Gold and foreign currency reserves of Russia as of August 18, 2006 amounted to $275bn, reported PR-department of Bank of Russia. On August 11, 2006, the gold and foreign currency reserves came to $277bn, which means they have gone down by $2bn within a week.

Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhny Tagil JSC (part of Evraz Group) is preparing to participate in the first UralMetalExpo industrial trade exhibition. The exhibition is to take place at the beginning of September at the State Show House of Nizhny Tagil. Among its participants are all major metallurgical companies of the Ural region. Evraz Group will be represented at the exhibition by its three Ural subsidiaries, namely, Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhny Tagil and Vysokogorsky and Kachkanarsky Ore Mining and Processing Plants. To date, these companies have set up working

Kalina JSC announced that that it had settled its suit concerning Nefis Cosmetics JSC out of court in today’s press release. The consent decree signed today states that the parties withdraw all the claims against each other and; it also declares that all the disputes concerning the use of one another’s trademarks should be seen as settled by the parties; the parties admit that they have no claims against each other, be they the ones mentioned in the decree or the ones currently processed by the courts of arbitration. ‘This dispute between Russia’s two largest household chemicals and beauty

Federal Financial Market Service of Russia in Ural Federal District recorded the issue of shares by Svyaznoy Ural JSC, a mobile phone trader, on July 31, 2006. The issue consists of 10,000 shares with face value of 50 RUR each. The state serial number is 2-01-32318-D; the shares are to be distributed among the company’s shareholders.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of deposits made by nongovernmental financial organizations in UralTransBank JSC for a term of 181 days to a year has gone down from 7.325m RUR to zero throughout January to July 2006.

Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil JSC, part of Evraz Group, has completed the basement of the new water-treatment complex. The builders have started erecting mounting bases and the building frame. The carcass work is being carried out at the moment. The builders have already received the first equipment lots and are going to assemble and install them in the nearest future. Energocascad Company of Moscow runs the construction of the water-treatment complex on the ‘turnkey’ terms. According to Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhny Tagil development plans, the construction

Facilities of Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company JSC are in fact over-aged, reports the company’s spokesperson. According to the company representatives, reconstruction might be a solution to the problem, as well as putting some new facilities into service. So far, a number of the company’s substations have already been maximally loaded so that any excess load may bring about an emergency. At the same time, the other substations operate in the normal load mode. Therefore, no new users can be connected neither to Zapadnaya, Vesna or Metallist substations due to their heavy load, nor

Annual general meeting of Big-Diameter Pipes Plant JSC was held on August 22, 2006. The agenda included elections of the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman, of the sole executive authority (namely, of the company’s GD), and appointment of the Secretary of the Board of Directors. The meeting resulted in the following appointments: T. Khakhva — Chairman of the Board of Directors, P. Tatyatsin — Deputy Chairman and the company’s GD, V. Zotov — Secretary.

Over 1,600 young employees of Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil (part of Evraz Group) have been put on the corporate alternative manager candidate list. The project, known as Career, has been around for over two years now and provides for individual training of each employee who displays potential in order to prepare the company’s future managers of all levels, from directors of the company’s workshops to top managers. To be eligible for the project, one has to be under forty and have the education needed for the would-be job. The Complex offers a range of professional

Ural Airlines will have spent 11.927 million RUR on employee training by the end of 2006. The money is largely spent on English language classes, training the pilots, the flight attendants, and the engineers and technicians who will be using the new kind of aircraft.

Electrometallurgical Complex of Chelyabinsk assessed the results of its activity in the first half of 2006. The company produced 364,700 tons of ferroalloys and over 18,500 tons of electrodes. It made more than 7.5 billion RUR in terms of sales revenues, with net profit amounting to 300 million RUR.

