April 6, 2015. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant/ChTZ (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) is going to take part in the Victory Day Parade with tanks with the names of their creators on them. According to the corporation’s press service, the plant usually offers historic samples of combat vehicles from its collection for the parade, which takes place in Chelyabinsk on May 9. The collection comprises tanks that were designed or manufactured at the plant and that are now stored on its premises. Every spring, tanks such as T-34 and IS-3, SP guns such as ISU 152, and infantry combat

April 6, 2015. ChTPZ Group and Metalloinvest looked into their cooperation results of the year. For one, their joint 100% Quality Program proved very efficient, ChTPZ Group’s press service reports. ‘When we started thinking about the program a few years ago, up to 8% of our produce had defects of one sort or another. Things look completely different now, with deviations at under 0.01%. This means the system is working,’ says Metalloinvest Management Company Home Sales Director Andrei Prosyanik. Because all of the production and managerial processes got integrated, it only takes about three

April 6, 2015. A meeting of TMK Scientific & Technological Council dedicated to technical strategy and technical rationale for investment was held at Sinara Pipe Plant/SinTZ (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK). Production of threaded pipes with premium threaded joints at SinTZ was the main point on the agenda, the company’s press service reports. ‘The council member went on a tour of Pipe Rolling Department 2 and OCTG Department 4, where pipes with TMK UP premium threaded joints are manufactured. Experts spoke about the plant’s short- and long-term investment

April 6, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region made over 8bn RUR worth of loan payments in March 2015. Oblastnaya Gazeta reports the constituency’s debt stood at 51.1bn RUR on March 1, 2015. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Information Policy Department refers to Sverdlovsk Region Finance Ministry as stating that the debt amounted to 42.4bn RUR on April 2, 2015; this is 14.7% less than at the start of the year. ‘We have been negotiating with banks and getting our interest rates reconsidered and reduced; we are also trying to work with the Russian Finance Ministry to convert our commercial loans into state

April 6, 2015. Russian grain export halved after a levy was introduced on February 1, 2015, Prime reports. ‘Following the introduction of export duties, the amount of grain exported decreased by more than two times compared with last year in the course of just two months,’ the Agriculture Ministry representatives say. Incidentally, prior to February 1, the day the duty came into effect, grain export figures exceeded those for a year earlier by 30%. A 15% export duty (plus a flat sum of €7.5, minimum of €35 per 1,000 kg all in all) was introduced on February 1, 2015 to stabilize the domestic