UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 16, 2017. A new layout for Yekaterinburg’s Akademicheskiy District was discussed at public hearings recently, RSG-Akademicheskoye reports. The new layout covers the construction of a hotel, a movie theater, and a local council building for the city’s eighth and largest district. The layout was designed by Yekaterinburg Master Plan Workshop. The organization has plenty of experience in the field of urban development and has contributed to the design of Yekaterinburg’s general layout, which ensured the challenge was met successfully. The new layout relies on all the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 16, 2017. Sverdlovsk Region-based wholesalers sold 337.2bn RUR worth of goods in January-March 2017, which was 0.7% less than one year previously (in comparable prices), Sverdlovskstat reports. Wholesale sales of food items such as sausages and salami, grains, canned fish, canned meat, and meat and poultry declined by 1.9 times, 1.6 times, 32.6%, 15.3%, and 5.8%, respectively. The sales of diesel fuel and gasoline went down by 6.7% and 5.3%, respectively.

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, May 15, 2017. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) keeps working on and enhancing its energy saving practices and energy efficiency. For one, the company spent four times more in terms of baby capex initiatives on energy efficient projects last year than in the year 2015, MMK reports. 300m RUR were directed to energy-efficient baby capex projects in 2015 and as many as 1.2bn in the following year. This year’s overall investments are estimated at 1.5bn RUR. The company also keeps encouraging its own employees to put forth production improvement

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 15, 2017. Ural Airlines came up with a performance report for the first four months of the year. 537,049 passengers flew with the airline in April 2017, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 26%. ‘The company operated 3,963 flights, including 2,298 domestic ones, 901 flights to and from the CIS member states, and 764 international flights. This was 16.4% more than in April 2016,’ the air carrier’s press service reports. The airline has offered its services to 1,871,401 customers this year so far, which is 28% more than in the first four months of last

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 15, 2017. Sverdlovsk Region’s foreign trade turnover reached $1.257bn in the January-February 2017, which was 13.9% less than one year previously, Sverdlovskstat refers to Ural Customs Administration as stating. Exports declined by 19.4%, down to $906m, imports rose by 4.7%, up to $353m.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 15, 2017. The average asking price declined by 0.5% on Yekaterinburg existing home market in the last four weeks and currently comes to 66,749 RUR per m2. This is 13% less than in February 2015 and 2% less than at the start of this year, Ural Real Estate Chamber’s analytical report states. Prices went down most noticeably in the city’s remotest and cheapest locations, where homes can now be had for 47,939 RUR per m2 (-2.6%). This is all part of the estate revaluation process. The price decline came to 0.8% to 0.9% in the city’s second and third most expensive

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 15, 2017. Officers from Sverdlovsk Region division of Federal Tax Service and local law-enforcement agencies carried out fifty on-site tax audits in the first quarter of the year, which was 8.7% more than one year earlier, the division’s press service reports. Tax auditors forwarded files on thirty-six audits to the Investigative Committee. The files contain possible evidence of crimes stated in Articles 170 and 198-199.2 of Russia’s Criminal Code. Also, 3.788bn RUR were transferred to the national budget as a result of enforcement proceedings coordinated by the tax

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 15, 2017. The amount of past-due loan payments and other debts owed to banks by Sverdlovsk Region-based private individuals came to 11.584bn RUR on April 1, 2017, the Bank of Russia’s reports indicate. This is nearly half a billion rubles more than at the start of the year (slightly under 11.1bn RUR on January 1, 2017). At the same time, the amount of past-due repayments on loans issued in foreign currencies dropped by 7% compared with the beginning of the year, from 24.9m RUR on January 1 down to 23.1m RUR on April 1.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 12, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) had its S60 tractor (Stalinets) stationed next to the plant’s main entrance renovated, the company press service reports. ‘The plant used to make such tractors in 1933-1936 and had one of them stationed on a pedestal next to the entrance on the plant’s 50th anniversary in 1983. Since then, the tractor memorial, just like the one in Chelyabinsk’s Komsomolskaya Square, has been one of the city’s hallmarks. The only ligroin S 60 that exists in the Southern Urals today never fails to attract the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 12, 2017. Forty-five different military vehicles and weapon types produced at Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s three plants were featured in the Victory Day Parade in Moscow’s Red Square on May 9, the company press service reports. The company’s head plant Ural Vagon Zavod presented twenty-three promising armored vehicles, including the latest-generation T14 Armata tanks, the upgraded T 72B3 ones, and the armored evacuation vehicles BREM 1. ‘This is the first time our upgraded T 72B3 tanks have taken part in a parade. Thanks to a new, more powerful engine, the tanks are

