The South African Republic’s authorities are planning to set up the country’s honorary consulate in Yekaterinburg, the SAR’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Russia Mandisi Mpahlwa told Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin at today’s meeting. ‘The Urals are crucial to Russia’s economy. So we have decided to make the necessary effort for us to be present in Yekaterinburg in this or that form. I would like to officially notify you that setting up the SAR’s honorary consulate here is one of the options we are considering,’ the Ambassador said. Alexander Misharing

Byelorussia-based Minsk Automobile Plant is considering setting up automobile trailers production facility at Ishim Machine-Building Plant, the Governor of Tyumen Region’s press-service reports. ‘The first talks with the representatives of Minsk Automobile Plant were held in January, and now experts have paid a visit to the enterprise, looked at the available sites, and assessed their potential. The Byelorussian Honorary Consul in Tyumen Region’s Assistant Sergey Yefimchik says that the representatives of the plant and those of Mogilev Bus Plant are going to draw up a business plan on the new

Salekhard Airport’s net profit decreased by 26.6 times in 2011 compared with 2010 and came to 818,000 RUR, the airport’s report says. At the same time, the company’s revenues rose by 13.66% last year against the year before and amounted to 655.42m RUR, Interfax-Ural reports. The company’s report explains that the drop in net profit was caused by the fact that Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous District’s Economics Department issued an order that set jet fuel storage and aircraft filling charges at a level below the prime cost of these services.

EVRAZ Kachkanar Ore Mining & Processing Plant (KGOK) increased its atmospheric emissions by 13.9% in 2011 compared with 2010 due to greater production output and the use of worse quality coke. The emissions of Bogoslovskays power station at TGK-9’s Sverdlovsky subsidiary rose by 23.8% because of increased share of coal in the total volume of burnt-up fuel; Svyatogor’s atmospheric emissions went up by 6.6% because the company started producing more crude copper. launched its Shimursky and Novo-Shimursky mines, and put up the second extension to its Severo-Zapadny mine; EVRAZ Vysokogorsky

Not a single Russian university was presented in The Times’ World Reputation Rankings. The rating is completed by the newspaper’s influential supplement Times Higher Education with support from the information group Thomson Reuters and the public opinion research service Ipsos Media. For the last eight years, the three parties have been coming up with an annual rating of the world’s higher educational establishments called World University Rankings. The ranking is based on the level of educational and research programs, citation indices of articles published, the number of international

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service considered the petition placed by Luxembourg-based holding company ITW Participations Sarl regarding the acquisition of a 99.9% stake in Penta-Ural, the Yekaterinburg-based artificial resin, primary plastics, industrial chemicals, synthetic rubber and resin, and polymeric materials trader, and decided to approve of the transaction.

Secretary-General of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) Vicente G. Loscertales will take a look at the site of Ural International Industry & Innovations Exhibition/Forum Innoprom in the course of his visit to Yekaterinburg, the city council reports. The official is to arrive in Yekaterinburg this Saturday. In the course of his visit, Loscertales is to meet the top officials of Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Region and representatives of the national application committee; the meeting will be dedicated to Yekaterinburg’s prospects of hosting the world universal fair and to

In 2011, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) delivered 461,000 tons of metal goods to Russia-based car manufacturers, which was 13.5% more than a year earlier (406,000 tons). All in all, the share of goods the company ships to the automobile industry enterprises rose from 6.4% in 2010 to 7% in 2011, MMK reports. The company’s key car-making customers are AvtoVAZ, KamAZ, and GAZ Group. One of MMK’s current strategic goals is turning the company into the leading metal goods supplier for the Russian automobile industry. To achieve this, the enterprise is about to launch the modern

Sverdlovsk Region-based Reftinskaya power station (the asset of Enel OGK-5) reduced its atmospheric emissions by 21.4% in 2011 compared with 2010 due to decreased electric power output, less heavy use of coal, and the need to stop power-generating unit 5 for reconstruction. The emissions of Gazprom’s Gazprom Transgaz Yugorsk went down by 15.3% due to cutting back on the amount of scheduled preventive repairs of pipeline sections and therefore reduced methane emissions; Rezhnickel’s atmospheric emissions declined by 14.6% because the company’s production output shrank and the plant stopped

‘Our jet fuel price must correspond with the market reality. We have no intention of either dumping or overpricing, we are forbidden to do so by the antimonopoly legislation,’ says Koltsovo Filling Station’s Director-General Andrei Gigovsky. The completion of TNK-BP’s acquisition of Koltsovo Filling Station, the jet fuel storage and filling operator at Yekaterinburg’s airport, was announced on March 11, 2012. Now Koltsovo Airport is considered to be one of Russia’s most expensive airports to fill one’s planes in. The legitimacy of jet fuel prices the airport offers has been repeatedly

In 2011, Enel OGK-5’s enterprises dumped 313,000 tons of pollutants in the air, which amounted to 28.4% of all the emissions in Sverdlovsk Region last year. This was the largest figure among Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprises in 2011. These data are available from the state report on the environmental situation in Sverdlovsk Region in 2011. Enel OGK-5 runs Sredneuralskaya and Reftinskaya power stations in Sverdlovsk Region.

