April 24, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s food prices rose by 11.4% in March 2015 compared with December 2014; this was 4% more than in March 2014, Sverdlovskstat reports. Food items (excluding alcohol drinks) grew 12.4% more expensive (compared with 3.9% a year earlier). Vegetable prices rose the most, that is, by 47.9%; for one, garlic and cabbage grew 1.8 times more expensive, onions and cucumbers grew 1.6 times and 1.5 times more expensive, respectively, while the price of carrots, frozen vegetables, and potatoes, went up by 43.7%, 42.8%, and 36.1%, respectively. Fruits grew 34% more expensive;

April 24, 2015. The National Rating Agency confirmed the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s national rating at AA, their press service reports. The agency stressed the bank’s prominence on local markets, successful implementation of a chosen strategy, unfailing financial performance, and a conservative approach to risk assessment. The bank is believed to take counter-cycling measures quickly when necessary, which means the company can both react to changing macroeconomic factors and maintain a good asset and liabilities ratio as well as remain solvent and make sure its working

April 24, 2015. Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Plant’s Power Generating Unit 3 was stopped for scheduled repairs till May 27, 2015. This is the world’s only power-generating unit with a fast-fission reactor that produces electric power on an industrial scale. The unit has generated nearly 135bn kilowatt-hours of electric power in the last thirty-five years and is now responsible for 10% of power output in Sverdlovsk Region. Says Deputy Chief Engineer for Repairs Vladimir Zenitz: ‘The repairs are in full swing; the unit undergoes a wide variety of repair operations every four years; every specific

April 24, 2015. An agreement was signed by Uralvagonzavod Corporation and a number of Cuban industrial enterprises at the 13th Intergovernmental Russian-Cuban Trade & Economic and Scientific & Technological Cooperation Committee meeting in Kazan. The corporation’s press service reports UVZ Logistic, Cuba’s Grupo GESIME and Cuban Railways signed an agreement in the presence of Russian Vice Premier Dmitri Rogozin. The plan is to set up a transportation and logistics joint venture and to get the facilities of Planta Mecánica, a machine-building plant, upgraded. The plant will then deal

April 24, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant is now hosting an exhibition dedicated to the plant trade union’s 80th anniversary, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘The plant’s trade union is the largest one in the machine-building sector. The union was set up in 1922 when the construction of the industrial giant started; the first Collective Agreement was signed in 1933, and the first committee was selected at the trade union meeting in May 1935, which date is considered to mark the establishment of the union,’ the press service says. The opening page of the plant’s first

April 23, 2015. Over 250 residents of Sverdlovsk Region were deceived by a company that promised to pay off their bank loans, Sverdlovsk Region division of the Internal Affairs Ministry’s press service reports. The police say the swindlers operated in Yekaterinburg, Verkhnyaya Salda, Nizhniy Tagil, Nizhnyaya Tura, Kachkanar, Krasnouralsk, Serov, Severouralsk, Kushva, Kamensk Uralsky, and Krasnoturyinsk. ‘Victims signed an agreement with the company to provide 50% of the original loan sum, while the firm promised to pay the bank in full,’ the press service says. The company offices closed down

April 23, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation is taking part in TranRussia, a major international transportation and logistics services and technologies exhibition at Krokus Expo in Moscow. The exhibition opened on April 21. This is the second time the corporation and its daughter enterprise UVZ Logistic have joined the exhibition. UVZ Logistic has managed to become a major railway shipments market player and one of Russia’s top five freight forwarders with 42,000 freight cars since the day it was founded four years ago. Uralvagonzavod Corporation presents its

April 23, 2015. Yekaterinburg Radio Equipment Plant might decide not to pay any dividends for the year 2014; this is what the Board of Directors suggested that the shareholders vote for at the annual general meeting. ‘Our recommendation is to support the proposed profit distribution scheme and not pay any dividends for the year 2014,’ the plant reports.

April 23, 2015. Refinskaya Power Station (a member enterprise of Enel Group) is responsible for one-third of the overall environmental pollution caused by Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprises, Interregional Environmental Prosecutor Larissa Larina said in her interview to UrBC. ‘Companies in the energy sector are the primary pollution agents in our area, and Reftinskaya Power Station is the biggest problem. The station still produces 33% of all the harmful emissions in Sverdlovsk Region. A scheduled inspection was carried out there last year, with Rospotrebnadzor checking its compliance with

April 23, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant hosted an off-site meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly. Members of Social Policy and Infrastructure Development & Housing Policy Committees talked about ways in which large industrial companies and government authorities could cooperate to promote social partnership and improve the city infrastructure, the corporation’s press service reports. Uralvagonzavod HR Director and Nizhniy Tagil Duma deputy Sergey Saranchuk said the plant was implementing its Social Development Program, with focus on physical education and

