August 6, 2013. 10,000 sq m of housing was put up in Sverdlovsk Region in six months of 2013; the target figure was 13,200 sq m. In addition, 58km of pipelines were laid, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s press service reports. So 145 families were able to improve their living conditions under the Social Development of Rural Areas through 2013 Program; before the end of this year, 53 more families are expected to move to new dwellings. 185m RUR are expected to be allocated to the rural areas housing construction in 2013. 123m RUR will be provided by Sverdlovsk Region’s budget and the rest will

August 6, 2013. MegaFon Ural is now giving its subscribers a chance to watch thousands of films in Russia’s most popular online movie theater ivi.ru without any extra charge for the Internet traffic, the company’s press service reports. Ivi.ru is visited by over 15m unique users every month. This year, ivi reports, the website gets 125 to 150 million hits monthly. ‘People increasingly prefer to watch their favorite films and series at a suitable time and do not like depending on a TV program. MegaFon Ural subscribers who use the mobile carrier’s mobile Internet connection can now enjoy not

August 6, 2013. 240,000 sq m of private housing was put up in Sverdlovsk Region in January-June 2013, which is 23% more than a year earlier, the region’s government’s press service reports. At the same time, the amount of housing commissioned in the first half of the year was 8% more than in the first half of 2012 and came to 389,000 sq m. The volume of housing construction affected the demand at the building materials market as well. For one, the floor tiles production rose by 2% in January-June 2013 and the brick production increased by 5%. Sverdlovsk Region Government is planning to have

August 6, 2013. Prices for all the basic types of building materials rose in all parts of Russia over the last month: this was the conclusion made by experts from the National Costing Pricing & Value Engineering Association (NASI). According to these experts’ research findings, the single-piece wall materials prices rose by 2.4%, cement became 1.9% more expensive, and ready-made slurry became 0.7% more expensive. The price of non-ore building materials increased by 0.4% and the price of ferrous metal stock used in the building industry rose by 0.2%.

August 6, 2013. NLMK Electrotechnical Steel Director Valery Shevelev succeeded Sergey Makurov in his position as the Director-General of VIZ-Stal, the enterprise’s press service reports. Shevelev is going to combine his new duties with the responsibilities of NLMK Electrotechnical Steel Director. What is more, he will also be in charge of running NLMK subsidiary in Yekaterinburg – NLMK Ural. Now Shevelev actually was the head of VIZ-Stal before, in 2006-2007.