In the first quarter of 2006, the united network sold over 50,000 tons of tubes and pipes, which exceeds the figures for 2005 by 12.5%. As the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, the sales records for rolled metal have remained the same, which is due to the company’s regional distribution policy. A number of their subsidiaries, for example, have cut down on rolled metal sales as they invest the resources thus obtained into tube sales development.

Shareholders of YuzhUralDvigatelService are going to elect the GD on May 16, 2006, during the annual shareholder meeting. The other points on the agenda include agreeing on the annual report and electing the Board of Directors.

Knauf Gips Chelyabinsk JSC is going to hold annual meeting on May 18, 2006. The points on the agenda include agreeing on the annual report, P & L distribution, the issue of dividends. The shareholders will also have to elect the Supervisory board, the inspection committee members, and the auditor for 2006.

In the first three months of 2006, Magnesite Industrial Complex JSC has experienced an increase of 4.6% (96,800 tons in toto) in refractory goods output and of 9.5% in commercial powders (187,600 tons in toto) as against the corresponding period of 2005. The refractory goods sales have gone up by 7.3%, commercial powders sales have gone up by 12.7% compared to January-March 2005. The company has raised its refractory goods shipments by 3% (76,200 tons in toto), and its commercial powders shipments by 13.7% (136,100 tons in toto), the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative.

On April 20, 2006, a new cold saw was put into operation at Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil JSC (part of Evraz Group). The saw is meant for cutting railroad wheel ingots, and it’s the seventh one so far installed at the complex. According to the company’s spokesperson, the lock, stock and barrel assembling and installation agreement had been signed with MFL of Austria. The new saw is particularly productive (up to 100,000 ingots a year). It also exposes higher precision, is more compact and fully automated. Its produce is in full compliance with the demands that the ingots

Finnair is going to set up regular Yekaterinburg-Helsinki flights in the fall of 2006. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, the planes would leave Helsinki, and on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, the carrier would take the passengers from Yekaterinburg to the Finnish capital. At the moment, the company is in the recruiting process as well as looking for the office. The issue was discussed with Governor Eduard Rossel, who came to Helsinki to meet the company’s heads Messrs Koberg and Vikkula, on April 20. Mr Rossel assured his Finnish partners that Sverdlovsk Region was greatly interested

Bank 24.ru JSC summed up its achievements in the first three months of 2006: its net wealth went up by 11.8% (3 060m RUR as of April 1 against 2 869 m RUR as of January 1), the bank’s capital rose by 53.1% (341m RUR against the previous 228m). Profits came to 21.2m RUR. The net debtor position of a bank went up by 16% (1,234m RUR as of April 1 against 1,164m as of January 1).

AiRUnion, a conglomerate of KrasAir, Domodedovo Airlines, Omskavia, Samara, and Sibaviatrans, started performing regular Moscow-Yekaterinburg flights according to the summer timetable on March 26, 20006. According to their spokesperson, the alliance is going to set up new flights from Moscow to Barnaul, Yekaterinburg, Bukhara, Sochi, Simferopol, Beijing, from Samara to Bukhara, from Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk to Harbin. 78 airliners of the carriers’ united fleet will be used this summer altogether. The Moscow-Yekaterinburg flights will be performed by KrasAir. The planes (Boeing-737) will leave

Vanadium Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise of Kachkanar put four heat utilizers into operation at its won power stations; the economizers will allow for using less natural gas and thus cutting consumption of electricity and gas by up to 10.8m cubic meters a year, the company’s spokesperson reports. They provide for a more effective use of the heat and supply hot water all the year round. The project should result in changing the air-gas flow directions of the roasting plant, which, in its turn, will lead to an increase of 1.5 times in the heat pick-up and the improvement of the economizer

Alexei Nikulin was appointed provisional GD of Chelyabinsk Mechanical Works. According to the Director of Top Management Department of Federal Industrial Agency Nikolai Nikolskiy, the new GD ‘is rather experienced in the running of large enterprises.’ Mr Nikolskiy refused to give any further details until the position is tendered in May 2006.

Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant JSC held the general shareholder meeting today. The company’s GD Vsevolod Geihmann presented the annual report covering the company’s financial and managing success in 2005. The company made 4,765,317,000 RUR in profits, with net profit coming to 268,221,000 RUR. The meeting resulted in approving of the annual report, of the annual accounting report, including the P& L statement and their distribution. The shareholders decided to use the undistributed profits for financing the company’s strategically important projects (those were chosen by the Board of Directors).

