Former mayor of Snezhinsk Anatoly Oplanchuk will be held in custody during the case proceedings as Chelyabinsk Region court declined the plea of his lawyers to set him free today. The other four people also under the accusation only had to give a written promise not to leave the town, the spokesperson for the Court said to UrBC representative. The first court sitting is scheduled for August 15, 2006. Mr Oplanchuk is charged with abuse of power as he allegedly transferred over 5.2bn RUR from the municipal budget to VS-Profit in the form of subventions. Not only was this presumed transfer

Magnesite Industrial Complex has successfully undergone the pre-certification environmental management and industrial and labour safety management audit. The audit was largely aimed at checking how prepared the company’s management systems are for the international ISО 14001:2004 and OHSAS 18001: 1999 certification. The ongoing reducing of the environmentally detrimental effects of the company’s production processes and building up on safety are two top strategic development priorities of the Complex, and these were the aspects the auditors actually looked into. As the company’s spokesperson

Some changes have occurred in the composition of the bank’s Board. Former Deputy President Yuri Kachalin was elected President, succeeding Mikhail Parfentiev (who moved on to become Head of Financial Management for the Board), states the company’s report. Chairman Valeriy Efros is to sign the agreement with the new President soon. According to the report, Mr Kachalin does not possess any shares of the bank. Two months ago (on May 26, 2006), the company’s top management redistributed the shares they had so that the shares of Mr Parfentiev (who had a 4.397% share holding) and Mr Kachalin (who

Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhny Tagil JSC (part of Evraz Group) negotiated a contract with Siemens-Voest-Alpine of Germany. The contract concerns a full-scale reconstruction of the oxygen-converter plant. The reconstruction project is to be realized within 4 years, including the complete replacement of all (four) plant converters, the fume-cleaning plant and the exhaust-heat boilers. The project also provides for installation of an additional bulk material delivery line at the oxygen-converter plant and for the overhaul of the plant building. The contract of the Complex with the

The net profit of Mechel JSC, a metallurgical enterprise, has dropped by 153.95% (or 1,513,701,000 RUR) within the second quarter of the year compared to the previous three months, reports the company’s spokesperson. This dramatic decrease has been caused by the declining price of their shares as of June 30, 2006, which, in its turn, was brought about by the decrease in the dollar rate (against the previous quarter), as this is the currency the shares are quoted in

According to the official data provided by Uralvyazinform JSC, the regional mobile phone operator, their net profit has dropped by 45.4% in the second quarter of 2006 (down to 554.998 million RUR) compared to the first quarter. This is due to the fact that the growth of the company’s regular expenses within this period has exceeded the increase in profits, which led to operating profit decreasing by 109m RUR. Besides, the company has had to pay 1.7 times more in terms of income tax.

The preliminary sitting of Chelyabinsk Region Court of Arbitration concerning the claim laid by Starwood Trading Ltd. against Metallurgical Works of Zlatoust JSC (currently managed by ESTAR) took place yesterday. The plaintiff demanded that the defendant pay 18.5m RUR in compensation for the faulty produce previously supplied by the latter. As the spokesperson for Sovetnik Ltd., the legal representative of the plaintiff, said to UrBC representative, the court sitting was aimed at letting the two parties present their cases. The defendants tried appealing against the claim, yet, in the

TGK-10, the regional power generating company, has produced 8,383,120,000 kilowatt-hours in the first half of 2006, with generating company of Chelyabinsk producing 2,857,787,000 kilowatt-hours and generating company of Tyumen producing 5,525,333,000 kilowatt-hours. The company sold 7,536,649,000 kilowatt-hours worth 4,817,344,000 million RUR, with generating company of Chelyabinsk selling 2,497,848,000 kilowatt-hours at 1,973,769,000 million and generating company of Tyumen selling 5,038, 801,000 kilowatt-hours at 2,843,575,000 million. TGK-10 sold 1,139,954,000 kilowatt-hours, or 13.6% of

Evrazruda JSC (part of Evraz Group) starts construction of a stower in its Tashtagolskiy subsidiary within the framework of a long-term development program of Evraz Group. The facility will have been put into operation by the end of 2007; it will allow the company workers to start mining the large deposits of iron ore located in previously inaccessible areas under the production facilities and the river Kondoma. The new stower will also provide for a full recycling of dry magnetic separation waste; the tailings will now be transferred not to the tailing dump but under the ground as the

In the second quarter of 2006, net profit of Chelyabinsk Generating Company JSC decreased by 81.53% (or 259.479m RUR) against the first quarter of the year, and amounted to 58.783m RUR. According to the company’s press release, the bad profit figures are due to the seasonal decline in the heat energy consumption.

