January 25, 2013. This year, Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant’s personnel training center is planning to have 3,800 employees undergo professional development programs. This is a record-setting number, as last year, only 3,600 workers were trained; in 2011, the figure was 3,150, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. The number of workers who improved on their professional skills rose from 11% to 17% of all the staff. So now the metal casters, press operators, pump unit operators and other workers who underwent production and technical development programs have been entitled to higher

January 25, 2013. In 2013, 5.242bn RUR will be invested in Sverdlovsk Region’s agricultural industry, the regional government’s Press Service & Information Administration reports. 2.67bn RUR will be directed to issuing short-term loans needed to do all the seasonal agricultural jobs and to process the agricultural raw materials; 1.97bn RUR will be used for investment loans needed to buy vehicles and machinery, to build, re-build, and upgrade the crop-raising and animal husbandry facilities and to develop the infrastructure and logistics for the crop and animal produce markets, including

January 25, 2013. In 2012, 97,348 new cars were sold in Yekaterinburg last year, which was 14%, or 12,278 cars more than in 2011. In December 2012, 8,277 vehicles were sold, which fell short of the number for December 2011 by 3% or 209 cars, Auto-Dealer Yekaterinburg reports. Lada is still the best-selling car on the market, even though its sales actually declined by 56 automobiles compared to a year earlier. As a result, the share of Russian cars on the Yekaterinburg market came to 15% in 2012 compared with 21% in 2010 and 17% in 2011. Once again, Chevrolet proved the most popular foreign

January 25, 2013. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) adopted a new policy on setting exchange rates for its cash-based foreign exchange transactions: the spreads (the difference between the buying and selling price) was reduced by 0.33 RUR against the dollar (compared with 0.4 RUR) and by 0.48 RUR against the euro, the bank’s press officer reports. ‘This is above all beneficial for our customers,’ says UBRD Foreign Currency Transactions Director Ruslan Khamzin. According to Khamzin, the new exchange rate policy will decrease the bank’s returns on every single

January 25, 2013. A large-scale Baptism Day diving event was organized at the sports facility of Morzhi Sinary that is sponsored by Sinarsky Pipe Plant (a part of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK). The event was attended by over 3,000 people of all ages, including the plant workers and the residents of Kamensk-Uralsky with their children. The full-time Morzhi Sinary Club members and some voluntary assistants among the plant workers cleared the road and the site in advance, set up some lighting and made the ice hole in the River Kamenka with some warning signs. They also built the stairs to get

January 24, 2013 According to the interactive announcement board at Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport, Flydubai Airlines’ flight arriving from Dubai to Yekaterinburg is now delayed by three hours. The original arrival time of the flight from the United Arab Emirates was 4:10 PM local time on January 23, but now the arrival has been postponed till 7:10 PM due to bad weather conditions.

January 24, 2013 As part of Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s technical upgrades program, the assembly of a 75-ton pouring crane began at the head plant’s open-hearth department. The use of the crane will help to reduce the workload of the cast-house. What is more, the installation of modern equipment will allow the company considerably to improve the employees’ working conditions, Uralvagonzavod’s press service reports. The new crane, manufactured in Ukraine, came to replace its worn-out and obsolete counterpart made as early as 1969. This is a specialized kind of a pouring crane that has two

January 24, 2013 Governor Evgeny Kuivashev allocated 500m RUR to build the Titanium Valley special economic zone; the project is now being presented in Davos, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Politics Department reports. At the moment, the construction of the main natural gas pipeline (which will be 8.5 km long and 500mm wide) began in the Titanium Valley; also, the construction headquarters are being set up, and a 6-5km-long fence is being built. In addition, some of the facilities are about to be connected to the electric power supply networks, and a 110/10 substation with the

January 24, 2013 More than 250,000 people entered Russia through Koltsovo Airport’s passport control point in 2012, which is 30% more than in 2011. This increase has to do with a greater number of flights being operated as well as with the transit travel of foreigners, Deputy Head of Russia’s Federal Migration Service’s Sverdlovsk Region division Yuri Bezborodov announced at a press conference. 303,00 foreign residents registered with the migration authorities in Sverdlovsk Region last year against 270,000 people a year earlier, so the increase amounted to 12%. ‘Last year, as for the

January 24, 2013 Governor Evgeny Kuivashev and a group of other Russian delegates headed by Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev are now taking part in the World Economic Forum that took off on January 23 in Davos, Switzerland, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Politics Department reports. The Russian delegation intends to present Yekaterinburg’s application for hosting the World Universal Exhibition EXPO 2020 at the forum. The forum is attended by Vice Premier and Head of Russia’s EXPO 2020 Application Promotion Committee Arkady Dvorkovitch and the Director-General of the EXPO 2020

