UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, November 24, 2015. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Trading House won in the annual professional contest coordinated by the Russian Metal Suppliers’ Union and the Metallosnabzheniye I Sbyt magazine, MMK reports. The awarding ceremony took place in Moscow; MMK Trading House was chosen among seventy-seven contestants as the Best Development Dynamics Sales Network in the year 2014. The company sold 11% more goods last year than a year earlier (21% more in money terms). Also, new warehouses in Saint Petersburg and Pensa were launched and new export

UrBC, Moscow, November 24, 2015. Russia’s foreign trade turnover amounted to 4403.7bn between January and September 2015; this was 34.3% less than a year earlier, Rosstat reports. $260bn worth of goods were exported (down 31.8% on a year earlier) and $143.7bn worth of goods were imported (down 38.5% on a year earlier).The visible balance of trade stood at $116.2bn. The drop in exports was most noticeable in the case of Latvia: $6,108m worth of goods were exported, which was 46.9% less than a year earlier. Also, the exchange of goods with Great Britain dropped by 43.1% in monetary terms, down

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 24, 2015. The number of sporting guns sold in Yekaterinburg this year decreased by a third compared with a year earlier, the store Caliber 12 informs UrBC. ’Gun sales dropped by 30% on average. Russian makes enjoy the greatest demand, since they are now much less expensive than their foreign counterparts. About 70% of all the sporting guns stores sell are made within the country. However, foreign makes used to be the market leaders until very recently,’ the store representatives say. It is reported that the weakening ruble (and therefore imported goods growing

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 24, 2015. The ruble assets of Sverdlovsk Region-based banks went down by 21,159,876,000 RUR between October 1, 2015 and November 1,2 015 and thus amounted to 464.082,119,000 RUR all in all, the Bank of Russia reports. The bank’s foreign currency assets also went down by 4,683,205,000 RUR, from 163,397,810,000 RUR down to 158,714,605,000 RUR.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 24, 2015. The price of stand-alone garages went up by 7%, up to 541,000 RUR, in Yekaterinburg this year, N1.RU and E1.Nedvizhimost report. The average amount of rent, however, went down by 14% and currently comes to 4,600 RUR a month. This means that as an investment, a garage will pay off within a decade, at the rate of 10% a year. The most expensive stand-alone garages can be found at VIZ (the average price is 799,000 RUR) and in downtown Yekaterinburg (745,000 RUR); the most affordable garages are located in Siberian and Ptizefabrika (under 300,000 RUR) and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 24, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Scientific & Production Corporation has won one of Russia’s most prestigious awards in the purchasing sector, Competitive Purchases Leader, for the third time this year. According to the company press service, 217 major Russian buyer companies from the energy, metallurgical, machine-building, chemical, telecommunications, banking, transportation, and housing sectors competed for prizes in six different categories. The candidates’ applications were evaluated by a group of thirty independent experts; this year, there were government

UrBC. Yekaterinburg, November 23, 2015. Russians’ actual disposable income decreased by 5.6% in October 2015 compared with a year earlier, Rosstat reports. The decrease was 4.3% in September, 5.3% in August, 2% in July, 3% in June 6.3% in May, 3.9% in April, 1.6% in March and February, and 0.7% in January. Compared with the start of the year, the figure went down by 3.5% by late October, whereas in nominal terms, the income figure came to 31,000 RUR a month, which is actually 7.2% more than a year earlier. The average monthly pay came to 33,200 RUR in October 2015 compared with October 2014

UrBC. Yekaterinburg, November 23, 2015. Yekaterinburg proved one of the three Russian cities with the biggest number of brands running their boutiques there. Moscow and Saint Petersburg are the other two, JLL reports. Over 250 national and international brands operating stores in Russia’s most important cities were looked at; these brands’ retail growth potential was evaluated, as were the availability of different store types and the retail market demand. Moscow is the absolute market leader in terms of how many brands operate their stores in the capital, followed by Saint Petersburg,

UrBC. Yekaterinburg, November 23, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s employment agencies were informed of 11,352 people to be made redundant by eighty-three different companies, Sverdlovsk Region Labor & Employment Department reports. As of November 1, 2015, 128 companies (employing 59,564 people all in all) reported they had to switch 15,963 people to part-time mode, introduce shortened working hours for 10,105 people, put 5,749 people on idle time, and send 109 people on unpaid leaves. 37,582 people registered with the local employment agencies, with the official unemployment rate at 1.34% in

UrBC. Yekaterinburg, November 23, 2015. Robotino, a 2m-ruble third-generation mobile robot made by FESTO, arrived at ChTPZ Group Training Center; the purchase was funded by Sverdlovsk Region Education Ministry to help the Group’s students get ready for WorldSkills projects, the Group’s press service reports. The new robot is an improvement on Robotino’s older version which the Center already has; the machine is used for Mobile Robotics practice sessions by students on the Group’s corporate training program (aka the Future of White Metallurgy); the goal is to prepare for WorldSkills

