UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 24, 2019. The telecom company MegaFon and Saint Petersburg State University opened Russia’s first 5G lab together. The former invested some RUB 20m in all the tech appliances, with additional funding directed to the training process. According to MegaFon’s press service, the lab courses dwell on digital solutions development and integration management. Software developers will be looking into the specific parameters of the fifth-generation networks and will learn how to work with current frameworks, tools, user interface, and automated quality control for

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 24, 2019. Mayor of Yekaterinburg Alexander Vysokinsky held a work meeting with Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev to discuss urban improvements in Yekaterinburg. The news was announced via the town council’s website. Governor Kuivashev pointed to the need to select the contractors carefully, as builders must ensure good quality of all the street improvement jobs they do and complete their work on time and in full. ‘The city is embarking on a large-scale urban improvement program in preparation for Yekaterinburg’s 300th anniversary. Plentiful funding

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 24, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region came No.5 in the rating of Russia’s top thirty federal constituencies with the largest credit card markets: 244,153 new credit cards got issued in the area in January-August 2019 (up 13.9% against the start of of the year), which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 29,728 units. According to the National Credit History Bureau’s press service, Moscow with its 521,600 new credit cards, Moscow Region with its 411,900 cards, and Krasnodar Territory with its 317,300 cards proved the largest credit card markets between January and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 24, 2019. EVRAZ West-Siberian Integrated Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ ZSMK) intends to invest RUB 1bn in building new, advanced lime kilns to ensure the plant has good quality raw materials to work with. The new kilns have been scheduled for launch in 2022, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s Corporate Communications Center reports. ‘These up-to-date two-sectional kilns rely on a new technology: the heat resulting from the burning of natural gas gets directed from the first section of the kiln into the second one in order to pre-heat and dry up the limestone. This means the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 24, 2019. Alexei Komrakov’s team from Alardinskaya Mine’s Section 1 produced 2,000,000,000 kg of coal from the mine in six and a half months. This was EVRAZ Raspadskaya Coal Company’s first team to reach this output target in 2019, the company’s press service reports. ‘2,000,000,000 kg of coal got extracted from Coalface 6-1-20 that got commissioned in March 2019. Thanks to clever organization of the process, well-coordinated teamwork, and compliance with the safety rules, the miners set their production record in under six and a half months,’ the press service

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 23, 2019. Over 50% of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s loans now get processed online, the bank’s press service reports. In the first half of the year, 21,000 consumer loans and credit cards got issued after a customer applied for the product online; this amounted to 57% of all the lending segment sales within the bank. ‘Interestingly enough, nearly a half (46%) of all the online sales in the lending segment get generated through our e-banking service and mobile app, 23% come in from the bank’s website, and 17% stem from lead generation. Our

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 23, 2019. The lithium-ion battery storage unit manufactured by Rosatom/TVEL’s CentroTech got installed onto the 5,000-kg-strong Hangcha forklift on OMK’s Vyksa Steel Works’ production site in Nizhniy Novgorod, the company’s press service reports. ‘The 32-kilowatt-per-hour energy storage unit is the most powerful option in the range of CentroTech’s products; the contract with Vyksa Steel Works is the first instance of the unit getting supplied to customer on a commercial basis,’ the press service says. The storage unit is part of TVEL and Vyksa Steel Works’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 23, 2019. ChelPipe Group allocated RUB 2m to fund renovations and repairs at the Group-supported schools and kindergartens in Sverdlovsk Region and Chelyabinsk Region this year; the company employees did the renovation jobs themselves, covering twenty schools and two kindergartens altogether. According to the Group’s press service, the renovations took place during the summer holidays; the builders’ teams (which comprised the Group’s workers as well) worked on classrooms, recreation halls, and verandas and reconstructed the hockey pitch. The doors, flooring,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 23, 2019. OOO FORES keeps working on the development of its brand identity. The company came up with the mascot Propantik (the name hasn’t been officially adopted yet). The cast figurine bearing FORES’s logo was first presented to the public on September 14. Propantik was given to the winners of the company amateur ping pong championship in Asbest, the company’s press service reports. ‘We started thinking of ‘humanizing’ our propping agent and making it the company mascot as early as last year. Designers and sculptors from Gildiya Kamnya in Malyshev helped us

