October 11, 2013. SKB-Bank made it to the rating of the country's largest businesses, the bank's press service reports. Expert Rating Agency's website now carries the yearly rating of Russia's largest companies called Expert 400 that features enterprises from various economic sectors. The rating was based on the companies' sales revenues resulting from sales of work, products, and services. SKB-Bank made it to this rating for the first time and was given the 309th position. According to Expert RA, SKB-Bank's sales revenues amounted to more than 22.3bn RUR in

October 11, 2013. VUZ-Bank reports a slight increase in the amount of loans offered to SMEs. This means there is no decline in the small and medium enterprises' borrowing behavior, the bank's press service reports. Despite a bit of a downfall on the lending market in 2013, 13% more loan applications were submitted in the first half of the year than a year earlier. Nevertheless, VUZ-Bank lending management experts forecast that in late 2013 and early 2014, the borrowing rate will go down a little, which has to do with both the overall saturation of the market and the economic

October 10, 2013. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation presented the town of Volchansk with a new tennis court. This modern sports facility was put up by Volchansk Mechanical Plant, a subsidiary of the corporation’s head plant, the enterprise’s press service reports. The open-air tennis court is currently unique not only to the town (where the corporation’s northernmost location is based) but also to Sverdlovsk Region Northern Administrative District on the whole. The court is 35x16m big and has a concrete foundation covered over with elastic, grainy resin flooring made by

October 10, 2013. The supply on Yekaterinburg existing homes market still comes to about 8,600 to 8,700 apartments and houses, as has been the case for a few months. This is 28% (or 1,850 apartments) more than at the start of the year, Ural Chamber of Real Estate’s Analytical Department says. The median price of a square meter of housing is now 71,748 RUR. The prices keep going up slightly: over the last four weeks, the figure has gone up by 0.7% on average, and since the beginning of the year, the figure rose by 2.3%. The existing homes market has faced fierce competition from the new homes

October 10, 2013. Ural Airlines flew over 3.5m passengers between January 1, 2013 and October 7, 2013, the company’s press service reports. All in all, the air carrier’s passenger turnover increased by 27% by September 30, 2013 compared with the start of the year and came to 3,426,513 people. In the nine months of the year, Ural Airlines operated 25,739 flights, including 9,657 international flights, 10,514 domestic flights, and 5,568 flights around the CIS. The passenger traffic rose by 25% by October 2013 compared with a year earlier and reached 9,091,630,000 passenger-kilometers. In

October 10, 2013. The education center of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ, a member of ChTPZ Group) was visited by a group of delegates from Karaganda Polytechnic Vocational School, headed by Director Zeken Rakhimov, on October 6-9, 2013, PNTZ press service reports. As a result, a large-scale educational joint venture was adopted aimed at building stronger horizontal ties between Russia and Kazakhstan, the CIS’s No.1 metallurgical goods consumer. The project is related to training future metallurgical industry workers. ‘The student council of the educational center that is currently

October 10, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Vice Premier Valentin Gripas checked how effectively all the ministries and departments in charge of preparing for the world football championship of 2018 were getting ready for the big event, Sverdlovsk Region Government Press Service & Information Department reports. ‘A number of crucial decisions have been made by now, and the region is now working on an action plan to prepare for the World Cup. An ad hoc work team is being set up to make this process dynamic. The team will have representatives of the ministries in charge, and they will

October 9, 2013. ChTZ-Uraltrac, a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation, completes the shipment of goods to two daughter enterprises of Geotech Holding, the corporation's press service reports. 'Ten vehicles – five swamp tractors and five bulldozers fitted with emergency manholes in the pits - are to be delivered to Naryan-Mar Seismorazvedka.' Six vehicles have been shipped already. The remaining four items will have been shipped by October 20 first to Arkhangelsk port by railway and then to Nenetsky Autonomous Region by sea. Four more

October 9, 2013. The residents of Ural Federal District owe a total of 25.3bn RUR in terms of housing bills as of October 1, 2013, Sequoia Credit Consolidation's report states. People living in Central Federal District top the debtors' list with their 34.5bn RUR worth of debts, followed by the Volga Federal District (27.8bn RUR). All in all, Russian citizens have 152.9bn RUR worth of unpaid housing bills, which is 27.2% more than a year earlier. Experts predict that by the figure will creep over 160bn RUR by the end of 2013.

