The Board of Directors of Metallurgical Works of Asha has decided to adopt the Development Program for 2006-2010. The company is planning to raise the steel and production and increase its authorized capital as well as restructure the management. This will require a number of steps to be taken. In 2006, the continuous steel casting line will be installed, alongside with the development of a business plan targeted at renovating the Martin furnaces and assembling the high-voltage lines and an electric furnace. In 2007, the steel casting technology will have been fully adopted and the

‘We haven’t come up with any final decision about allotting the bonded debt yet,’ said the company’s GD Evgeniy Kryuchkov. ‘We have been considering several ways of attracting investments needed for renovating our electricity networks and equipment; some of them are investors’ money, a bank loan, and allotting the bonded debt. We’ve already done the preliminary calculations and we’ll decide what’s best for the business in the nearest future; we might settle for either the bonded debt or extra share issue,’ Mr Kryuchkov said. Chelyabenergo was offered to allot the .5 to 1 billion RUR bonded

Ufaleynickel JSC has renewed the equipment of its КС furnace at the kilning shop. In particular, the company installed a new rotation speed governor of the feed motor responsible for furnace charge delivery. According to the company’s PR-department, the new governors are to provide for a finer calculation of the furnace batch charging depending on the motor speed. Within the next few months, the company’s kilning shop, as well as the other company’s organization departments, will be connected to an automatic production control system. The installed speed governors comply with the system

On March 23, 2006, a group of representatives of Voest-Alpine Industrieanlagenbau,VAI headed by Gunter Holleis, VAI Board of Directors Adviser, leaves Nizhnetagilsky Metallurgichesky Kombinat (NTMK, Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhny Tagil) for Europe. VAI representatives participated in the discussion of NTMK reconstruction plans. According to NTMK PR-department, a number of the company’s main production facilities today are in need of renewal. NTMK is now considering several versions of step-by-step and complex reconstruction and consulting leading European engineering corporations.

On March 22, 2006, the Coordinating Board meeting of Magnitigorsky Metallurgichesky Kombinat JSC (MMK, Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Magnitogorsk) and Obyedinennaya Metallurgicheskaya Kompaniya CJSC was held in Magnitogorsk. The Coordinating Board summed up the cooperation achievements for 2005 and the first quarter of 2006. The parties also exchanged their views on the current and perspective sales opportunities for the Russian and foreign markets of rolled metal and tube production. They also discussed the possinilities of launching new types of steel for pipe production,

Trubodetal JSC, the producer of tube component parts, is to have a general shareholder meeting on April 5, 2006. The points on the agenda include early resignation of GD Lev Nedopasov and electing the new General Director and approving of the company’s Charter.

The tube works of Chelyabinsk shipped 108,200 tonnes of tubes in the two months of 2006, which exceeds the figures for 2005 by 4%. In February, the company shipped 50,700 tonnes of tubes (a decrease of 16% against previous February). The company’s output came to 106,800 tones (a decrease of 4%) in these two months, of which 53,200 tonnes were produced in February (a decrease of 12%), the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative.

Kompleksniye Energeticheskiye Systemy, an energy holding, is going to acquire the majority holding from TGK-9 JSC via buying the extra issue of the company’s shares, General Director of KES Mikhail Slobodin announced at the press conference. The issue (to be offered in the end of 2006 or the beginning of 2007) is expected to come to something about $ 300-350 million. Accorfing to Mr Slobodin, TGK-9 will have completed the rearrangement of shares ad assets by May 1, 20066, and its shares will have been offered publicly in June.

The specialists of copper works of Kyshtym (part of Russian Copper Company) held the first project meeting with Southwire Company executives concerning the potential production of copper rods on March 7 to 9, 2006. The Russian Copper Company is planning to invest $ 20 million. The capacity of the shop should come up to 12 tonnes of rods per hour (75,000 tonnes a year), which is not the upper limit. The introduction of the new shop will have provided for 160,000 tonnes of rods annually by June 2007. The meeting was devoted to the issues of design, logistics, supplies and building and assembly

In January and February 2006, the company produced 979,866,000 RUR worth of goods, of which the metal products output comprised 953,328,000 RUR. The works produced 78,262 tonnes of steel and 57,296 tonnes of rolled steel. 54,627 tonnes of goods were shipped to consumers, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative.

