on September 18, 2006. The outage will be accompanied by the pure non-radioactive gas make through the relief valves. The refueling is expected to last from September 20 to October 9, 2006. In the meantime, the heat and hot water will be provided to the town of Zarechniy by the local boilers and the heating facility of No. 4 generating unit currently under construction, reports the spokesperson for the station.

According to the spokesperson for the Public Prosecutor of Chelyabinsk Region, the recent investigation of how the airports complied with the air safety legislation revealed instances of violating the regulations that could lead to air accidents. Among other things, the luggage inspection points or metal detectors were not equipped with explosive fumes detectors; the inspection of freight at the Cargo Service department was performed without the obligatory appliances such as an X-ray TV stationary introscope. The technical support staff as well as the ground crew and the transportation

‘AutoVAZ has been trying to raise its efficiency by cutting expenses, a great part of which is made up by the price of the metal. This automobile concern has a number of suppliers to choose from, this is why it feels it can write its own ticket as far as Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Magnitogorsk is concerned. It is the Complex that will have to compromise, otherwise it will lose a very important client,’ the expert of FINAM Investment Company Sergey Filchenkov said to UrBC representative, following the recent refusal of the carmaker to use the Complex as their supplier. ‘If the parties