Magnesite Industrial Complex produced 35,500 tons of refractory goods in March 2006, which is 9% more than a year earlier; it also produced 63.600 tons of commercial powders (an increase of 17.1%). Shipments of refractory goods and commercial powders went up by 5.2% 927,100 tons in toto) and 6.2% (44,500 tons in toto), respectively, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative.

The verdict of guilty brought in on Rafael Mirkhaidarov has come into effect. Mr Mirkhaidarov was found guilty of illegal use of copyrightable matter and violation of allied rights (Clause 146 (Part 2) of Russian Criminal Code). As the spokesperson for public prosecution authorities of Chelyabinsk Region said to UrBC representative, this case was unique in that the victim was a representative of Microsoft Corporation. This is an unprecedented occurrence, despite the fact that the region is often troubled with incidents of author’s rights violation. Mr Mirkhaidarov had been charged with

‘A new magnetic separator is set in operation at the processing plant of Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise of Kachkanar, member of Evraz Group. The company’s plans for technological base re-equipment provide for installation of 14 new magnetic separators. To date, the installation of four new units at the technological sections No. 1, 2 and 3 has been completed. The company is going to install another four units within April 2006,’ PR-department of Evraz Group said. ‘The replacement of outdated equipment proceeds simultaneously with reconstruction of the whole section. According to the

Andrey Lekanov is appointed CEO of Chelyabinskgorgaz JSC, an associated enterprise of GAZEKS, part of KES-Holding, Moscow. He succeeded Alexander Vyshegorodtsev, who resigned due to his engagement in political activities as the Chairman of Commission for Economy, Municipal Property and SME Development of Chelyabinsk municipal Duma. This was reported to UrBC representative by PR-department of Chelyabinskgorgaz JSC. Andrey Lekanov, former GD of Chelyabinsk Khladokombinat No. 1, graduated from Chelyabinsk State Technical University with a degree in Economics and Management in Mechanical

Supporting rod ceramic insulator C4-80 UHL, C4-80 T2 has been launched by Yuzhnouralsky Armaturno-Izolyatorny Zavod JSC (Reinforcement and Insulator Works of Yuzhnouralsk). The insulator is designed for insulation and mounting of live parts at the electric apparatuses, dispatch devices and alternating current distributors with voltage over 1,000 volts and frequency up to 100 Hz. This was reported to UrBC representative by PR-department of Yuzhnouralsky Armaturno-Izolyatorny Zavod. The production technology of the new insulator makes use of ceramic material of subgroup 130, which allowed for

In May 2006, Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg is going to announce a tender aimed at selecting the contractor to reconstruct the aerodrome. The tender procedure is to be carried out by Federal Air Transport Agency, and the state building owner is ZapSibaerostroyzakazchik of Novosibirsk. According to Koltsovo spokesperson, the airport has placed an application with Federal Air Transport Agency to be given 7.5bn RUR in the years 2007-2009. The first portion of 140m RUR has already been allocated by the federal budget. The leading project designers are PI Federal State Unitary Enterprise and

The papers related to the criminal lawsuit concerning a bribe allegedly accepted by one of the managers of UralTransBank JSC are going to be considered by the new cast of district judges. The application submitted by the lawyers hired by the Bank’s Chairman Valeriy Zavodov to qualify the commencement of prosecution illegitimate resulted in the second hearing of the case. Prior to this, the court of Oktyabrskiy district of Yekaterinburg dismissed the application, which made the lawyers place it with Sverdlovsk Region Court that, having looked at the case proceedings and having heard the

According to the decision of Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration, Hydrospetsstroy Ltd. (general contractor of Noviy Grad Managing Company) has to pay the plaintiffs over 54m RUR. The claim had been laid on the grounds of the defendant not meeting its liabilities in terms of putting up a number of dwellings in Yekaterinburg. The firm had received some prepayment from the investors yet never did what it had to. The court returned the verdict of ‘guilty’ and imposed a fine of 54m. Noviy Grad CJSC is actually notorious for its failing to deliver the goods and is on the black list complied by

So far, the Winery of Sredneuralsk Ltd. (part of AVS-GROUP) has bought 350 new-format excise duty stamps, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. According to the company’s GD Pavel Agapov, the winery keeps working as usual. ‘We are currently producing and bottling wine using Russian wine base; the output comes to 12,000 decalitres a month,’ Mr Agapov said. He believes the winery will have launched two more kinds of wine (Buena Vista and Zlata Gura) that use Spanish and Bulgarian wine base. Mr Agapov also said that Rospotrebnadzor in Sverdlovsk Region had withdrawn samples of