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, September 23, 2019. Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe) went through with its first Eurobond issue (total amount: $300m); the coupon yield is expected at 4.5% a year; the bonds are to be redeemed in 2024. According to ChelPipe Group’s press service, the company’s good credit history and propitious market situation both attracted a wide range of investors during the five-day road show in Moscow, Zurich, Frankfurt, New York, and London. The initial coupon yield was set within the 4.75%-5% range and, as over $1bn got offered in the course of the book-building process,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 20, 2019. Ural Airlines started operating a new, scheduled flight from Perm to Prague and back. There were 127 passengers on board the inaugural flight operated in this direction on September 18, the air carrier’s press service reports. The solemn introduction ceremony took place at Perm’s Bolshoye Savino Airport on September 18, 2019. Perm Territory Government’s First Vice Premier and Perm Territory’s Construction Minister Mikhail V. Syutkin, Managing Director at Perm International Airport Sultan Dzharmukhanov, and Ural Airlines representatives all attended the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 20, 2019. The mean monthly pay of workers employed with Sverdlovsk Region-based businesses rose by 6.6% in January-July 2019 against one year earlier and amounted to RUB 39,912, Sverdlovskstat reports. It is reported that the wages and salaries rose most noticeably in the healthcare and social services sector (+11.4%, up to RUB 40,343) and culture/sports/recreation/entertainment sector (+10.4%, up to RUB 42,972). The increase was least noticeable in the administrative job sector (+1%, up to RUB 26,746) and the transportation and storage industry (+3%, up to RUB

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 20, 2019. 50,867 consumer loans got issued within Sverdlovsk Region’s banking sector in August 2019, which was 13.8% less than one year earlier, the National Credit History Bureau reports. Last month, the number of new consumer loans was at its highest in Moscow (70,800), Moscow Region (64,700), and Krasnodar Territory (57,700). ‘It’s obvious that the shrinking number of new consumer loans has to do with the banks’ lending policy growing ever more conservative, and with the Central Bank’s measures to ‘cool’ the retail lending market down. In other words, banks

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 20, 2019. OOO FORES’s Asbest branch recently introduced a mentor system: ten of the company’s employees received their official mentor badges this week, the company’s press service reports. ‘Our Asbest branch has been growing particularly well lately. New people are coming in, including the rather young ones. A more experienced co-worker’s support is always handy when it comes to mastering your new job, putting your skills to practice, overcoming the first workplace challenges, and fitting in. This is why we decided to resort to the old but always relevant

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 20, 2019. The team from EVRAZ Zapadno-Sibirskaya Heat & Power Plant came second in the All-Russian Heat & Power Plant Operating Crew Contest, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s Corporate Communications Center reports. The Turbine Department’s Senior Machine Operator Yuri Kurtobashev and Electric Equipment Technician Anton Leshin (who acted as the Electric Department’s Shift Foreman) won the Best in Profession prizes. ‘The contestants had to prove their expertise with the normative and tech regulations, job specifications, and tech schemes and to demonstrate their

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 19, 2019. Activists from Gorod Pervykh, an environmentally focused NGO set up with support from ChelPipe Group, held a clean-up day in Olenyi Ruchyi Nature Park, the Group’s press service reports. More than thirty volunteers took part in the fifteen-kilometer environmental hiking trip along the popular Serginsky Caves route. They picked up over 100kg of all kinds of consumption waste that were all taken to an authorized landfill. ‘Olenyi Ruchyi is one of Sverdlovsk Region’s most popular nature parks, with tens of thousands of visitors coming here from other

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 19, 2019. Yekaterinburg Council presented its plan to build schools in the newest parts of the city. Twelve secondary schools are being designed and put up at the moment, and the goal, as defined by Mayor of Yekaterinburg Alexander Vysokinsky, is to have more than twenty of them ready by 2025. The schools will first appear in the parts of Yekaterinburg that are facing the worst shortage, including the newly built residential areas. Chair of Yekaterinburg Council Building Committee Nikolai Smetanin, Head of Production/Tech Department at the Capital Construction

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 19, 2019. A new, advanced geometry tool got commissioned and launched at EVRAZ West Siberian Integrated Metallurgical Plant (ZSMK) Rail & Beam Department’s non-destructive testing line for 100-meter rails, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s Corporate Communications Center reports. The new tool controls nine parameters of the product that have to meet the GOST requirements with high precision and throughout the rail’s entire length. ‘This is a fully automated, testing error-free process. We only used to check for four parameters automatically: the rail height, the top

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, September 19, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) is taking part in the international real estate investment forum PROEstate 2019 which opens in Moscow today, the company’s Information & PR Department reports. MMK intends to present Prityazhenie, its unique urban improvement project proposed by the company’s Chair of the BOD Viktor Rashnikov. ‘The idea is to create a comfortable, very high quality urban environment on a 400-hectare patch of land owned by Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. The site will house up-to-date sports facilities, medical clinics,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 19, 2019. ChelPipe Group introduced a special digital solution to improve its steel-smelting process. Machine-learning technology was relied upon to develop and launch a ‘steel-smelter’s support algorithm’ that makes it possible to control the composition of steel and minimize losses related to the raw material consumption. According to the Group’s press service, the company is expected to save RUB 50m by the end of 2019 and as much as RUB 100m and more in the following years. The solution has been launched at the electric furnace-melting department Iron Ozone