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,’

October 16, 2013. Sinara Transport Machines presented a new family of diesel engines DM 185 at the 5th Ural Mining Industry Forum, the company's press service reports. The conference was dedicated to mining vehicles; experts from UDMZ (Ural Diesel Engine Plant, a member of Sinara Transport Machines) made a presentation on their new family of DM 185 diesel engines with the capacity of 750 to 4,600 kilowatts. The engines were designed by the plant for further use in the mining vehicles. After the business agenda of the forum was over, a tour of UDMZ was organized for the representatives of

October 16, 2013. Banki.ru, the information and analytics service, carried a rating of Russian banks based on the number of people they employ and on the median monthly pay in the first half of 2013. Bank Koltso Urala was featured in both lists, the bank's press service reports. The list features 100 largest banks in terms of net assets as of July 1, 2013. The data were obtained from the banks that publish their quarterly issuer ratings. According to the analysts behind the rating, 'the median pay was calculated on the basis of the banks' profit and loss statements (Form 102)

October 16, 2013. Sinara Development (a division of Sinara Group) took part in the international commercial estate and innovations exhibition called EXPO Real-2013 that was held in early October in Munich's largest exhibition facility, the company's press service reports. A layout of Bukatin Lug residential district was presented as one of the most promising among the multi-faceted area development projects in Volgograd Region. This is a public-private partnership that provides for the construction of low-rise apartment buildings, cottages, and town houses (total area over 200,000

October 16, 2013. 207,500,000 kg of potatoes were harvested in Sverdlovsk Region this year, which is 35,500,000 more than a year earlier. On average, the wholesale price comes to 8-10 RUR, and no dramatic price increase is to be expected, Deputy Minister for Agriculture & Foods Sergey Sharapov said at a briefing today. Sharapov does not think the vegetable prices are likely to go up sharply. He says, however, that potatoes are being harvested from very humid soil in most parts of Russia at the moment, which means the vegetables cannot be stored for a very long time. 'This might, in

October 16, 2013. According to Sverdlovskstat, a total of 727,700 sq m worth of housing was commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region in January-September 2013 through all sorts of financing. This was 9% more than in January-September 2012, Sverdlovsk Region Economics Ministry's press service reports. Private builders put up 55.7% of all this housing (405,200 sq m). This was 22% more than in January-September 2012. It should be noted that the commissioning of new economy class homes amounted to 50,200 sq m in Sverdlovsk Region in January-September 2013, which was 29% less than a year earlier. In

October 15, 2013. Public prosecution authorities are going to investigate the case of nitric acid leakage at one of the departments in Verknyaya Salda-based VSMPO-Avisma. The authorities are planning to look into the hows and whys of the accident and to determine the executives responsible for this, Ural Federal District division of Russia's General Prosecutor's Office says. Now what happened was a case of pipeline depressurization that was used for nitric acid delivery; a leakage occurred, resulting in one person getting injured and ten people evacuated. The residents of Verknyaya

October 15, 2013. At the moment, 30,231 residents of Sverdlovsk Region can't leave the country because of their debts. Their total debt from all sorts of court enforcement proceedings accumulates to nearly 15bn RUR, Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Service of Court Officers reports. More than 9,000 people out of the total number of those who can't travel abroad owe money on their children's allowance; they owe their children a total of 1,862,896,000 RUR. Since the beginning of the year, 982 debtors have paid off 261.828m RUR worth of their debts because they needed to

October 15, 2013. Vysota 239 Department of Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant made its large-diameter pipe 'anniversary' 200,000th large-diameter pipe (LDP), the company's press service reports. 'The LDP with the diameter of 1,420mm with both the internal and external corrosion-resistant coating and a blue brand strip that stands for steel strength grade K60 has been shipped to ChTPZ Group's key customer, Gazprom, along with the rest of the order,' the message states. 'Vysota 239 was launched in July 2010, this was the first facility within the so-called white

October 15, 2013. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation got a special prize in the Corporate Purchases Leaders Contest: it was awarded in the Special Category for its contribution to the development and promotion of competitive purchasing activity and making its purchasing policy efficient, the corporation's press service reports. 'In my view, this contest is a chance for the companies to show their potential and to demonstrate their development. This is a stimulus for further growth, for moving forward, for improving one's purchasing performance. The Corporate

October 15, 2013. Head of Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprise Experimental Plant and the South Korean company Samyoung Plant Co., Ltd talked about the possibility of setting up a joint venture for the production of crushing equipment in Rezh, Sverdlovsk Region Government's Press Service & Information Department says. Prior to starting negotiations with the South Korean company, Experimental Plant considered offers from 43 Chinese enterprises. However, the quality of their produce looked questionable to the Russian party. The South Korean party, in its turn, was able to offer the best

