UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 30, 2017. 30% to 40% of food items on sale at Sverdlovsk Region supermarkets and grocery stores come from local producers, Deputy Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Vysokinsky said at Sverdlovsk Region Union of Industrialists & Entrepreneurs’ recent meeting. Vysokinsky feels the relatively small share of local goods on the market is one of Sverdlovsk Region’s key problems. ‘The Mid-Urals’ trade turnover amounts to over 1 trillion RUR. We spend 10bn RUR buying building materials, for example, and only 5% to 7% of these are actually made in Sverdlovsk

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, January 30, 2017. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) sold 1,135,500,000 kg of zinc-coated rolled metal goods last year, which was an absolute record in the company’s operating history. ‘The previous record (1,115,700,000 kg) was set at the end of 2014. The plant keeps increasing its zinc-coated produce output for the last fifteen years now. We launched two highly productive continuous galvanizing units at our coating department in 2002 and 2008 and an extension to our cold-roll unit (a continuous galvanizing unit and a combined continuous

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 27, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant recently published a number of new books for children and teens: The Adventures of A Little Tank and Ural Vagon Zavod Tanks came out directly after Legends of Ural Vagon Zavod hit all school libraries in Nizhniy Tagil in September 2016. According to the company press service, the plant’s Executive Director Vladimir Roschupkin was the primary driving and coordinating force for the project. The Adventures of A Little Tank were written by the children’s author Svetlana Lavrova, who also wrote Legends of Ural Vagon

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 27, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) is going to deliver it marsh bulldozer B10MB to a large fishing business in Kamchatka, the plant’s press service reports. The customer is already using a couple of ChTZ’s B-170 bulldozers, as a matter of fact. ‘The vehicle will be used to unload fish onto the shore. The bulldozers are used in the following way: first, the machine prepares the needed section of the shore by making a little hill next to the waterline. Then, a barge full of fish arrives from the trawler and the bulldozer tows

UrBC, Moscow, January 27, 2016. IKEA announced a price decrease on January 26, Vedomosti refers to General Director IKEA Russia Walter Kadnar as saying. Prices will be reduced by 15% to 20% for about 20% of the retailer’s product range, that is, 1,800 different items. For some items, the price decrease will come to 40%. Kadnar points out this is a long-term program rather than just a sale or a promotion campaign. The main factor behind this is the launch of IKEA’s fifth furniture factory in Russia last fall. In fact, most of the price decreases will involve kitchen furniture and wardrobes,

UrBC, Moscow, January 27, 2016. Russians’ factual disposable incomes (the consumer price index-adjusted amount of money left once all the bills and checks have been paid) decreased by 5.9% in 2016 against a year earlier. RIA Novosti refers to Rosstat as stating that the figure went down by 6.1% in December 2016 compared with December 2015 but rose by 50.5% compared with November 2016. In 2015, the income decrease amounted to 3.2% compared with the year 2014 (the data do not take into account the population of either the Crimea or Sevastopol); the figures went up in December 2015 against

UrBC, Moscow, January 27, 2016. As of January 23, 2017, 142,600 customers of Tatfondbank received their insurance payments. The Deposit Insurance Agency reports the overall payments came to 49.65bn RUR (92% of the Agency’s liability). The money was transferred to customers through Sberbank, VTB 24, Rosselkhozbank, Bank Otkrytiye, and AK BARS Bank as the Agency’s agent banks. The Bank of Russia imposed temporary administration on Tatfondbank on December 15 and put a three-month ban on meeting creditors’ claims. The ban had to do with the fact that creditors’ existing claims were not met on

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, January 26, 2017. MMK Group’s steel output rose by 2.5% in 2016 compared with one year earlier and reached 12,500,000,000 kg. The Group’s overall sales rose by 3.4% and reached 11,600,000,000 kg. ‘Even though the home market’s steel demand dropped last year against the year 2015, this was completely set off by our export market sales. The company’s exports rose by 19.4% in 2016 compared with 2015 and made up 27.3% of all our sales,’ MMK says. The increase in exports did not bring about any changes in the range of products the company makes: MMK’s share

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 26, 2017. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) recently coordinated a blast-furnace workers’ workshop, with twenty representatives of Russia’s leading metallurgical enterprises coming on site, the company press service reports. Workers from Novolipetsk Metallurgical Works, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works, Mechel, Severstal, Tulachermet, EVRAZ Holding’s West-Siberian Metallurgical Works, and EVRAZ Kachkanar Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise took part in the workshop. The goal is to provide an experience-sharing environment

