Magnesite Industrial Complex JSC set refractory life record of 5,390-foundings for the casing of an oxygen-blown vessel. As the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, this technological breakthrough will provide for a dramatic decrease in production costs in iron industry, where the maintenance of the casing leaves a lot to be desired. The company’s researches had been working on refractory goods made of carbonaceous components and the new Carbores-P bonding agent since 2003. At the beginning of 2006, the company’s technicians fit the oxygen-blown vessel with new casing with

Shareholders of Magnitostroy JSC suggested early resignation of GD Dmitriy Pulekha at the extraordinary general meeting held on June 20, 2006. The decision was made by 284,936 votes or 86.2% of the voting stock. Viktor Karpov was appointed the new General Director. The shareholders also decided to ask the committee of the company’s creditors for a workout. Magnitostroy JSC used to be the largest local building company but now finds itself on the list of companies gone bust. In September 2005, it had to introduce bankruptcy proceedings, and since the beginning of 2006, the company’s budget

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of investments drawn to accounts of non-commercial organizations and NGOs in UralfinpromBank JSC for a term of 181 days to 1 year has decreased by 57% (from 50 million RUR to 21.5 million RUR) throughout January to June.

Arrears of wages of Chelyabinsk Mechanical Plant reached the point of 12.4 million RUR on July 1, 2006. This has been the greatest figure among the enterprises of Chelyabinsk Region so far, and the debt recovery is supervised by the State Labour Inspectorate on a weekly basis, reports the spokesperson for the inspectorate. Among the other debtors who failed to pay their workers for 2 or more months are Kusinskiy lead Ltd. (arrears of 239,800 RUR), Ashabyservice (220,000 RUR), EnergoService of Kusa (155.600 RUR), Doverie Plus Ltd. of Katav-Ivanovsk (113,400 RUR), and some other companies.

Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Chelyabinsk JSC (part of Mechel) has recently announced that the company was going to delegate the sole executive powers to Mechel Managing Company Ltd. As the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, the company signed the corresponding agreement after such decision had been made at the annual general meeting with the hope of improving the company’s management structure. Former GD Sergey Malyshev was appointed the company’s Managing Director.

Tube Metallurgical Company JSC summed up the results of its activity in the six months of 2006. Throughout January to June 2006, the company has shipped 1,459,000 tons of various tubes and pipes and 319,800 tons of rolled metal and uninterruptedly-casted billets. Since the beginning of the year, the company has smelted 1,107,900 tons of iron.

Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil JSC (part of Evraz Group) has recently introduced a program aimed at assisting their employees with paying mortgage loans. So far, twelve of the company’s metallurgists have received the agreement of the Complex to pay their interest rate and placed mortgage loan applications with the local banks. In the meantime, the company has been updating the list of those willing to move to a better dwelling for the year 2006. The list will be used to sign the agreements that should make it possible for the employees to receive financial support from the

Vanadium Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise of Kachkanar (part of Evraz Group) started reclaiming the muck stacks through revegetation and planting trees. The company’s ore managing department reclaims five hectares of slopes annually. This year, most of the work is to be done in the third and fourth quarters: the company’s employees should cover the stacks with loam that creates the artificial root layer and then sow various grass seeds. The company is currently revegetating both the muck stacks and the slime pool; one hectare of the slope of the obstructing bank will be reclaimed as well.

Ural Turbine Works CJSC (part of Renova Group) will supply a steam turbine to Belarus in 2007. The turbine is meant for producing heat and electricity at Minsk heating plant 3 alongside with the 80-megawatt generator produced in Novosibirsk by ELSIB, the 170-megawatt gas turbine produced by Alstom, and the Slovenian waste-heat boiler produced by SES Energy. The Ural plant should supply the Т-53/67-8.0 turbine and the generator from Novosibirsk as well as some additional equipment; the company’s technicians will also complete the assembling, reports their spokesperson.

On July 31, 2006, the first session of Chelyabinsk Region Court of Arbitration concerning the claim laid by Starwood Trading Ltd.of the UK against Metallurgical Works of Zlatoust JSC will take place, the spokesperson for Sovetnik Ltd., the local firm representing the interests of the British company, said to UrBC representative. The claim was placed with the court on May 10, 2006. According to the plaintiff, the works of Zlatoust had been supplying them with faulty rolled metal from December 2004 to April 2005; there were four shipments of low-quality rolled metal altogether, and the

On July 3, 2006, Leonid Kuznetsov was appointed Head of Ural Regional Center of Svyas-Bank Joint Stock Commercial Bank. Mr Kuznetsov will have to deal with the implementation of the Bank’s network developing policies as well as with the control over and providing for the realization of the business plans of the company’s subsidiaries in Chelyabinsk and Yekaerinburg, reports the bank’s spokesperson. Prior to this appointment, Mr Kuznetsov was employed in the capacity of Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District

