UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 5, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) sent the materials needed to restore their tractor to the Crimea. The tractor, which dates back to the thirties, was found in a quarry, the plant’s press service reports. ‘We were contacted by experts from the Eastern Crimea History & Culture Museum, who said they found Stalinets, a ChTZ tractor, on the premises of Adzhimushkaysky Quarry. The experts were able to identify the make, ChTZ’s first ligroin tractor S 60. Judging by the photos they sent, they were right,’ the press service says.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 4, 2017. Two new trams supplied by Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Uraltransmash entered Yekaterinburg streets on March 30, the plant’s press service reports. The trams service Route 2 - from Frezerovschikov St to VIZ over the city’s Ordzhonikidzevsky, Zheleznodorozhny, Kirovsky, Leninsky, and Verkh-Isetsky Districts. 71-405 trams have been painted the company colors to celebrate the plant’s 200th anniversary. Such special trams can now be seen in both Yekaterinburg and other Russian cities everywhere from the Northern Urals to Krasnodar Territory. ‘The trams are

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 4, 2017. Sinara Group and Siemens’s joint venture Ural Locomotives supplied this year’s first set of locos to the Russian Railways. The customer received twenty-five 2ES6 Sinara locomotives within the framework of the plant’s first-quarter production program. According to Sinara Group’s PR Center, twenty locos from this set will head for Sverdlovsk Railways and the remaining five units will be used at South Ural Railways. This year, the company is also planning to enter Kuibyshev Railways, where Ural Locomotives will also supply its locos. Russian Railways will

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 4, 2017. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development opened Sredneokhotinsky, a new branch in Saint Petersburg that offers a full range of banking services to private customers, the bank’s press service reports. The bank also set up two street retail branches in Saint Petersburg in January 2017. Both branches are basically ATMs/payment terminals. Now customers can open a deposit, apply for a loan or a debit/credit card, make money orders, and open or close their current accounts. This means the bank currently operates one full-fledged branch, one branch with

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 4, 2017. Ural Airlines are offering their passengers a new flight from Saint Petersburg to Kutaisi, Georgia, starting from May 3, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘Kutaisi is a location in the ancient kingdom of Colchis, where Jason traveled to get the Golden Fleece . It’s worth visiting for its old little streets, its delicious cuisine, and the eternal beauty of the Caucasus Mountains,’ the airline’s press service says. Ural Airlines’ flight will be operated every Wednesday. Two more flights to Georgia (Saint Petersburg-Tbilisi and Saint Petersburg-Batumi)

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 4, 2017. Russian Copper Company and Vishnevogorsky Council signed a cooperation agreement on behalf of the company’s Mauksky Ore Mine and the town residents on March 30, 2017. This was part of the company’s large-scale corporate social responsibility program, their press service says. The ceremony was attended by Mayor of Vishnevogorsk Yakov Gusev, Mauksky Ore Mine Director-General Nikolai Gridin, and Vice President of Russian Copper Company for Human Resources and CSR Anna Shabarova. Under the terms of this agreement, Russian Copper Company Group’s member

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 3, 2017. 4,735 new automobiles were sold on Yekaterinburg market in the first two months of the year, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 3%, Auto Dealer Yekaterinburg reports. The market also went up by 3% in February, with local dealers selling 2,737 new cars. Lada remains the market leader. The sales of the top three best selling brands (the Russian Lada, KIA, and Renault) rose by over 30% in January and February 2017. At the same time, Toyota and Nissan have been selling increasingly worse. The two Japanese brands’ sales dynamics, along with those

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 3, 2017. Yekaterinburg Customs officers have initiated fifteen administrative lawsuits with the help of their risk management system since the start of the year (compared with seven a year earlier), with over 100m RUR worth of fines transferred to the federal budget (compared with 70m RUR a year earlier), the Customs’ press office reports. For one, 55 m3 of fir tree timber materials were left undeclared at Serov Customs Point. When alerted to the problem, the entrepreneur said he’d entered ‘pine tree timber materials’ instead of ‘fir tree timber materials’ by

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 3, 2017. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development and the National Credit History Bureau can now produce their business customers’ credit history records right at the bank’s branches, the bank’s press service reports. ‘SMEs are gradually developing a different approach to bank financing. Businesses come up with a carefully prepared application package and check their credit history prior to applying for a loan. Even a small delayed payment somewhere in the remote past might cause a company to lose the funding it needs for growth,’ says UBRD Corporates

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 3, 2017. First Fright Company’s (PGK) Chelyabinsk subsidiary keeps working to rebuild Nickel, its washing and steaming station. The first reconstruction stage cost the plant 400m RUR, PGK’s press service reports. The goal is to reduce the station’s environmental impact and thus improve the environmental conditions in the nearby town of Orsk and working conditions of the station’s workers. ‘Switching to green technologies means all the railcar steam treatment operations will be fully automated. All the basic production processes and final quality control will be

