October 22, 2013. The Deposit Insurance Agency State Corporation determined the way payments should be settled with the former depositors of Uralfinprombank in the course of a meeting which the creditors took part in, the corporation reports. Uralfinprombank’s license was annulled on December 20, 2013 because the bank found itself with no funds of its own. On February 7, 2011, the bank was declared insolvent, and the Deposit Insurance Agency was appointed the trustee in bankruptcy for the business. The bank will start repaying the first-priority creditors, whose claims are on the creditors’

October 22, 2013. Yekaterinburg Council adopted a strategic project called the Internet & Telecommunications Options for Everyone that means that 85% of the city’s parks, cafes, and shopping malls will have a wireless Internet connection access spot by 2020. The city council’s press service also says that over 90% of the local households will have a high speed Internet connection as well. The total length of fiber optic connection cables in Yekaterinburg is expected to reach 5,600 km over the next seven years. The implementation of this strategic project will make Yekaterinburg Russia’s

October 22, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region Business Support Fund by now stopped accepting applications for upgrades and leasing subsidies. The money is allocated within the framework of the state-run SME support program that offers over 30 different support mechanisms, the Fund’s press service reports. 205 leasing subsidy applications were submitted by entrepreneurs from Yekaterinburg, Kachkanar, Kamensk-Uralsky, Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Novouralsk, and other local towns during the second selection round. Also, the fund received 102 upgrades compensation applications, most of which came from Beloyarsky,

October 21, 2013. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation announced the results of its traditional amateur Olympics in 2013. 18,000 representative of 13 member enterprises took part in the event, including such companies as ChTZ-Uraltrac, Plant 9, Uraltransmash, UNTK, UKBTM, UVZ, and others, the corporation’s press service reports. Workers of all ages and professions took part in the competitions. 53% of participants were under 35 years old, 35% were 35 to 50 years old, and 12% were over 50. During the year, the corporation’s employees competed in running, swimming, skiing,

October 21, 2013. The Expert Magazine carried its annual rating of 400 largest companies in 2012. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) was 41st among the top 50 large businesses of the CIS in terms of labor productivity. This is the best result among all the Russian metallurgical enterprises, the company reports. In terms of sales, MMK, with its 289.9bn RUR worth of revenues (these are the consolidated data calculated in accordance with the IAS) was 27th on the list, which is one position up from last year. There are 200 major Russian companies on the list, and MMK is 34th in terms of

October 21, 2013. The workers of Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) planted over 100 apple and lime trees and birches in the new park that is now being constructed in the north-east of Chelyabinsk Tractorozavodskoy District, says the press service of Uralvagonzavod Corporation, of which ChTPZ is a member. It was the plant’s trade union that proposed holding a large-scale planting event. The initiative was supported by activists from the plant’s various divisions. The foundry department, as well as the forging, the tool-making, the power, the engine, and the design ones directed their employees

October 21, 2013. The Chinese business community is quite familiar with Sverdlovsk Region and Yekaterinburg. For one, the constituency cooperates with Guangzhou, Guzhen, and Liaoning, Consul for Education Issues and attaché of the People’s Republic of China in Yekaterinburg Li Bin told reporters during a press breakfast. ‘Yekaterinburg is known in China as the sister city of Guangzhou, this is why the Province of Guangzhou pays special attention to its economic ties with Yekaterinburg. Guzhen and Liaoning also have very strong ties with the Mid-Urals. This is particularly true of the tourist,

October 21, 2013. On Monday, October 21, Sverdlovsk Region Court will complete the hearing of appeals relating to the case of Alexei Kalinichenko and will return its verdict, the court press service informed UrBC. Now Yekaterinburg Leninsky District Court declared the mastermind of financial pyramid schemes Alexei Kalinicheko guilty of large-scale fraud (Article 159 (part 4) of Russian Federation Criminal Code) in May 2013. The man was accused of stealing over 1bn RUR and was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison. The pleading party asks for the sentence to be annulled on the grounds that is both

October 18, 2013. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ, a member of ChTPZ Group), is going to support the development of the city cinemap. The City Code Project is now being implemented within the framework of a partnership with Russia's Culture Ministry on the construction of a New Culture Palace, the enterprise's press service reports. The cinemap will comprise over a hundred different video clips created by ten residents of Yekaterinburg and Pervouralsk. According to the project coordinator Anna Selyanina, the plot elements of the cinemap were prepared during the first five-day

October 18, 2013. UC RUSAL is going to cut its aluminum production by 647,500,000 kg, or 15% in 2014 compared with 2012. In 2013, aluminum production cuts amounted to 324,700,000 kg, or 8% of the 2012 production output, the company reports. The aluminum production is now zero at Volgograd, Volkhovsky, and Ural smelters, at Novokuznetsk smelter's Site 1, and at Nigeria-based ALSCON. Production was also stopped at Sections 2,3, 4, and 5 of Bogoslovsky smelter (Section 1 was frozen in 2011) and in Sections 1 and 2 of Nadvoitsky smelters (Section 3 was frozen in 2012). 'RUSAL keeps

