October 28, 2013. Ural Airlines took yet another one of its A320 planes out of operation after the leasing term has expired, the airline’s press service reports. The air carrier currently operates 30 Airbus aircraft. This year, the company took one A320 out of service. These airplanes, made in 1992-1993, were in service for five years. It should be noted that the company’s development plan for the next three years says the airline will be operating as many as 50 foreign aircraft in the future, including long-haul wide-bodied airplanes. Ural Airlines were one of the top five Russian air

October 28, 2013. The Pipe Electric Welding Department of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ, a member of ChTPZ Group) is celebrating its 20th anniversary these days. The technological line of the electric welding mill 10-76 was launched in 1993. A year later, the automatic refrigerator pipe line was launched there as well. Later on, the lines for making shock absorbers and section pipes were installed as well. Director of Department 15 Evgeny Ilyin says that his department is the only one in ChTPZ Group that makes small-diameter pipes of various section kinds. ‘The electric welding

October 28, 2013. One of Vietnam’s Defense Ministry divisions in Hanoi is going to receive a B12 bulldozer produced at ChTZ (one of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s member enterprises). The delivery contract was signed with some support from the plant’s sales intermediary, Nga Fat, and resulted from a tender, the corporation’s press service reports. Nga Fat is the company’s second official dealer in Vietnam. The dealer used to buy spare parts from the Chelyabinsk plant on a regular basis, and a few years ago it started selling its tractors on the local market as well.

October 25, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region Tourism Development Center is launching a new app for iPhone and iPad in November. The app is a tourist guide on Sverdlovsk Region for those who’d like to explore the area on a driving tour, the center’s Director Elmira Tukanova says. ‘The main idea behind the app is to motivate both the locals and the residents of our neighboring constituencies to look at Sverdlovsk Region’s landmarks and plan weekend trips for their families. There are a lot of filters in this application that will allow the user to shape a holiday in accordance with the most suitable

October 25, 2013. Court officers imposed a 90-day ban on all the operations in the acids and formaldehyde warehouse of Russian Chrome 1915 because of grave industrial safety violations, says the spokesperson for Sverdlosvk Region division of the Federal Service of Court Officers. The scheduled inspection of the enterprise by the head of the Ural division of Rostechnadzor for Chemical Industry Surveillance revealed numerous violations of industrial safety regulations. For one, the pump station is actually in total disrepair, is full of see-through cracks, brick wall and roof defects; there is

October 25, 2013. Ural Airlines launched five new flights from Moscow to Bishkek and back. Starting November 1, 2013, one can fly to the Russian capital from Bishkek every day of the week except for Monday and Tuesday, the airline’s press service reports. The company values its customers’ time highly and designs the timetable in a way that offers a convenient time slot for both departures. This means the residents of Bishkek will be able to depart for Moscow in the early morning (5:30 AM), do their business there and fly back at 10:00 PM and thus save a lot of time. Now when in Moscow, these

October 25, 2013. Kristall, an up-do-date thermal cutting unit meant for cutting sheet metal, made in Saint Petersburg, is now being assembled at Uralcryomash, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation member enterprise, Uralvagonzavod's press service reports. This is the first such machine at the cryogenic facility. The launch of this unit will mean the company won't have to buy spare parts on the side any longer; this will also increase the precision of the produce parameters and will improve labor productivity. The new equipment costs 8m RUR. Kristall can perform two

October 25, 2013. The Director-General of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Boris Dubrovsky proposed a number of initiatives at the Economic Policy Council Meeting under the Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District. Dubrovsky said the large-scale modernization of the Russian metallurgical enterprises' production facilities over the last decade has resulted in a resource base that the Russian machine-building needs to develop. Now conditions have to be provided by the state to upgrade technological equipment and therefore to increase

October 24, 2013. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation is going to take on between 5,000 and 14,000 people by 2020 for its Nizhniy Tagil-based facilities alone, Uralvagonzavod Managing Director Vladimir Roshchupkin said at the Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Igor Kholmanskikh’s meeting with the representatives of metallurgical and machine-building enterprises today, the corporation’s press service reports. Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Igor Kholmanskikh chaired a

October 24, 2013. The employees of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation spoke very highly of the speed of Nizhniy Tagil’s development. The corporation’s press service a meeting chaired by the Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Igor Kholmanskikh in Nizhniy Tagil that was dedicated to the multi-faceted development of the city’s infrastructure. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev said that the Region’s Government and the city council developed a program on the all-round development of Nizhniy Tagil in 2013-2016,

