UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 21, 2015. Five employees of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation were given important government awards for their achievements; the awards were presented to them by Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Igor Kholmanskikh, the company press service reports. Four of the awardees work for the corporation’s head plant, and one more, Vladimir Brusov, is the Director of Volchansky Mechanical Plant (one of the corporation’s member enterprises). Brusov was awarded the Order of Friendship (by President’s Decree 526 dated October

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 21, 2015. Omsktransmash (Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Omsk-based member enterprise) met its defense procurement target figures for the year 2015. The last set of upgraded tanks was recently delivered to the Russian Armed Forces, the company press service reports. Under the company’s government contract, Omsktransmash had to give a complete overhaul and an upgrade to the T72 tanks so as to achieve a considerable improvement in their performance characteristics,’ the press service says. The tank upgrades comprised quite a few technological stages which resulted

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 21, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant recently hosted the 3d All-Russian Research to Practice Blue-Collar Job Training Conference dedicated to current problems and developmental prospects of vocational education; the conference participants talked about ways of training efficient blue-collar workers whom the industry needs, the company press service reports. Speakers also talked about the ways in which the academic and the business communities could cooperate, and about the ways to make educational establishments pedagogically, scientifically, and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 18, 2015. Two workers from Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant – repair mechanic Oleg Belousov and engineer Andrei Ryabov – are going to serve a two-year term as Sverdlovsk Region Youth Parliament deputies. The company press service reports forty-eight delegates representing ten different parties and associations ran for the office in Nizhniy Tagil/Gornouralsk. Ural Vagon Zavod’s Nizhniy Tagil youth group got most of the votes, which entitled it to two seats in the parliament out of twenty-five. The voters were Sverdlovsk Region residents in the 14-30 age

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 18, 2015. A project presented by ESK ChTPZ (a daughter enterprise of Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant/ChTPZ) won the International Small-Scale Power Generation – Large-Scale Achievements Prize, the company press service reports. The awarding ceremony took place in Chelyabinsk during the 5th Energy Forum coordinated by the Ural Small-Scale Power Generation Association. This year, the company set up an electric power fiscal metering unit at the plant’s primary substation. To do this, the company workers installed i-TOR, the innovative 110-kilowatt facility made by

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 18, 2015.Koltsovo Airport had to close temporarily because of two reported bomb threats, the airport’s press service informed UrBC. ‘We received two emails, one reporting that the Angelo Hotel, the airfield, and the planes were all supposedly mine-laid. The other email claimed the airport terminal had bombs inside as well,’ the press service says. All the passengers on the planes as well as all the hotel guests and people in the airport terminals have been evacuated by now. Special rescue forces are now working at the scene.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 18, 2015. The average per-square-meter price on Yekaterinburg existing home market dropped by 7.7%, down to 70,821 RUR, since the start of the year, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. Prices have been declining the fastest (-1.7%) in the city’s remotest and cheapest districts and now come to 51,902 RUR per m2 on average. Centrally located apartments and those in the city’s second priciest districts are now 0.8% cheaper, 98,079 RUR per m2 and 75,370 RUR per m2 on average, respectively. Homes in the third most expensive districts grew 0.6% cheaper, down to 65,213

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 18, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based borrowers’ mortgages amount to 1.862m RUR on average, 3.7% of loan repayments are by now past-due, the National Credit History Bureau reports. According to the bureau, this percentage of debts is the lowest among all the popular retail loans at the moment. All in all, the number of mortgages issued in Russia since the start of the year has gone up by 11%, whereas the number of unsecured loans dropped by 10% and that of car loans by 9%. It is reported, however, that the quality of new mortgages has been deteriorating over the last

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 17, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s souvenir shop UVZSHOP.ru and Russia’s leading model and board games manufacturer Zvezda are launching their new collection of toy-sized replicas of military vehicles produced by the corporation’s member enterprises. According to the company press service, the first two models – T90S (tank) and Solntsepek TOS-1A (flame-throwing unit) – are already on offer in shops. 10,000 copies were made for each of the two models. Toy replicas of Terminator and Terminator 2 (combat fire support vehicles) and Meta-S (self-propelled

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 17, 2015. Yekaterinburg incoming tourist traffic came to 2.1m people in the eleven months of 2015, the city council’s deputy head Sergei Tushin said in his interview to Open Studio. Yekaterinburg on Channel 41. ‘These figures definitely prove that our authorities’ continuous efforts to promote local tourist services have been successful. The steps we take to make the city’s economy more diverse result in various points of tourist attraction in Yekaterinburg,’ the official said. Tushin said companies organizing tours along the Trans-Siberian routes were key

