March 25, 2014. Uraltransmash (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation) is going to expand its tramway production to 250 to 300 units a year, the company DG Alexei Noskov said at a recent meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Designers Union. According to the corporation's press service, he said in his presentation that over the years the company's tram production department had developed seven different tram makes and a range of their modifications. The trams produced by Uraltransmash are used in Yekaterinburg, Moscow, Samara, Nizhniy Novgorod,

March 25, 2014. A unique technological process that allows for much greater wear-resistance of pumping and compression string couplings was recently patented by Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ, a member of ChTPZ Group). PNTZ thus became Russia's first pipe manufacturer to introduce the thermodiffusion zinc coating technology for pumping and compression string couplings with the use of zinc powder that has nano-grain surface structure, the company's press service reports. The idea is to use totally new zinc powder for thermodiffusion coating whose particles are covered with some

March 25, 2014. Starting from January 1, 2014, MegaFon subscribers located in the Mid-Urals have downloaded over 1.5 petabytes if data, which is 90% more than a year earlier. This data traffic equals a million films, which is comparable with the collection that Russia's State Film Fund, the world's largest cinema archive, has, MegaFon's press service reports. Yekaterinburg residents set a record in terms of mobile Internet connection use among Sverdlovsk Region-based customers. MegaFon subscribers in Yekaterinburg download an equivalent of 135,000 movies (some 200, terabytes)

March 25, 2014. One of Logopark Pyshma's creditors, Linartico, appealed to Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court, asking to declare the general creditor meeting and its results illegitimate, the court's papers state. The company representatives also ask that Logopark Pyshma's trustee in bankruptcy postpone the first creditor meeting till after the court makes a ruling on all the creditors' claims submitted within the time limit provided. Now Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court declared Logopark Pyshma insolvent on November 25, 2013; the insolvency claim was submitted by

March 25, 2014. The Russian light commercial vehicle market might sag considerably enough in 2014, LCV sales might drop by 15% to 20%, GAZ Group LCV Development Director Pavel Sereda told reporters. 'We definitely expect a certain decline given the current economic situation. Our forecast is a decrease of 15% to 20%,' Sereda said. He explained the decrease would have to do with the weakening of the ruble that will affect foreign car sales first and foremost, Prime reports. The European Business Association announced at the beginning of January that new LCV sales were expected to

March 25, 2014. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) increased its output of goods with polymeric coating by nearly a third last year, MMK Senior Manager for Local Sales of Coated Metal Goods & Tin Products Sergey Pikalov announced at the 9th International Conference on Zinc-Coated and Painted Rolled Stock Production & Consumption Trends. MMK produced 1,170,000,000 kg of coated metal goods in 2013, which was 29% more than in 2012. The company made 825,000,000 kg of galvanized products (+40.5% on 2012) and 345,000,000 kg of products with polymeric coating (+7.8% on 2012) last

March 25, 2014. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) increased its coated products output by nearly one-third in 2013, Senior Manager of the company's Local Coated Metal Goods Sales Department Sergey Pikalov announced at the 9th International Conference on Zinc- and Paint-Coated Rolled Products. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works produced 1,170,000,000 kg of coated metal goods in 2013, which was 29% more than in 2012. 825,000,000 kg of galvanized rolled stock were made (+40.5% on 2012) and 345,000,000 kg of rolled stock with polymeric coating (+7.8% on 2012). Such a considerable

March 24, 2014. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ, a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) and Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation signed a cooperation agreement in the field of cadre training. The document was signed right after the closing ceremony of the annual conference of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs that was, among other things, dedicated to setting up a totally new employment structure and employment terms as well as to improving the quality of industrial cadre training, PNTZ press service reports. It was suggested that companies could learn from

March 24, 2014. Visa and MasterCard blocked all of SMP Bank’s card transactions this morning without any preliminary warning, the lending institution’s press service reports. ‘Our customers, however, can take out any amount of money via our ATMs and cash desks as well as via any of the 23,000 ATMs that the United Settlement System comprises,’ the bank reports. All the other transactions, including cashing in on deposits and payment transactions, are available as usual and without any restrictions. The bank has not been informed on cancellation of services on the correspondent accounts abroad

March 24, 2014. As of March 18, 2014, 21.3bn RUR worth of taxes flew in Sverdlovsk Region budget, which was 0.9% less than a year earlier. The corporate income tax revenues were down by 27.5% (2.3bn RUR), yet the personal income tax revenues rose by 22.7% (the same 2.3bn RUR), Sverdlovsk Region Finance Ministry reports. ‘In 2014, Sverdlovsk Region’s economy has been stagnating so far, which tells upon the local budget revenues,’ the ministry explains. All in all, 21.3bn RUR worth of obligatory payments were made to the federal constituency’s budget as of March 18, 2014. This comes to 14.2% of

