March 15, 2014. Given the current market trend and the ongoing depreciation of the ruble, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is going to raise metal goods prices on April 1, the company reports. The increase in prices also has to do with the rising demand after the end of the winter season. The thin hot-rolled stock prices will go up by 5% to 7%, the thick hot-rolled stock prices will rise by 4% to 6%, the cold-rolled stock prices will increase by 6% to 9%, the zinc-coated rolled stock prices will increase by 5% to 6%, and the prices for rolled stock with polymeric coating will rise by

March 14, 2014. The Director of the Russian Economics Ministry's Department for Special Economic Zones, Regional Development Projects, and One-Employer Towns Andrei Sokolov, Chelyabinsk Region Minister for Economic Develoment Elena Murzina, and Deputy Director-General of ChTPZ Group Maxim Ignatiev visited Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant's Vysota 239 department. 'I believe the main thing is that the employees acquire a great production culture here, this is the key factor. This is something that the Russian industry really lacks at the moment. What we saw at Vysota 239 today is

March 14, 2014. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) reports Alexander Borshchevsky, former Deputy Director-General for Economics & Finance of TMK INOKS, was appointed DG on March 12. 'Former DG TNK INOKS Leonid Marchenko resigned under both parties' cordial agreement. The decision to appoint Alexander Borshchevsky was taken at the meeting of TMK INOKS Board of Directors,' TMK press service reports. Alexander Borshchevsky was born in 1975. He mainly worked at Sinara Pipe Plant (SinTZ) and its subdivisions. Starting from 1998, he worked at the plant's Central Lab, at SinTZ

March 14, 2014. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ, a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod) shipped two B10M bulldozers with hydromechanical transmission to Russian frontier guards. According to Uralvagonzavod Corporation's press service, both bulldozers are fitted with shovels and mulchers. 'The bulldozers headed off for their destination point via railways: one of them is bound for Chita, the other one for Balashikha, Moscow Region. The shipment of ChTZ vehicles results from our winning a tender for the delivery of engineering vehicles to the frontier troops of Russia's Federal

March 14, 2014. Following the Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin's Decree 128 as of January 24, 2013, Russia's Defense Ministry, Russia's Industry & Trade Ministry, and Russia's Economics Ministry decided to make Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation the sole executive body of eight repair companies: Spetsremont, 22BTRZ, 61 BTRZ, 81 BTRZ, 103 BTRZ, 144 BTRZ, 163 BTRZ, 560 BTRZ, and 192 TsZZhT. The companies are located in different parts of Russia and employ several thousand people altogether, the corporation's press service says. The

March 14, 2014. Between January 1 and February 28, Ural Airlines flew 605,130 passengers, which was 30% more than a year earlier, the air carrier's press service reports. Ural Airlines have operated 5,107 flights since the beginning of the year, including 1,524 international flights, 2,301 domestic flights, and 1,282 flights around the CIS. 'The airline's passenger turnover rose by 30% in January-February 2014 compared with January-February 2013 and amounted to 1,630,373 passenger-kilometers. In February, Ural Airlines operated 2,368 flights, including 629 international

March 13, 2014. For the first time in history, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation and ApATeK Scientific & Production Enterprise received the most prestigious international prize for innovations in the field of composites (technologies, materials, and structures) JEC Awards, the corporation's press service reports. JEC Awards, which is to the composites industry as Oscar is to the film one, is awarded within the framework of the world's largest composites industry JEC SHOW (JEC CompositesShow) in Paris. This year, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production

March 13, 2014. The turnover of organizations based in Ural Federal District grew by 6.4% in 2013 compared with 2012 and came to 15.1 trillion RUR, Sverdlovskstat reports. The industrial production index for fossil fuels development, processing industries, and electric power, natural gas, and water distribution grew by 0.7% compared with 2012 (the country average was 0.3%). The production index for fossil fuels development grew by 0.3%, that for the processing industries grew by 2.3%, and that for the production and distribution of electric power, natural gas, and water decreased by 3.2%.

March 13, 2014. 2,094bn RUR worth of investments were directed to Ural Federal District's socioeconomic development in 2013 (1.8% less than in 2012), Sverdlovskstat reports. The District's share of investments comes to 15.8% of all the investments made into Russia. The specific weight of investments from own funds was 57.2% last year, the share of attracted capital was 42.8%, including 2% allocated from the federal budget. According to the Federal Treasury, the consolidated budget of all the federal constituencies in Ural Federal District was implemented with the deficit of 129.5bn

March 13, 2014. The stricter customs control measures that were launched at Yekaterinburg Customs affected the volume of goods imported from Ukraine, Ural Customs Administration's press service says. The total worth of imported food items has come to $3.4m since the beginning of the year (117m RUR) compared with $11.6m (352m RUR) a year earlier. 'Political instability affected some of the key items Ukraine exports to Russia: metals, metal goods, machinery, chemical and mineral products, and some other goods. The imports nearly halved, dropping from $29.6m in 2013 to $16.9m in 2014),