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 12, 2017. UBT-Ural Vagon Zavod’s daughter enterprise UBT-Service bought a number of new road vehicles, the company press service reports. ‘For one, we bought a new Scandia, a sweeping truck, to keep our streets clean. Prior to this, we purchased three new 20,000-kg dumper trucks, and two new loaders. The use of up-to-date vehicles and our team’s efforts result in one of Nizhniy Tagil’s largest road-building companies performing very efficiently in the urban improvements sector,’ the press service says. UBT-Service repaired twelve different roads in Nizhniy Tagil last

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 12, 2017. Ural Airlines got their new A321 liner with sharklet-fitted wings from Airbus, the air carrier’s press service reports. This is the airline’s 12th such aircraft, so Ural Airlines currently operate forty-two planes all in all. The new plane will be used for both international and domestic flights. ‘The new airplane only has Economy class seats and is fit for 215 passengers. The plane is fitted with sharklets, that is, special wingtip devices that are meant to improve the plane’s aerodynamic parameters and cut down on fuel spending. The new aircraft is

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 12, 2017. Rosatom’s Novouralsk-based Ural Electrochemical Plant has completed gauging the technical parameters of an experimental set of upgraded, ninth-generation gas centrifuges that are used as part of the technological department’s spacer blocks, the company press service reports. The company’s acceptance committee stated at the end of last year that the upgraded gas centrifuges in question could very well be produced on a serial scale. The plant now intends to keep controlling the equipment’s performance parameters until the centrifuges have been switched to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 11, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) signed a dealership agreement with the Hungarian company Paragraph; the dealer intends to sell the Russian plant’s produce both in the EU and in other countries, including the ones in the Middle East, the plant’s press service reports. The company head arrived at ChTZ on a business visit this week. He was accompanied by two representatives of a large construction company from the Sultanate of Oman and Árpád Velez, MP and Deputy Chair of Russian-Hungarian Parliamentary Assembly. ‘The Hungarian

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 11, 2017. A group of orphaned children went on a guided tour of Ural Vagon Zavod on the eve of Victory Day, the plant’s press service reports. The children were able to take a look at the production departments, learn about the history of Russian armored vehicle industry, and see the legendary tanks that are now the industry’s hallmark. The tour was coordinated by Ural Vagon Zavod itself and Ural Tourism Association. The event involved children from two of Yekaterinburg’s live-in schools/foster homes: a vocational music school and a social rehabilitation center for

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 11, 2017. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) is now working to expand the range of issues its environmental management system certificate covers, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Relations Center reports. ‘Our experts are getting the plant’s coke and by-product department and blast furnace department ready to meet the ISO 14001:2015 standards. An action plan was designed for the purpose, with lists of steps to be taken, deadlines, and people in charge. Special training has been organized for the departments’ workers,’ the Center says.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 11, 2017. EVRAZ Holding’s West-Siberian Integrated Metallurgical Works (ZSMK) is now working on a project to enable the plant to make new lengths of rails that meet European standards and to make more 100-meter R65 rails. According to the company press service, the goal is to get the 100-meter rail production site completely retooled; this is going go cost 168m RUR. ‘The plant’s rail-making department will get complemented with a second 100-meter rail finishing line with a new control unit, a vertical straightening press, and a drilling/cutting machine. Also, the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 10, 2017. One Sverdlovsk Region-based Internet user downloads the equivalent of about 4,000 worth of e-books a month on average, MegaFon Ural’s press service reports. In Chelyabinsk Region and Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region, the amounts are, respectively, 3% and 9% larger. Sverdlovsk Region-based users’ online activity resulted in a 44% increase in the amount of traffic compared with last year. Every one in two MegaFon subscribers use their smartphone to access the web. According to Romir, 81% of Russian Internet users prefer mobile Internet connection and only 5%

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 10, 2017. ChTPZ Group’s Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant are going to celebrate the 72nd Victory Day in a series of festive events, the Group’s press service reports. The events will get attended by more than 1,700 war veterans and home front workers. ‘A memorial march for war veterans and home front workers will take place next to the war monument in Chelyabinsk on May 8. Both war veterans the Group employees are going to take part in it. On May 9, the plant workers will join the 66th track-and-field championship at Voskhod Stadium. A

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 10, 2017. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) now offers a monthly capitalization of interest on the entire range of deposits available at the bank, their press service reports. According to the bank’s Debit Transactions Director Olga Aksenova, more frequent capitalization means allows their customers to make better budgeting decisions. ‘People are more used to planning on a monthly basis, so capitalization of interest every thirty days is more convenient. Since we understand this, we are adjusting our products to meet our customers’ preferences.