UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 25, 2018. ChelPipe Group is looking for applicants to enroll on its new Leadership Program — a master course at National University of Science & Technology (NUST MISIS), the company press service reports. Eligible to apply are graduates of Russian colleges under thirty years of age with a bachelor’s degree. They will major in Metallurgy and Technological Machines & Appliances. The two-year program covers courses on the most advanced technologies and trends in the metallurgical sector delivered by NUST MISIS’s best faculty members and ChelPipe Group’s leading

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 25, 2018. The entrance section of Clinic 32 in Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Region, will undergo a large-scale renovation, Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Station’s Information & PR Department reports. The renovation jobs are part of the Lean Clinic Project coordinated by Rosatom State Corporation and Russia’s Federal Medico-Biological Agency; the project touches upon the cities and towns where Rosatom operates its nuclear power facilities. The goal is to ensure the clinic’s more efficient performance, cut down on patients’ waiting time, streamline the patients more

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 25, 2018. Retail price of gasoline rose by 9.1% on Sverdlovsk Region market in January-May 2018 compared with one year earlier and currently comes to RUR 40.8 per liter on average, deputy head of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service’s Sverdlovsk Region division Ekaterina Vorobieva said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg today. According to Vorobieva, the average retail price came to RUR 35.4 per liter in the year 2016; the figure went up to RUR 37.4 in 2017 (up 5.6%). A liter of diesel fuel could be had for RUR 37 on average in 2016 and for RUR 39.16 a year

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 22, 2018. A group of AvtoVAZ delegates, headed by the company president Yves Karakatzanis, paid a visit to Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK). The parties had a chance to talk over their current cooperation projects and potential manufacture of new steels for the car-making industry, MMK press service reports. This is the first time Yves Karakatzanis, who got appointed head of Russia’s largest carmaker in early June, has visited the plant. AvtoVAZ is one of MMK’s key partners, with more than 293,000,000 kg of metal goods supplied to the former in 2017 (overall

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 22, 2018. Ural Airlines won the Loyalty Awards Russia 2018 Prize for its efficient use of CRM within customer loyalty programs. ‘Integrating CRM with the airline’s Wings Club Loyalty Scheme signifies yet another stage in the program’s simplification and improvement. CRM allows for faster processing of a customer’s order structure and entire flight information online through emails, texts, and messenger services,’ the airline’s press service reports. Ural Airlines’ Wings Club offers its members bonus points that can be used to partially or fully cover the cost of any

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 22, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) paid its customers more than RUR 87.8m in cash back options in the first five months of 2018, which exceeds the figures for one year earlier by 46%, the bank’s press service reports. A UBRD customer got some RUR 600 back a month on average throughout January-May, which was 23% more than one year previously. The largest one-off repayment amounted to RUR 73,000; the bonus stemmed from paying for some construction stuffs. According to the bank’s data, their cardholders mostly use their cards to pay at

UrBC, Moscow, June 22, 2018. Russia’s Finance Ministry suggests bringing the duty-free limit on online shopping at international stores down to €100, TASS refers to the ministry’s Tax & Customs Policy Director Alexei Sazanov as saying. ‘We are looking into different schemes, the most likely scenario being a €500 limit starting July 1 and a €200 limit starting either January 1, 2019 or July 1, 2019. A €100 limit per parcel is also a possibility,’ the official said. According to Sazanov, a duty will get imposed on goods worth over €500 on July 1, 2018; starting from January 1, 2019, the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 22, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) is about to launch its fifth full-cycle railway wheel treatment line. All the appliances have been assembled, with four new automated mills set up in the wheel department. The holding has invested RUR 800m into the project, the company press service reports. ‘Our workers are now busy assembling the equipment meant for robotized transportation, loading, and unloading of wheel ingots, the metal chip crushing/cleaning units, and the coolant treatment station. They are also working on cables

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 21, 2018. Ural Airlines are introducing a new flight from Sochi to Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent, the air carrier’s press service reports. The flights will be operated on Airbus A320 liners (both Economy and Business options available) starting July 18, 2018. U6 2659 (Sochi-Tashkent) will be operated every Wednesday, U6 2660 (Tashkent-Sochi) every Thursday. ‘Tashkent is both Uzbekistan’s and Central Asia’s largest city where you can see ancient landmarks, spectacularly preserved. There is Tillya Sheikh Mosque, for example, which is believed to have a hair of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 21, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s West Siberian Integrated Metallurgical Works launched a new slurry thickening unit meant for processing blast furnaces’ byproducts. Thanks to this new appliance, the plant will be able to cut its manufacturing water discharge and fresh water spending (into and from the River Tom, respectively) by nearly 3,000,000 m3, the holding’s press service reports. ‘The plant keeps working on its green projects in order to reduce its negative impact on the local waters. We managed to decrease our manufacturing water discharge by more than 15m m3 in the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 21, 2018. Thirty additional CCTV cameras got installed in Yekaterinburg in time for the World Football Championship days. The cameras got connected to MegaFon’s fiber optic lines, the telecommunications provider’s press service reports. The entire video stream gets delivered into both the local and the nationwide operation centers online. These highly sensitive cameras (viewing angle: 360 degrees) got installed at sports playgrounds in Festivalnaya St, Dagestanskaya St, and Krasnoflotsev St, in Mayakovsky Park’s fan zone, and on rooftops of buildings and MegaFon’s

