UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, March 14, 2016. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) delivered 86,000,000 kg of metal goods to its customers in the shipbuilding industry last year, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by nearly 11%, the company reports. In fact, MMK has been increasing its sheep steel output for the second year in a row. In 2014, 37% more produce (78,000,000 kg) got shipped to shipbuilding companies than in 2013. MMK is currently responsible for up to 50% of all the metal goods supplied to customers in the Russian shipbuilding sector. United Shipbuilding

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 14, 2016. Over 700 complaints relating to debt collection agencies’ actions were submitted to Sverdlovsk Region’s police last year, head of the Criminal Investigations Department at the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry’s local division Evgeniy Logvinsky said at a press conference. Remarkably, the number of complaints remained under 200 only one year earlier, in 2014. According to Logvinsky, most complaints have to do with collectors’ threats, damage to private property, personal insults, slander, and petty crimes. ‘Despite the growing number of locals’ complaints,

UrBC, Moscow, March 14, 2016. Ural Federal District construction industry’s output was estimated at 663.2bn RUR last year, which was 13.2% less than in the year 2014. In Sverdlovsk Region, the output figures dropped by 15.2%, Sverdlovskstat reports. As it happens, Ural Federal District’s share in the overall construction activity in the country currently comes to 11.2%, with builders and developers most active in Khanty-Mansiysky and Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Districts, whose outputs in the sector amounted to 184.1bn RUR and 181.1bn RUR, respectively. Building materials and products

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 14, 2016. The telecommunications provider MegaFon’s subscribers sent or made over 26m texts, voice messages, and calls on International Women’s Day, the company press service reports. ‘Residents from Komi, where an average call lasted more than two minutes, proved the most talkative subscribers in the country, followed by those in Kirov Region and Khanty-Mansiysky and Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Districts,’ the press service says. People living in the Urals sent a record-breaking number of texts, with most of these sent from Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk Regions.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 14, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s corporate loan book rose by 16.6% last year (thanks to, among other things, an increase in the number of issued LCs) and reached 123.5bn RUR on January 1, 2016, the bank’s press service reports. According to the bank’s analysts, the increase mainly had to do with the re-evaluation of the company’s foreign currency assets (27.35% of the bank’s portfolio at the moment). 70% of corporate loans are working capital loans; the UBRD issued almost no investment loans last year due to economic factors. The bank’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 14, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation adopted a head plant retooling program for the year 2016, the company press service reports. More than 2bn RUR have been allocated for the purpose this year, which is comparable with last year’s figures. This is expected to cover purchase and delivery of up-to-date technological equipment and capital construction costs (the preparations necessary for the installation of and power supply for the new machines). ‘Just like in the previous years, the new equipment will be obtained for all of the head plant’s primary production