The French economic legation, headed by the commercial attaché of French Embassy in Russia Christoff Lormel, started operating in Yekaterinburg today. The major objective of the legation is to involve more French enterprises in the economic development of the Mid-Urals, assist the businesses of the two countries in establishing contacts and keep French entrepreneurs in the know of the regional projects. The French Consulate will open in Yekaterinburg on January 1, 2007.

Over forty best employees of Evrazruda (part of Evraz Group) have started attending classes in the colleges located in the Urals and Siberia over the last few days. This is part of the corporate fellowships and grants program. Evrazruda has, for the first time in its history, invested in educating its best workers in the most needed fields. The candidates were selected based on their actual achievements, references from the department and subsidiary directors, and the results of the interviews and tests held by the Personnel Departments. Over thirty people started studying to become experts

The extraordinary general meeting of UralSvyazInform, the local cellular operator, took place in Moscow on September 27, 2006. The agenda contained a point concerning early termination of powers of the Board of Directors. Evgeniy Chechelnitskiy was elected the new Chairman; Anatoliy Ufimkin was elected Deputy Chairman. The Corporate Management Rating Department of Standard & Poor’s canceled the company’s rating in August.

The designers and engineers of Ural Turbine Works will be performing four times better by the middle of 2007. This acceleration of engineering and design will reduce the time needed for production of a turbine by one third, and this, in its turn, is expected to raise the total capacity of the plant. Ural Turbine Works is hoping to achieve this by introducing the new Pro/ENGINEER computer-aided design systems, as has recently been decided by the Board of Directors. ‘Our designers are using four types of software at the moment, which creates communication problems among different departments.

‘We do believe Auchan is going to entice away a number of customers, both retail and wholesale ones (probably in equal proportions), currently loyal to local stores. The introduction of this French chain store is an advantage for the consumers and an extra impetus for the local players to grow more client-friendly,’ the spokesperson for Kupets Ltd. (a popular local chain) Nadezhda Buriko said to UrBC representative. Ms Buriko thinks the market will have to go through re-distribution because of the competition created by the arrival of Auchan.

The first quality certificates for electricity provided by ChelyabEnergo, Chelyabinsk Region energy supplier, were awarded to two main substations at Sportivnaya station belonging to Chelyabinsk electrical networks. According to the company’s spokesperson, the quality audit is based on two criteria, namely, voltage level and frequency. Failing to keep up with these parameters may lead to breakdowns in the operation of home appliances and reduce their lifetime. The certification procedure is carried out by the experts from Vektra Ltd., Moscow-based certifying body. They read the equipment data

‘It’s not easy to determine whether the company has chosen the most suitable moment for the initial public offering as the market opportunities may all have changed in a few months’ and even weeks’ time. Yet Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Magnitogorsk may actually do okay as the investors have a positive view of the company. The main thing is to be able to explain what the Complex is planning to do with the money,’ the expert from FINAM Investment Company Sergey Kharchenko said to UrBC representative. According to Vedomosti newspaper, the Complex is now choosing the banks that will offer

‘The original project of South Ural nuclear power station is going to be edited,’ the Director of the Station Vladimir Morozov announced at today’s press conference. According to Mr Morozov, the project (which had been approved of and licensed) provided for the construction of the nuclear power station based on three BM-800 fast reactors. ‘However, taking into account that all the earlier projects on nuclear power industry development were never completed, as well as the fact that fast reactors are normally designed for a specific purpose and will only be actually needed no sooner than

So far, Russian Copper Company has invested $210m into its joint venture with Kazakhmys Corporation set up for the development of Koktausskoye deposit (named in honour of the 50th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution) in Kazakhstan, reports their spokesperson. The opening ceremony of a processing plant at the deposit took place on September 7, 2006. The ore mining and processing enterprise located there now includes an open-cast mine, a processing plant that mainly deals in ore concentrate, and a plant that produces cubic-shaped chips from the overburden. The construction of this complex

The amount of tickets booked and sold online now makes up 3% of all the tickets sold by Ural Airlines in Yekaterinburg. The figure only constituted 1% three months ago. Should the regional clients keep up with this pace of mastering online booking, the amount of tickets sold online may reach the average global figure of 30% by February 2007, or within a year of the introduction of the service. E-ticketing in Russia is affected by the limited ability of the airports to support online booking technologies and by the companies being reluctant to invest as well as by the lack of the necessary

Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank rated 134th in the Top 300 rating held among Russia’s largest all-purpose banks in first half of 2006. The data provided by RosBusinessConsulting Information Agency that carried out the rating procedure indicate that Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank scored 1,296 points. The agency used information on the bank’s net wealth, quick assets, owned capital, balance sheet total, loan and deposit portfolios, and profit, reports the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank.