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 26, 2017. ChTPZ Group’s SOT recently produced an experimental batch of seamless pipe bends (diameter: 820 mm; layer thickness: 12 mm), the Group’s PR Department reports. The new products are suitable for various pipe types (PN: up to 16 MPa, temperature: -70 to + 450 degrees centigrade) used for steam, hot water, natural gas, and oil transfer. Large-diameter pipe bends are made from the Group’s Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant’s seamless ingots (made from 09G2S steel). The plant intends to make 85,000 kg (250 units) a year.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 26, 2017. Yekaterinburg’s Akademicheskiy District proved the most frequently googled location when it comes to buying a new home in Yekaterinburg, the leading web portal on Russian housing market N1 reports. Akademichesky was looked up in 7.5% of cases when surfers were trying to find a new home in Yekaterinburg online. Botanichesky District and centrally located apartments got looked up in less than 3.5% and less than 2.1% of cases, respectively. Existing home market trends look the same: Akademicheskiy is the second most searched-for location, looked up in 6% of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 26, 2017. Sverdlovsk Region Government officials will now be using MegaFon numbers for work: the telecommunications provider reports the company won a tender to this effect. ‘In the end of the e-auction, MegaFon proved the winning bidder that will be the only carrier to provide government officials with good quality mobile connection and high-speed Internet connection everywhere, including business trips. All the phone numbers themselves will remain the same as before, as, under the terms of the contract, the government’s 110 officials retained their numbers

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 26, 2017. Koltsovo Airport Customs report the number of passengers on international flights went down by nearly 30%, down to 1,060,000 people, the Customs’ Deputy Head Vladimir Zyabko announced at a press conference. ‘At the same time, passenger traffic rose by 50% during New Year break compared with early January 2016. The number of flights operated in the first week of January also increased by 12%,’ he said. Around 80% of all international flights operated in Ural Federal District get operated through Koltsovo Airport, with over twenty air carriers involved.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 25, 2017. Last year, EVRAZ Holding supplied some 5,000,000 kg of metal goods for the construction of sports facilities for the upcoming Student Olympics 2019, the company press service reports. EVRAZ Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works’ H-beams and EVRAZ West-Siberian Metallurgical Plant’s rolled section steel were shipped to the construction site of Raduga Sports Center in Krasnoyarsk in December. The former produced four types of H-beams for the purpose: 30B, 35B, 50B, and 40K. These beams are made from low-alloyed steel and are particularly durable and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 25, 2017. Sinara Group’s Sinara Transport Machines Board of Directors appointed former First Deputy Director-General Viktor Lesh the company’s Director-General, the Group’s press service reports. Viktor Lesh graduated from Ural State Technical University (now Ural Federal University) with a degree in Engineering. He worked in managerial positions at Nasostechmash, United Machine-Building Plants, and Neftegazovye Systemy in 1997-2007. Lesh was Director-General of Electrotyazhmash-Privod and Baranchinsky Electromechanical Plant in 2007-2016. He transferred to Sinara

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 25, 2017. Sverdlovsk Region’s industrial production market shrank by 1.9% in December 2016 compared with one year earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. On the other hand, the companies’ output figures rose by 7% in 2016 compared with the year 2015. For one, the output of companies operating in the processing industry sector rose by 7.8%, that of fossil developers rose by 1%, and that of housing services and utilities providers rose by 9.5%.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 25, 2017. Last year, Sverdlovsk Region-based businesses’ turnover rose by 2.7% on average compared with the year 2015, Sverdlovskstat reports. Hotels’ turnover rose by 8.3%, that of agricultural businesses by 7.4%, that of companies in the processing industries by 4.6%, and that of housing services and utilities providers by 4%. At the same time, retail and whole-trade sellers’ turnover dropped by 0.3% and that of construction companies by 2.7%.

UrBC, Moscow, January 25, 2017. Russia’s alcohol consumption dropped by 1.5 times compared with the year 2009, Rospotrebnadzor’s press service reports. ‘It has been estimated that per capita strong drinks consumption comes to over 10 liters a year (15 liters in 2015). According to the World Health Organization, anything above 8 liters per capita a year is detrimental to a given country’s overall population health,’ the press service says. The state-run consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor feels the positive changes have been brought about by additional limits set on the times of the day

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 24, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Omsktransmash was recently issued the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological, and Nuclear Oversight’s license allowing it to design and make equipment for nuclear units, radiation sources, nuclear materials and radioactive substances storage facilities, and radioactive waste storage sites. The company press service reports the new license opens new cooperation opportunities for the plant and the Russian nuclear enterprises. ‘In order to run a full nuclear equipment production cycle, the plant gave major upgrades

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 24, 2017. Over 21,600 people visited Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s open-air museum last year; some 15,000 went to take a look at the legendary tanks at the company’s Armored Vehicles Museum and 2,000 went on guided tours to learn about the plant’s history. According to the company press service, visitors come from both Nizhniy Tagil and other Russian cities such as Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, Omsk, and Moscow, as well as from other countries such as Argentina, Germany, Bulgaria, and other locations. Five major exhibitions ran at the museum last year. Talent