On April 27, 2006, Turkish Airlines launched the scheduled flights from Yekaterinburg to Istanbul. A-320 aircrafts of the company are to fly to Istanbul twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. The first Yekaterinburg flight of Turkish Airlines took only 7 passengers, the spokesperson for Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg said to UrBC representative. ‘Turkish Airlines launched their flights almost without advertising them. We expect the subsequent flights to be used by Yekaterinburg passengers at their full capacity,’ indicated Yulia Fedotova, the PR-Director of Koltsovo Airport JSC.

Mechanical works of Chelyabinsk will hold the annual stockholder meeting on May 25, 2006. The points on the agenda include confirmation of the annual report, P & L distribution, the dividend issue. The shareholders will also have to elect the Board of Directors, the cast of the inspection committee, and the company’s Auditor.

Severskiy Trubniy Zavod JSC, tube works of Seversk, Sverdlovsk Region, has decided to stop using the blooming mill meant for sheet products and rolled section billets. The mill, which has been operating for over 60 years, will soon be replaced with a modern arc furnace, reports the company’s spokesperson. The strategic investment program of Trubnaya Metallicheskaya Kompaniya, owner of the works, is going to be on until 2010 and provides for the launch of a continuous casting unit and a piercing mill in the end of 2006 and of an electric furnace in the end of 2007. The blooming mill was

In the first three months of 2006, Uralsevergas CJSC (associated operator of ITERA in Sverdlovsk Region) has supplied the region with 6.065bn cubic meters of natural gas, which exceeds the figures for the corresponding period of 2005 by 4.84%, reports the company’s spokesperson. The company manages to fully cover the region’s industrial and social needs. The supplies are currently being performed under the Cooperation Agreement for 2004-2008 signed by Sverdlovsk Region Government and ITERA. The average annual amount of gas supply by Uralsevergas went up from 15.3bn cubic meters in 1999 to

MMK-Metiz JSC, a calibrating metal products producer, has recently held the annual shareholder meeting. In 2005, the company produced 206.3 tons of goods (10% of Russia’s total output). 17.2% of produce was exported, of which 71% was made up by wire. The shareholders confirmed the annual report, P & L distribution, and decided to pass a dividend. The shareholders also elected the Board of Directors, the cast of the inspection committee, and Universe Audit as the company’s Auditor, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. The following Board members were elected: Rafkat

Yekaterinburg is not going to get a new subway station until 2009, says director of MetroStroy Yuriy Dosorets. ‘The reason for such procrastinated construction is the lack of subsidies. We’ve been given 450m RUR, of which 20% was allotted by the federal budget and 80% by the local authorities. But, in order to introduce new stations every three or four years, we need at least 1-2bn RUR,’ Mr Dosorets said.

Russian Chrome 1915 CJSC assessed its success in the first quarter of 2006: their total output came to over 18,000 tons, which is 6.5% better than a year before. The company produced 29.2% more of potassium dichromate, 5.9% more of sodium dichromate, and 7.8% more of chrome oxide yet less chrome tanning agent and salt cake than had been planned. Profits grew by 55.6%.

‘On April 26, a meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Government Interdepartmental Migrant Workers Committee took place. The members of the committee discussed the issue of taxation when it comes to companies that used migrant labour in 2005,’ reports the Governor’s spokesperson. ‘A lot has been done to make sure the collection of 30% profit tax imposed on natural persons improves, thus, 55.7% more money reached the budget in the first three months of 2006. Yet tax evasion is still a major issue on the agenda. It’s been statistically proved that the offenders are the same firms every year. Besides,

‘Balandino airport has been operating as usual; we’ve had no delays or cancelled flights. We even managed to host a flight refused in Yekaterinburg,’ the employees of the Commercial Department said to UrBC representative. ‘Current weather, that is, sleet and rain, is not fatal to performing flights. The visibility is sufficient too.’ ‘According to the forecast, tomorrow’s weather will be good enough as well. We shouldn’t get any frosts, icing or fogs, so everything should go as usual.’ Meanwhile, about ten flights were delayed in neighboring Yekaterinburg between Tuesday and Wednesday.