UrBC, Moscow, June 21, 2018. OOO FCA RUS (Fiat’s authorized dealer in Russia) informs customers it is calling off 246 FIAT Freemont units, Rossstandart’s press service reports. The automobiles have to get called off because of a minor possibility of a short failure with Cruise Control on and at a low speed; the software might keep sending acceleration signals into the system, which might result in either the speed remaining the same or in acceleration. The cars will get checked and tested and the software updated if necessary. All the repair jobs will be done at no extra cost for the car

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 21, 2018. Russia intends to introduce a number of counter measures in response to U.S.-imposed steel and aluminum import duties; ‘mirror duties’ will only get imposed on U.S. goods that have their counterparts in the Russian Federation, Prime refers to Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin as stating. ‘As the United States keep up with their excessive steel and aluminum import duties and have no intention of compensating Russia for its losses, Russia will now act within its WTO authority to introduce counter measures relating to goods imported from the U.S.,’

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, June 20, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) charity foundation Metallurg’s Woman’s Health Project won in this year’s first presidential grants contest, with state funding provided for the winning non-profit organizations. ‘The key idea behind the project is to support the expectant parents in social, medical, and psychological terms. Two hundred families will join in the project, including two hundred pregnant women who are all employed at Magnitogorsk’s various industrial enterprises but are currently on leave because of harmful working conditions; the women

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 20, 2018. EVRAZ Holding and Russian Railways switched to a new electronic document flow system in order to do away with hard copies. ‘EVRAZ directs over 300 sets of files and reports to Russian Railways every month, with scores of papers in every folder. Switching to e-document flow will mean we can reduce filing and delivery time from eight to one or two days,’ the holding’s press service says. It took the company around a year to switch to electronic format, during which time both EVRAZ and Russian Railways improved the e-storage servers for EVRAZ Nizhniy Tagil

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 20, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities carried a bill of indictment on a criminal case involving two Yekaterinburg residents who used to run OOO Rubicon Aero Invest. According to the authorities’ press service, the company’s former Director-General and CFO have been charged with abuse of power (Article 201 (Part 2) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code) and large-scale credit fraud (Article 159.1 (Part 4) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code). The inquest team believes OOO Rubicon Aero Invest was working on a new ten-story apartment

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 20, 2018. Expert RA/RAEX commented on the key negative factors affecting Koltso Urala Bank’s performance. The latest report on the bank’s credit rating states that these are 1) the bank’s poor competitiveness (Koltso Urala is currently No.122 on the national rating, in terms of asset volume) and 2) a focus mainly on banking services rendered to the bank’s mother enterprise Ural Mining & Metallurgical Company (UMMC). ‘RAEX also warns about enhanced credit risks related to certain loans taken out by parties who are not connected in any way to the bank but do have

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 20, 2018. 50% of accommodation options available for the World Cup days are still being unused at the moment, OneTwoTrip’s press service reports. ‘Rental apartments are mostly popular with football supporters flying to Moscow: about 54% of private rentals got booked in the Russian capital. Landlords based in Saransk, Kaliningrad, and Nizhniy Novgorod were less lucky, as only about a third of apartments got booked. Yekaterinburg is somewhere in the middle, as exactly 50% of apartments on offer got booked by football fans,’ the press service says. OneTwoTrip’s analysts

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 19, 2018. Three Chinese nationals and a football supporter from Egypt were the first international visitors to try out the tax free option in Yekaterinburg. They got around RUR 75,000 back on their high street shopping, Koltsovo Airport Customs’ press service reports. Passengers departing from International Terminal B asked a customs officer for help with the processing of their receipts and the VAT return forms. The whole thing only took a few minutes. Once the goods, a special-format receipt bearing the customer’s data, and the customer’s ID have been presented,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 19, 2018. The number of loans issued by the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) to small and medium enterprises rose by 81% in the first quarter of 2018 compared with last year, the bank’s press service reports. ‘According to RAEX’s recent research findings, the overall amount of loans issued to SMEs throughout Russia went up by 15% in 2017. The UBRD kept up with the trend: as our loan product range expanded and the financial terms grew more lenient, our customers applied for borrowed funds increasingly more often. Besides, we are also willing to