Acting envoy Kevin Lynch has finished his mission in Yekaterinburg and is flying home on November 29, 2006. He’s headed the Consulate for six months, and this was a temporary appointment occasioned by the fact that former consul Clive Thompson had asked for an early resignation due to family circumstances. Jenny Lock was appointed the new Consul General, and she is expected to arrive in Yekaterinburg on January 29, 2006.

OMZ Uralmash (a division of United Machine Building Works, aka OMZ) shipped the equipment for the second continuous casting machine for Severskiy Pipe Works (part of Pipe Metallurgical Company). The first such machine was delivered to Metallurgical Works of Taganrog in June 2006. The machine is currently being assembled on the premises of Severskiy Pipe Works. It will undergo hot testing in December 2006, with launching scheduled for the beginning of 2007. The ?10m contract for making equipment for two continuous casting machines was signed in October 2004, and over 3,800 tons of equipment

‘All price offers of Ural Airlines will go down by 5% to 7% in the first quarter of 2007,’ says the Commercial Director of Ural Airlines Kirill Skuratov. ‘The company has some other pleasant surprises in store for New Year. The Christmas ticket sale will begin at the beginning of December; over the period of December 10 to December 30, all tickets for flights to the cities of Russia and the NIS to be performed between January 15 and March 15 will drop in price by 70%. As for the tickets for Yekaterinburg-Moscow flights, they have already become much cheaper. The price comes to 3,450 RUR

The main rope supporting the skip of Magnetitovaya-bis groove was replaced at Magnetitovaya mine of Vysokogorskiy Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise (part of Evraz Group). The rope is generally used for transferring ore from the mine onto the surface; such replacements take place every three years and are very labour consuming. The length of the rope comes to over 900 meters, and it is always tested very thoroughly at the rope-testing station of Vysokogorskiy Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise: every wire that is used in the rope is obligatorily examined. The device can actually be used

The extraordinary general meeting of Chelyabinskhleboproduct shareholders resulted in the decision concerning the early termination of powers of the following members of the company’s Board of Directors: Ms K. Strimlina, Mr V. Bruev, Ms K. Makagonova, Mr K. Shamsutdinov, Mr Zh. Lisin, and Mr I. Korolev. Natalia Arsentieva, Sergey Weinstein, Sergey Volodarchuk, Natalia Zakirova, Vyacheslav Karandasov, Natalia Rusina, and Alexei Toporov were elected the new Members of the Board. The shareholders also decided to raise the company’s authorized capital up to 5m RUR through the additional

Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport announced that is was going to introduce the 35% decrease in fuel prices; this decision was arrived at following the negotiations with all the carriers currently using the airport. The Federal Antimonopoly Service laid two claims against the airport on November 22, 2006 regarding the alleged fuel overpricing and price collusion. These cases will be probably considered on December 19 and December 20, respectively. The air carriers have repeatedly complained of the unreasonably high fuel prices; the General Director of Aeroflot - Russian Airlines Valeriy

The Regional Power Engineering Committee of Sverdlovsk Region decided to transfer some Novouralsk consumers to SverdlovEnergoSbyt, the guaranteeing supplier of electricity, says the company’s spokesperson. Following the legislation that prohibits a company to combine electric-power transmission with its production and sale, Ural Electrochemical Complex of Novouralsk decided to stop selling electricity to both its sub-users located in Novouralskiy municipal district (covering the villages of Taraskovo, Pochinok, Yelani, and Palniki) and to its users proper. The company’s representatives

Ural Airlines conducted a presentation of their first Airbus 320 in Yekaterinburg yesterday. The executives from Airbus, the aircraft construction MNC, and representatives of federal and regional authorities as well as reporters checked out the cabin and the flight deck (equipped with the cutting edge facilities) and drank some champagne to the well-being of the Urals’ first Airbus, says the carrier’s press officer. Valeriy Kovalev, the Airbus 320 squadron leader, told everybody about the control system of the aircraft and its technical service and maintenance as well as the high fuel

Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise of Kachkanar (part of Evraz Group) introduced modern dispatch communication. Until quite recently, the departmental dispatchers had to use the obsolete on-off switchboards that are not even produced any longer; now, thanks to the corporate upgrading, the old equipment will be replaced with Coral, the modern digital exchange. These are going to be installed in the agglomeration shop, in the final tailings shop, in the transportation management shop, in the checker and automation department, and at the power dispatcher’s. The assembling of the exchanges was

Due to the efforts of ChelyabEnergo experts, the electricity began to be transmitted onto the substation belonging to Katav-Ivanovskiy Foundry last night. Prior to this, the company’s workers assembled the power center and two transmission facilities from the substation to the switching device located in Katav-Ivanovsk. Thus, most of the residents of the town were able to use electricity again since midnight. Today, the municipal enterprise of Katav-Ivanovsk will provide electricity supply to two transformer substations and to the villages of Bedyarysh, Lemeza, and Verknyaya Katavka that

