Evraz Group is going to spend $225m to maintain its share in Raspadskaya mine. Raspadskaya Coal Company, the joint proprietor of the mine, is to hand Mezhdurechenskaya Coal Company – 96 and Raspadsky open pit over to the mine. Thus Raspadskaya Coal Company is going to pay for the additional issue of Raspadskaya mine shares. In its turn, Evraz Group is going to pay for the issue in cash at the rate of $225m. Evraz Group will also provide a short-term financial guarantee at the rate of $300m to Raspadskaya Coal Company, the company’s press-release says.

Monetka-Finance Ltd has completed placement of the first series of interest-bearing certificated bonds that mature in 1,092 days since the offering date. The state registration number of the issue is 4-01-36133-R dd April 11, 2006. The placement is registered by the Bank of Russia. The face value of a single bond is 1,000 RUR. By May 18, 2006, 1m bonds had already been placed. Thus, the total nominal value of the placed bonds came to 1bn RUR.

Utair Airline is to deliver heavy and bulky loads to places of oil and gas fields development under a yearly contract with Airborne Energy Solutions Ltd. of Canada. The contract provides for delivery of loads by Mi-26 helicopter, mainly as an external load. ‘Utair Mi-26 helicopter entered the North-American airspace for the first time yesterday in order to operate within Northwest Territories of Canada. The helicopter started from Tyumen and reached its destination within 6 days, flying over Eastern Siberia, Chukot Peninsula and Alaska. Now it is deployed at the town of Yellowknife and has

Beloyarskaya power plant is completing the scheduled equipment inspection and preparing to start the BN-600 power-generating unit. The unit was shut down on March 24, 2006 in order to carry the inspection out and to get the unit refueled. Since then, the reactor of BN-600 was refueled and one of its six sodium-sodium heat exchangers was replaced in order to investigate it within the framework of the Program for Support of Extension of BN-600 Projected Service Life. The scheduled routine maintenance operations, including installation of a modern field system at the electric generator No. 4,

In 2005, Mechel JSC experienced a setback in production of its prime metallurgical products against the figures for 2004. The steel production, for instance, decreased by 5% down to 5.899m tons; the cast iron production decreased by 14% down to 4.6m tons; the coke production decreased by 12% down to 2.589m tons. This was reported by PR-department of Mechel JSC to UrBC representative.

Within 2005, the total amount of tax assessments of Tube Metallurgical Company JSC and of its integrated enterprises came to 10.37bn RUR, which exceeds the corresponding figures for 2004 by 72%. The tax assessments of Seversky Tube Works JSC and Sinarsky Tube Works JSC came to 1.78bn RUR and 2.02bn RUR, respectively. Within 2005, the assessments of Tube Metallurgical Company JSC and of its integrated enterprises to all kinds of state and municipal budgets also went up. The assessments to the federal budget amounted to 5.64bn RUR, the total assessments to the regional and municipal budgets

Mechel JSC has recently made its financial results for 2005 public. According to the company’s PRP-deparmtent, their net profit decreased by 29.8% (down to $381,180,000); the gross operating income decreased by 31.3% (down to $515,728,000). Net avails increased by 4.6% (up to $3.8bn against $3.64bn in 2004). EBITDA decreased by 20% and came to $726.25m against $907.73m. ‘The year 2005 was hard for Mechel because of higher raw materials costs and complicated price patterns that had a negative influence on the profitability of our company,’ indicated Alexey Ivanushkin, CEO of Mechel JSC.

The stockholders meeting of Ural Railway Mechanical Engineering Works JSC (UZhZM), member of Sinara Group, was held on May 18, 2006. The meeting was attended by the stockholders owning 74% of voting shares. The stockholders decided to approve of the company’s annual report and of the accounting statements for 2005. They also approved of some modifications and amendments to the articles of the association. The stockholders decided to pass a dividend for 2005. They also elected the members of the company’s Board of Directors, seven in number, and the inspection commission consisting of three

Integrated Metallurgical Complex of Nizhny Tagil (NTMK JSC), member of Evraz Group, is preparing to put into operation a new circulation vacuum vessel at its oxygen-converter plant. The vacuum vessel is used to remove detrimental gases from molten steel. NTMK has already received the vacuum vessel equipment by now. The German company SMS-Mevac has completely fulfilled its liabilities under its contract with NTMK. However, NTMK is going to manufacture some necessary units and the teeming ladle cars for the vacuum vessel on its own. Now the builders are completing the installation works.