October 9, 2013. The project on the development of Sverdlovsk Region's food and processing industry in 2013-2020 that was adopted at the region's Government's meeting today means the share of locally produced goods in the total sales volume should increase from 21% to 33%, Sverdlovsk Region Government Press Service & Information Department reports. Sverdlovsk Region Agriculture & Foods Minister Mikhail Kopytov says that the strategy means that by 2020, the constituency is to produce at least 197,000,000kg of meat a year (compared with the current 115,000,000 kg),

October 9, 2013. The Unites States Federal Reserve system put a new one hundred dollar bill into circulation on October 8. The new banknote has extra protection features such as the 3D blue protective stripe that is woven into the paper rather than just printed on it. When you turn the bill sideways, the bells drawn on the bill change into the number 100, Bank Koltso Urala's press service says. So, the bill is fitted with one more protective thread, additional water marks, and a microseal. Some of the images on the banknote change colors when looked at under a different angle: the bell

October 9, 2013. Mayor of Yekaterinburg Alexander Yakob approved of the preliminary forecast of physical education and sports development for 2014-2016. The city council's press service says such projects as Backyard Stadium, Winter Sports: Second Wind, the Sports Olympus, and the long-term target Physical Education & Sports Development Program are expected to result in 77 new sports facilities over the next three years. For one, a council-run ski rental and two lawn hockey playgrounds will be built in Yekaterinburg's Chkalovsky District. In 2014, fitness clubs with gyms will be

October 8, 2013. This summer, experts found out the price of air travel from Yekaterinburg rose by 9%: on average, a plane ticket costs 13,356 RUR in 2013, Aviasales.ru’s PR service reports. It could also be noted that 36.6% of all flights were operated in August, which means Yekaterinburg residents mostly prefer to have their summer vacation in the last month. According to the data provided by the experts, people usually book within two weeks, which means no savings can be made on early booking. Experts also note that the best time to book is 70 days before the flight. This means it makes

October 8, 2013. ChTPZ Group is going to present its own ceramic flux at a key welding industry event – the Weldex/Rossvarka Exhibition, the Group’s press service reports. Now ChTPZ Group has been making ceramic flux since 2004 and is one of Russia and Europe’s leading ceramics manufacturers (its capacity has been estimated at 14,000 tons a year); this material is used for making large-diameter welded pipes that meet the strictest requirements of the home and global markets. In 2013, four new makes of ceramic flux were launched; all of them were certified by the National Welding Control

October 8, 2013. Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) Scientific & Production Corporation was a partner for the Povetkin-Klichko match in Moscow on October 5, 2013, the corporation’s press service says. The World Boxing Association’s super heavyweight world champion Alexei Povetkin and the Association’s super champion and winner of the International Boxing Federation and the World Boxing Association’s champion belts Vladimir Klichko met in a 12-round match at Olimpiysky Stadium. The match gathered a huge audience: 14,000 people watched it live, and most Russian citizens were glued to their TV screens.

October 8, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region authorities are going to look into efficiency of budget spending, including the funding of the city councils’ development programs. This decision was made by Governor Evgeny Kuivashev following the Russian Federation State Council meeting conducted by President Vladimir Putin on October 4. The President said it the country was switching to a purpose-based financing method that should be implemented in all the city councils in Russia. The authorities hope that the new budget-setting principles will result in greater efficiency of budget spending, as in 2012,

October 8, 2013. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK), one of the world’s leading OCTG producers, shipped a number of pipes meant for the construction of underwater pipelines in Vladimir Filanovsky oil and natural gas deposit in the northern part of the Caspian Sea that is currently being developed by LUKOIL, TMK press service reports. In 2012, TMK signed a number of contracts for the delivery of OCTG with the companies that are involved in the building of oil and gas pipelines for the Northern Caspian Project: Malaysia’s Bumi Armada Caspian (interfiled underwater pipelines) and Italy’s SAIPEM

October 7, 2013. Uralvagonzavod took part in the 2nd All-Russian Civil Defense Drill called ‘Civil Defense Measures in Wartime Regime and Emergencies’ today. The drill was initiated by Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, the enterprise’s press service reports. At 6 AM, the teams of Nizhniy Tagil were called to assemble at a meeting point, and tasks were set out at 8 AM. It was explained in the introductory lecture that a number of terrorist attacks were possible. The teams were ordered to make sure the local population can be protected. A protective shelter was thus installed at

October 7, 2013. The retail trade turnover in Sverdlovsk Region came to 611.4bn RUR in January-August 2013, which – in comparable prices – is 5.1% more than in January-August 2012 (and 3.9% more than in Russia on the whole), the region’s Economic Ministry’s press service reports. The food and non-food items ratio in the retail trade turnover was 46.5% and 53.5%, respectively. The volume of food items sold in January-August 2013 was 4.2% greater than in January-August 2012; that of non-food items was 5.9% greater than a year earlier. The catering industry turnover stood at 30.6bn RUR in the

October 7, 2013. METCOMBANK’s branch in Academic District of Yekaterinburg celebrates its 3d anniversary this year, the bank’s press service reports. The branch was opened on September 30, 2010. METCOMBANK was actually the first bank to set up a branch in Yekaterinburg’s most promising district. ‘It makes one happy to see how the area is growing and developing, and how our branch is following suit,’ says METCOMBANK Chairman of the Supervisory Board Dmitri Torbenko. The bank’s branch in Academic District offers its customers a full range of services for both private individuals and legal