‘We had to limit our gas supplies in January because of the cold weather and thus switched to coal, which was not good financially; besides, the boilers that use coal are more complicated technically than the regular ones and require more maintenance expenses,’ TGK-10 GD Andrey Shishkin said at the press conference on Friday. Yet, according to Mr Shishkin, the amount of coal bought from Chelyabinsk Coal Company in 2006 will remain the same as last year. ‘As for the additional coal expenses, they have already been included into the tariffs,’ Mr Shishkin said.

Yekaterinburgnefteprodukt JSC and Sverdlovsknefteprodukt JSC (Ural District oil dealers of Sibneft JSC) summed up their achievements in 2005. The total turnover of retail trade in Sibneft filling stations grew by 19.6% (over 60,000 tons) given that the general growth of Sverdlovsk Region oil market increased by 1.3% (11,000 tons). The two companies launched multifuel filling stations last year, and Sibneft is going to invest about 200 million RUR into regional development in 2006.

The major shareholders of Mechel JSC, metallurgical company of Chelyabinsk, decided to allow Chair of the Board Igor Zyuzin to buy a 42.2% share holding from GD Vladimir Iorikh within the next 12 months, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. Mr Zyuzin has been considering different options to cover these expenses, for example, stock exchange operations and strategic partnership. Regardless of the source of his purchase money, he is to keep at least 51% holding in Mechel joint stock. Meanwhile, Mr Iorikh will be gradually delegating his liabilities to the current Executive

‘The year 2005 brought some new players into the banking field and witnessed a wider range of mortgage programs. Since the terms of the payments were prolonged to 25 to 30 years compared to 10 to 15 years in the past, mortgage programs became more available,’ Johann Jonah, Chairman of RaiffeisenBank Austria CJSC, said to UrBC representative. ‘Mortgage loans are only starting to develop regionally, but we think the amount of loans and the money given to clients will increase at least ten times in 2006,’ Mr Jonah said. ‘Regionally, mortgage loans in Russian currency are most demanded, so some

Fireproof Works of Kyshtym (part of Magnesite Group) summed up its success in January 2006. According to Magnesite Group spokesperson, during January 2006 production output and sales of commercial powders at Fireproof Works of Kyshtym grew by 155,6% compared to the same figures for the previous year and came to 182.8 tons. Delivery of the company’s production under the contract with Rosatomstroy Federal State Unitary Enterprise (which the company carries out according to an agreement of storing, destruction and non-proliferation of nuclear arms between Russia and USA signed in 1992)

Ural Railway Machine Building Works (part of Sinara Group) produced 5,600 tons of goods in 2005, which exceeds the figures for 2004 by 84%. More metallurgical and building hardware orders were placed, too, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. The company also set to work on Electrovoz project last year. The major units and some elements of 2ES4K dc freight locomotive assembling process started as well. Two experimental samples of modernized bogie frames, currently tested at a research institute in Kolomna, were produced. Moreover, the plant also managed to upgrade three

Within two days after the control over the 75%-share holding of United Machine Building Works JSC was consolidated by a group of investors, one of them being Gazprombank, two Members of the company’s Board resigned. Sergei Skatershikov and Alan Kazbekov explained this by being concerned about the company’s possible delisting on the Russian and international stock exchanges and the likely transformation of the works from the open joint stock company to a close one, the company’s spokesperson reported.

The negotiations between Koltsovo Airport and Siberia Airlines are still in progress. ‘The airport wasn’t able to provide the slots Siberia had asked for as the time they want is overloaded enough as it is, so we just cannot go beyond our capacity. Yet we are willing to offer the carrier another time or, better still, another direction,’ the company’s spokesperson Yulia Fedotova said to UrBC representative.

‘The regional subsidiary of ROSGOSSTRAKH Ltd., Russian State Insurance Company, has been working on the offset of debt for the last six years. Our net profits have already allowed us to cover 34 million RUR, and we’re still improving,’ Director of ROSGOSSTRAKH Ltd. Ural subsidiary Evgeniy Ostapenko announced at the press conference.

‘We have already performed the first stage of the power engineering reform that had to do with departmentalizing AO-Energo according to types of tasks done, that is, energy production, distribution and sales. Besides, after the interregional integration took place on December 1, 2005, TGK-10 became the exclusive executive setting for Generating Companies of Chelyabinsk and Tyumen,’ TGK-10 GD Andrey Shishkin said at the press conference devoted to heat supply issues in Chelyabinsk. According to Mr Shishkin, the second stage presupposes the unification of the two companies’ shares and

In the second half of 2005, Chelyabinsk Region Subsoil Resources Agency annulled some of the entrails use licenses due to their expiry. Thus, the licenses issued to Yuzniy Rudnik Mine (given to promote exploration and extraction of vein quartz in Tashtybutakskiy deposit), to Miasszoloto JSC (given for alluvial gold mining in Iremelskaya placers), to UralTechnoPlus 2000 Ltd. (given for geological research of barium ore in Khutorskiy lot), to SouyzNefteEcologiya Ltd. (given for geological research of mining and precious metals processing wastes in Soymanovskaya Valley) were canceled.