Metallurgical Works of Zlatoust JSC has summed up its success in the first half of 2006. Within the six months of 2006, the company produced 280,184 tons of steel and manufactured 200,402 tons of rolled metal. The company shipped 199,599 tons of production worth 3.2bn RUR. The information was reported by PR-department of Metallurgical Works of Zlatoust.

Within first half of 2006, Zinc Plant of Chelybinsk JSC produced 70,140 tons of zinc and zinc-based alloys, which exceeds the corresponding figures for the previous year (52,733 tons) by 33%. The company’s zinc and alloy sales have come to 5.58bn RUR in the six months of 2006, which exceeds the sales in the first half of 2005 (1.855bn RUR) by 200%. The company has also supplied the home market with 59% of the company’s production output Within 2006, the company is going to produce 150,000 tons of zinc and alloys, the spokesperson for Zinc Plant of Chelybinsk said to UrBC representative.

Evrazruda JSC (part of Evraz Group) started a long-term development program scheduled to last until 2015. The program will cover three Russian subjects: Kemerov Region, Khakasia, and Krasnoyarsk Region. The projected investments are part of the general investment strategy of Evraz Group. The development program allows for multi-faceted modernization and renovation of the company’s mines and processing plants. The new mining and processing facilities will be introduced in Tashtagolskiy, Sheregeshskiy, Kazskiy, Abakanskiy, and Gurievsky mines. The processing plants of Abagurskiy and

Trustee in bankruptcy of ChelyabCokeChimRemont CJSC announced an auction aimed at selling the assets of the company, namely, part of the unfinished production site with the area of 2,192 square meters. The opening bid is 2,470,000 RUR. The auction will take place on September 5, 2006.

After they checked out the way the money meant for financing Sverdlovsk Region Governor health programs (maternity projects and special programs for polyclinics, in-patient hospital departments, and emergency care) was actually handled, the public prosecution authorities of Alapaevsk, Sverdlovsk Region, initiated a criminal lawsuit (with charge of abuse of power, Clause 286 (Part 1) of Russian Criminal Code) against the director of Alapaevsk office of the Bank of Russia. The investigation revealed that the director violated the Russian Budgetary Code by transferring 2.5 million RUR (meant for

Uralinkombank summed up the results of its activity in the first half of the year. The amount of money attracted to client accounts came to 562,964,000 RUR on July 1, 2006. The amount of money on natural person accounts reached the point of 382,691,000 RUR. The loan portfolio amounted to 483,700,000 RUR; the bank’s assets grew to 666,109,000 RUR. The company has also made 4,593,000 RUR of profit within January to June reports the spokesperson for the bank.

Ural subsidiary of Industrial Construction Bank JSC won the competition held among the banks of Nizhniy Tagil by offering the best terms of loan to the city council In June 2006. On July 17, 2006, the bank produced the first trance via a non-renewable line of credit. The loan is worth 200 million RUR and was given for a term of 15 months and a 9.9% interest rate.

10,000 foreign workers will get their visas and come to Sverdlovsk Region to work in 2007. This is the number determined at the sitting of Sverdlovsk Region Government Interdepartmental Committee for Foreign Workforce Issues headed by First Deputy Head of Cabinet Galina Kovaleva, reported the spokesperson for the Governor today. The figure was set at 8,000 for 2006, yet the region will need more workers next year due to a number of factors. Firstly, the regional population of working age is continually decreasing, secondly, the growth of the gross regional product leads to a greater demand

Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank CJSC was ‘white-listed’ by the Federal Antimonopoly Administration for transparency of its consumer loans. According to the Administration, they used the data provided by Regional Russian Banks Association, Russian Banks Association, and a number of other banks; so far, 78 banks have voluntarily disclosed information on loans. The Administration and the Bank of Russia issued some recommendations on loan transparency in May 2005. The underlying principle is providing the would-be borrowers with truthful information on the terms of receiving, using and paying back a

Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company Ltd. is reported to be servicing 90 sites it does not own since these sites are used to supply the company’s consumers with electricity. Allegedly, the end-users should not be bothered by the fact that the actual owner does not take on the responsibility for maintaining the sites in proper condition. The company is currently dealing with the issue of transferring the data recorded on the transformers and distribution points onto the company’s account; it is also possible that they will eventually either buy the sites or sign servicing agreements,