A twenty-two-year-old mine worker was killed in UC RUSAL Severouralsk bauxite mine’s Cheremukhovskaya mine. RUSAL’s representative in Ural Federal District Roman Lukichev says the worker was smashed by an electric locomotive under unclear circumstances. The causes of the accident are to be investigated by an ad hoc committee consisting of Rostechnadzor representatives and UC RUSAL experts.

The volume of loans offered by ZAO Uralprivatbank to private individuals for 91 to 180 days went down by 100% in February 2010. The figures dropped from 142,000 RUR on February 1, 2010 to 0 RUR on March 1, 2010. These data are available from the bank’s report placed on the Central Bank of Russia’s official website.

The latest meeting of the regional committee on government support to local businesses was devoted to the efforts currently made by OAO VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation and OAO SUAL (BAZ-SUAL’s subsidiary) to increase their tax payments to Sverdlovsk Region’s consolidated budget. The meeting was chaired by Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Anatoly Gredin. It was observed that VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation was trying to cut down on its indispensable payments. Even though the sales revenues only went down a little, the company’s net profit decreased by 3.2 times, which affected the amount of tax due to

Some new managing directors have recently been appointed to Evraz Group’s Urals-based enterprises – Vysokogorskiy Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise (VGOK) and Kachkanar Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise (KGOK, aka Vanadium). The new managers were introduced to their personnel by Evraz Vice President and Head of Ore Division Konstantin Lagutin. VGOK will now be run by former head of the enterprise’s Lebyazhinskiy sintering plant Andrei Kuznetsov. The company’s ex-Managing Director Sergey Napolskikh has been appointed the top executive of Kachkanar Ore Mining & Processing

The air traffic controllers of Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport are still on hunger strike. ‘They went on hunger strike on April 11, 2010 in order to support their colleagues in Rostov-on-Don and to make sure the management makes some changes to the collective agreement. As it is, the agreement contains some violations of the Labor Code,’ the trade unions’ lawyer Elena Goncharova said to a UrBC reporter. ‘The top executives of Ural Air Navigation, Transport Ministry, the federal aviation services, and trade union representatives met in Moscow on April 6, 2010. Unfortunately, this meeting

Calculated in accordance with the IAS, the net profit of United Company RUSAL amounted to $821m last year, compared with $5.98bn worth of net profit in the year 2008, the company’s official release states. RUSAL’s revenues went down by 48% in the year 2009 and came to $8.16bn. The company says this had to do with the decreasing aluminum prices and shrinking sales volumes. The enterprise’s aluminum output was 11% smaller in the year 2009 than in the year 2008 and only reached 3.9 million tons as the production at the least profitable facilities had to be cut back on. Then, the alumina output

The number of Russian travel agents might drop by 15% by the start of the summer season 2010, Kommersant claims. Judging by the data provided by Rostourism, 649 Russian Federation-based companies were unable to renew their financial guarantees recently. These are mostly small provincial operators that cannot afford to pay the high insurance fees of 280,000 to 300,000 RUR a year. 342 out of these 649 travel agents mainly deal in providing services to foreigners coming to Russia, 74 companies sell tours abroad to Russian citizens, and 233 agents do both. The operators were supposed to have

The stockholders of Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation decided to let its two major production assets Uralmashzavod and ORMETO-YUMZ develop outside the joint venture framework. The two newly independent companies are to focus on further specialization and the implementation of their own investment programs. The corporation was set up in 2007. The founders now explain that the market opportunities three years ago made it necessary for Uralmashzavod and ORMETO-YUMZ to unite in terms of produce marketing, production distribution, and capital investment.

The volume of loans offered by Bank24.ru to private individuals for the period of 91 to 180 days went down by 25.2% in February 2010. The figures decreased from 524,000 RUR on February 1, 2010 to 392,000 RUR on March 1, 2010. These data are available from the bank’s report uploaded on the Central Bank of Russia’s official website.

The Ural division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) completed its multi-faceted inspection of Evraz Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (NTMK), the spokesperson for the division reports. The inspecting committee detected and ordered to eliminate forty-two violations of industrial safety regulations at the plant. The inspectors compiled twenty-six administrative offense protocols involving the plant’s management and two protocols regarding the plant as a legal entity.

