UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 30, 2017. Sverdlovsk Region’s school libraries are going to get new books published with support from SKB-Bank, the banks press service reports. The bank-sponsored books will be given to libraries as gifts. One of them is a work of fiction called A Blockade-Burned Life and focuses on memories of Leningrad wartime residents who came to the Urals and Yekaterinburg (then known as Sverdlovsk). Some copies have already been presented to local public libraries and Yekaterinburg schools. The book came out in Yekaterinburg in 2015-2016 upon Wartime Leningrad Union’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 30, 2017. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development and Harbin Bank Co Ltd signed a bilateral agreement on trade financing in December 2016; this is part of an earlier cooperation agreement, the bank’s press service reports. Under the terms of the new contract, both parties promise to finance their customers’ export/import transactions with their Chinese partners. Any currency can be used for the purpose, including the Chinese renminbi and U.S. dollars. ‘Chinese banks are known for their cautiousness and a conservative approach to business. I see an

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 30, 2017. Sinara Development is now offering special terms to customers looking to buy a new home in Volgograd. If you sign a sale/purchase agreement before March 31, 2017, you are entitled to a 150,000-ruble discount, Sinara Group’s PR Department reports. Also, special terms are offered to those planning to buy their new home on a mortgage. ‘For those considering a mortgage, Sinara Development came up with a 1,000-ruble discount on every square meter, which will reduce the overall interest burden. If you buy a one-bedroom apartment that is 55 m2 big, for example,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 30, 2017. Rosset’s Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems upgraded the high-frequency choke units at its 220-kilowatt Kholmogorskaya-Kogalym main in Western Siberia, the company press service reports. The goal is to make electric power transfer between Yamalo-Nenetsky and Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Regions more reliable, as this is where the key oil and gas companies are based. Three high-frequency chokes at the 500-kilowatt Kholmogorskaya Station in Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous District were reinforced with suspended insulators to improve their performance in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 30, 2017. 30% to 40% of food items on sale at Sverdlovsk Region supermarkets and grocery stores come from local producers, Deputy Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Vysokinsky said at Sverdlovsk Region Union of Industrialists & Entrepreneurs’ recent meeting. Vysokinsky feels the relatively small share of local goods on the market is one of Sverdlovsk Region’s key problems. ‘The Mid-Urals’ trade turnover amounts to over 1 trillion RUR. We spend 10bn RUR buying building materials, for example, and only 5% to 7% of these are actually made in Sverdlovsk

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, January 30, 2017. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) sold 1,135,500,000 kg of zinc-coated rolled metal goods last year, which was an absolute record in the company’s operating history. ‘The previous record (1,115,700,000 kg) was set at the end of 2014. The plant keeps increasing its zinc-coated produce output for the last fifteen years now. We launched two highly productive continuous galvanizing units at our coating department in 2002 and 2008 and an extension to our cold-roll unit (a continuous galvanizing unit and a combined continuous