January 23, 2013. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) is going to complete the fulfillment of its Byelorussian contract this January when it delivers the last 15 bulldozers out of 100 vehicles ordered by the customer, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. Now in accordance with the tender the tractor manufacturers won in late 2012, the company was to ship a number of swamp tractors and road-building vehicles in three months’ time, and the company was able to meet these requirements. Some of the bulldozers that have already been shipped are being used for the hydraulic engineering

January 23, 2013. The January issue of the metallurgical trade magazine Metallosnabzheniye I Sbyt carried a rating of the country’s leading manufacturers and suppliers for ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgical produce in the second half of 2012. The traditional rating of the Russian metallurgy sector’s best producers and traders was based on the customer questionnaires, surveys of the metal market experts, and a multi-faceted analysis of the companies’ activities. The best enterprises were singled out with the help of the following criteria: business development dynamics, shipment volumes,

January 23, 2013. Sinara Pipe Plant (SinTZ), a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK, is now investing in the technological upgrades of its company firefighting team in order to improve the working conditions and reinforce the professional skills of the firemen, TMK’s press officer reports. Thanks to some help from the plant’s management, the firefighters got 10 new Omega-1 breathing apparatuses, 5 life-saving apparatuses, and 7 Yermak-18 knapsack tanks. What is more, in 2012, eight firefighters were trained through a first-level rescue rangers course at the Federal Firefighting Service’s

January 23, 2013. The federal retail supermarket chain Lenta is about to start building its outlet in Nizhniy Tagil. A supermarket with the total area of 12,000 sq m will be located in the district of Alexandrovsky, next to Uralsky Ave. The opening is scheduled for the fall of 2013, the company reports. ‘Nizhniy Tagil will become Sverdlovsk Region’s first city to get this chain’s supermarket. This is one of the region’s largest cities with high salaries, so it has good potential as well as very moderate federal players penetration rate,’ the company feels. Lenta, which runs a chain of

January 23, 2013. In 2012, Koltsovo Airport (a member of Regional Airports Holding) offered its services to 3,783,069 passengers, which was 12.7% more than in 2011, Regional Airports Management Company’s Strategic Communications Department reports. The greatest increase (23.4%) was registered in international flights: 1,849,053 people flew internationally, while 1,934 passengers used the company’s domestic flights. All in all, 21,728 takeoff and landing operations were performed at Koltsovo in 2012; this was 7.9% more than a year earlier. Freight forwarding turnover went up as well: the

January 22, 2013. A charity event called Soft Hockey was held at Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s Ice Sports Palace. The match played by Sputnik team (sponsored by the corporation) was attended by supporters who brought along some soft toys for the children living in the orphanages of Nizhniy Tagil, so, at the final whistle, they threw these onto the ice, the corporation’s press service reports. The match with the Tver hockey club was prolonged with an overtime, and Denis Guriev got a bullet in the fourth minute of the overtime period. The Sputnik forward snatched at

January 22, 2013. The Russian Public Opinion Research Center recently carried some data on how Russians think of their financial status and on how they are planning to spend their money in this new year 2013. The center analysts observe that the Russian citizens’ estimates of their own economic situation improved considerably last year and reached an all-time high: the corresponding index came to 68 points compared with only 58 points a year earlier. About 12% feel that their economic situation is ‘good’, while 72% estimate their status as ‘average’. The share of those who think of their

January 22, 2013. Ural Airlines announces its prices for flights to Yekaterinburg to Barcelona, Munich, and Tel Aviv are going down. Starting January 21, the airline’s customers can book tickets at very appealing prices: starting from 18,200 RUR for Yekaterinburg-Barcelona flight and from 18,600 RUR for Yekaterinburg-Munich flight. This is the price of a round trip tickets with all the fees and charges included. This offer stands till March 9. The price of a round trip ticket from Yekaterinburg to Tel Aviv comes to 14,500 RUR with all the fees covered. Tickets can be booked for departure

January 22, 2013. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation won in three categories of the All-Russian Government & Municipal Purchases Leaders in 2012. The corporation was placed on the federal registers of the Russian economy’s key enterprises, conscientious suppliers, and budget-efficient customers, the corporation’s press officer reports. The competition was coordinated by the International Investment Consulting Center. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation proved its compliance with the Russian Federation law as a budget process participant, its capacity

January 22, 2013. Verkh-Isetsky division of Russia’s Federal Service of Court Officers Sverdlovsk Region Department instituted criminal proceedings against a sole trader, with charges based on Article 177 of Russia’s Criminal Code, Russia’s Federal Service of Court Officers Sverdlovsk Region Department’s press service reports. The court actually pronounced its ruling as early as 2010, but the accused Yekaterinburg dweller never complied with it, so criminal action was taken. Under the ruling, the sole trader had to pay a bank 4,280,851.24 RUR (debt plus legal fees). The court officer of