March 24, 2014. Sverdlovsk Region Public Property Management Ministry made 19 of its most popular services available electronically. 11 more services will become available online within the next two years, the Ministry’s press service says. All in all, the Ministry offers locals 30 types of government services, including 18 services in the field of land law, 10 services in the field of cultural heritage protection, and 2 other types of services. Converting government and municipal services into an electronic format is one of the key areas in the government system of governance’s at the

March 24, 2014. A walking tour of the would-be fan zone for the world football championship of 2018 was coordinated in Yekaterinburg recently. The zone will be 1.5 hectares big and is large enough to host 5,000 to 7,000 people. The site will probably be ready by the beginning of summer. A 60-square-meter screen (Russia’s biggest) will be installed there, the city news portal says. ‘Yekaterinburg will host the World Cup matches in 2018, so this year the Mid-Urals’ capital can have a rehearsal of sorts. The rehearsal will consist in creating a fan zone in our Central Culture & Leisure Park

Recently it’s been fashionable to talk about a new wave of economic crisis. Production is in stagnation despite the constant modernization course. Professional staff regularly appears in the labor market though employers complain that there is nobody to be hired. Oil and gas sector remains the only significant source of budget revenues, while the basis of the economy - small and medium business - suffers from corruption. And all these features are very familiar to us. Once again, the regions are elaborating projects to attract foreign and domestic investment in their development by

March 21, 2014. Six new German high-precision Heckert units and Austrian WFL numerical program control units meant for making spare parts for up-to-date engines were recently installed at Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ., a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) advanced technologies production site, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. ‘These are the most advanced metal-cutting units available at the moment. This sort of equipment is used by the leading machine-building companies in the West and in Russia, companies that lead the way in technological and technical

March 21, 2014. The gross domestic product of Sverdlovsk Region amounted to 1,484.4bn RUR in 2012 (in current prices), Sverdlovskstat reports. In comparison with the year 2011, this was 7.1% higher; the deflation index against the year’s average for 2011 was 7.4%.

March 21, 2014. Chelyabinsk Tube-Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) had over 500,000 RUR worth of new equipment installed at its roll-forming and tooling department (in charge of making spare parts) within the framework of its upgrades and production enhancement program, ChTPZ Group’s press service reports. ‘The new-generation plasma heat treatment unit is meant for surface treatment of the spare parts and tools for the pipe-making departments that are made at the roll-forming and tooling department. The purpose of the treatment is to make the metal wear-resistant. The hardening comes to 0.8mm-1.2mm, and

March 21, 2014. In 2013, the net profit of Fat-Processing Works (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) dropped by nearly five times. The figure stood at 504.197m RUR in 2012 and decreased to 105.808m RUR last year, the enterprise’s report states. As for the company’s revenues, these reached 5.749 bn RUR in 2013 against 5.096bn RUR in 2012.

March 21, 2014. Ural Electrochemical Plant (UEIP) is now actively implementing its project called Production Site Topology that is part of a new strategy adopted by TVEL, a fuel company. The strategy is aimed at leadership in the non-nuclear, yet promising, segments of industry. The idea is to locate new production facilities on the premises of currently unused and soon-to-be-available production sites at UEIP (some 34,000 sq m altogether), the company’s press service refers to the Project Curator Andrei Fedorov’s report as stating. To ensure speedy communication with the potential site

March 20, 2014. Some 8bn RUR will be directed to the technical upgrades of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil this year. According to the corporation’s press service, the main focus is on upgrading the mechanical assembly section. ‘The modernization program for the head plant will be several-fold and will include, among other things, the projects that were embarked upon in 2013. More than 1.1bn RUR will be directed to this. Nearly 660m RUR will be directed to the development of innovative railway products, and some 540m RUR will be spent on

March 20, 2014. The official unemployment rate was registered at 1.24% in Sverdlovsk Region on March 1, 2014. This was 0.11% lower than a year earlier (1.35% on March 1, 2013). In 23 towns and cities within the federal constituency, the figure was actually even lower than in Sverdlovsk Region on the whole, the local Economics Ministry’s press service reports. The number of the unemployed registered with the state-run employment agencies was 28,506 on March 1, 2014. The number of job openings advertised by the local employers is actually 1.4 times greater than the number of the unemployed.