April 22, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation developed KTsKh-PKM25/0.4, a new tank container with barrel made of composite materials. According to the corporation’s press service, the tank container has no counterparts anywhere else in the world and is a promising new product that will enjoy great demand on the isotainer market: at the moment, the only containers available for multimodal freight forwarding are steel ones. The innovative tank container is meant for transportation of hazardous cargo (including hydrochloric and ortho-phosphoric acids and natron) by automobile, sea, and 1,520-mm

April 22, 2015. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant/PNTZ (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) coordinated the second audit procedure at its aviation goods department and its authorized central testing lab. The audit was conducted by Material (an agency approved by the Interstate Aviation Committee’s Aviation Register), PNTZ press service reports. The company says the Interstate Aviation Committee experts spoke very highly of the plant’s data selection, processing, and analysis system, its unfailing product quality and technology, and great skills of the staff in charge. At the end of the audit

April 22, 2015. Russia’s GDP dropped by about 2% in the first quarter of 2015 compared with a year earlier, Interfax refers to Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev as saying at the State Duma meeting on Tuesday. According to Medvedev, the industrial output decreased by 0.4% compared with Q1’14. ‘All this isn’t the worst of the possible scenarios. To be frank, the situation with prices, unemployment, the banking system, and many branches of industry could be more complicated and threatening,’ Medvedev said. He added that the country had gone through ‘much more serious problems’ in 2009, when its GDP

April 22, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s stock of cattle went down by 1.3% (278,900 head of cattle) in March 2015 compared with March 2014, Sverdlovskstat reports. Pig livestock came to 332,400 (-1.3%), that of sheep and goats came to 64,600 (-3.8%), while poultry stock rose by 3.8% and amounted to 13.8m.

April 22, 2015. 20% of Yekaterinburg residents are planning to go abroad for their vacations this year, E1.Rabota’s research team states. 25% intend to stay in town, 31% will head for their dachas or countryside B&Bs, and 24% of respondents said they are going to travel around Russia. Based on the last year’s survey findings, 18% of Yekaterinburg dwellers haven’t had a vacation for over two years, and 9%of those surveyed said they only used 50% of their vacations. 42% take some time off conventionally, that is, for two weeks twice a year. 14% of respondents said one month’s paid holiday

April 21, 2015. Uralvagonzavod and Uraltransmash (member enterprises of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) organized training sessions for the tank crews who will operate their vehicles during Victory Day Parade on May 9. According to the corporation’s press service, the crew members were selected from among the candidates who had the best technical skills for driving military vehicles. ‘Forty tank troopers (eight officers and thirty-two private soldiers) from Naro-Fominsk Unit in Moscow Region trained at Uralvagonzavod and a group of military officers from Western Military District trained at

April 21, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant coordinated its annual improvement proposals contest; over three hundred workers from the plant’s 55 departments took part in the competition this year. ‘Our target improvement figures were exceeded by 3.13 times. All the departments and workers who contributed to this received money premiums,’ the corporation’s press service says. 310 improvement proposals were adopted by the plant in 2014 against 288 proposals a year earlier. This resulted in 65.3m RUR in savings (against 48.3m RUR in 2013). Additionally, the company spent 377,100 kg

April 21, 2015. The Key to Success, ChTPZ Group’s motion picture, won the first prize in the first Russian Man of Labor Film Festival, the Group’s press service reports. The prize was awarded by Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Igor Kholmanskikh and Russian Federation Hero of Labor Konstantin Chumanov. The Key to Success is a movie about The Future of White Metallurgy, the Group’s unique educational project implemented in cooperation with Sverdlovsk Region Government and Pervouralsk Metallurgical School. The movie focuses on the

April 21, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region Labor Department expects the local unemployment rate to increase by nearly two times this year, the department’s deputy head Natalia Bordyugova said at a press conference. ‘There are currently 32,000 unemployed people in the Mid-Urals. According to our forecasts, the figure could go up to 56,000 people in the short term. Unlike in 2008 and 2009, the government has not been supporting troubled enterprises on a large scale,’ Bordyugova said. According to the official, the official unemployment rate in the area has risen by 25% since the beginning of the year so

April 21, 2015. More than 370bn RUR were invested in Sverdlovsk Region’s fixed assets in 2014, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 3%, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Infomration Policy Department refers to Governor Evgeniy Kuivashev as stating. ‘This was the seven largest amount of investment among all Russian federal constituencies. In 2013, we were in the ninth place. By the end of this year, fixed asset investments will come to over 22% of the area’s GDP,’ the Governor said.