The enterprises of Enel OGK-5 and Gazprom’s Gazprom Transgaz Yugorsk are responsible for the largest share of harmful atmospheric emissions in Sverdlovsk Region. This information is available from the report on the environmental situation in the region that was elaborated by the Government. The next top polluters on the list are EVRAZ Kachkanar Ore Mining & Processing Plant, EVRAZ Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works, TGK-9’s Sverdlovsky subsidiary, OGK-1, Svyatogor, OGK-2, A.K. Serov Metallurgical Plant, Siberian-Urals Aluminium Company (SUAL), EVRAZ Vysokogorsky Ore Mining &

Ural Airlines announces a special offer on its Yekaterinburg-Larnaca-Yekaterinburg flights. Round trip tickets are available for 19,000 RUR (including all charges). Flights will be operated every Wednesday starting April 25 and every Wednesday and Sunday starting May 27, the airline’s press service reports. All of Ural Airlines’ flights are operated using the comfortable Airbus A320 planes that have a business class section. Tickets to all destinations are available via the carrier’s official website www.uralairlines.com and in the booking offices.

Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank placed Yekaterinburg Duma Deputy Raphael Shikhov on the list of people who fail to meet their obligations. The founder of a household appliances and electronic goods chain is now featured under Antipartners heading on the bank’s official website. ‘This page offers some limited data on our customers, or, rather, on our ‘anti-partners’, both legal entities and private individuals. They vanished out of our sight without having met their obligations. No damage was done to the bank through these unscrupulous customers’ actions, but they could actually do some tangible

The 64th international industrial exhibition/fair Hannover Messe 2012 will be held in Hanover, Germany on April 23-27, 2012. The first fair was held as early as 1947 and it has always been a meeting point for manufacturers and suppliers of industrial produce as well as a place for sharing experience and for cooperating, for finding investment and for creating new partnerships. The fair offers abundant opportunities for both displaying and buying products and services for any segment of the production chain. Sverdlovsk Region Union of Industrialists & Employers reports the region’s

United Company RUSAL’s Bogoslovsky smelter (BAZ) remains a loss-making business, the enterprise’s Director-General Vladislav Kazachkov said in his interview to Kommersant-Ural. ‘The plant’s losses came to about 180m RUR in 2011. BAZ is unable to compensate its aluminum production losses through the profits the alumina production brings. Sverdlovsk Region is faced with nonsense: BAZ has to pay the electric power price that is twice as high as that in Siberia and one and half times as high as in that in Sweden, where the electric power has always, in fact, been more expensive. In the production

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service allowed OOO Nezavisimost Management to acquire the rights to act as the sole executive body in regard of Ford and Mazda centers in Yekaterinburg. The motor shows in question are located in Bazovy Lane (OOO NEF) and Metallurgov St. (OOO NEP).

Yekaterinburg-based IT companies presented their products at a united Russian stand called Information Technologies in Science, Education, & Business in the course of the international exhibition CeBIT-2012 in Hanover, Sverdlovsk Region IT & Communications Ministry’s press service reports. This major international IT and telecommunication technologies fair was held on March 6-10, 2012. The exhibition is held every year starting from 1986 and is, in fact, one of the most important global events in the field. The united Russian exposition by Russia’s Education & Science Ministry

Sverdlovsk Region-based aluminum manufacturers need to develop and to get upgraded, the region’s Industry Minister Alexander Petrov said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘The state of affairs at RUSAL is complicated for both objective and subjective reasons. The subjective reasons consist in a dramatic metal prices decrease on the global markets. We haven’t got any powerful energy resources in Sverdlovsk Region, yet the prime cost of aluminum production is quite high,’ the minister said. ‘RUSAL’s Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprises deal in the export of aluminum ingots, which have only

Rusline, Bashkortostan, and Moskovia turned out to be the least punctual air carriers in February 2012, the Federal Air Transport Agency reports. Rusline delayed 20.86% of the 1,093 flights operated last month, Bashkortostan delayed 19.87% of its flights, and Moskovia delayed 17.09% of its flights. VIM-Avia and Nordwind Airlines were also among the companies that delayed the greatest number of flights compared with other carriers, RBC points out.