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 3, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant is hosting its 4th physics championship for high school students from schools based in Nizhniy Tagil’s Dzerzhinskiy District. The prizes are supplied by the plant’s Executive Director and Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly Deputy Vladimir Roschupkin. According to the company press service, the championship was part of the plant’s corporate social responsibility projects and its partnership with the local schools. This year, 73 students competed for the prizes, including 29 15-year-olds, 19 16-year-olds, and 27

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 31, 2017. Irina Osadchaya, an atmospheric control lab engineer from EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works, won an environmental award in the Glory to the Man of Labor professional skills contest, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s press office reports. Osadchaya presented her report on the environmental effects of retooling the company’s coke dry-quenching plant in Professional Engineers category. ‘The CDQ plant upgrades have meant the unit was fitted with new suction systems and fabric filters. This is the first time something like this has been done in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 31, 2017. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) Board of Directors approved of the plant’s annual accounting report and the annual report for 2016 at their meeting on March 27, 2017, the company press service reports. The BOD members suggested that the shareholders approve of the company’s revised Charter and other internal regulation documents and vote for the distribution of last year’s dividends in the course of the upcoming AGM. The BOD also decided on the list of candidates to get elected on the new Board during the annual general meeting. All of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 31, 2017. Prices went down by 1.2% on Yekaterinburg existing home market in the first three months of 2017. Compared with March 2016 and February 2015, prices declined by 3.1% and 12.3%, respectively, Ural Real Estate Chamber’s report states. The average asking price on Yekaterinburg existing home market currently comes to 67,298 RUR per m2. The only housing segment where prices went up a little since the start of the year (+0.9%, from 48,381 RUR to 48,838 RUR per m2) was the apartments on the outskirts of the city. Centrally located homes grew 0.3% less expensive

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 31, 2017. Sverdlovsk Region’s construction market amounted to 12.6bn RUR in January and February 2017, which was 2.5% less than one year earlier (in comparable prices), Sverdlovsk Region Economy Ministry refers to Sverdlovskstat as stating. 160,200 m2 of new housing got commissioned in the area in the first two months of the year, which was 45.9% less than one year earlier (296,000 m2). Also, 85,900 m2 worth of private houses got put up as well.

UrBC, Moscow, March 31, 2017. The Russian building industry’s competitiveness index declined y 22% in the second half of 2016 compared with one year previously, the Building Industry Rating Agency’s (RASK) research findings indicate. RASK has been carrying the CI figures since the year 2014. The index is based on data on the number of professional housing developers on the market, the number of government contracts, the availability of borrowed funds, the construction process dynamics, the number of companies going bust, the number of companies with no transparency policy, and other

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 30, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Burevestnik Central Scientific Research Institute was awarded Russia’s Defense Ministry honorary certificate for taking part in the 2nd military/scientific conference on the use of robots in the Russian Armed Forces. The conference took place at Patriot Congress Center on March 23, the company press service reports. Burevestnik contributed to the demonstration of its 57-mm remotely controlled weapon station AU 220M mounted onto E501TB chassis (made at Ural Vagon Zavod’s Rubtsovsk subsidiary). The weapon station was developed

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 30, 2017. Sinara Group’s Sinara Development reports new homes are now available for purchase in Peremena, a set of apartment buildings in Shirokaya Rechka, Yekaterinburg, the Group’s press service reports. The apartment buildings 1.3 and 1.4 will get commissioned in the last quarter of 2018. Special offers hold for a limited number of apartments. According to Sinara Development’s CFO Alexei Smirnov, prices start from 1,6m RUR for ready-to-move-in new homes with the standard developer’s finish. ‘This is one of the best offers on Yekaterinburg new home market.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 30, 2017. SKB-Bank’s Deputy Chair of the Board Margarita Burbik attended Sverdlovsk Region Food & Agriculture Ministry’s recent out-of-house meeting. The officials present at the event talked about getting ready for the upcoming crops campaign, steps to be taken to support the local farmers, and preferential terms lending options for them. Sverdlovsk Region Agriculture Minister Dmitri Degtyarev asked the attending Duma deputies to draft up the bills that would make the agribusinesses’ lives easier. Head of United Russia’s Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 30, 2017. The first round of a football championship involving children from foster homes and boarding schools for orphans will take off in Yekaterinburg on March 30. The event, called The Future Depends on You, is coordinated by the telecommunications provider MegaFon, the company press service reports. ‘Footballers from foster homes and boardings schools based in eight Sverdlovsk Region town and cities will compete for the privilege of representing their constituency in the championship’s final round in Sochi. These are children who practice football as a hobby