A criminal lawsuit is now being processed in Sverdlovsk Region, with charges of labor safety violations resulting in a man’s death. The accident occurred at Sredneuralsky Copper-Smelting Plant’s copper-smelting shop at 11:30 PM on August 7, 2011. The copper-smelting furnace was partially destroyed due to violations of the technological procedures, and some molten metal burst out, leaving a forty-nine-year-old dust – and gas-trapping unit operator with severe thermal burns; shortly after, the worker died at the scene of the accident. What is more, some thirty-five-year old furnace operators

An ad hoc committee is now looking into the accident that left one worker killed by an outburst of motel metal out of a copper-smelting furnace, UMMC Holding’s press service reports. The final conclusions as to what caused the tragedy and who is to blame can be made no sooner than in two weeks’ time, after the ad hoc committee completes its work. To detect the causes of the accident and to give its evaluation, the copper-smelting shop was halted, while all the other plant departments keep operating as usual.

About three hundred Russian and foreign enterprises confirmed their intention to take part in RussianExpoArms 2011, Concern Sozvezdiye, Tactical Missiles Corporation JSC, Concern PVO Almaz-Antey, Military Industrial Company, Oboronservice, and KAMAZ among them. A number of installations will be presented at the exhibition, including some demonstrations of full-scale specimens manufactured by a few foreign companies, for example, by Iveco Defense Vehicles, Renault Trucks Defense, and Nexter. Besides, France, Ukraine, and Byelorussia will provide their unified ‘by-country’ show rooms.

A contract was signed recently between Karabashmed and the German Linde AG Gas and Engineering for the delivery of two blocks of an oxygen plant with the total capacity of 10,000 cubic nanometers of process oxygen per hour. The implementation of this contract is part of a reconstruction program for Karabashmed’s chemical and metallurgical facility that will allow not only for more copper concentrate to be recycled with the help of Ausmelt furnace but also for larger-scale recycling of the harmful production waste. The launch of the new vitriolic shop, expected in December 2013, will ensure

Sinara Group and Siemens’s joint venture Ural Locomotives is going to receive a certificate entitling the company to manufacturing Granit 2ES10, the new electric locomotive, in the second half of September, Russian Railways Senior Vice President Valentin Gapanovitch believes. The new loco, complete in three sections, recently performed a pilot ride with a 9,000-ton train attached to it from Yekaterinburg-Sortirovochny to Balezino. In terms of traction performance, 2ES10 is nearly two times superior to the existing DC locos, including the VL11 one, yet it costs 20% less to maintain. The

A sight decrease in VIZ-Stal’s revenues against the previous quarter has to do with the shrinking sales of transformer steel rolled products, which, in its turn, results from the fact that the sale of exported goods was only admitted as such later than expected. The revenues actually went down by 23% in comparison with the second quarter of 2010 due to smaller shipment volumes and lower prices, NLMK Group’s press service reports. At the same time, the sales revenues grew by 12% mainly due to cutting down on managerial expenses. The company’s net profit rose by 64%, partially thanks to

The net profit of Russian Railways Public Company (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) declined by 30% in the first half of 2011 and amounted to 45bn RUR, a source within the company informed Prime.

Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Antimonopoly Service might take legal action against Foratek EnergoTransStroy, Yekaterinburg Duma Deputy Leonid Volkov wrote in his blog. His complaint can actually serve as the ground for the action. Now Volkov placed his applications with Sverdlovsk Region branch of the FAS and with the Ural Federal District division of the General Prosecutor’s Office, asking to investigate the possible cartel agreement in the field of road construction tenders. According to the data available to the official, Foratek EnergoTransStroy could be one of the colluding

A test model of GRANIT 002 (2ES10 Series), a freight locomotive with asynchronous traction drive, performed a ride with a record-setting 9,000-ton train attached to it from Yekaterinburg-Sortirovochny to Balezino. The loco was manufactured at Ural Locomotives, a joint venture of Sinara Group and Siemens AG. The machine was successfully tested by the key customer Russian Railways, Sinara Group’s PR Department reports. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin, President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin, Sinara Group BOD Chairman Dmitri Pumpyansky, and Siemens AG Chairman of the

Experts from Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) had to provide their opinion in a civil suit based on a claim of citizen F against Rostelecom’s Ural branch in the first half of this year. The plaintiff insisted on the need to protect her rights and to have the moral damage done to her made up for, the spokesperson for Rospotrebnadzor reports. It was determined in the course of the hearing that the plaintiff had not been receiving any landline phone bills for a while and applied to the phone company a number of times; the telecommunications

Head of Yekaterinburg Municipal Council Alexander Yakob offered his comments on the Russian Federation President Dmitri Medvedev’s decision to propose Yekaterinburg as Russia’s candidate for hosting World Exhibition EXPO 2020. According to the official, the fact that Yekaterinburg gets to apply for the event signifies that the city’s international, strategic, socioeconomic, and sociopolitical achievements are recognized. It’s certain that, if Yekaterinburg gets chosen as the host city for EXPO 2020, this historic event will give the capital of the Urals a new development boost,’ Yakob says.