October 14, 2013. At least 400 public transport and road-cleaning vehicles will switch to the use of natural gas in the next 2 years. Gazprom-Gas-Based Motor Fuel is going to invest in the development of natural gas filling stations, but the scale of investments will actually depend on the number of fuel consumers. The agreement to this extent was signed by Governor Evgeny Kuivashev and the gas company’s Chairman of the Board of Directors Viktor Zubkov. The Governor explains that converting a portion of public transport vehicles to natural gas-based motor fuel will improve the environmental

October 14, 2013. Experts from Ural Scientific Research Works (UNTK, a member of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) designed and produced a production line for assembly and welding of hatch covers of gondola cars for Uralvagonzavod. This modern equipment that meets the world’s highest standards, will be installed at the center sill department of the corporation’s head plant. This facility requires very little human presence and thus reduced the number of faulty items to zero, the company’s press service reports. Creating innovative equipment for making new railway and special purpose goods for

October 14, 2013. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) coordinated the 9th research to practice your conference in Sochi that is targeted at involving the younger people in production problem-solving, production upgrades, launch of new technologies and modern managerial techniques as well as at developing their creative potential, the company’s press service reports. ‘The youth forum serves as a venue for sharing ideas, experience, and practices at TMK, promotes corporate culture development, and builds up on informal ties between different teams,’ the message states. The traditional fall-time

October 14, 2013. Ural Airlines is launching a sale on tickets for flights bound for Europe, Dubai, and Tel Aviv this fall. The discounts can run to as much as 30% for the company’s regular customers. Tickets can be booked for departure dates between November 15 and December 20, 2013 from any airport where the airline operates its flights, in the said directions, the air carrier’s press service says. A direct scheduled flight to Dubai is offered by Ural Airlines from seven Russian cities: Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar, Mineralniye Vody, Nizhniy Novgorod, Perm, Samara, and Chelyabinsk. The

October 14, 2013. Russian citizens spent 13% of their income on rent and housing bills and 26% of their income on education. The share of money spent on buying shoes and clothes was 14% to 15%, Finmarket reports. As for food items, Romir Research Center states that everyday consumer spending rose by 4% in September 2013 compared with August 2013 and by 15% compared with September 2012. The increase was due to a dramatic (over 1.5 times) rise in the spending on everyday non-food consumer goods, while the food spending actually dropped by 10% in nominal terms. The share of non-food items

October 12, 2013. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) took part in the 6th metallurgical exhibition called Machinery Central Asia 2013 in the capital of Uzbekistan. The exhibition gathered a number of leading metallurgical and machine-building companies as well as pipe-making plants and metal goods plants, metal-processing enterprises, aluminum alloy plants, building businesses, and representatives of other branches of the economy's real sector. The exhibition was part of Central Asian Industrial Week 2013, the international forum held in Uzexpocenter in Tashkent. The forum was

October 11, 2013. The Iron Ozone 32, an electric steel-smelting facility of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (a member of ChTPZ Group) mastered the production of blooms, including those made from the new steels SV08A and 3PS, using the new, energy-saving, open-jet technology, the company's press service reports. This technology does not provide for metal being completely isolated from atmospheric impact; this means the need for expensive fire-resistant materials and energy resources goes down dramatically. The said set of 150mm x150mm blooms underwent all the necessary testing that proved the

October 11, 2013. Evgeny Lapshin, former Director-General of NK Rosneft's TNK-Nyagan, was appointed Deputy Director-General for Economics & Finance of ChTPZ. According to ChTPZ Group's official announcement, Lapshin has experience in all fields of economic and managerial activity such as strategic planning, working on annual and quarterly reports, liaising with financial institutions and surveillance bodies, management of purchasing process, IT systems, and re-engineering of business processes. Lapshin worked for TNK BP for nearly ten years and held different posts in various

October 11, 2013. Yugoria State Insurance Company laid off 30% of its personnel in order to stop the growing losses, Vedomosti reports. The newspaper says the company made 850 people redundant in the first half of the year alone, and thus it now employs only 2,000 people. This resulted in the managerial expenses dropping from 3.1bn RUR in 2012 down to 1bn RUR in the first half of 2013. The decrease in the number of staff is supposed to bring down the managerial expenses by 34.7%, or down to 2.05bn RUR (as was the case in 2009). As a matter of fact, this increase in the managerial expenses was