Magnesite Industrial Complex (part of Magnesite Group) melted its first batch of periclase from raw produce extracted in Goluboye deposit (based in Motyginskiy district of Krasnoyarsk Territory and currently developed by Magnesite Group within the framework of Strategic Development Program). Magnesite Group will have invested over 1bn RUR in the project by the end of 2009, says the PR Department of the holding. Magnesite Industrial Complex received the first 400-ton batch of raw magnesite, and the first periclase made from this magnesite was produced today. The test melting performed in

The court of Verkhnyaya Pyshma sentenced the accountant of UralTransBank Sredneuralsk subsidiary Oksana Schegolkova and her cohabitant Alexander F. to six years in prison. According to the spokesperson for the regional court, they were found guilty of fraud. Ms Schegolkova was using her access to the accounts of the bank’s clients to transfer their money onto her own account, the account of her cohabitant and some straw people in December 2004-November 2005. This did 10.870m RUR worth of damage to 148 people. The criminal case was placed with the court when the victims complained about the

The outstanding amount of loans given to private clients by Ural Bank of Sberbank of Russia has gone up by over 12.8bn RUR over the ten months of 2006 and amounted to more than 50bn RUR. The bank has given over 250,000 loans worth 30.6bn RUR to private clients since the beginning of the year. Ural Bank of Sberbank of Russia has also retained its leading position on the housing loan market. The increasing demand for mortgage loans is followed by the increasing amount of loans the bank gives and the increasing number of its clients. Thus, the bank provided 2,200 housing loans worth over 1bn RUR

Another seventeen offices of Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development (in Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Kirov, Ufa, Nizhniy Tagil, Ozersk, and Lesnoy) extended their working hours, says the spokesperson for the bank. ‘We realize that a lot of our customers use our services in the evening, so we have been gradually extending our working hours. For example, it’s happened quite recently in the offices located in some parts of Yekaterinburg and Nizhniy Tagil, as well as in Revda, Verkhyaya Pyshma, and Sukhoi Log,’ said the Retail Sales Managing Director Denis Babushkin.

Yekaterinburg needs 14 road interchanges worth 20bn RUR, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel announced in the course of the meeting conducted by First Deputy Head of the Russian Federation Government Dmitriy Medvedev. Mr Rossel also dwelled upon the hurdles hindering the fulfillment of national Available Housing program such as the need for a lot of negotiation and lack of money needed to build roads and flyovers and renovate the streets. 750,000 square meters of housing will have been produced in Yekaterinburg by the end of 2006, with even greater amount of housing to be put up in

Renova Stroy Group, Chelyabinsk Region Government, and RosStroy, the federal construction authority, signed a contract to build a satellite Chelyabinsk, First Deputy Governor Vladimir Dyatlov announced at today’s press conference. ‘Based on the agreement, Renova Stroy Group started looking for the contractors, and we have already got two candidates from France and England willing to take part in this project,’ Mr Dyatlov explained. ‘Some approaches and technologies that are absolutely new to Russia will be used when creating this town. We might also renew the infrastructure of the other

Evraz Group started developing Izykhgolskoye ore deposit belonging to its member Evrazruda as part of the corporate investment program aimed at supporting ore mining enterprises; the deposit is based in the Republic of Khakasia and has 11m tons of ore reserves. Most of the money needed for the project is to be invested within 2006 and 2007. The launching of some new extracting facilities is part of Evraz Group strategy targeted at enhancing the profitability of mining business and making sure ore is supplied uninterruptedly to the company’s metallurgical enterprises; all this is achieved

Vanadium Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise (part of Evraz Group) conducted additional examination of how safety arrangement and precautions stated in the Collective Agreement for 2006 were observed. The examination revealed that the company provided for the manufacturing inspection of the safety requirements. Such investigations into the working conditions in the shops are carried out on regular basis, and ablutions are repaired based on a special schedule. Hot meals are available to workers 24/7. The company’s management decided to buy some new equipment to improve the working conditions

The Government of the Russian Federation and the Russian Federation Ministry of Natural Resources made Karabashmed (copper producer based in Chelyabinsk Region that belongs to Russian Copper Company) Leader of Nature-Conservative Projects in Russia. The company’s General Director Nikolai Azarov received the Order of Russia’s Environmental Shield in the course of the awarding ceremony in the Kremlin Palace, and Karabashmed itself got the honorary title after winning the competition for Leaders of Nature-Conservative Projects in Russia. The panel of the assessors included the representatives of

Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank has issued 86.5m RUR worth of loans to entrepreneurs within the last three months. The Client Communication Department of the bank observed that the small and mid-scale businesses were becoming more active lately; they believe this is due to the new Small Business Loans program offered by the bank; this program provides for two schemes, Business Loan and Mini Loan, both of which are client-attractive. The peculiarity of the program consists in a simplified procedure of getting a loan based on the estimates of the real condition the potential borrower’s business is