Holding the World Exhibition EXPO 2020 in Yekaterinburg will mean the city’s transportation system and the social sphere will change entirely and its safety level will reach a dramatically new height, deputy head of the city council for strategic planning, economics, and finance Alexander Vysokinsky said in his interview to channel 41-Domashny’s Poslesloviye, the city council’s press service reports. No such event has ever been held in Russia or even the entire former USSR. Yekaterinburg has already hosted the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit and the Petersburg Dialog forum and

Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport is about to raise its jet fuel prices by 1,000 RUR per ton. Jet fuel is available for 26,150 RUR per ton at the moment, and starting August 9, 2011, the airport’s price list will state that the fuel will be sold for 27,200 RUR per ton. The increase thus amounts to 4%. This is actually the second time prices have gone up recently. The previous 4% increase was announced by the airport on May 24, 2011. The air carriers have already responded to this rise: they will have to make the price of plane tickets go up. Jet fuel expenses constitute about 27% of the

The construction jobs on the Radisson Hotel construction site will start in six months, and the building will be commissioned in 2013,’AtomStroyComplex’s Director-General Valery Ananyev said at a recent press conference in Yekaterinburg. The construction of a high-rise Radisson SAS Hotel is expected to start in Yekaterinburg at the intersection of Malyshev St and Krasnoarmeyskaya St. The construction company reported earlier that the building and assembly jobs would only begin in the summer of 2011, but nothing has started as of yet. We’ve been faced with a number of problems. First, the land

Member of Russia’s Soviet of the Federation Arkady Chernetsky welcomed the Russian authorities’ decision to propose Yekaterinburg as one of the potential hosts of the World EXPO 2020 Exhibition and promised to do his best to make sure the exhibition does take place in Yekaterinburg and meets the highest quality standards. This is a very significant occasion for the city, as Yekaterinburg will be able to reach absolutely new heights after 2020, the city will become quite a different thing in terms of comfort, it will also turn into a new international hub, which will be a truly life-changing

Russia runs quite good chances of hosting the international exhibition EXPO 2020, feels Chairman of Sverdlovsk Region Government Anatoly Gredin. Now Russian President Dmitri Medvedev decided that Yekaterinburg should be chosen among the Russian cities that proposed as candidates for hosting the event in 2020. If this happens, Yekaterinburg will look totally different in 2020. It will become an international city,’ Gredin said.

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin offered his comments on Russia’s official decision to take part in the competition for hosting the world exhibition EXPO 2020 and on Yekaterinburg being chosen as the potential host city. This is extremely important for the region, this decision has a lot of work behind it, a year’s work of a team; it also stems from the fact that the city is developing very rapidly, and so is its infrastructure (hotels, roads, and communications). This choice is an assessment of our business community’s efforts and an indicator of how Yekaterinburg itself is

Tax reliefs stimulate consumption, whereas it would be better for Sverdlovsk Region Duma to stimulate investment. The idea that a tax relief would give enterprises a chance to reproduce its funds more rapidly sounds dubious,’ Blagodat Securities Investment Company’s Director-General Vsevolod Chaschin told UrBC. Now the energy sector enterprises based in Yekaterinburg might be offered tax reliefs. This will involve Enel OGK-5, OGK-1, OGK-2, and TGK-9. The initiative was proposed by Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Taxpayers Petitions Committee. I believe the initiative results from the terrible

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin met the newly appointed consuls of the Republic of Vietnam in Yekaterinburg Nguyen Kuang Vin and of the People’s Republic of China Yuan Henge. The Governor spoke to the Vietnamese Consul-General about a proposal to sign a socio-economic cooperation agreement between Sverdlovsk Region and the Vietnamese provinces. As for the Chinese diplomat, the two officials discussed the technology of building high-speed railway lines and the two parties’ possible cooperation in the field of machine tool building.

Vladivostok Avia reports its net profit dropped dramatically by 269.9m RUR, or 56.5%. The company explains the decrease in profit has to do with lower passenger traffic at long-haul flights bound for the central part of Russia, and an overall 15% decrease in the company’s average passenger fare.