November 20, 2013. The Expert-Ural magazine carried a rating of the Urals and West Siberia-based companies that were most actively engaged in innovative activity in 2012. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) proved the most active among all the metallurgical companies in this territories.

The rating was based on the data from the annual accounting reports published on the companies' official websites and in the information/analytical system SPARK. Geographically, the scope of the rating covered Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk Region, Orenburg Region, Tyumen Region (including Khanty-Mansiysky and Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Regions), Kurgan Region, Perm Territory, Bashkortostan, and Udmurtia.

The research focused on the companies that operate in the industrial sectors of economy and in the supporting industrial infrastructure (transportation, logistics, constructions, energy, and so on). The research findings were presented in two tables: the main rating, where companies were ranged on the basis of the balance sheet value of their scientific research and development outcomes as of late 2012, and a sub-rating, where companies were ranged on the basis of their spending on complete and incomplete R&D projects in 2012.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works and MMK Group member enterprise MMK Metiz were among the top 20 in the main rating and among the top ten in the sub-rating (the 4th and the 9th positions, respectively). This is the best result among all the metallurgical enterprises in the Urals and Western Siberia.