October 24, 2013. Chelyabinsk Region-based Mikheyevsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise is going to be launched in late 2013, Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevitch said at the Economic Council under the Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District in Yekaterinburg. According to the Governor, this enterprise is one of the most promising projects in the area, despite some signs of an economic downfall. ‘At first, Mikheyevsky is expected to produce about 60,000 to 65,000 tons of copper a year,’ Yurevitch noted. When complete, this

October 24, 2013. The losses incurred by metallurgical and machine-building companies based in Ural Federal District increased by 3.5 times in the year 2013, Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Igor Kholmanskikh said at an Economic Policy Council meeting in Yekaterinburg today. He explained that things grew more complicated in the machine-building and the metallurgical fields as of late, so in the nine months of 2013 these branches’ production indices dropped below zero. ‘This resulted in layoffs and an increased number of unpaid leaves as

October 24, 2013. According to Sverdlovsk Region Prime Minister Denis Pasler, a whole range of state-run programs was adopted for the constituency, with retained or increased last year’s budgets. ‘All the items relating to social welfare that we have to provide in accordance with the President’s decrees and the Governor’s requests got to stay on the list. We also voted for keeping the items to do with the area development in the future: these are budget items relating to the Construction Ministry, the Communal Housing Services & Utilities Department, the Agriculture & Foods Ministry,

October 23, 2013. 2bn RUR have been allocated from Sverdlovsk Region budget for the multi-faceted development of Nizhniy Tagil in 2013, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region's Information Policy Department reports. Another 20.2m RUR will be directed from the city budget to co-finance the project. So far, three tramway stations, some tramways, and the overhead wiring grid have been repaired. In addition, three new tramway carriages and three special-purpose vehicles were bought. Also, the roads in Kalinin St, Krugovaya St, and Dneprovskaya St were repaired, and 19 road-building and cleaning

October 23, 2013. Yekaterinburg Duma deputies approved of Alexander Yakob's candidacy as the City Manager, or Head of Yekaterinburg Council. 30 people voted for him and 6 people voted against. The tender for the position was held on October 16. The committee members interviewed nine out of ten candidates and decided unanimously that the current Head Alexander Yakob should be reappointed, as he 'is at a completely different quality level'. Alexander Yakob was First Deputy Mayor in 2006-2010 and was appointed Head of Yekaterinburg Council in 2010.

October 23, 2013. The unused industrial sites at Krasnoturinsk-based enterprises will be redesigned to serve as production facilities for certain kinds of building materials and spare parts. According to Sverdlovsk Region Government's Press Service & Information Department, the launch of building facilities in Krasnoturinsk will mean the town will be able to join the Northern Industrial & Building & Logistics Cluster. The goods produced in Krasnoturinsk will be sold through a Trading House that will be set up in Sverdlovsk Region to demonstrate the potential of the local

October 23, 2013. Expert RA Rating Agency recently carried an updated research on the amount of SME corporate loan books of Russian banks in the first half of 2013. According to this ranking, Bank Koltso Urala was the country's No. 6 in terms of the rate at which its SME loan book has been growing: this year, the increase amounted to 101%. At the same time, the bank also went up from the 79th to the 72nd position in terms of outstanding debt relating to SME representatives (not accounting for the loans offered to private individuals for business purposes). By July 1, 2013, the figure was

October 23, 2013. Yekaterinburg Council came up with a number of proposals for the local stage of preparing for the World Football Championship of 2018, Yekaterinburg Council's press service reports. The list of top-priority facilities the Urals' capital needs nicely to coordinate the Mundial events comprises four major sections: sports facilities, road and transportation infrastructure items, medical establishments, and public transport. The list of sports facilities is supposed to include at least three training premises for the footballers to get ready for their games, Ural

October 22, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region’s power stations produced 3,842m kilowatt-hours of electric power in September 2013 (including the electricity produced at the industrial enterprises’ power stations), which was 14% less than in September 2012, Sverdlovsk Region UES press service reports. ‘The decrease has to do with the operating mode of the Urals’ united energy system and with the fact that Sredneuralskaya Power Station produced less electric power in September 2013 because the number of facilities under scheduled and emergency repairs was greater than a year earlier,’ the company says.

October 22, 2013. UBT-Uralvagonzavod (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation) set up a scrap metal facility at Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ), another member enterprise. Uralvagonzavod’s press service says that the Director-General of UBT-Uralvagonzavod Sergey Varziyev, the company’s First Deputy DG Igor Korkunov, Director of UBT-Ekologia Vladimir Danilkin, and a number of other important visitors were invited to cut the symbolic red ribbon in the course of the opening ceremony. ChTZ, on its part, was represented by Deputy DG for Corporate &