Vanadium Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise of Kachkanar approved of the production plan for the fourth quarter of 2006. As there appears to be more demand for the company’s produce, the management decided to raise its output. The plan provides for more ore, agglomerate and pellet production. The company has been developing Gusevogorskoye deposit of titaniferous magnetite ore with 16% iron content. Since it uses effective methods of ore processing, the enterprise manages to get ore concentrate with up to 61% iron content with the following treatment of the agglomerate and the pellets.

The population of Chelyabinsk Region was supposed to receive 6,250 mortgage loans in 2006. According to the South Ural Mortgage Lending Agency, the local banks have already issued 6,096 loans worth 4.4bn RUR, Chelyabinsk Region Minister for Construction, Infrastructure, and Roads Valeriy Shopov announced at the meeting devoted to fulfillment of federal projects chaired by Governor Petr Sumin. ‘The regional public tariff committee decided on the price line for one square meter of housing, ranging from 1,000 RUR in Agapovskiy District to 22,000 RUR in Chelyabinsk. These figures will be used

Pulpstone Works JSC announced that it was going to hold an extraordinary general meeting at 10 AM on November 17, 2006. The location of the meeting is 28 Elizavetinskoye Highway, Yekaterinburg. The points on the agenda include deciding on the inspector for the company. The list of shareholders eligible to attend will be compiled based on data available as of February 1, 2006.

SverdlovEnergoSbyt, the regional power supplier, is going to hold a general meeting in absentia on October 20, 2006. The Board of Directors will have to approve of the corporate policy management working agenda for 2006, which covers the company’s strategic development, medium-term and short-term activity planning, managing the activity of the Board, and keeping track of how the Board’s and the shareholders’ resolutions are fulfilled. Another point on the agenda concerns defining the company’s priority development paths, reports the spokesperson for SverdlovEnergoSbyt.

United Machine Building Works–Oil and Gas Projects (aka Izhorsk Works and part of United Machine Building Works) of Saint Petersburg has completed the fulfillment of the contract signed with SurgutNefteGaz, the oil producer of Surgut, for the delivery and full assembling of 24 600-cubic meter gasholders meant for storing wide spread light hydrocarbons. The contract was negotiated in the spring of 2005 and was worth around 340m RUR. United Machine Building Works–Oil and Gas Projects/Izhorsk Works is one of today’s largest Russian suppliers of equipment for storing wide spread light

Vysokogorskiy Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise (part of Evraz Group) has been conducting a tender and deciding on the suppliers of the new equipment for the grinding and processing plant of its Goroblagodatskiy subsidiary. Accoridng to the company’s development program, this project will be receiving investments up to 2015. The enterprise has already chosen Sandvik of Sweden as the supplier of two breakers as the corporate technicians were fully satisfied with their characteristics and parameters. They still have to think of the best source to buy seven modern bolting machines, so the

SverdlovEnergoSbyt, the regional power and electricity supplier, laid 196 claims against unscrupulous consumers who have accumulated 132m RUR of debt altogether in July-September 2006. The Court of Arbitration has so far processed and secured 92m RUR worth of claims and is currently looking into the rest of them. Following the court decisions, SverdlovEnergoSbyt has received 30m RUR by now. The company also placed a few claims asking for 1m RUR worth of interest on arrears (based on Article 395 of Russian Civil Code; the court has so far secured over 700,000 RUR. The company’s demands for

The General Public Prosecution Authority of Russian Federation placed the criminal suit of former mayor of Trekhgorniy Nikolai Lubenets with the court of Trekhgorniy on October 11, 2006. According to the public prosecution bodies of Chelyabinsk Region, Mr Lubenets is charged with abuse of powers leading to severe damage (the accusation is covered by Article 286 (Parts II and III) of Russian Criminal Code. The preliminary investigation was carried out by the General Public Prosecution Authority of Russian Federation in assistance with the experts from the public prosecution bodies of

The Board of Directors of Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Magnitogorsk decided to hold an extraordinary general meeting in absentia. The points on the agenda include declaration of offered share dividends for the nine months of 2006 and reorganizing the Complex through the acquisition of a new company. The shareholders must be notified of the meeting before October 28, 2006. The deadline for submitting the absentee ballots is November 28, 2006.