‘Ezhovaya Ski Resort Ltd. has been considering several options to attract more investments into development and modernization. Among them are applying for a $2-2.5 million loan, finding an external investor and selling the business,’ said Deputy Director Alexei Khvostov. According to Mr Khvostov, the business has been re-evaluated, all loan application papers have been collected and drawn up, and the ski resort has been put to auction (the opening bid is 3.5 million dollars). ‘Extra investments are a must if you want to develop the business; the snow and mountainside equipment is obsolete and

Metallurgical Works of Novgorod (part of Russian Copper Company) has gone through certificating procedure and has been awarded the safety and healthcare certificate that says the company meets the British OHSAS 18001:1999 standard demands. This is an important step in bringing the company’s management in accordance with the global standards. The main requirements were: compliance with labour legislation, employees that are qualified for the job they do, keeping track of and preventing the health risks, emergency training, safety provisions. The audit was held by Test-Saint Petersburg Ltd.

The Yekaterinburg concern Kalina JSC announced its IFRS results for 2005: the company’s sales proceeds and net profit came to $288.1 million and $22.9 million, respectively (increases of 58.5% и 24.5% compared to 2004). These results include profits coming from Dr. Scheller Cosmetics AG that was bought by Kalina in the second half of 2005. EBITDA came to 40.5 million dollars (an increase iof 39.2%)

In February 2006, the company produced 500,702,000 RUR worth of goods, which exceeds the figures for January by 4.5%; the metal products output comprised 484,918,000 RUR. The works produced 39,932 tonnes of steel (an increase of 4% compared to January), 28,595 tonnes of rolled steel (.4% less than a month before). 27,234 tonnes of goods were shipped to consumers, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative.

Evrazruda JSC, part of Evraz Group and ore producer, has introduced the energy-saving project that is targeted at economizing on energy costs throughout the whole system of production. According to the company’s spokesperson, the project includes a few organizational and technical steps, for example, stricter disciplinary regulations on meeting overhaul deadlines in order to avoid energy wasting. Other steps consist in controlling the technological details, examination of the equipment aimed at looking into the possibilities of using fewer machines during the peak electricity consumption

On April 14, 2006, Metallurgical Works of Zlatoust will hold a press conference aimed at signing the Collective agreement for 2006-2007. The final changes to the agreement have been made at the last meeting of the conciliatory committee. The agreement, which regulates the relations between the management and the workforce, now says that the Veteran Board and the Women’s Committee will be receiveing more money, some perks will be offered to young employees; it also determined the lower wage limit. Provided that the company meets its financial and production goals as well as the quality

The furnace transformer has been replaced at the hydrometallurgical shop of Ufaleynickel JSC. The old one was dismantled, and the new one fitted with all the removable parts, examined and tested with and without electricity, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative.

Pervouralskiy Novotrubniy Zavod JSC, the tube maker, shipped 95,500 tonnes of tubes and pipes in January and February 2006 (which exceeds the figures for January and February 2005 by 4%), of which 54,700 tonnes were shipped in February (an increase of 3% against a year earlier). The company produced the total of 100,000 tonnes of goods within these two months, which is 4% more than a year earlier; of these, 53,500 tonnes were tubes and pipes, which is 2% less that a year before.

In 2005, Uraltrack shipped and exported over 1,014,000,000 RUR worth of produce, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. The sales profits coming from civilian goods reached over 933 million RUR: 701 million came from goods exported to the NIS, 322 million from goods exported to other foreign countries, which exceeds the figures for 2005 by 68% and 25%, respectively. Over 750 million RUR worth of equipment was exported. 344 engineering machines were supplied abroad (an increase of 49.6%), of which 52 were DET bulldozers (13 new DET-320 ones). 7 DET-320 bulldozers and 16

CHTPZ Group signed a tube supplies agreement with Evraz Holding Ltd. valid until the end of 2006. According to the agreement, 90,000 tonnes of seamless pipes will be supplied by Evraz every three months; this is going to be a large part of all the pipes CHTPZ needs annually (about 1 million tonnes). The supplies will be delivered from the plants of Nizhniy Tagil and Novokusnetsk; CHTPZ will also cooperate with some other metallurgical companies and pipe suppliers such as Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Magnitogorsk and Ural Steel.