Ural Airlines’ customers can now book their tickets eighteen hours before the flight, rather than the previously required minimum of twenty-four hours. This service is only available if one pays via Yandex.dengi or Web-Money systems or by credit cards. Tickets can be booked at www.uralairlines.com. For any additional information, one is welcome to call the airline’s Passenger Support Service at 8 800 2000 262.

According to the financial report of NLMK’s Nizhneserginskiy metal goods plant (complied in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards), the enterprise’s net profit plunged by 650.82% in 2009. The plant’s sales revenues decreased by 46.82% last year and reached 19.3 million RUR, whereas its gross profit came to 1.9 million RUR. ‘The decrease in revenues and gross profits in the fourth quarter of 2009 in particular in the year 2009 in general by 23% and 46%, respectively, was brought about by reduced sales volumes and decreasing selling prices. This, in its turn, was caused by the

According to the steel manufacturer’s financial report (complied in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards), VIZ-Stal’s net profit plummeted by 73.59% last year compared with the year 2008. The company’s revenues decreased 51.8% in 2009. The enterprise’s gross profit amounted to 1.6 million RUR in the last quarter of 2009 and to 4.9 million RUR by the end of last year. ‘A little downfall in the company’s financial performance in the fourth quarter of 2009 had to do with the reduced average selling prices, even though the sales volumes did go up a bit. Also, our administrative

The trade union of OAO SUAL’s Ural smelter (UAZ) placed its disapproval of the new pay and bonuses plan for Kamensk-Uralskiy-based Rus-Engineering’s workers with the employer. According to their press service, the negotiations between the trade union and UAZ’s management did not end in a consensus, so the two parties signed a protocol of disagreement. The trade union believes the bonus-paying scheme must be very clear so that every employee could know exactly what kind of work performance will be awarded with a premium. For one, the current plan does not state that the monthly bonuses can

The date for appointing the new head of The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals Corporation has not been set yet. At the moment, former Deputy GD Remir Mukumov is still the corporation’s acting General Director. ‘I don’t think the fact that the corporation does not have a GD at the moment is an issue. The company’s real problem is the need to launch its projects quite soon,’ Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Nikolai Vinnichenko said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘Nevertheless, we can’t make mistakes in choosing the top executive. We

According to the cargo manifests processed by Nizhniy Tagil Customs in the first quarter of 2010, 111 local businesses dealt in foreign trade at that time. These companies produced 3,730 cargo manifests on goods subject to customs declaration. The city’s trade turnover with the countries of the CIS rose by 67.5%. On the other hand, the turnover of goods to and from the countries of the far abroad decreased as Nizhniy Tagil business community exported less to China, Germany, India, Iran, the Netherlands, and Thailand and imported fewer goods from Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and

‘Baldinini footwear belongs to the premium class and luxury market segments. Our customers are normally twenty-somethings, the so-called gilded youth, and people aged thirty to thirty five who run their own business. On average, a pair of shoes costs 11,000 to 15,000 RUR. Last year we noticed that our customers grew more thoughtful and careful in their shopping behavior. A lot of people, including our visitors, felt extremely unstable last year, but now everybody appears to be more relaxed,’ the manager of Baldinini shops in Yekaterinburg Nadezhda Luzyanina informed UrBC. ‘Our sales did go

The Ural division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) completed its inspection of OAO Vysokogorskiy Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise (VGOK, member of Evraz Group). Sixty-seven violations of the existing industrial safety regulations were detected and eliminated at the plant in the course of the inspection. VGOK and fifteen of its executives had to face administrative liability and pay a total of 37,000 RUR in fines, the spokesperson for Rostechnadzor says. The inspecting committee reports the enterprise does organize and control the

OAO NII Uralelectrotyazhmash recently redistributed its shares among the current stockholders. The company reports Galina Pavlova’s shareholding was increased from 0.09% to 24.34%; that of Olga Pavlova was increased from 0.14% to 24.39%; that of Natalya Pavlova went up from 0.08% to 24.33%, and that of Anatoly Pavlov rose from 0.58% to 24.83%.

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service is going to resume the hearing of the case featuring OOO Alcor-C (L’Etoile cosmetics chain store) on April 7, 2010. The company is accused of violating Article 18 (part 1) of the Federal Advertising Act through sending out text messages without the subscribers’ written consent to the action. The FAS’s regional division has earlier informed UrBC that Moscow-based OOO Alcor & Co that comprises OOO Alcor-C, the defendant, used the services of Moscow-based OAO Rapporto to have the text messages sent out to customers. These