UrBC. Yekaterinburg, November 23, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod is switching to a new meal voucher system at the on-site cafeterias and canteens. According to the company press service, every employee will be issued a special social benefits card at the end of the year which will replace the earlier meals-only bank card. The new cards are expected to make the billing and the administration of accounts easier. ‘This card is a way of payment that will record and store all the data on cafe transactions for every worker. Every card is personalized and has a unique number. All the data on the money a

UrBC, Moscow, November 20, 2015. Russia’s GDP is estimated to have deteriorated by 3.7% in the last quarter of the year compared with a year earlier; in the previous quarter, the decrease was estimated at 4.1%, Banki.ru refers to Economics Minister Alexei Ulyukayev as saying. ‘What we expect, and what our preliminary statistical data support, is that the last quarter of the year will actually prove to be better than the third quarter, which was actually the year’s lowest point. The GDP isn’t likely to drop by more than 3.7% in the fourth quarter,’ he said. The minister explained a slight

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 20, 2015. A network failure was registered in Sysert power substation on November 18. The Ministry of Emergencies’ Sverdlovsk Region division reports the accident was caused by a ground wire that fell onto the mains. ‘According to the locals, the ground wire was torn apart by a passing helicopter. As a result, seven towns faced power outages: Sysert, Verkhnyaya Sysert, Tokarevo, Kadnikovo, Cherdantsevo, Pervomaisky, and Oktyabrsky. Electric power supply was restored in full by 7:43 PM,’ the MoE says.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 20, 2015. The number of Yekaterinburg restaurants that no longer serve hookahs to their customers went up by 50% compared with the start of the year, Roman Nelidov, manager at the hookah store Sharjah, says. ‘Places that only used to offer hookahs as an option are giving up on them, mainly because of the recent changes in the legislation and the dropping demand,’ Nelidov says. According to the manager, the number of hookah bars, on the other hand, is growing dramatically. There are now twenty times more places that specialize in hookahs exclusively than in the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 20, 2015. The overall amount of Sverdlovsk Region residents’ past-due credit card debts rose by 3.2% in the third quarter of 2015 and came to 20.8% of the entire debt amount, the National Bureau of Credit History reports. The overall amount of locals’ past-due car loan repayments went up by 0.2% and reached 7.7%. According to the Bureau, the amount of past-due loan repayments stood at its highest in August and September (21.3% of all consumer loan debts, 17.1% of all credit card debts, 8.3% of all car loan debts, and 4.3% of all mortgage debts). ‘The overall

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 20, 2015. The heat and power station operated by Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant got certified by Sverdlovsk Region Energy Ministry to operate in the heating season 2015/2016. It is reported the station was inspected by a committee appointed by Sverdlovsk Region Power Supply Safety Office. ‘The heat and power station is particularly important not only for the plant’s production premises but also for the entire Dzerzhinsky District of Nizhniy Tagil. In the summer, the station had its boilers, heat-generating units, chemical filtering facilities, and

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, November 19, 2015. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) placed its catalogue of automobile steels on the company website. ‘To make things easier for our customers in the car-making industry, we placed an interactive electronic catalogue of various grades of steel the company offers them. There are separate rubrics on every steel type, with information on chemical composition, mechanical properties, sheet width and other measurements, and so on,’ the company says. The catalogue is available at www.mmk.ru’s home page under the heading that reads

UrBC, Moscow, November 19, 2015. Russia’s industrial production output declined by 3.3% in January-October 2015 compared with a year earlier, Rosstat reports. In October, the decrease was 3.6% compared with a year earlier; however, the figure was 5.2% higher than in September 2015.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 19, 2015. 1,435 luggage pieces have been brought to Yekaterinburg from Egyptian resorts in one week; 667 of them have already been returned to their owners by Koltsovo Airport staff and 125 pieces were sent to passengers’ home addresses, the airport’s press service reports. It took twenty-four planes on scheduled flights from Moscow to transfer all the luggage items to Yekaterinburg. An ad hoc team was set up at the airport as first passengers started arriving from Egypt to whom contact details and copies of luggage stubs could be given to stay in touch; as soon

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 19, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s farmers ended up with fewer head of cattle this year (including not only cows but also sheep and goats) than a year earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. It is reported the overall number went down by 1% in January-October 2015 compared with January-October 2014 and now comes to 272,000. The number of cows dropped by 1.6%, down to 116,900, that of sheep and goats by 5.7%, down to 69,100. At the same time, the overall count of pigs rose by 2.8%. up to 344,500, and that of poultry by2.3%, up to 13.6m.