UrBC, Chelyabinsk, July 31, 2018. MetalloInvest and ChelPipe Group agreed to set up a new research/engineering center together to work on new, innovative steel types and to focus on their steel produce’s quality improvements, ChelPipe Group’s press service reports. The decision to set up the center was taken during the coordination committee meeting at MetalloInvest’s member enterprise Ural Steel. ‘MetalloInvest has, in fact, been doing business with ChelPipe Group for many years now; a new research/engineering center will help take this long-time partnership to a new level: the Group’s

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 31, 2018. MMK Group’s Shlakservis is about to start making a new type of ground-granulated slag mix that is currently unique to Russia and other NIS member states, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. The slag is used in the process of steel-pouring at CC machines. Shlakservis has been making this product since 1992 and has had both the granulated slag and the technology patented by the Russian Patent & Trademark Agency. Last year, the company researchers cooperated with casting labs at G.I. Nosov Moscow State Technical University and Peter the Great

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 31, 2018. MegaFon Ural’s engineers recently completed a large-scale upgrade of the mobile commutator in charge of processing calls within Sverdlovsk Region, the company press service reports. MegaFon’s new equipment has expanded the network’s overall capacity by five times to ensure ever more traffic can get handled even at maximum workload points, that is, during large-scale sports and entertainment events and festivals. Substituting the appliances relating to the company’s mobile commutation center came to be called SWAP, to imply change and replacement. It took

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 31, 2018. Ural Airlines and Belavia are now offering their customers tickets for code-shared connecting flights to and from Minsk. According to Ural Airlines’ press service, Minsk-bound flights will be available from any of the airports where the air carrier is active, with a stopover in Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport or Saint Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport starting August 1. ‘Working together with Ural Airlines means our customers can enjoy new travel options. Thanks to these new code-sharing agreements, our Belarus-based passengers can choose among a wide range of

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 31, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) allocated RUR 2.8m to help local schools get overhauled/remodeled in time for the new academic year, MMK Information & PR Department reports. The money was directed to new sanitary fixtures, building materials, and construction work that is currently in full progress at the schools involved. MMK Group’s member enterprises have been supporting local schools for quite a while now. In addition to helping with repairs and improvements, the companies also get engaged in job counseling events, offer guided tours of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 30, 2018. Rimera Group’s Rimera Service in Noyabrsk (part of ChelPipe Group’s oilfield division) made and supplied to the plant its first pilot batch of 177 pumping and compression pipes (diameter: 73 mm) made by order of Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant/ChelPipe. The pipes come with wear-resistant retaining devices. According to ChelPipe Group’s press service, the retaining devices ensure that the threaded parts of the pipe remain airtight even after numerous landings and pulling out of strings; they also prevent any damage to the pipe surface, which expands the

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 30, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Rolling Department was founded eighty-five years ago on Saturday, July 28, MMK Information & PR Department reports. The plant’s first Blooming/Billet Mill 2 was launched on July 28, 1933. This was the beginning of the plant’s rolling production facilities. The German company Demag was in charge of designing and manufacturing all the necessary blooming equipment. The USSR People’s Commissar for Heavy Industry G.K. Ordzhonikidze attended the launching ceremony. Mill 2 and two consecutive Continuous Billet Mills 630

UrBC, Moscow, July 30, 2018. A new law might be adopted in Russia in April 2019 that will make it obligatory for smartphone and computer manufacturers to preinstall Russian-developed web browsers, mail services, audio playing programs, and other apps on their products, Kommersant reports. This initiative is part of a ‘roadmap' on promoting competition that the Federal Antimonopoly Service presented to the government. The bill is to be elaborated by the Communications Ministry and co-elaborated by the FAS and the consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor. According to the proposed

