Austrian Airlines will start performing regular Vienna-Yekaterinburg flights on March 27, 2006. There are going to be three flights per week offered on even weekdays. The slots needed have already been reserved for the company by Koltsovo airport. According to the carrier’s spokesperson Ivan Trukhin, flights will be performed using Boeing 737 aircrafts fit for 130 people. An official Austrian Airlines representative office will start operating on February 1, 2006.

Chelyabinskiy Truboprokatniy Zavod (Chelyabinsk Tube Making Works) JSC had a sales record of 772700 tons of tubes in 2005 (which is 3% more than in 2004), 408600 tons (an increase of 5% compared to 2004) coming from large-diameter pipes and tubes. The plant output comprised 782700 tons of tubes (an increase of 4% against the previous year’s figures) in 2005, with 407800 tons of tubes being large-diameter ones (which exceeds the figures for 2004 by 6%). The plant shipped 71200 tons of goods in December (a 40% increase against the previous year’s corresponding period), 49,000 tons of tubes

The arrival of bitterly cold weather in the Urals makes it necessary for the electric power station workers to do their very best. According to Yekaterinburgskaya Elektrosetevaya Kompaniya (Electric Supply Network Company of Yekaterinburg) JSC, residents of Shirokaya Rechka area got it bad last night due to the unusually low temperature which caused part of the electric power plant equipment to break down. Since the boiler house that provided for the heating was connected to the power station and thus failed to work, a Diesel generator had to be urgently installed instead, with all the

As Dmitriy Basov, General Director of Dmitriy and Partners Company believes, NTV (Russian Independent Television) probably decided to cooperate with Alkasar Advertising Agency hoping to increase its profits. ‘An average local TV viewer gets to see very few minutes of their broadcasting, so NTV could be hoping to do better on the federal level. Yet increasing their sales in Yekaterinburg is going to be extremely difficult.’ ‘We agreed to work with this channel since it is my utmost creed that advertising market should be as demonopolized as it can possibly be,’ Mr Basov says. ‘NTV is bound to

As the spokesperson for EuroCement Group reports, Katavskiy Cement JSC (part of EuroCement Group) assessed its achievements for 2005. The plant produced 884000 tons of cement, which is 7.8% more than in 2004 (Namely, 820000 tons were produced then. This figure was 5.7 times bigger than the output for 2003.)

As the data presented by Uralsevergas CJSC, most of their debtors are municipal establishments; their aggregate debt had already comprised 599.6 million RUR by January 17, 2006. The company’s main debtors are the towns of Nizhniy Tagil, Severouralsk, Ivdel, Prigorodniy District, and Asbest. According to the company’s spokesperson Oleg Vlasov, they are not going to stop supplying the clients while the weather is still freezing, but it is strongly recommended that they pay their bills in full. Mr Vlasov also called for wiser and more economic use of their supplies.

‘Nizhnetagilskiy Metalware Works JSC produced 129000 items fit for building and technological purposes in 2005,’ the company’s Financial Director Vitaliy Parfenov said to UrBC representative.

‘NTV Media cancelled their contract on right to sell advertisements with Telets Advertising Agency and signed a new one with Alkasar Advertising Agency of Moscow,’ reports Elena Kukharchuk, GD of Alkasar Advertising Agency’s subsidiary in Yekaterinburg. ‘Our company is one of Moscow Agency’s six subsidiaries created last December. We now need to promptly build strong customer partnerships observing the ‘NTV product’ fair pricing policies and keeping our clients delighted despite the new seller. These tasks are challenging yet feasible,’ Ms Kukharchuk says.

The extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of Kalina Concern JSC that took place on January 12, 2006 resulted in electing the new Board of Directors. As the voting results have it, the Board now includes the company’s R&D Director Nikolai Geller, the company’s GD Timur Goryaev, Finance and Economics Director Alexander Petrov, member of Dr.Scheller Cosmetics AG Board of Directors Reinhold Schlennsock (a German citizen), Johan Grietsen, Hendrick Freiman (the Netherlands), Christoff Clavet, and KIT-Capital Director Mark Allan Bush (the United States). This meeting also lead to the

Peschanaya substation located near Nizhniy Tagil within hydroelectric power plant of Verkhniy Tagil to Pervomayskaya power line was cut off due to the lightning protection cable coming detached yesterday. As the spokesperson for Sverdlovskenergo JSC said to UrBC representative, the consumers did not experience any interruption in the electricity supplies though as the power backup came on immediately. An emergency team arrived at the sight of the accident and spent about five hours fixing the cable, so the hydroelectric power plant of Verkhniy Tagil to Pervomayskaya power line was linked up

Two joint-stock companies of CHTPS Group (Tube rolling plants of Chelyabinsk and Pervouralsk) shipped 1,516000 tons of tubes and other goods in 2005. To be more precise, the plant of Pervouralsk had sold 743300 tons of tubes over the months of January to December 2005, with 60200 tons sold in December. The plant’s output comprised 731600 tons of tubes in 2005, which exceeds the figures for 2004 (namely, 678300 tons) by 7%. 57200 tons of tubes were sold in December only.

