UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, October 19, 2016. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) keeps cutting down on energy spending by taking a set of different measures: encouraging improvement proposals, investing in low-budget, quick-payoff projects, and outsourcing power facilities maintenance. ‘MMK considered 251 improvement proposals on energy saving in the first eight months of 2016. This has saved the company 1,1321bn RUR. Also, a special electronic Power Management Platform was launched this year in order to make processing of innovative proposals more efficient. Some business

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 19, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant recently hosted a round table discussion on their inventors and innovators’ performance. The discussion was held on the eve of Inventor’s Day and was part of celebrating the plant’s special year: Ural Vagon Zavod was founded eighty years ago this month. According to the corporation’s press service, the foresight discussion and the conference participants’ reports were all dedicated to how an employee and their company can work together to enhance their intellectual potential. Some ten Ural Federal District-based

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 19, 2016. A smartphone purchased at MegaFon’s outlets throughout Russia cost more than 10,000 RUR on average in the nine months of 2016, the telecommunications provider’s press service reports. According to J’son & Partners Consulting, 7% of all the sold smartphones cost over 30,000 RUR, whereas two years earlier, their share was only 1%. ‘Smartphones are still the most popular item customers shop for at our outlets. This year, the more expensive 4G devices grew twice as popular as last year. Customers are also interested in LTE Advanced smartphones and often

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 19, 2016. 70% of all apartments home owners buy in Yekaterinburg’s Akademichesky District are purchased on a mortgage, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s Director-General Viktor Kisselev said at a press conference. ‘This year, 70% of all our purchasing transactions are mortgages. Our customers are mostly young people who cannot afford to pay in ready cash. February was our peak month, when the share of mortgage deals reached as much as 80%. It was not clear at the time whether the government would keep up with its interest-rate subsidies program. In fact, the subsidies are

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 19, 2016. Rosatom’s Ural Electrochemical Works (UEKhK) in Novouralsk is the first among Rosatom TVEL’s enterprises to work on the final disposal of radioactive waste, the company press service reports. The plant designed and found the funding for a near surface disposal facility for radioactive waste; this is currently Russia’s only facility where low- and very low-level radioactive waste can be disposed of safely and finally. Under the terms of the current legislation, the facility was handed over to the state-run National Radioactive Waste Treatment Operator.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 19, 2016. 1,272,800 m2 worth of new housing got commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region in January-September 2016, which was 27% less than one year previously, Sverdlovskstat reports. This figure includes 536,100 m2 worth of private houses, which was 35.4% less than in January-September 2015.