January 30, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil put two hydraulic presses (800,000-kg one and a 5,500,000-kg one) into operation. The presses are meant for bending and molding of parts. The corporation’s press service reports all the installation and start-up jobs were done by experts from Russian companies; this was, in a way, a rehearsal of mastering new products such as the innovative gondola cars 12-196-01. The presses were under upgrades for the entire year 2014, with no production stoppages. Most of the jobs were completed by Chelyabinsk-based Komponent, which

January 30, 2015. ChTPZ Group’s Training Center was given the status of WorldSkills Russia’s Specialized Center; it will now be used for training contestants for the professional skills championships. The decision, which is part of the strategy to develop Ural Engineering School, was made by Sverdlovsk Region Education Ministry. Contestants will train in four fields: Mechatronics, Mobile Robotic Science, Numerically Controlled Turn/Mill Operation, and Welding, the Group’s press service reports. The Center’s primary task is to ensure the teams are ready to compete in

January 30, 2015. RSG-Akademicheskoye’s technical council came up with the architectural solutions for Blocks 35 and 38 in Yekaterinburg’s Academic District; the prospective blocks will appear next to Shirokaya Rechka. OOO Master Plan is going to act as the project developer, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. Designers have already provided explanations of buildings and other structures to accompany the architectural design. The total living floor space will come to 142,800 m2. According to the project, the apartment buildings will be linked by non-living premises and special

January 30, 2015. POS terminals are enjoying increasingly greater demand on the part of food and flower delivery services this winter, Bank Koltso Urala’s press service reports. The bank’s Cash & Settlement Services Director Kirill Sorokin points out that only big-city businesses used to be interested in providing cashless payment options for their customers; companies from much smaller and provincial locales are now asking for POS terminals as well. This winter, a number of delivery services (florists, pizza companies, Japanese food restaurants, and supermarkets) also applied for these.

January 30, 2015. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) launched more online sales channels over the last few months. Last October, an agreement was signed with Emarsys, an international business that offers professional email marketing solutions. This helps the UBRD find new customers over the Internet and reliably keep its customers notified of all the important news, the bank’s press service reports. According to Online Sales Development Director Anton Ogorodnikov, texts and emails serve as an efficient sales channel for the bank. These deliver information on new

January 29, 2015. 8,000 m2 worth of pavilions have been booked for Innoprom International Industrial Exhibition in Yekaterinburg so far, Maxim Zverkov announced at a recent coordination committee meeting. Zverkov is President of Formica Group, the event coordinator, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department reports. This year, the 6th Innoprom Exhibition will be held on July 8-11; the event will be mainly dedicated to Production Efficiency. Five specialized sub-exhibitions will be organized for the first time this year, with a special focus on import replacement and

January 29, 2015. ‘Uralvagonzavod Corporation approved of and adopted its quality management system for 2015-2017. The document applies not only to the corporation’s head plant but also to its Volchansk, Rubtsov, and Chelyabinsk subsidiaries as well as to Nizhniy Tagil-based Ural Railway Carriage Design Office,’ the corporation’s press service says. According to the press service, the company’s strategy is targeted at enhancing produce competitiveness, ensuring its unfailing quality, reliability, and safety, improving its QMS and business management system efficiency, and annual certification

January 29, 2015. Head of Yekaterinburg Council Culture Department Tatiana Yaroshevskaya presented a project on Hermitage-Urals Center, the city council’s press service reports. ‘Yekaterinburg (known as Sverdlovsk at the time) was the only city to store the State Hermitage Museum’s unique collections. Thus it would be only fair to open Hermitage-Urals Center at our Fine Arts Museum. The State Hermitage experts, including the museum’s Director Mikhail Piotrovsky, have visited Yekaterinburg quite a number of times; these visits resulted in the architectural and conceptual project. We have a

January 29, 2015. The court ruled that Bank Renaissance Credit should pay the money obtained illegally from customers back, Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor reports. It became clear after looking into the loan contracts that the bank forced its customers to pay for an insurance policy when signing a loan agreement; the fee came to 0.8% to 1.1% of the loan amount for every month within the loan period. Under the terms of the contracts, the bank was supposed to open a (bank card) account for the borrowers and engage in transactions set forth in the contract. Now Paragraph 1.2.2.6

January 29, 2015. Corporates’ deposits at the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development have been growing faster than the market’s average, Expert RA, an international rating agency, states in its monthly banks’ ratings. The amount of money deposited with the UBRD increased by 65% between December 1, 2013 and December 1, 2014, the bank’s press service reports. ‘Corporates’ deposits went up the most: the increase came to over 50% in the course of one year, which had to do with both the arrival of new customers and the growth of existing clients’ deposit volumes. Remarkably, the settlement

January 28, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko received a thank-you letter from Russian Defense Minister Yuri Borisov, who expressed his gratitude to Sienko and the entire Uralvagonzavod team for ‘meeting their defense contract 2014 obligations and providing munitions and military and special-purpose vehicles in full.’ According to the corporation’s press service, Yuri Borisov also thanked the company for organization and coordination of the United Military Produce Acceptance Day, which was thought of very highly by the Defense Ministry and government officials.