‘Despite freezing weather, all of the company’s cars are being used as scheduled. We leave them in well-heated boxes for the night, so starting the car in the morning isn’t a problem,’ General Director of Yekaterinburgskoye Taxi JSC Vladimir Komissarov said to UrBC representative. Mr Komissarov also says that, in order to lower the breakage risks, all taxis are currently using petrol, which has already made the fuel costs double. The company is not going to have the fares go up, however. ‘It is already clear that the arrival of unusually cold weather led to more taxis being hired for local

Severskiy Trubniy Zavod JSC (part of Trubnaya Metallurgicheskaya Kompaniya (Tube-Making Metallurgical Company)) shipped 609900 tons of steel tubes in 2005, which is 15.8% more than in 2004. 662000 tons of steel had been cast over the twelve months of 2005, which means a 4% increase in casting as opposed to the year before, the spokesperson for Trubnaya Metallurgicheskaya Kompaniya said.

Bank of Yekaterinburg JSC summed up its achievements in 2005. According to their spokesperson, the bank’s balance-sheet total came up to 3.5 billion RUR. There was also a 60% increase in balance-sheet turnover (390 billion RUR) and a 51-million RUR pre-tax profit.

The introduction by our Federal Government of some antidumping duties on the Ukrainian tube and pipe import on January 1, 2006 was an appropriate and timely thing that the Government did to protect the Russian tube-makers’ interests. This decision was made on the basis of the antidumping research carried out by Russian Federation Ministry of Economics and Development’, Vitaliy Sadykov, General Director of CHTPS Group CJSC said. Mr Sadykov also noted that the introduction of these duties could help to create a level playing field for Russian and Ukrainian tube and pipe makers on the local

According to the spokesperson for the local subsidiary of LUKOIL-Permneftprodukt PLC, the retail oil and mineral oil prices at the company’s filling stations are expected to remain stable for some time. As Mikhail Mazein, LUKOIL-Permneftprodukt PLC Financial Director, noted, the company is not going to have the prices go up; moreover, the regular customer 3% discount is also going to be valid. Mr Mazein also said that due to more foreign cars being used nowadays, more AI-92 and AI-95 and less AI-80 types of petrol were being consumed.

Bogdanovichskiy farforovy zavod CJSC ceramic works summed up its success in 2005. ‘In 2005, our works produced and shipped 204 million RUR worth of ceramics,’ Head of Economics Department of Bogdanovichskiy farforovy zavod CJSC Olga Belousova said to UrBC representative. According to Ms Belousova, in 2005, Bogdanovichskiy farforovy zavod CJSC sold 10 million pieces of porcelain and 11 million low-temperature porcelain items.

Sinarskiy Tube Plant JSC (part of Trubnaya Metallurgicheskaya Kompaniya (Tube-Making Metallurgical Company)) shipped 594100 tons of steel tubes in 2005, which exceeds the figures for 2004 by 2.35%. According to the company’s spokesperson, the plant also expanded their assortment of drill pipes, casing tubes, and stalks.

‘Sverdlovsk Region banking sector comprises over 117 crediting businesses at the moment, that is, 27 local commercial banks with about 21 subsidiaries, 25 subsidiaries of regional banks, and 42 Russian Sberbank subsidiaries,’ Deputy Minister of Economics Nikolai Bespamyatnikh announced at the conference. ‘At the moment, the balance of currency comes to 260 billion RUR, the factual assessed capital comes to about 5 billion RUR. There has been given 107 million RUR worth of loans, and something between 60 and 70 billion RUR worth of loans was given to sole traders. Natural persons received

The total turnover of Ural Federal Currency Exchange traders who use the exchange to speculate on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (dealing in shares and corporate stocks) reached a point of 128.603 billion RUR as opposed to 125.747 billion RUR in 2004. The government-payment sector turnover (government papers and Bank of Russia bonds) came up to 17.226 billion RUR (as opposed to 2.991 billion RUR in 2004), which is 5.8 times more than the year before. The Bank of Russia deposit market transactions turnover comprised 43.830 billion RUR as opposed to 27.478 billion RUR in 2004.