UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 6, 2016. AI Machine Learning options offered by the telecommunications provider MegaFon allowed the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development to reduce its expected loan loss by as much as 8%, MegaFon’s press service reports. MegaFon and UBRD Group first announced they were going to work together at the Innoprom 2016 International Exhibition in July. MegaFon’s service is now available to two of the Group’s leading institutions, VUZ-Bank and UBRD, and is used to ensure a better estimate of a borrower’s paying capacity and more efficient repayment risk

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 6, 2016. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) is currently getting its pipe shell grinding repair facility retooled and upgraded, the company press service reports. Once all the renovations and improvements have been completed, the pipe shell output is expected to double, with improved product quality and a wider range of produce as accompanying bonuses, EVRAZ Holding states. The retooling involves installing a second pipe shell grinding repair line with a wheel-abrator machine to ensure complete removal of surface oxidation, a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 6, 2016. SKB-Bank is now among the top banks in the Urals and Siberia bank rating for the first half of the year according to Expert-Ural analysts, the bank’s press service reports. The bank was No.1 in terms of asset volume (134.9bn RUR) and own funds (13.9bn RUR). SKB-Bank also issued 65.9bn RUR worth of consumer loans as of July 1, 2016, thus hitting the top of the Mid-Urals-based banks’ rating. Its corporate loan book rose by 16% against last December and reached 13.9bn RUR. SKB-Bank also came second in the rating in terms of amount of money deposited by

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 6, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Chelyabinsk-based member enterprise Electromachine is going to present some twenty of its new developments at a large-scale overall corporation stand at the Army 2016 Forum, the company press service reports. Power supply systems will serve as this exhibition’s special feature. The plant will be showing its diesel power plants DEA 2, DEA 4K, and DEA 10T that have been used successfully at both Russian and international customers’ facilities. A promising development will be demonstrated for the first time: a rather powerful

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 5, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s TV show UVZ Today got shortlisted for the PROBA-IPRA Golden World Awards. According to the company press service, the show is nominated for the Best In-Company PR Project. The show premiered in March 2014 and is now broadcast on company premises in Nizhniy Tagil, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Volchansk, Kirov, Yurga, and other towns. The TV studio at Ural Vagon Zavod corporation’s head plant has already produced over a hundred pieces on company news, Russia’s machine-building and defense industry’s development

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 5, 2016. EVRAZ Holding presented 150,000-ruble gift certificates to two schools in Nizhniy Tagil and Prigorodny District, Sverdlovsk Region. The money is to be spent on sports equipment for PE classes and extracurricular activities, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s press office reports. ‘One of the certificates was given to a school in Petrokamenskoye, Prigorodny District, on the first day of school. EVRAZ Holding Nizhniy Tagil Metallurgical Works Chair of the Trade Union Vladimir Radayev and EVRAZ Holding Ural Charity Fund Director Elena Raudshtein came to the school to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 5, 2016. Russian Copper Company’s Tominsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise can’t start developing Birgildinskoye Deposit in Chelyabinsk Region just yet, the company press service reports. ‘The company was granted the Federal Subsoil Resources Management Agency’s permission to do prospecting surveys and mining in the deposit as early as 2011. Under the license agreement, Tominsky had to do all the prospecting and evaluation necessary, produce a feasibility report, and get their exploration plan approved by all the authorities involved. All this got done by