Chelyabinsk Region is going to be visited by the Trade and Economic Mission of Austria on February 13 and February 14, 2006. The Mission will be headed by the Director of Eastern Countries Department of Austrian Chamber of Economics Guido Stock and Johann Kausl, Austrian Trade Commissioner for Russia in Moscow, the spokesperson for Regional Ministry of Economic Development said to UrBC representative. 28 Austrian companies are going to send along their representatives, VAMED Engineering GmbH & Co KG (dealing in all-inclusive hospital building, medical equipment, hospital modernization and

KESK Multienergetika Ltd. has been suffering continous losses due to regular electricity thefts, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. 1,038 cases bringing the company the damage of 6,630,816 RUR were registered in the eight months of 2005 alone, and only 1,678,200 RUR ahs so far been paid back after 477 bills of theft had been drawb up. The total electricity loss amounts to 4,176,745 kilowatts per hour, and only 1,218,251 kilowatts per hour have been paid for. The company is going to track all the incidents of theft due to the introduction of the multilayered prevention

Ural Interregional Department of Russian Federal Property Fund hosted the auction aimed at selling the state share holding (12.35% of the authorized capital) of Pervouralskiy Dinasoviy Zavod JSC, silica works of Pervouralsk. UBS Securities CJSC outbid its rivals with 225.5 million RUR to win the holding. The face value of the share holding was originally estimated at 30.041 million RUR, and the opening bid was 223 million RUR. There were 858,323 common nominal shares put up to the open auction.

Ural Airlines have signed an intention agreement with Pembroke, the Irish leasing company. According to this agreement, three Airbus 320-211 aircrafts are to go through a checkup, and then the delivery contract will finally be signed. Ural Airlines are hoping to start performing regular flights using two of the three aircrafts in August or September. As Ural Airlines GD Sergei Skuratov announced at today’s press conference, ‘these airplanes will be able to fly to any European destination freely, and they will allow us to dispose of the old TU-154 models. The company has 23 aircrafts now, and

State district power plant of Troitsk produced over 748 million kilowatts per hour of electricity in January 2006. This exceeds the scheduled production by 134.5%, and the production for January 2005 by 151.9%. The plant sold over 129,423,000 kilowatts per hour making 70 million RUR in the free sector of the wholesale market, and 533,904,000 kilowatts per hour making over 241 million RUR in the regulated sector. According to the plan issued by the Federal Tariff Service, the plant should produce 288.7 million kilowatts per hour in February, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC

Kalina Concern JSC must pay Nefis Cosmetics JSC 10.5 million RUR in compensation for the damage done to the business image of Nefis Cosmetics JSC by Kalina counterfeiting the company’s washing powder brand with its TriMax. This was the decision made by the Court of Appeals of Tartar Republic. (The verdict coincided with that of the Court of Arbitration.) This verdict has come into effect since the day it was announced in court and, if Kalina does not pay this sum voluntarily, it will be recovered by the law-enforcement officers. According to Legal Department Director of Nefis Cosmetics JSC

The new grinding machines were put into operation under the supervision of Austrian Kodia and German Wassmer specialists at Magnesite Industrial Complex JSC today, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. The company employees have gone through additional training and have been given operation instructions. Kodia President Herbert Kopitar met Magnesite GD Igor Anikievitch to assess the completion of their joint project. Mr Kopitar found the new grinding equipment highly advanced in terms of technology, maneuverability, and measuring precision. Magnesite JSC employees commented

Pervouralskiy Dinasoviy Zavod JSC, silica works of Pervouralsk, started a корундографитовы goods shop on February 9, 2006. The goods are to be produced using the licensed technology of Fresema, Switzerland. The project investments came to $12 million. According to the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Industry, Energy and Science, the plant has already produced the first experimental sets of refractory products such as locking devices, nonswirl nozzles, dipper tubes and sheath tubes. The plants of Nizhniy Tagil and Magnitogorsk, Sverdlovsk Region are already using them.

The Board of Directors of Metallurgical Works of Magnitogorsk held a meeting today where it was decided to hold the annual shareholder meeting on April 21, 2006, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. The shareholders will have to agree on the annual accounting, approve the new edition of the Charter, elect Board members and the members of the auditing commission as well as the company’s auditor.