Ural and Volga Interregional Network Company JSC has suggested doubling investments component of electric-power transmission tariff in 2007. The corresponding proposal has been submitted to Russian Federal Tariff Service and to the regional power committees. The money collected through the tariff raising is to be invested into modernization of electric network equipment. To date, the deterioration rate of the equipment run by the company is about 70%. ‘The increase in the investment component is going to yield about 16bn RUR,’ indicated the company’s Chief Financial Officer Dmitry Ryabov. The

Seversky Tube Works JSC (part of Pipe Metallurgical Company JSC) has released preliminary results of its production operations within the first nine months of 2006. Throughout January to September 2006, Seversky Tube Works JSC has shipped 492,600 tons of tubes. The company’s steel production within the same period amounted to 399,000 tons.

One of the most beautiful temples of pre-revolutionary Yekaterinburg – The Holy Ghost Descending Temple (aka ‘Khrysostomos the Large’) – is going to be rebuilt at the site of the original temple at the crossing of Malyshev St. and Eighth of March St. The rebuilding was initiated by Yekaterinburg Diocese of Russian Orthodox Church, the city administration, Russian Copper Company and Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company. The project is funded by the leading Ural copper producers. According the architects’ idea, the new temple is to be a replica of the original one as it could be found in the

The power shop personnel of Evrazruda JSC Abagursky subsidiary (part of Evraz Group) have celebrated its 50th anniversary. The company’s steam and water supply system that originally contained two six-ton steam boilers, was among the first units constructed at the building site of Abagursky Sintering Plant. Today, the shop comprises two subdivisions, namely, the boiler and compressor sector and the heat network sector. The subdivisions run the boiler house equipped with six coal-burning steam generating units and one oil-burning one, the compressor house, two industrial pumping installations,

The net proceeds of Mechel JSC in the first half of 2006 decreased by 7.3% against the figures for the first half of 2005 and came to $1,926,516,000. The company’s GOI amounted to $209,475,000 (a decrease of 42.2% compared to the same figures for the previous year). The net profit of Mechel went down by 25.4% and amounted to $181,664,000. This was reported by the spokesperson for Mechel JSC to UrBC representative.

State District Power Plant of Troitsk JSC, part of OGK-2 JSC, summed up its success within the firs nine months of 2006. Throughout January to September, the company has produced 6.6bn kilowatt-hours of electric power. The heat power supply amounted to 339,200 gigacalories. This was reported by PR-department of OGK-2 JSC to UrBC representative.

Chelindbank joint-stock bank celebrated its 16th anniversary on October 16, 2006. According to the spokesperson for the bank, Chelindbank holds a leading position on the regional financial service market. It steadily hits the Russian top-100 and the regional top-10 bank ratings in terms of assets. The priority directions of the bank’s development are lending and retail business. Within the past months of 2006, the bank’s loan portfolio has gone up by 34% and reached the point of 10.6bn RUR. The volume of natural person accounts amounted to 6.7bn RUR, with the number of Visa cards issued by

Ural Airlines assessed their success in nine months of 2006; overall, the results look better than in January-September 2005. Thus, the passenger turnover went up by 13% and came to 2,106,361,000 passenger-kilometers. The carrier has serviced 803,213 people since the beginning of the year, which exceeds the figures for the nine months of 2005 by 13%. This figure includes 466,308 passengers on domestic flights (13% more than in January-September 2005), 55,638 passengers flying to the countries of the NIS (14% more than in January-September 2005), 69,708 people using regular international

Sinarskiy Pipe Works (aka SinTZ, part of Pipe Metallurgical Company), came up with the preliminary assessment of its success in nine months of 2006. The company shipped 438,600 tons of steel tubes in January-September, reports the spokesperson for Pipe Metallurgical Company.

UralmashSpetsstal Ltd., part of Spetsstall Ltd. belonging to United Machine Building Works, has been negotiating with Arcelor Mittal for strategic cooperation. The two companies are hoping to sign a three-year agreement for the supply of 3,000 tons of hot and cold rolled rolls annually. UralmashSpetsstal Ltd. currently has almost 1bn RUR worth of supply contracts, half of which is made up by export ones. The company is planning to increase its export share to 60% next year. It started producing new types of shrouded rolls with enhanced chromium content in 2005; some experts managed to design

Evrazruda JSC (ore maker and part of Evraz Group) have recently acquired three new vehicles: a bulldozer and two automated KamAZ dumpers with the capacity of 13 tons. This was done as part of the technical modernization program. The bulldozer is going to be used in Kazskiy subsidiary, replacing the worn-out T-170 tractor. It is meant for transferring the rock from the grinding and processing plant to the dump pit, for storing crushed rock, and for cleaning up the roads in winter. The dumpers will be employed at Tashtagoslkiy and Gurievskiy subsidiaries; they will deal in freight