According to the repair schedule of Troitskaya State District Power Plant, the maintenance works began at the 2-A boiler of the first boiler-and-turbine shop. During the maintenance works, the defective spots at the boiler-heating surface are to be replaced in accordance with the metallographers’ recommendations. The maintenance works are to be executed by the contractor Troitskenergoremont CJSC. The expected result is an increase in the boiler’s efficiency and its fuel economy. The maintenance works will have been completed by the end of April 2006. According to PR-department of Troitskaya

‘Within 2005, Chelyabinsk branch of LUKOIL-Uralnefteproduct Ltd. sold 507,132 tons of oil products (an increase of 11% against the previous year’s figures). The after-tax sales proceeds came to 7,798m RUR. The company’s share of the oil products retail market comes to 25.1%,’ the spokesperson for Chelyabinsk branch of LUKOIL-Uralnefteproduct Ltd. said to UrBC representative. ‘The total number of LUKOIL filling stations located within Chelyabinsk Region is 102. The company’s Chelyabinsk branch is also in charge of Chelyabinskaya, Magnitogorskaya and Zlatoustovskaya petroleum storage depots and

STROMI JSC is going to hold annual meeting on April 28, 2006. The points on the agenda include summing up the company’s financial success in 2005, P & L distribution, electing the Board members, the inspection committee and the company’s auditor.

Uralvagonzavod-Finance Ltd. paid interest on the first bond coupon of the series 02. The interest was paid on 3m interest-bearing documentary non-convertible bearer bonds, each having the face value of 1,000 RUR and maturity date of 1826th day from the offering date. The bond issue has the state registration number 4-02-36063-R dd. August 30, 2005. The first bond coupon interest rate is approved by the GD of Uralvagonzavod-Finance by the order No. 3 dd. October 5, 2005. The total amount of interest to be paid came to 139,860,000 RUR (the interest rate is 9.35% per annum). The interest to be

This week, Vadim Ohanov officially became GD of Energogenie Ltd. after the corresponding decision had been made at the top-management meeting. Mr Ohanov has held some leading posts in the field of power engineering, industrial and economic activity, technology management and production. His last position was that of Commercial Director of Transportnaya Setevaya Kompaniya Ltd., a transport network company. The new appointment is not going to affect the company’s general strategy: Energogenie will keep working as usual and meet its customers’ demands as well as keep on developing the chain of

On April 5, 2006, Oleg Danchenko is going to succeed Viktor Videneev as GD of the chemical company. Mr Videneev, who has been GD since 2005, is leaving for Oil and Gas Systems Production Association Ltd. (Moscow partner of Kurganhimmash). Mr Danchenko is former Director of Saint Petersburg Hardware Plant CJSC.

Quality management system of Vanadium ore mining and processing enterprise passed an inspection auditing of adequacy to ISO 9001-2000 requirements. According to Vanadium PR-department, it is the first inspection auditing of the company, since it obtained its international quality system certificate in March 2005. The company’s compliance with the standards was audited by the auditing group of Eurocert-Ural certification body. The group consisted of 4 members. Each of the 21 company’s subdivisions was checked against the international quality standard requirements. On the basis of the auditing

Within the 1st quarter of 2006, ChTZ-Uraltrac Ltd. (Tractor plant of Chelyabinsk) produced 1,134,700,000 RUR worth of commodities (an increase of 8.8% against the same figure for 2005). Within the reported period, the company produced 381 engineer vehicles worth 663,281,000 RUR (an increase of 124% in money terms compared to the last year’s figures), 57 tractors, 17 pipelaying cranes, 293 ripper-dozer units (an increase of 108.9%). The sales output for the 3 months came to 1,332,255,000 RUR (an increase of 8% as against the same period of the past year). Among others, the company shipped 369

Pervouralskiy Novotrubniy Zavod JSC, tube works of Pervouralsk, is giving overhaul to its 160 mill: the procedure includes equipment renovation aimed at improving the consumer qualities of the goods produced. ‘This overhaul has been prescheduled as part of the investments program for 2006. It also provides for the reconstruction of the equipment for 57 to 89 mm tubes largely intended for machine building. Everything should have been finished by the end of April. The investments into this field are predicted to come to about 80m RUR,’ reports the spokesperson.