The dismantling of the old 100/2000 exchange has been almost completed at Vanadium Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise of Kachkanar (part of Evraz Group). The company has been upgrading its telephone communication facilities since 1999. Now the old exchange is to be replaced by the new digital automatic switching center (type 64). The final stage of replacements started on September 25, 2006. It will result in canceling some 1,000 phone numbers and re-creating them in the digital exchange format. This will mainly affect the subscribers located within the production sites of the enterprise

The recent visit of French Minister for Foreign Trade Christine Lagarde to Yekaterinburg resulted in the official proposal to set up a French Consulate in the city. The Consulate will start operating on January 1, 2007. In the meantime, one representative of the French legation will start working as early as tomorrow. What is more, another result of the visit was the decision to significantly build up French export to Russia.

Vanadium Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise of Kachkanar (part of Evraz Group) has recently put into operation the new portals meant for dismantling and assembling wheel-motor blocks. These portals are a complex set of mechanisms that raise the quality of repairs and reduce the time needed to do them. Prior to the introduction of the portals, the dismantling and assembling procedure was performed manually and was extremely time-consuming. Now it is fully automated. The portals were designed based on the special order of the enterprise and include all-purpose equipment that allows to repair

The public prosecution authorities of Ural Federal District have assessed the results of environmental monitoring of the regional businesses. It appears that the environment of the Urals is still in very poor condition, which has been proved by over 6,500 instances of companies violating the environmental legislation in 2006 alone. According to the spokesperson for the Public Prosecutor, the violations occur all over the region and involve misuse of forestry, water bodies, and other resources as well as their pollution; besides, companies ignore environmental norms when constructing and using

By the end of the year, 17,000 visas to Czech Republic will be issued in Sverdlovsk Region. This was mentioned by Mr Karel Haranza, Consul General of Czech Republic to Yekaterinburg, during the recent press conference.

Vanadium Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise of Kachkanar JSC, part of Evraz Group, is carrying out acceptance tests of a new type of primed demolition blocks. By order of Rostekhnadzor, the pilot lot of the blocks manufactured from ballistite-type propellant is to be tested at the company’s explosives production plant within a week. It is the second pilot lot of primers received by the Enterprise, both lots come from Bashkiria. According to the order of the Enterprise, the manufacturer made the primed demolition blocks more secure and efficient by placing them into plastic cartridges. The

On September 21, 2006, Chelyabinsk Region Court of Arbitration carried out a preliminary trial of the lawsuit brought by Chelyabinsk Cellular Communications Ltd. (the company uses Tele-2 as its trademark) against Chelyabinsk Department of Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service. The lawsuit concerns an order issued by the defendant that is now being disputed by the plaintiff. The region’s three major cellular communication operators, MTS, UralSvyazInfrom, and Beeline, had earlier complained about Chelyabinsk Cellular Communications Ltd. using a disputable slogan (Tele2 is always cheaper), which

UralFinPromBank decided to expand the range of loans to small-scale business. Their new program allows for an increase in the company’s floating assets as well as provides opportunities to buy things from equipment to real estate and to upgrade the production facilities. The loan could be offered for any term not exceeding three years, with the annual interest rate determined uniquely in each particular case. The loan ranges from 300,000 RUR to 10,000,000 RUR. The preliminary decision as to whether to give a loan is reported to a client within twenty minutes. The obvious advantages of this

The company’s fixed assets have come to 22,995m RUR in the six months of 2006, with 19,232m being the permanent assets and 138m being the financial ones. The floating assets amounted to 9,128m RUR, of which 2,820m were inventory holdings and 5,037m were accounts receivable. Thus, the total assets of the regional potassium maker came to 32,123m RUR. The company’s long-term liabilities come to 7,184m RUR, its short-term liabilities to 5,099m; with short-term loans amounting to 2,593m, bills payable to suppliers and contractors coming to 2,372m, and income tax debt coming to 43m RUR; the other