UrBC, Moscow, June 10, 2015. Most of Russia’s industrial enterprises are located in provincial parts of the country, so both the federal and the local governments need to focus on getting more highly skilled young Moscow college graduates to work there, Uralvagonzavod Corporation Director-General Oleg Sienko said at an industrial conference (dubbed Country Lives till Plants Work) in Moscow. ‘At the moment, the corporation has to put up new housing, schools, sports and infrastructure facilities, the economic difficulties notwithstanding, in order to simply retain its staff, let alone attract

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 9, 2015. Based on the data provided by Sverdlovsk Region-based companies, the arrears of wages amounted to 1,833,000 RUR by June 1, 2015, Sverdlovskstat reports. This is 56.5% less than in the previous month and 55.5% more than a year earlier. All in all, 64 people living in the Mid-Urals got their salaries and wages with delay; they are all employed in the bakery and pastry-making sector.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 9, 2015. The number of ads relating to cafes and fast food outlets for sale in Yekaterinburg rose by 22% in January-May 2015 compared with a year earlier, head of Alter Invest Yekaterinburg branch Denis Gorbachev told UrBC. According to Gorbachev, most of the cafes fall in the medium-priced range, these are cafeterias and small cafes that were opened between two and five years ago. ‘The need to sell mostly has to do with lack of funds to cover existing loans and the demand for quick cash. Besides, Yekaterinburg is considered Russia’s top city in terms of how many

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 9, 2015. Gagarinsky, a children’s sports and recreation facility sponsored by Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ), is running Engineerica, a special summer program, this June, the plant’s press service reports. ‘Children will learn a lot of useful things on Gagarinsky’s program. Engineerica was presented at and enthusiastically approved of by the Education Ministry,’ says the camp director Olga Alikina. For two weeks, PNTZ workers will be informing their young students about engineering theory and practice, teaching them to work with modern tools and materials,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 9, 2015. ChTPZ Group presented White Well, its project on the development and maintenance of oil deposits, at the 22nd Caspian Oil & Gas International Exhibition, the company’s press service reports. The White Well Project is being worked on jointly by the Group’s pipe-manufacturing and drilling equipment maintenance divisions: oil producers are thus offered multi-function, custom-made solutions. White Well covers customized selection, production, and delivery of pumps and submersion pipes that best suit the environmental conditions and the design of the wells as

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 9, 2015. Kamensk Uralsky Foundry Plant (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) launched a local compressed air production and distribution network, the corporation’s press service reports. This new addition enabled the plant to start using its energy-consuming compressor unit from the seventies as an emergency back-up only. The new network comprises three compact, up-to-date units that are spaced around the plant. The first of them has been used at the non-ferrous casting department for several years now. The second one was launched this March and the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 8, 2015. RZhD International and Sinara Transport Machines signed a memorandum of cooperation at Strategic Partnership 1520, the 10th International Railway Business Forum. According to Sinara Group’s press service, the paper was signed by RZhD International Director-General Sergey Pavlov and Sinara Transport Machines Director-General Evgeniy Gritsenko. The memorandum sets out the primary fields of cooperation between the two parties, the ways in which their infrastructure projects will be implemented abroad, and procedures for exporting their railway machine-building

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 8, 2015. Bank Koltso Urala recently upgraded its e-banking app, an ‘easier’ version for private customers, the bank’s press service reports. Telebank Express users can now transfer money from their bank card accounts to their savings accounts and perform other account-to-account transfers, get bank statements, and check their loan contract provisos and terms of repayment online. All of these only used to be available to Telebank customers with an electronic signature before. Telebank Express allows Bank Koltso Urala’s customers to perform bank card and card account

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, June 8, 2015. ‘Active Summer’ officially took off in Chelyabinsk’s Leninsky District on June 4. Groups of high school students came to clean up the local streets, parks, and Lake Smolino. As usual, the largest teams were those of students from Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant’s sponsored schools; these young people could be recognized by their bright red T-shirts and caps with the company logo. ‘For many years, Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) has been supporting local schools and running summer clean-up groups for over a decade now. Just like the plant workers are

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 8, 2015. Over 3,000 employees of ChTPZ Group and their families will go on a summer vacation covered by their company, the Group’s press service reports. The company directed more than 10mn RUR to renovations at Lesnaya Skazka, Sosnovy Bor, Yelanchik, Gagarinsky, and Isumrud health resorts in time for the summer season. Supplies and equipment were purchased, and remodeling and checkup jobs were done by the company workers themselves, as was the clean-up of the premises and of the nearby ponds. As is usually the case in the summer, the vacationers will be able to take

