United Company RUSAL’s aluminum output went up by 3.8% (from 1,962,637 tons to 2,037,236 tons) in January-June 2007, whereas the high-value-added production rose by 14%. This was brought about by the ongoing expansion, equipment upgrades, and improving on the aluminum plants’ technical and economic characteristics. The share of high-value-added production came to 52% of all the aluminum produced by United Company RUSAL, their press officer reports. Since the beginning of the year, the enterprise has mainly focused on developing new types of products for the car industry by launching special

Ural Turbine Plant (part of RENOVA Group) has successfully undergone an inspection for compliance of its production with Encertico power industry certification standards, the plant’s press officer reports. ‘The certifying procedure is voluntary, yet it is one of the major requirements RAO UES of Russia (our major customer) imposes on us. Besides, having a certificate can really help if you compete for a tender both at home and in the CIS,’ Ural Turbine Plant’s General Director Vladimir Ermolaev says. Encertico was designed specifically for power engineering industry, so the company willing to

Vice Chairman of Sverdlovsk Region Government Vladimir Vlasov held the Tourism Development Committee’s first meeting at Uralochka (one of Yekaterinburg’s largest sports facilities). The meeting was attended by heads of ministries, departments, and municipalities as well as travel agents, recreational facilities’ owners and top executives, some scientists, and practicing experts, the spokesperson for Governor of Sverdlovsk Region reports. The attendants decided to set up ten work teams that would concentrate on the development of sanatorium-and-spa facilities, environmental traveling,

Ural Airlines might consider acquiring a few super-modern Russian airplanes; the company’s top executives have already held some talks with Grazhdanskiye Samolyoty Sukhogo (Sukhoi Civil Aircraft) regarding the possible purchase of five Superjet 100 planes. ‘We’ve looked into the technical characteristics of the aircraft and gave our future business partners all the data on the potential travel routes so that they could calculate the economic characteristics as well. The planes will probably be supplied in 2009-2011; given that this company will only produce its first planes in 2008, we are

Yekaterinburg Customs (part of Ural Customs Administration) evaluated the results of their performance in the first half of 2007; their freight turnover went up by 17.5%, amounting to 1.8 million tons. The commodity turnover rose by 20% and reached nearly $3.4 billion, Ural Customs Administration’s press officer reports. The number of freight declarations increased by 13% and came to 30,000, with about 98.6% of them processed within a day and 99.9% related to export of goods. Yekaterinburg Customs managed to collect 4.6% more fees and duties than the authorities had planned for them in