October 18, 2013. Ural Rubber Goods Plant Board of Directors wants to sell its daughter company Chkalovsky Fuel & Energy Complex, the company's official message states. The Ural Rubber Goods Plant BOD is meeting on October 24, 2013 to look into the directive for the Director-General to sell a 100% share in Chkalovsky Fuel & Energy Complex's authorized capital. Chkalovsky currently belongs to Ural Rubber Goods Plant; the selling price should be at least as big as the one to be determined by the BOD. According to official reports, Chkalovsky Fuel & Energy Complex was set

October 18, 2013. UVZ Logistic is planning to buy over 2,500 railway carriages with enhanced freight capacity of 75,000 kg from Uralvagonzavod in 2013. The freight forwarder currently operates 1,800 such carriages, but UVZ Logistic is actually expected to have 8,000 of them by the end of 2014 and to add 5,000 more carriages to this fleet every year, Uralvagonzavod's press service reports. Buying the innovative carriages will both help the company expand its fleet of vehicles and serve as a weighty competitive advantage, as enhanced freight capacity stands for many benefits for both the

October 18, 2013. 727,000 sq m worth of housing was commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region in nine months of 2013. This was 8.9% more than a year earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. Nevertheless, the figures for September 2013 are still 20.9% lower than for August 2013, and 1.5% lower than in September 2012.

October 17, 2013. The second forum of young metallurgical industry workers will be held on ChTPZ Group's premises on October 21-25, 2013. The idea behind this Innovators Club is to set up a unique platform for sharing experience where the engineers could get plenty of useful ideas, share their unusual solutions to burning production problems, and present their promising developments, ChTPZ Group's press service says. The club's first meeting took place on the premises of Interpipe in the spring of 2013 and united pipe manufacturers from the Urals and metallurgical industry

October 17, 2013. The first meeting of Sputnik Club's board of trustees took place in Nizhniy Tagil town house. The board has Mayor Sergey Nosov, Deputy Mayor for Social Policies Valeriy Surov, Sputnik Chairman of the Board Alexander Smelik, the club's senior coach Alexander Chelushkin on it, as well as Deputy Executive Director of the Supreme Hockey League Oleg Sutormin, Uralvagonzavod Corporation's press service says. Now the corporation is the general partner of Sputnik Hockey Club. Uralvagonzavod is represented on the Board by Deputy DG for PR and GR Alexei Zharich and

October 17, 2013. Ural Airlines keeps expanding its destinations network around the CIS and is now launching a new, direct flight from Ufa to Yerevan. On November 8, 2013, the first flight to the Armenian capital will be operated from Ufa. The new scheduled flight will be offered every fortnight, on Fridays, the air carrier's press service reports. 'Yerevan is not only the capital of Armenia but also a city of 'eternal holiday' where people can take their rime strolling in the streets, among parks and gardens. For those who want to go mountain skiing but does not have a

October 17, 2013. Nearly 3,000 violations of the existing labor protection legislation have been revealed in Ural Federal District since the beginning of 2013, the spokesperson for the district division of Russia's General Prosecutor's Office reports. 'The prosecutors carried out an inspection to detect all the cases when employers did not meet their obligations in terms of providing safe working conditions and allocating for this purpose at least 0.2% of the production expenses from the company budget. To make the employers comply wit these labor law requirements, the

October 17, 2013. The workforce of the Russian Federation had a total of 3.169bn RUR worth of unpaid wages as of October 1, 2013, Rosstat refers to the employers (excluding the small businesses) as reporting. This is 18.3%, or 490m RUR, more than on September 1, 2013. The arrears of wages resulting from the companies lacking their own funds was 3.092bn RUR, or 97.6% of the total amount, on October 1, 2013. This is 449m RUR (17%) more than on September 1, 2013. The arrears of wages that were due to the fact that subsidies from all sorts of state budgets were late amounted to 77m RUR, which was

October 17, 2013. MMK Group completed its deal on purchasing a 12.77% shareholding in Belon on the OTC market. As a result, the former’s stake in the coal company exceeded 95%. ‘This transaction has meant a consolidation of a large shareholding in Belon and meeting most claims of minority shareholders to having their shares in the company bought out by us,’ MMK reports.

October 16, 2013. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) set the record of making more than 750,000,000,000 kg of steel. According to the experts’ estimates, if the Egyptian pyramids were made of MMK steel (that is, if replicas of the largest one, the Pyramid of Cheops, were produced), this much steel would suffice to make forty of them. ‘Remarkably, MMK has reached this very important point in the Russian metallurgical industry in its ‘anniversary’ year: the company celebrated its 80th birthday in the summer of 2013, as the first open-hearth furnace was launched there on July 8, 2013,’