March 17, 2015. Ural division of Rostechnadzor (the state work safety watchdog) completed its investigation of an accident at UMMC’s Sredneuralsky Copper-Smelting Plant. The accident was caused by poor work organization and equipment defects, the division’s press service reports. It was determined in the course of the inquiry that a pile of hot dust collapsed through the inspection window of an electric filter and injured the cleaner who was examining the inside of the machine. ‘The inquiry committee detected the following causes of the accident: design defects of the filter and poor work

March 17, 2015. Last year, Ural Federal District turned out to be the second worst federal district in the country to invest in transport infrastructure projects, INFOLine’s research findings indicate. ‘Transport infrastructure projects are big in Central Federal District (238), while North Caucasian Federal District (31) is in the last place,’ the agency says. According to INFOLine, only 75 such projects are being implemented in Ural Federal District at the moment.

March 17, 2015. Yekaterinburg is a universally recognized business travel destination thanks to the great quality of its hotel service, Executive Director of Ural Tourism Association Mikhail Maltsev told UrBC. Maltsev says that Forbes Magazine listing Yekaterinburg as one of Russia’s top ten cities with European quality service is one proof of his point. ‘Any positive publicity is good for the city, this is a plus. On the whole, I’m confident Yekaterinburg truly deserves to be at the top of various ratings: a number of coordination committees and professional communities in cooperation with

March 17,2015. It now takes an average of five months to sell an apartment on Yekaterinburg existing homes market; some places don’t get sold for a year, says head of Ural Chamber of Real Estate’s Analytical Department Mikhail Khorkov. ‘Quite a few sellers tend to overestimate their offer’s actual worth and set the market’s highest asking price from the start. In most cases, this results in the seller having to reduce their prices,’ Khorkov said. This was the case for about 18% of apartments offered for sale via the Chamber’s database in February 2015. Under 3% of property owners decided to

March 17, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation is launching a new professional development program for its technicians, who will be able to upgrade their skills at the subsidiary of National Research Nuclear University MEPhI in Lesnoy, Sverdlovsk Region. The head plant’s employees will be given courses in computer programming, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘Today’s engineer/technician must be able to do computer programming in order to be on a par with operators and programmers. Our course is meant to minimize the risks as well as to solve the problem of operator and programmer

March 17, 2015. A number of production departments at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) set new local performance records, MMK reports. The company’s furnace shop produced the record-setting 10.28m tons of pig iron using its eight blast furnaces in 2014. The steel-smelting department made 13.03m tons of steel, which is the best result since 2007 and second best result since 1991. The oxygen converter shop produced over 10m tons of steel. The coke and by-product processing department produced some 5.6m tons of coke last year, which is the best result since 2004 and the second best