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 17, 2015. There were 417,600,000 kg of grains stored at Sverdlovsk Region’s agricultural and processing facilities as of December 1, 2015; this is 5.6% less than one year earlier, Rosstat reports. As for the country on the whole, Russia’s grain reserves amounted to 39.9m tons in early December, which was 2.9% (1.2m tons) more than one year earlier.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 17, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region came 29th on RIA Rating’s list of Russian Federation constituencies with the most affordable mortgages. Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region was at the top, with mortgages possible for 49% of local households; Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region (37%) came second, Magadan Region (35%) was in the third place, Kamchatka Territory (29%) was in the fourth place, and Murmansk Region (29%) was in the fifth place. Only 15.5% of Sverdlovsk Region’s households can afford to take out a mortgage, which is much worse than the figures for neighboring

UrBC, Moscow, December 17, 2015. Russia’s industrial production index declined by 3.3% in January-November 2015 compared with January-November 2014, Rosstat reports. In the month of November 2015, the IPI went down by 3.5% compared with last November and by 0.2% compared with October 2015.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 16, 2015. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant/ChTPZ paid some 4bn RUR in taxes (directed to Chelyabinsk Region budget) this year, the company press service reports. The plant’s BOD Chairman Alexander Fedorov presented the figures during his meeting with Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky. ‘We have an understanding that ChTPZ is going to meet all the target figures for the year 2015. This year, we supplied our large-diameter pipes to major infrastructure projects such as the Power of Siberia, the Southern Gas Corridor, and Bovanenkovo-Ukta; we also

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 16, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s industrial production index (IPI) declined by 6.7% in November 2015 compared with October 2015 and by 0.3% compared with last November, Sverdlovskstat reports. Also, the IPI in January-November 2015 was 3.9% less than in January-November 2014. The processing industries’ IPI dropped by 9.6% in November compared with a month earlier and by 0.8% compared with November 2014. The IPI for January-November 2015 was 2.7% lower than in January-November 2014. The fossil resources development industries’ IPI went down by 10% in the course of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 16, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based companies’ turnover rose by 8.1% in January-November 2015 compared with January-November 2014 and amounted to 5,129,021,000,000 RUR, Sverdlovskstat reports. Things look best in the wholesale and retail trade sector (which includes car mechanic’s services and repairs of household goods and personal items), with turnover at 2,847,047,000,000 RUR, up 7.1% on a year earlier. The processing industries’ turnover came to 1,393,457,000,000 RUR, or 16.3% more than a year earlier. At the same time, the construction industry’s overall

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 16, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Service of Court Officers banned 61,174 locals from leaving the country in the last eleven months, the division’s press service reports. According to the division, this is 8,484 people more than a year earlier. These people’s unpaid debts come to 108,000 RUR on average. Most of the debtors are the ones who failed to make their loan repayments in time.

UrBC, Moscow, December 16, 2015. Russia’s diamond jewellery market declined by 40% in ruble terms and by three times in dollar terms (down to $1bn) this year, Vedomosti refers to Bain & Co as reporting. The company says this decrease in sales has to do with the current economic situation, people’s shrinking incomes, and, consequently, more competition with less expensive precious stones, designer jewellery not made of precious materials, and silver items. According to the company’s experts, the Russian market has always tended to focus on less expensive items, but this trend has grown

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 15, 2015. Nizhniy Tagil Cycling School 4 (reopened in 2013 with the help of Sverdlovsk Region Cycling & Mountain Bike, Trekking, & BMX Federation) closed this year’s season this December. According to Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s press service, the solemn closing ceremony was attended by the federation’s President Nikolai Sudakov, Vice President of Sverdlovsk Region Sports Federation and the school’s teacher and coach Andrei Dolgikh, Ural Vagon Zavod HR Director and Chair of the Board of Trustees Sergei Saranchuk, as well as the young cyclists, their

UrBC, Moscow, December 15, 2015. Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK was at the top of the national pipe suppliers rating, the company press service reports. The rating was part of the 10th annual Neftegazshelf 2015 Conference that was held in Moscow with the support of the Russian Industry & Trade Ministry and the O & G Equipment Manufacturers’ Union. TMK Neftegazservis Deputy DG for Service Alexander Yegorov received the award in the course of a solemn ceremony at the Intercontinental Hotel. The rating is bases on the findings of surveys involving oil and gas companies developing