On May 17, 2006, Sverdlovsk Regional Court of Arbitration adjudicated the claim laid by Koltsovo Airport JSC against Ural Airlines JSC. The airport demanded that Ural Airlines and the plaintiff sign the contract of handing over some socially important establishments to Yekaterinburg municipality and bear expenses of the handover on a pro rata basis. The plaintiff’s claim is based on the total privatization plan designed in 1993 during the privatization of the state enterprise Sverdlovsk Airline and its further disintegration into Koltsovo Airport JSC and Ural Airlines JSC. As a result, the

Shareholders of power generating company OGK-2 and of water power plant approved of the amendments to OGK-2 Charter proposing a merger with GRES generating company on May 15, 2006. The amendments state that OGK-2 takes on full liabilities and rights of the latter, including the ones concerning debtors and creditors, form the moment the merger has been completed. OGK-2 currently includes water power plants of Pskov, Stavropol, Surgut (a 100% share holding), Troitsk (fully controlled by GRES generating company), and Serov. GRES has recently gone through a public offer of 17,285.574,300 ordinary

Dukkerhoff AG of Germany decided to construct two cement production lines for SuholozhskCement JSC. The launch of the first line in 2007 will allow the company to raise its cement output by 1.3m tons a year and thus produce up to 3.6 million tons annually. The second line (to be launched in the beginning of 2008) will make it possible to further increase the cement output by another 1.3m tons. The total investments will come to $150m. The project was discussed at the meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Governor Eduard Rossel with management teams of both German and regional cement producers. The new

Integrated Metallurgical Complex of Nizhniy Tagil (part of Evraz Group) started rearranging its railways due to No. 5 blast furnace construction currently in process. The furnace will be put into operation in the second half of 2006 and should change the way the intramural railroad network is used, so the company now has to have some 700 meters of new railways and 8 points to make sure the furnace is supplied with coke and the converter shop with iron 24/7. According to the company’s spokesperson, the reconstruction project was designed last winter and the work started as soon as it was warm

Integrated Metallurgical Complex of Nizhny Tagil (NTMK JSC), member of Evraz Group, renews the equipment of its man-caused formations processing shop. According to NTMK PR-department, two new forklift trucks and a Komatsu bulldozer have already been delivered to the processing shop, and the company is going to receive one more Komatsu calfdozer before the end of 2006. NTMK is also going to replace the specialized magnetic grab crane. The renewal of the specialized motor-vehicle pool is intended to reduce the repairs and preventive maintenance stoppages of the company’s man-caused formations

The total heat energy debt of Pervouralsk public utilities and private consumers to Sverdlovsk Public Supply Systems (SKS JSC) has reached 40.9m RUR, reports PR-department of SKS JSC. This debt comprises the debt of manufacturing enterprises (2.778m RUR) and of the local housing and communal services (.421m RUR). The organizations financed by the municipal budget owe 2.76m RUR to SKS JSC, whereas the debt of the local haulers comes to .964m RUR. There remain considerable arrears of compensations of price reduces for private consumers (4.593m RUR as of May 1, 2006). The amount of private

A meeting of Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel with President of Austrian Airlines Josef Burger and a group of Austrian journalists was held on May 16, 2006. During the meeting, Mr Burger indicated that the flights of Austrian Airlines launched in April 2006 are in great demand and that Sverdlovsk Region does have a lot of opportunities for doing business.

The executives of Integrated Metallurgical Complex of Nizhny Tagil are taking part in the workshop devoted to rail service durability that started in Yekaterinburg on May 16, 2006. Ural Institute of Metals, a state Russian scientific center, runs the workshop and provides for reports by Deputy Head of Integrated Metallurgical Complex of Nizhny Tagil’s Central Laboratory Vladimir Matveev, reports the company’s spokesperson. The Complex produces 250,000 to 300,000 tons of rails annually, mainly for the Russian Rail and partly for the countries of the NIS and the EU. The produce can boast a few

Following instructions from RosTelecom JSC, Yekaterinburg subsidiary of UralSvyazInform JSC will be disconnecting users owing them money for long-distance and international calls between May 16 and May 23. The procedure provides for several stages: firstly, about 4,000 users will be disconnected on May 16, and then 300 businesses with greatest debts will be disconnected on May 17. After that, all the other debtors (legal entities with debts over 300 RUR and natural persons with debts over 50 RUR) will be gradually being disconnected during the remaining several days. Some 20,000 natural

Annual shareholder meeting of Chelyabinsk Mains JSC will be held on June 13, 2006. The points on the agenda include agreeing on the company’s financial achievements in 2005, P & L distribution, electing the Board and the inspection committee as well as the company’s Auditor. The shareholders will also have to agree to the amendments to the company’s Charter.

The Board of Directors of Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgical Industrial Complex JSC scheduled the annual shareholder meeting for June 29, 2006. The shareholders will have to decide on merging with Marganets Komi JSC and Vladprom and Co CJSC, approve of the annual report and the accounting report, including the P & L statement. The Board suggested that the shareholders pass the ordinary share dividend for 2005. The other points on the agenda include electing the GD, the Board, the inspection committee, and the company’s Auditor.