‘The introduction of Auchan hypermarket will definitely result in some customer outflow for us, especially at the very beginning. However, we do not expect it to be massive,’ General Director of Uniland-Yekaterinburg CJSC Valery Bubnov said to UrBC representative. ‘This French company has been threatening us with the possible dumping of prices, but in my opinion, this is not going to happen as they can possibly display no more than 50 items at promotional prices,’ indicated Mr Bubnov. According to Mr Bubnov, customers of such hypermarkets as Metro and Auchan are mainly private retail buyers.

On August 21, 2006, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel met Thomas Pritzker, Chairman and CEO of Global Hyatt Corporation. Global Hyatt international hotel system has for while been working towards the opening of its hotel in the new Yekaterinburg-City business quarter of the regional capital. The hotel buildings are being constructed by a French building firm in cooperation with Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company. The hotel will probably start welcoming visitors in 2007. In the course of the meeting, Mr Rossel spoke about Koltsovo Airport as the center of Russian and international

The plant made 1.6bn RUR in terms of sales revenues, which exceeds the figures fir 2004 by 14%; its profit came to 85 million RUR, which is 45% better than a year earlier; the company also managed to reduce its account payable by 240 million RUR, so the figure now stands at 80 million RUR. The plant currently produces 16,500 tons of meat produce a year, given the annual production capacity of some 30,000 tons, reports the company’s spokesperson.

Local division of Rospotrebnadzor, the consumer goods monitoring service, has recently carried out the investigation of Home Credit and Finance Bank Ltd. that revealed a number of instances when consumers’ rights were being violated in the course of signing the loan agreements. ‘The results of the investigation make it clear that the bank only gives its clients consumer loans when they pay for the opening and servicing of the bank account. More often than not, the sum a client has to pay is greater than that compiled of the loan interest payments,’ the spokesperson for the Consumer Rights

Mechel Bank JSC held extraordinary general meeting last Friday. The meeting resulted in electing the new Board of Directors, including Sergey Komyakov (Chairman), Vladimir Shulgin, Elena Nesterova, Sergey Baklanov, Irina Lukyanetz, Konstantin Pyzhov, and Vladimir Lavrov. The Board welcomed two new members, who joined the company due to the merger of Gold Platinum Bank with Mechel Bank, explained the bank’s spokesperson. Mechel Bank of Chelyabinsk completed its restructuring process in May 2006 when it merged with Gold Platinum Bank of Yekaterinburg. The joint authroised capital was estimated

The Board of Directors of Zinc Plant of Chelyabinsk elected Sergey Moiseev Chairman in the course of their last meeting. Says former Chairman Alexander Fedorov: ‘I am positive that this decision will promote further growth of the Board’s efficiency, although the Board Members are already highly professional and competent, which can be proved by the company’s success. Mr Moiseev has been part of our Board since 2004, and he knows all the aspects of its activity very closely; he is also fully aware of the current trends in our industrial field. Mr Moiseev is very well educated; he received his

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of loans given by UralTransBank to sole traders for a term of up to 30 days has gone down by 26% (from 44.096 million to 32.419 million RUR) throughout January to July 2006.

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel met Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Denmark to Russia Per Karlsen in the government house today. Mr Rossel spoke on the growth in the fields of regional industry, wholesale and retail trade, and agriculture throughout the year. He also mentioned the ongoing renovation of the regional metallurgical, power engineering, and machine building enterprises. According to the Governor, the investments in Sverdlovsk Region businesses went up by 28% compared to 2005 and will have come to $5bn by the end of the year. A large

Evrasruda JSC (part of Evraz Group) gives overhaul to transporter cranes in its Abagurskiy subsidiary. No. 4 transporter crane was put out of operation on August 21, 2006 and will only be put back on track in twenty days, after all the defects in the metalwork have been eliminated. The overhaul of No. 6 transporter crane located in the processing shop was completed last week; the repairs included patching the cracks in the metalwork that had emerged due to the extensive use of the device. No. 3 transporter crane was given a 25-day overhaul in July, which consisted of patching the cracks,