January 28, 2015. Three vans full of new equipment arrived at ChTZ Uraltrac (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation); these were spare parts for the modern dipping unit from Byelorussia, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘This was the last delivery, but not the first one. The plant already received a number of wash tanks at the end of fall, and now we have a spin drier, a boiler, mixing taps, screens, and a platform,’ the press service says. The dipping unit is meant for polishing small defects on the castings. A special compound with liquid silica for the primary ingredient

January 28, 2015. Medialogia carried a media rating of the most important Russian banks in 2014 using the banks’ MediaIndex data. Sberbank, VTB, Alfa-Bank, Promsvyazbank, VTB 24, Khanty-Mansiysky Bank, Raiffeisenbank, Binbank, and MDM Bank were among the country’s top ten banking businesses, Banki.ru reports. As many as two Yekaterinburg-based banks were among the top forty banks: the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (URBD) moved fifteen points up and was given the 25th position, Bank Koltso Urala was given the 40th position in the rating. A number of banks actually lost their

January 28, 2015. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) is going to be the only supplier of large-diameter pipes for the construction of a football stadium in Samara; the stadium will be necessary for the world football championship of 2018, ChTPZ Group’s press service reports. Under the terms of the contract, the plant will supply 6,700,000 kg LDPs to Kurganstalmost (the manufacturer of metal frames for the stadium) in January and February. A shipment will comprise a variety of LDPs (diameter range 530mm to 1,220mm, wall width 12mm to 40mm) made of K60 steel. To meet this order, customized

January 28, 2015. The trade turnover of Sverdlovsk Region-based businesses came to 4,626,711,000,000 RUR in January-December 2014, which was 9.4% more than in 2013, Sverdlovskstat reports. Wholesale and retail traders, car mechanics, and repair shops’ accumulated turnover stood at 2,266,502,000,000 RUR; this figure was 13.7% greater than that for the year 2013 and proved the highest among all industries. The turnover figures were the smallest when it came to the fishing industry: the figure stood at 24.5m RUR, which was 36.6% less than in 2013.

January 27, 2015. An upgraded tramway 71-409 made by Uraltransmash (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) was delivered to Volgograd, the corporation’s press service reports. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko and Governor of Volgograd Region Andrei Bocharov agreed to have the upgraded 71-407 and 71-409 trams tested during their recent meeting. The technicalities of these performance tests were discussed at Uraltransmash Director-General Alexei Nosov’s meeting with Assistant to Governor of Volgograd Region Vassiliy Galushkin and Metroelectrotrans

January 27, 2015. Urals-based Rimera (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) supplied over 1,100 product units to Fortum, ChTPZ Group’s press service reports. The product shipments comprised 108-1,220mm mounting components made from 20, 09G2S, and 17G1S-U steels and stainless steel 08X18N10T, bends drawn through a displacement tube, and reducing fittings made by SOT. These are meant for upgrading jobs at Chelyabinsk Hydro Power Station, the strategic source of electric and heating power for the city. Rimera delivered the energy company 550 product units for the first power generating unit as

January 27, 2015. The controlling shareholding in Koltsovo Airport was sold to Regional Airports Management Company (a member enterprise of Renova Corporation) in the course of an auction, Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Public Property Management reports. The 17.5% shareholding was sold for the opening bid amount (1.259bn RUR). Regional Airports Management Company was the only bidder. ‘Viktor Vekselberg’s company has the buy-out priority, so there were no other bidders for the shares,’ the ministry says. Sverdlovsk Region Government still owns a little over 17% of the airport’s shares. Now

January 27, 2015. Russia’s Construction Ministry announced the first finalists in the annual urban development contest chaired by Deputy Construction Minister Natalya Antipina. Yekaterinburg’s Academic District and a project of an A+ energy efficient apartment building in Yekaterinburg were among the nominees, the ministry’s press service reports. The Academic District Project won in the Best Completed Energy-Saving Project for Economy Class Housing category. The Construction Ministry says this is one of the most important categories in the contest, so it was suggested by the judges’ panel

January 27, 2015. Food prices rose by 16.1% in Sverdlovsk Region last year, Sverdlovskstat reports. This increase was nearly 2.5 times larger than in the year 2013, when the figure stood at 6.8%. Among the food items whose prices went up most dramatically were cabbage (2 times), buckwheat (1.8 times), and sugar (1.5 times). Besides, the price of beef and pork went up by 15% to 29.6%, as did that of frozen chicken, smoked and cooked sausage, and deli meats. Milk and dairy products grew 14.8% more expensive, the price of rice rose by 29.2%, that of hard and soft cheeses increased by 19.9%, that