March 12, 2014. Yekaterinburg is now busy running a tender for the design and survey work contract relating to the coordination of the FIFA Festival in Mayakovsky Park, Sverdlovsk Region Minister for Physical Culture, Sports, and Youth Policies Leonid Rapoport said at the first meeting of an ad hoc team who is in charge of coordinating the World Football Championship of 2018. The meeting was chaired by Sverdlovsk Region Government Vice Premier Valentin Gripas. 'It is already clear that most of the jobs will have to do with improvements in the park. I have asked the local Energy and

March 12, 2014. An electronic system called Windchill is now being launched at Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ). This innovation is meant for managing engineering data, for set-up and maintenance of design and preproduction planning, and for automation of the process of managing an item's parameters, Uralvagonzavod Corporation's press service says. The employees of the plant's IT Center, headed by Lyudmila Filatenko, tuned in the system, worked through the operation routine, and converted their goods composition database from the traditional Omega into Windchill. This rather

March 12, 2014. The members of Sverdlovsk Region Cabinet, in the course of their meeting on March 11, approved of Sverdlovsk Region Government draft bill on setting the minimum cost of living figure for the second quarter of 2014 that had been calculated by Sverdlovsk Region Economics Ministry. The minimum cost of living calculated for Q'II 14 came to 7,317 RUR per capita a month; this is 1.1% more than in Q'I 14. For working age residents, the figure was 7,792 RUR, for retirees, the figure was 6,012 RUR (+1.2%), and for children, the figure was 7,384 RUR (+2%).

March 12, 2014. MegaFon informs all the supporters that its popular sports app called WATCH+ will still be available during the winter Paralympics in Sochi. Over 600,000 users downloaded the app during the Olympics, and now WATCH+ can be used to keep track of all the events of the Paralympics online, MegaFon's press service reports. WATCH+ was immensely popular during the winter Olympics. Not only did it make it to the top few free apps at AppStore and GooglePlay, but it also was the confident second most popular app in the Sports category throughout most of the Olympics. The number of

March 12, 2014. The final fights and the solemn closing ceremony of Russia's female boxing championship for juniors competing for Natalia Ragozina Prize took place at Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation sports club. Natalia Ragozina is the world's absolute boxing champion among professional players and Deserved Master of Sports. According to Uralvagonzavod Corporation's press service, the second Natalia Ragozina Prize championship in Nizhniy Tagil this year became a high-profile event, rising from the local to the national level. Throughout the championship,

March 11, 2014. UC RUSAL managed to reach an agreement with Sberbank on refinancing of its $5bn loan, Vedomosti refers to the holding representative as reporting. The three-year $4.6bn loan was issued to UC RUSAL by Sberbank in August 2010 in order to refinance the former’s debt to Foreign Economic Bank, which, in its turn, offered the money so that RUSAL could pay a pool of foreign creditors. Otherwise the holding might have lost the controlling shareholding in Nornickel, which was the guarantee for the loan.

March 11, 2014. Ural Airlines is launching a new flight from Krasnodar to Moscow and back. According to the air carrier’s press service, the new flight will operated between March 31, 2014 and September 23, 2014. Prices for a one-way ticket start from 2,485 RUR (excluding all the fees and charges). ‘Residents of Krasnodar will be able to fly to the Russian capital on Monday, Tuesday, or Saturday. The return flights are operated, respectively, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Once at Moscow airports, passengers from Krasnodar can always use the convenient connecting flights the airline

March 11, 2014. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation enterprises congratulated their female employees on Women’s Day The corporation’s press service reports the women workers were congratulated in Volchansk, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Kirov, and other cities where the holding’s enterprises are based. ‘As for the corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil, the final round of the annual Woman of The Year contest was solemnly held the other day. In 2014, the contest involved 73 workers, who competed in three categories: Woman Professional, Woman Leader, and Woman Destiny.

March 11, 2014. Over 300 9th form students (potential school-leavers) of Pervouralsk came to ChTPZ Group’s Training Center on the premises of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) on its Open Doors Day. According to PNTZ press service, following a guided tour of the plant the visitors could see for themselves what the center has to offer. Specially for their guests, the teachers came up with the tasks that could be completed in the special labs. ‘We saw a small-scale model of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant and we were shown how these pipe-rolling mills work. It was interesting to experiment with

March 11, 2014. METCOMBANK and Visa are launching a new special offer dubbed ‘Anyone Can Win with a Visa,’ the bank’s press service says. To join in the special offer, one needs to use their Visa card issued by METCOMBANK to pay for at least 1,000 RUR worth of shopping between March 15 and April 30 and register at visafifa.ru. Every participant is granted an opportunity to win one of 1,000 guaranteed prizes with Visa and FIFA logos or a trip to the World Football Championship in Brazil. ‘To win the trip to FIFA 2014 in Brazil, one also needs to take part in a creative competition and