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 5, 2016. The telecommunications provider MegaFon improved its mobile connection quality in fifty-eight different locations throughout the Urals, the company press service reports. The company’s tech team built or upgraded over 180 base stations, which they say ensures a more stable voice and data transfer in densely populated cities as well as in smaller settlements. The improved service is now available to subscribers based in Beloyarsky, Verkhnyaya Salda, Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Glyadeny, Irbit, Kurganovo, Lesnoy, Nizhniy Tagil, Novouralsk, Povarnya, Rastushchiy,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 5, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development introduced a new branch in Saint Petersburg; the place is oriented at business customers/corporates, the bank’s press service reports. The branch is located in Vyborgsky District at 4A Finlyandsky Ave. The opening hours are from 9AM to 6 PM on weekdays. The UBRD’s new branch welcomes representatives of legal entities, mainly small and medium enterprises, willing to open a settlement account, arrange an acquiring agreement, put money into a deposit, and apply for a loan/overdraft. According to the bank’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 2, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation celebrated the start of school as thousands of employees’ children in Kamensk-Uralsky, Nizhniy Tagil, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, and a number of other cities became first-graders this year, the company press service reports. ‘Ural Vagon Zavod’s head plant’s top managers congratulated the schoolchildren and vocational school students on the start of the new school year in person and came to the school-opening ceremonies. Executive Director Vladimir Roshchupkin came to Gymnasium 86 and School 43 with a welcoming address to students,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 2, 2016. Prices went down by 3.1% on Yekaterinburg existing home market in the eight months of 2016, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. As of July 29, 2016, prices stood at 68,510 RUR per m2 on average. Compared with the start of the year, housing prices went down most noticeably in the city’s remotest and least expensive locations; the decrease fluctuates between 4.3% and 4.5%. The average asking price was 51,734 RUR per m2 last December; now the figure is 49,530 RUR per m2 on average. Housing prices declined from 60,260 RUR per m2 down to 57,545 RUR per m2 in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 2, 2016. The unemployment rate in Sverdlovsk Region stood at 5.4% in May-July 2016; these figures were obtained based on the International Labor Organization’s methodology, Rosstat reports. There are currently 2.216m people of working age in the Mid-Urals, of whom 2.097m are employed and 119,600 are looking for jobs. A year earlier, the unemployment rate was 6.5%; in 2014 and 2013, the figures were 6.1% and 5.9%, respectively.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 2, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region-based employers owed their workers 8.4m RUR in unpaid wages and salaries as of August 1, 2016, Rosstat reports. Interestingly, one year earlier the arrears of wages amounted to 3.922m RUR, and the previous month’s figures reached 8.344m RUR.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 2, 2016. Freight forwarding rates rose by 10.1% in Sverdlovsk Region in January-July 2016 compared with December 2015, Rosstat reports. In the meantime, the overall inflation rate in the Mid-Urals between January and July 2016 was 4%.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 1, 2016. The overall amount of money spent on buying textbooks for Yekaterinburg schools reached 104.212m RUR this year, head of Yekaterinburg Council’s Education Department Ekaterina Sibirtseva said at a recent press conference. According to Sibirtseva, a textbook costs 405 RUR on average. ‘All of the city’s 162 schools are fully prepared to welcome their students. Every school underwent some repairs and/or remodeling and got stocked with textbooks. Many of the school buildings were completed with a new gym or canteen as well as outdoor lighting and new

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 1, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region’s farmers are complaining about the poor potato harvest on private farms this year, Deputy Chair of Sverdlovsk Region Vegetable Farmers’ Union Igor Kartuzov said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg today. ‘Private farms go for new seed varieties rarely enough, which means that their harvest deteriorates year by year if the weather conditions are not as good as they could be; this is why private farmers are expected to get very poor potato yield this year due to insufficient watering. It is naturally difficult to get plenty of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 1, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region’s retail trade turnover came to 59.742m RUR in January-July 2016, which is 5.4% less than one year earlier, Rosstat reports. As for the turnover figures on a month’s scale, the figures for July 2016 were 5.6% less than those for July 2015 and 2.9% more than those for June 2016.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 1, 2016. Federal Grid Company (FGC UES) has subjected over 1,800 km of electric mains in Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Kirov, and Orenburg Regions to thermovision inspection this year so far. The company intends to get another 1,500 km tested before the end of the year, their Ural branch reports. The tests can be performed on running equipment, the company explains. Special attention will be paid to the mains whose performance affects power generation; these are the 500-kilowatt mains connecting Iriklinskaya Power Station with Zhitikara and Iriklinskaya Power Station

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 1, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant is going to produce a children’s book called Ural Vagon Zavod’s Legends in celebration of the plant’s 80th anniversary, the company press service reports. The book will tell its readers about the history of both the plant and the city of Nizhniy Tagil in an interesting and engaging way. The plant’s Executive Director Vladimir Roshchupkin is the project’s author and director. The stories were written by a children’s book writer Svetlana Lavrova, a Kniguru Prize winner and Alelita 13 laureate. She was among the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 31, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation is going to present over fifty vehicles at the 2nd International Army 2016 Exhibition, the company press service reports. The event will take place in Russian Defense Ministry’s Patriot Park in Moscow Region on September 6-11. Ural Vagon Zavod has already rented 1,360 m2 of exhibition space in preparation for the forum. The company stand will feature goods by eight of the corporation’s member enterprises: Ural Vagon Zavod (the head plant), Uraltransmash, Omsktransmash, Burevestnik, Vityaz Machine-Building Company, Plant 9,