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 8, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s member enterprises subsidized their employees’ children’s summer trips, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘The corporation’s head plant offered families several options as usual: a company sanatorium, countryside health resorts, Black Sea resorts, and a program for children with special needs,’ the press service says. This year, 483 trips were purchased by the plant for the employees’ children. Their parents will only have to pay 10% of the cost, with Uralvagonzavod paying the rest (more than 20,000 RUR per child).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 5, 2015. ChTZ-Uraltrac (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation) won Russia’s Spetsstroy’s tender and will now supply its vehicles to the special-purpose construction company. According to the corporation’s press service, Uraltrac will have to deliver seven B11 bulldozers to Spetsstroy by July 1. Some of the machines will head for Vostochny space launch site, the rest will be sent to Spetsstroy divisions in other parts of Russia. ‘The military construction company chose our latest version of Class10 makes. By customer’s order,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 5, 2015. ChTPZ Group completed the year’s order from DGK, a power supplier located in the Far East, within the first half of 2015. The full set came to 3,600,000 kg of pipes, the Group’s press service reports. Under the terms of the contract, the Group’s Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant had to deliver to the Far East some weldless pipes (diameter of 16mm to 426mm, wall width 2mm to 20mm) and arc-welded pipes (diameter 530mm to 1,220mm, wall width 8mm to 14 mm). ‘The complexity of the task was in that we had to process a large shipment

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 5, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region directed 104.7bn RUR worth of tax payments to the Russian Federation budget in January-May 2015, which was 13.4% more than a year earlier, the local division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service reports. The federal budget got 28.1bn RUR, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 2.5bn RUR, or 9.6%. Most of the federal budget revenues stemmed from VAT payments (24.8bn RUR, or 88.3% of the total revenues). This was 1.8bn RUR, or 7.7% better than in January-May 2014. Besides, 2.7bn RUR worth of corporate income tax were directed to the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 5, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s inflation rate came to 0.04% in May 2015 and to 8.6% compared with December 2014, Sverdlovskstat reports. Food items (including strong drinks) grew 0.1% more expensive in the last month and 11.8% compared with the start of the year; alcohol grew 0.1% more expensive against April 2015 and 6.5% more expensive against December 2014. The price of non-food items went up by 0.3% in May 2015 and by 8.5% against the start of the year; the price of services went down by 0.3% against April 2015 and went up by 4.2% against December 2014.

UrBC, Moscow, June 5, 2015. Russia’s Central Bank annulled licenses of seven insurance companies, two of which – Companion and Moya Strakhovaya Kompaniya – have up to now been operating in Yekaterinburg, the bank’s official website states. The other companies on the list are MRSK, Natsionalnaya Protivopozharnaya Strakhovaya Kompaniya, Rost, Sotis, and Russky Alliance. The bank explains the licenses were annulled because the insurers failed to bring their operation in compliance with the existing requirements in due time. For one, they did not meet the financial stability and paying capacity

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 4, 2015. Ural Federal University was assigned the 13th position in the National Russian College Rating created by Interfax research team. Just like a year earlier, UFU was behind several Moscow-based colleges and those located in Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, and Kazan. ‘We feel being No.13 on the list is a good result: after all, over 200 Russian colleges compete in the rating. UFU’s current task is to comply with international standards, but this takes time. Novosibirsk and Tomsk Universities are getting there a bit faster,’ head of UFU press service Dmitri

UrBC, Moscow, June 4, 2015. Only 22% of credit cards issued by banks to Russian citizens are actually used. At the same time, increasingly more credit card applications get denied, Izvestiya reports. Based on United Credit History’s data, only 6.7m credit cards out of the 31.1m issued ones do get used by the cardholders. Incidentally, the number of newly issued credit cards has been on the decrease recently. 181,800 cards were issued by banks in April 2015, which was 4.5 times less than in April 2014. The average loan limit has also shrunk from 47,000 RUR down to 40,000 RUR. RAEX expert

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 4, 2015. Daily rains delayed the start of Sverdlovsk Region crops and potato seed, Alexander Kozhevnikov, Director of Belorechensky, the area’s largest vegetable producer, informed UrBC. According to Kozhevnikov, potato seeding was to have been over by May 25, but only 50% of the job got completed by June 3. The crops were delayed by rain. The remaining half of potato seeding jobs were put off by a fortnight, crops will be sown ten days later than expected. Consequently, the harvesting will be delayed as well,’ he said. Belorechensky will have to deal with cabbage

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 4, 2015. ChTPZ Group’s Director-General Alexander Grubman congratulated the winners of the third national WorldSkills Russia championship, students on the company’s Future of White Metallurgy training program. Grubman congratulated students and their teachers on their achievement and gave them thank-you letters. It was ChTPZ shareholders Andrei Komarov and Alexander Fedorov’s decision to award the nine winners and six Training Center experts with money prizes. ‘On behalf of the company shareholders, as well as on my own behalf, I congratulate you on winning the