SUAL Group summed up its success in the first quarter of 2006. Volumes of the main types of production output exceeded the corresponding figures for 2005. In particular, the Group increased its bauxite ore mining volume by 22.8%: it came to 1.41 million tons. The increase is mainly due to growing productivity of Sredne-Timansky bauxite mine that increased by 65.8% against the same figures for 2005. Alumina production output decreased by 5.2% compared to the figures for the first quarter of 2005 and came to 546,600 tons. The decrease is a result of a downswing at Pikalevsky alumina plant

Chelyabinsky Zinkovy Zavod JSC is ranked among the best employers of Russia. The honorary title ‘Employer of the year – 2005’ was awarded to the company based on the results of social investigation ‘Business Responsibility – Employer of the year – 2005’. The investigation was conducted by Rating Agency of Analytics on demand of interindustrial non-profit organization Coordinating Board of Employers’ Unions of Russia, Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and non-profit partnership National Loan Office. According to this investigation, Chelyabinsky Zinkovy Zavod JSC is distinguished among

Within the first quarter of 2006, the bauxite mines of Sevuralbauxitruda JSC (member of SUAL Group) increased their ore extraction output by over 1% against the same figures for 2005. ‘Within the first quarter of 2006, we have mined the scheduled volume of bauxite ore that exceeds the extraction volume for the first quarter of 2005 by over 1%. This was brought about by the increase in productivity of Novo-Kalyinskaya mine that was set into operation last year. At the same time, we have been gradually putting out of operation two of our older mines, where the bauxite ore is almost unstocked,’

Uralkhimplast JSC has recently held the annual shareholder meeting that resulted in the majority of the shareholders voting in favour of a merger with Uralskaya Khimicheskaya Kompaniya, Ural Chemical Company JSC. The two companies’ assets will be accumulated within one joint stock company and the shares of the former will be converted to the shares of the latter. The other points on the agenda concerned the annual and accounting reports as well as the P& L statement. The report states that the company raised its shipments by 8% in 2005 compared to 2004. The shipments of the company’s

Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Chelyabinsk started to assemble the medium-pressure boiler with production capacity of 220 tons of steam per hour, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. The new device is meant mainly for production needs; it should ensure an increase in electricity production by 90m kilowatts per hour and heat production by 100,000 gigacalories within a year. Its coefficient of efficiency is 92-94%. This modern boiler will be furbished with some special burners that will allow for maximal burning of coke and blast-furnace gases: 15,000 cubic meters of

The ongoing upgrading of production facilities, improvement of management strategies and efficient marketing policy have all led to a qualitative as well as quantitative positive changes in SUAL Group’s production indicators in the first quarter of 2006. Thus, the Group produced 21% more rolled metal and intermediate products in the first three months of 2006 than in the corresponding period of 2005. The output of foils and aluminium tape went down by 3.7% due to the company switching to finer and therefore more expensive foils. Also, the company produced 25.1% more of consumer goods.

In the course of yesterday’s meeting devoted to top-priority national projects Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin requested GD of South Ural Mortgage Lending Agency JSC Alexander Kondrashov to set up a subsidiary in Magnitogorsk. According to Mr Sumin, the Accessible and Comfortable Dwelling to Russian Citizens program is one of the most important issues today. Only one in ten people can improve his or her living conditions; this number will have tripled by 2010, but this is obviously not enough. One factor at fault is the housing shortage. Over 1.7m square meters of dwelling were put

During its regular meeting on April 25, 2006, Association of Chelyabinsk construction firms (APSO) came up with the decision to establish GLAVK non-profit partnership of construction firms. The founders are over 40 members of APSO, the Association PR-department reported to UrBC representative. The non-profit partnership is aimed at promoting the business activities of its members in the field of development of small and mid-sized construction firms located in Chelyabinsk Region as well as in other Russian Regions; consolidating of the partnership members and increasing competitive ability and

Ural Airlines will soon be closing down some of its subsidiaries in the countries of the NIS. Thus, the Board of Directors decided on April 21, 2006 to do away with the ones in Baku (Azerbaijan) and Yerevan (Armenia).

ZLATEX Ltd., a digger producer of Zlatoust, is going to start batch production of its new digger/bulldozer EO 2621 capable of axially adjustable digging, which makes the machine more compact and makes it possible to work near buildings. Part of the machine is constituted by the Italian hydraulically actuated valve. The device was initially demonstrated at the exhibition ‘Building machines and equipment 2006’ in Yekaterinburg. According to the company’s Marketing Department, it will be launched on May 1, 2006.

Territorial power generating company TGK-9 invested 1.14bn RUR in stations and heat networks in 2005. 2.13bn RUR were spent on overhauls and repairs, says the annual report drawn up by the company’s GD. Within the period of April to December 2005, the company made 26.09bn RUR of profits, the gross profit coming to 98m and net profit to 28m. Generating Company of Perm and Generating Company of Sverdlovsk Region, whose substations and heat networks are rented by TGK-9, made 2.1bn and 764m RUR of profits, respectively. The gross profit of the former came to 1.79bn, the net profit to 1.28bn; the