‘Today, Sverdlovsk Region needs 40,000 migrant workers,’ Director of Sverdlovsk Region Migration Center Mikhail Bochkarev announced at today’s press conference. ‘50% of them are now working in the field of wholesale and retail trade and about 30% are involved in building industry. Yet the region also needs skilled workers and specialists from the NIS, including doctors and drivers. Most of the migrant workers from the NIS speak good Russian, which is definitely an advantageous employment factor,’ Mr Bochkarev said. ‘We have to settle the migrant worker issue with the countries’ governments,

‘The company now has 22.5m RUR worth of arrears of wages for 2003-2004. Besides, following the order of the public prosecution bodies a great number of environmental legislation violations were reveled. This resulted in taking legal action against the company’s management on April 6, 2006,’ Deputy Public Prosecutor of Sverdlovsk Region Mikhail Savchin announced at the pres conference. ‘Former Directors, Mr Prokopyev and Mr Eremeev, have gone through administrative and criminal cases a number of times. The latter was found guilty according to Clause 201 (Part 2) of Russian Criminal Code, the

Power generating company № 10 is going to put into operation the second block of Chelyabinsk thermoelectric power station 3 in December 2006, which should raise the electricity output by 1.5bn kilowatt-hours a year, GD Andrey Shishkin said at the conference ‘Power engineering and Industry in Ural Federal District: Cooperation and Development’. The company is going to direct its investments into renovation of two state district power plants of Surgut, constructing four trunk pipelines in Tyumen and replacement of some heating networks in Chelyabinsk.

The general shareholder meeting held in JSC Trubodetal (tube parts maker and part of United Metallurgical Company CJSC) resulted in appointing Oleg Fomichev the new GD due to resignation of Lev Nedospasov, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. Mr Fomichev graduated from Moscow Institute of Physics and Engineering and has been the Logistics Director of Vyskunskiy metallurgical works since 2003.

As the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, Chelyabenergo fully restored energy supply disrupted by bad weather in the region within a day. Last night, the snow sticking to the electric mains caused partial disruption of energy supply to a few towns of Chelyabinsk Region, namely, Zlatoustovskiy and Chebarkulskiy areas. There weren’t any power cuts in socially important buildings, though. The company’s staff are now working non-stop: emergency teams are doing extra examinations and checkups, with emphasis laid on particularly dangerous spots.

Uraltrubprom JSC (Ural Tube Works) assessed its success in the first three months of 2006. In March, it produced 19,141 tons of goods, and in the first three months of the year, the company’s shipments went up by 29.1% compared to a year earlier.

S7 Airlines will have expanded the number of destinations from Chelyabinsk by the summer of 2006 by 20%. On April 3, the fourth Chelyabinsk-Moscow flight using Boeing 737-500 was launched. More flights to citied of Russia, the NIS, and abroad will be introduced in the next few months. The new Airbus A 310 was supplied for Chelyabinsk-Moscow flights, the company’s spokesperson reports. According to the Director of Centralized regional subsidiary S7 GROUP Alexei Savchenkov, flights to Sochi, Anapa, Saint Petersburg, Antalia, Hudzhand, Dushanbe, Yerevan, and Rimini will be launched in summer.

Following the protest action of former employees of Krasnouralsk Chemical Works, legal action was taken against the company’s Managing Director. The investigation carried out by the public prosecution bodies revealed that the arrears of wages had been caused, among other things, by MD, Mr Prokopyev’s, illegitimate actions. Mr Prokopyev was detained after being presented with the charge. Following the demand of Public Prosecutor, Sverdlovsk Region Government is going to buy part of the company’s assets (the company having been declared bankrupt); the money from the transaction is to be used to

Tube Metallurgical Company summed up its achievements in the first three months of 2006. According to the company’s spokesperson, they shipped 701,000 tons of tubes and 168,000 tons of rolled metal and uninterruptedly-casted ingots in January to March. Also, the company produced 558,000 tons of steel within the given period.

Metallurgical works of Asha produced 1,503.799 RUR worth of goods in the first three months of 2006 (96.9% of last year’s figures). The works have produced 153,976 tons of steel (101.5% of last year’s figures), 111,112 tons of rolled metal (98.3% of last year’s figures), 13,745 tons of amorphous tape (116.8% of last year’s figures), 308,253 magnetic conductors (88.7%). 92,962,900 RUR worth of consumer goods was produced (93.4%), the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative.

Chelyabinsk electronic works JSC made 4.473m (91.83%) less in net profit in 2005 than in 2004. According to the issuer, this had been caused by the lowering of raw and energy carrier prices as well as the increase in transport tariffs in 2005. Thus the company’s net profit comprised 398,000 RUR.