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 30, 2018. Yekaterinburg’s Kirovsky Court ruled that OOO Lukoil Permnefteprodukt would have to pay a local driver RUR 210,000 in compensation for the damage done to her car after it had been filled with the wrong kind of fuel, Sverdlovsk Region Court’s press service reports. The woman had her Hyundai Creta filled by an employee at a Lukoil station at 49 Vysotsky St in Yekaterinburg in January 2018; the motor died on the same day and wouldn’t restart. The driver took her car to a mechanic, where it was determined that the tank had been filled with the wrong fuel. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 30, 2018. The air in Yekaterinburg still contains dangerous amounts of formaldehyde first recorded on June 22; the concentration is believed to be hazardous to human health. According to Ural Weather Service, the formaldehyde content index stood at 1.8 points on average throughout the last thirty-plus days. On June 18-20, 2018, the index peaked at 2.4. ‘The formaldehyde index stood at the standard 1.8 points on July 23-25, 2018, which is indicates an increased emission status,’ the Service says.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 27, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) and VTB Strakhovaniye Zhizni are offering their customers Family Fund life insurance program. According to the bank’s press service, the program is meant to help a family build up on their savings and put aside enough of a safety cushion for a rainy day. Life insurance is a long-term investment mechanism that helps to save up for something big like your child’s education or retirement on the one hand and is an insurance product that grants you access to your reserves in case of an insured event.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 27, 2018. Miners at EVRAZ Holding’s Yerunakovskaya 8 Mine are now working on new Long-Face 48-6, with estimated 2,900,000,000 kg of valuable GZh coal reserves, the company press service reports. Long-Face 48-6 is located more than five hundred meters below the ground. The mine is fully fitted with highly productive stoping appliances supplied by Joy to ensure output of 250,000,000 to 300,000,000 kg of coal a month, depending on the mining and geological conditions. The Australian controlled drilling machine VLD 1000 was used to drain out excess gas within the mine

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, July 27, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) coordinated a fire safety drill and a contest for amateur firefighters at the plant, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. The annual contest is part of the company’s overall civil defense, emergency prevention, and fire safety program for 2018. The goal is to make sure there are enough para-firefighters at the plant who are trained and prepared to act in case of fire and who are proactive in ensuring fire safety at the plant. 56 different teams from the plant’s production departments and MMK Group’s member

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 27, 2018. EVRAZ Holding funded a sports playground for preschoolers of Kindergarten 66 in Nizhniy Tagil. The project was the winner of EVRAZ grant contest for the city. According to the company press service, the playground cost RUR 400,000. The up-to-date playground came to replace an abandoned swimming pool that hadn’t been used for forty years and was actually a hazard to the children’s safety. All the old reinforced concrete and metal structures were removed from the site (total area: 200 m2) and replaced with a fresh layer of concrete, rubber coating,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 27, 2018. Summer Trip Festival will be held in Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy on August 18, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. ‘You can enjoy the summer warmth and recreational mood in one of Yekaterinburg’s most promising and highly developed districts. The center of Akademicheskiy will turn into a summer sea resort with sun beds, golden sandy beaches, and beach umbrellas. Several popular local bands as well as the show headliners Zveri and Svetlana Loboda will perform for you on the big stage,’ the press service says. This year’s festival is

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 26, 2018. A special theme summer camp stay sponsored by MMK Group’s trade union is now over at Gornoye Ushchelye Children’s Center. the company press service reports. The project was first tried out a year ago when MMK Group’s trade union decided to support and educate a group of high school students at the camp and to introduce them to the basics of trade union leadership. This year, the trade union decided to support and train the entire camp. A certain production department of MMK Group got assigned to every stay-in building in the camp. The children got to elect

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2018. Ural Airlines introduced an additional Moscow-Barnaul flight this July, the air carrier’s press service reports. The flight is operated from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport at 9:30 PM every Friday; departure time for the return flight is 6:50 AM. The flights are operated on Airbus A320 planes, with both Business and Economy seats available, between July 13 and September 8, 2018. Prices for Economy class tickets start from RUR 9,000 (one way, all fees included). You can book your tickets on the company website www.uralairlines.com, through Ural Airlines mobile

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 26, 2018. A special cycling race took place in Magnitogorsk on Saturday, July 21 in celebration of Metallurgist’s Day. According to Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works’ PR Department, this is the tenth time the race has taken place in town. The event was coordinated by the town council’s PE, Sports & Tourism Department, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works, MSTK Sports Club, Magnitogorsk Cycling Federation, Young Metallurgists’ Union, and the non-profit Dvizheniye. The forty-kilometer-long cycling race took off from the memorial in Stroiteley St and then through

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2018. Rosset’s Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems completed upgrading its 500-kilowatt Sibirskaya Power Substation; the substation is part of the power-generating system pertaining to Surgutskaya Power Station 2, Russia’s largest heat and power station. The news was announced by the FGC UES Western Siberia division recently. FGC UES invested RUR 635m in the project to ensure the more reliable power supply to end users in Yugra and the oil and gas companies operating in the area. For one, the station’s protection relays and automation devices got upgraded,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2018. ISP/mobile carrier MegaFon offers an alternative TV viewing option for Yekaterinburg locals to offset the 2.5 weeks without the regular TV they will have to deal with while the TV tower in Lunacharsky St is being repainted. Everyone can now watch their favorite shows, films, and series using MegaFon TV free of charge, the company press service reports. The tower will be under remodeling for the next three weeks (working hours only). While the painters are working on it, MegaFon’s mobile app will serve as a substitute. To get access to your free TV channels,