Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (part of Evraz Group) is now hosting a three-day international conference known as TRANSMET 2007; the conference is devoted to the new ways of producing metal for railways, the spokesperson for Evraz Group said to UrBC. About two hundred experts from forty-eight metallurgical, machine-building, and railway enterprises located in Russia, Ukraine, Germany, the Czech Republic, England, Italy, and France take part in the conference. In addition, there are some employees of scientific research labs and professors from Russia’s best colleges among the attendees.

The public prosecution authorities of Nizhniy Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region, demanded that Alexei Grebenkin, a local sole trader, face administrative liability for illegal use of registered trademarks. It was revealed in the course of a recent investigation that Mr. Grebenkin had been abusing brands like Adidas, Nike, Reebok, and Puma by selling pirated sportswear. The entrepreneur was charged with administrative offense, and the regional Court of Arbitration found the accused guilty, so Mr. Grebenkin had to pay a 10,000-ruble fine. The pirated items of clothing were confiscated.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 91 to 180 days went down by 83.47% (from 3.025 million RUR to 500,000 RUR) in January-November 2007.

BLAGOFF Premium vodka won the first prize in Drink Industry international exhibition/contest in Moscow for its unique design. The contest was aimed at finding the most stylish and modern-looking bottle among the great variety of strong drinks. The competing bottle designs were assessed on the basis of the following criteria: the general style, the kind of novelty it presents, the type of packaging used, how well the bottle and the packaging preserve the product and whether the environmental and material quality norms are complied with, TM BLAGOFF’s press officer reports. The panel of bottle

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to nongovernmental financial organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 76.68% (from 255.177 million RUR to 59.5 million RUR) in January-November 2007.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 100% (from 26.25 million RUR to zero) in January-November 2007.

Most of Sverdlovsk Region-based metallurgical enterprises failed to transfer the amount of cargo originally declared via Sverdlovsk Region Railways’ facilities in November 2007. As a result, the trunk line was underused in terms of transportation of ferrous metals and iron ore by 92,400 tons and 45,100 tons respectively, which means the railway company sustained a certain amount of losses, their press officer reports. The total amount of ferrous metals transported via Sverdlovsk Region Railways in November 2007 came to 987,600 tons, which falls short of the previous year’s figures by 22,300

SKB-Bank offered its first mortgage loan to a Surgut-based customer. The bank’s press officer reports SKB-Bank has already started offering loans to people living in Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Perm, Volzhskiy, Rostov, Taganrog, and Noyabrsk. The bank has so far provided them with 4,500 mortgage loans worth more than 4 billion RUR. SKB-Bank’s next goal is offering their first mortgage loan to a customer from Noviy Urengoi.

There are 257 hotels of various kinds in Sverdlovsk Region at the moment; these hotels differ in terms of star categories, range of services, and prices; most of them are located in Yekaterinburg. Together, they could provide a place to stay for 13,500 people, the spokesperson for the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region reports. The hotel market turnover has gone up by more than 300 million RUR over the last three years; more and more hotels are being put up in Yekaterinburg, Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Aramil, Irbit, and other regional towns. At the same time, the region is currently only able to meet 51%

Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Industry, Power Engineering, and Science says one way to provide the industrial enterprises with workers is to use foreign ones, which has already been done in the past. This solution to the problem leaves a lot to be desired, though, as these workers might not be skilled enough or might not be educated enough; then, the region appears to have no facilities to train or retrain them or support them otherwise. To make matters worse, one has to wait for three to four months to have all the papers processed. What is more, an employer has to pay 4,000 RUR for a worker

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralfinance Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 91 to 180 days went down by 40.8% (from 17.9 million RUR to 10.597 million RUR) in January-November 2007.

'We intend to go for a fuel price increase as soon as this month. The decision had to be taken due to the growth of wholesale aviation kerosene prices. Actually, this isn’t going to be the last time we raise fuel prices, though we do hope that things grow a bit steadier in January 2008,’ Koltsovo airport’s CFO Anton Fedotov says. 'I would just like to point out that we are selling at 20,175 RUR per ton at the moment, whereas Vnukovo airport of Moscow has already raised prices up to 21,615 RUR per ton,’ he notes.

Sverdlovsk Region is Russia’s most waste-polluted region, with the amount of accumulated waste coming to 8.3 billion tons, the region’s Ministry of Natural Resources reports. The region produces 160 million tons to 180 million tons of waste a year, of which 100 million tons get deposited in 1,350 storages with the total area of nearly 20,000 hectares (and this is comparable with some European countries). According to the Ministry, the lion’s share of waste (5.3 billion tons, or 63.2%) is produced by the building industry, followed by the ore-mining and metallurgical enterprises, with their

Ural Treasures Bank keeps on introducing more and more ATMs in different parts of the country, the bank’s press officer reports. For one, a new machine appeared at 50/1 Richard Zorge St. in Kurgan, Kurgan Region, and another one at 14 Vatutin St. in Pervouralsk, Sverdlovsk Region. The former is available 24/7, whereas the latter operates from 9 AM to 9 PM.

MZMZ, a Magnitogorsk-based plant and part of ChTPZ Complex Pipe Systems, has successfully undergone an inspection audit procedure carried out by ТОО QS Azia Sertik (Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan) and thus proved that its quality management system complies with the STRK 9001-2001 requirements. This is the state standard of the Republic of Kazakhstan and a modified version of the international ISO 9001:2000 one. In the course of the auditing procedure, inspectors examined the company’s production shops responsible for the whole product cycle, that is, from a customer’s order to shipping the product to

Volume of loans given by UralTransBank to state-run for-profit organizations for 181 days to 1 year went down by 41.8% (from 3.15 million RUR to 1.833 million RUR) in January-November 2007.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for up to 30 days went down by 56.49% (from 85.734 million RUR to 37.303 million RUR) in January-October 2007.

SKB-Bank has recently launched a new bank card for natural persons known as VISA Electron Instant Issue. 'VISA Electron Instant Issue is an ‘emergency card’ of sorts that is offered to customers who don’t have time on their hands to wait for the regular card. It often happens that one really needs a card for, say, traveling abroad, going away on business, getting some cash urgently or making a non-cash payment. In some cases, the principal card gets lost, stolen, or damaged. It can might also become invalid due a name change, but a customer still needs the money they had in their

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Ural Innovational Commercial Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 91 to 180 days went down by 49.9% (from 25.65 million RUR to 12.85 million RUR) in January-October 2007.

The public prosecution authorities of Verkhnyaya Salda, the regional division of Rostechnadzor (the state technological, environmental, and nuclear safety watchdog), and Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the State Labor Inspection are going to examine VSMPO AVISMA Corporation to see how effectively the enterprise meets the labor protection, industrial safety, sanitary and other regulations. The inspection has been brought about by the fact that a high-pressure vessel exploded on a gas furnace in one of the company’s shops at about 11 PM on December 2, 2007. As a result, six workers were badly