Tube Metallurgical Company JSC held the annual general meeting on June 30, 2006. The shareholders elected the Board of Directors, the inspection committee, and company’s Auditor, Ernst and Young Ltd. They also approved of the company’s annual report and of the accounting report and decided to declare the dividend of .54222 RUR per ordinary share for 2005. The new Board Members are Adrian Cobb, Muhadin Eskindarov, Petr Golitsin, Andrey Kaplunov, Igor Khmelevskiy, Josef Maru, Sergey Papin, Dmitriy Pumpyanskiy, Alexander Shiryaev, and Geoffrey Townsend. Dmitriy Pumpyanskiy was elected Chairman.

Sverdlovsk Region Federal Antimonopoly Service imposed fines of 1,000 minimum wages on Arshin Ltd., Encore Ltd., and Dveri & Okna Ltd., all located in the town of Samara. The total worth of the three fines comes to 300,000 RUR, reports the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Federal Antimonopoly Service. The enterprises were fined for failing to place a petition with Sverdlovsk Region Federal Antimonopoly Service asking to buy a certain voting share holding of the authorized capital of UralBurMash JSC. These share holdings made up over 20% of the company’s voting stock, and, given that

Beloyarskaya nuclear power station summed up the results of its activity in June 2006. According to their spokesperson, there weren’t recorded any safety or limit violations, and the rare gas activity breakthrough in June comprised less than .01% of the upper limit. The radiation level in the town of Zarechniy and the power plant site was not any bigger than usual and fluctuated between 5 microroentgen per hour in the village of Beloyarskiy and 6.5 microroentgen per hour in the villages of Rezhik and Dubrovo. This is believed to be typical of Russia, with its standard range of 4 to 20

Mechel JSC, an ore mining and metallurgical company, held the annual general meeting on July 3, 2006, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. The shareholders declared the dividend of 12.73 RUR per registered paperless share for 2005. The total amount of money meant for the payment of dividends should reach the point of 5.3 billion RUR ($195.7m). According to the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles of the United States, the dividends make up 50% of the company’s net profit. The dividends will have been paid on account by no later than December 31, 2006. The attendees also

Andrew Welch, Chairman of Aston Group, visited Sverdlovsk Region, reports the spokesperson for the Ministry for International and Foreign Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region. The Russian-American joint venture might go for a new investment project in Yekaterinburg worth $300m, Mr Welch announced in the course of the meeting with Viktor Koksharov, Minister for International and Foreign Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region. The new construction project is aimed at building new dwellings in Yekaterinburg and is, in fact, the first attempt of the U.S. Government to finance the construction

A massive technological blast was performed at the floor of -240 meter of Yuzhnaya mine of Vysokogorskiy ore mining and processing enterprise JSC (part of Evraz Group). This resulted in beating over 420,000 tons of ore, which should provide the miners with production for more than five months. It took the company’s technicians a week to charge the boreholes; they used around 1 ton of explosives altogether. On the day of the blasting operation, all the equipment (including the lifts, the pumping, and the ventilation) was put out of operation, and all the workers had to leave the lower floors.

On June 26, 2006, sintering machine №1 was put into operation after the scheduled repairs at the sintering shop of Vanadium Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise JSC of Kachkanar. One day later, the company’s technicians and the equipment repair service experts went on with the preventive overhaul of machine № 2. These experts are to replace the small parts of the machine and to eliminate the imperfections in the way the machine operates. The sintering machine is to be put into operation on June 30,’ says the company’s spokesperson. The spokesperson also reported that the overhaul should

Ural Interregional Department of Russian Federal Property Fund announced the results of the auction aimed at selling the shares of UralAviaInform JSC. These results were summed up on June 1, 2006. Put up to auction were 31,270 ordinary registered shares (state serial number 1-01-31703-D), that is, 100% of the company’s authorized capital. The opening bid for the shares was set at 8.911 million, yet the auction was nullified due to the absence of applications to participate.

A Member of the Board of Directors of UralPromBank JSC as recently changed his share of the company’s authorized capital. According to the official papers, the share of former Director Konstantin Strukov has gone down from 3.43% of ordinary shares to zero. In May 2006, the same happened to the shares of the bank’s former Chairman Mikhail Parfentiev and his deputy Yuriy Kachalin who used to hold 4.397% and 3.98% of ordinary shares, respectively. Meanwhile, the current Chairman Valeriy Efros raised his share of the authorized capital from 31.826% to 43.996%.