UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 28, 2016. Vadim Belopolsky was recently appointed the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s Managing Director and Head of E-Business Department, the bank’s press service reports. Belopolsky will be in charge of promoting the UBRD on the e-banking market through the development of existing and creation of new digital sales channels for both private customers and businesses, creation and promotion of e-banking services for corporate and retail markets, and launch of advanced technological solutions to provide customers with innovative products. Vadim

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 28, 2016. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) delivered 890,000,000 kg of steel pipes to customers in the second quarter of the year, which was 5.3% more than in the first quarter, the company report states. ‘This rise was brought about by the increased demand for pipes in the oil and gas industry after the oil price surge. Given our growing sales on the one hand and the ongoing efforts to cut costs on the other, TMK’s financial performance is likely to look much better in the second quarter,’ the company press service reports. For one, weedless pipe shipments went up

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 28, 2016. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) completed the construction and installation of a benzene top-filling unit at its coke and by-product process department and is now working on startup and commissioning. The new equipment is expected to reduce benzene emissions and enhance overall production efficiency, the company press service reports. The upgrades cost 75m RUR and took ten months to complete. ‘The new top-filling unit is to be used for leakproof discharge of benzene into tanks that will be dispatched to EVRAZ Holding’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 28, 2016. Director-General of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Omsktransmash was given a special certificate for his impressive contribution to social partnership projects on the day the city of Omsk celebrated its 300th foundation anniversary. The certificate was presented to the executive by Mayor Vyacheslav Dvorakovsky, Chair of Omsk Trade Union Federation Sergei Moiseenko, and President of Omsk Region Employers’ Union Vladimir Berezovsky. The corporation’s press service reports the awarding ceremony took place during the Social Partnership: Industrial Enterprises’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 27, 2016. The price of a month’s supply of essential food items rose by 7.3% in Sverdlovsk Region since the start of the year and came to 4,086.7 RUR in late June, Sverdlovskstat reports. At the same time, one year earlier the increase stood at as much as 15.8% in June 2015 against December 2014. On the whole, food items grew 3.3% more expensive (3.1% more expensive if you exclude alcohol drinks); last year, the price increase came to 11.4% and 12.1%, respectively. Sverdlovskstat reports the price of ice cream went up by 14.8%, that of canned fruit by 11.9%, that of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 27, 2016. Thirty-five alumni of ChTPZ Group’s Future of White Metallurgy corporate training program (Class of 2016) are now serving their term in the Russian Armed Forces. According to the company press service, the alumni were welcomed to their base in Gorny Shchit by military command representatives and management of ChTPZ Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant and Pervouralsk Metallurgical School (the Group’s partner in the Future of White Metallurgy Project). ChTPZ Group signed a cooperation contract with Central Military District, Sverdlovsk Region Government, and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 27, 2016. The telecommunications provider MegaFon now offers HD Voice services all over Sverdlovsk Region; the new option improves voice and sound quality during a telephone call, the company press service reports. ‘HD Voice is one way to ensure minimal sound loss and maximum speech intelligibility. It is as though the person you’re talking to is in the next room rather than at the other end of the line. Thanks to a broadband connection, HD Voice enhances speech intelligibility, makes all the word endings sound very clear, and improves sound recognition,’ says

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 27, 2016. Sinara Group is going to supply seventy-five new locomotives to Cuban Railways (FCC); an agreement to this effect was signed in Havana by Vice President of Council of Ministers and Executive Committee Ricardo Cabrisas Ruíz and Sinara Group Chair of the BOD Dmitry Pumpyansky on Saturday, July 23. Sinara Group’s press service reports the contract also covers capital repairs of the Russian locos supplied to Cuba earlier and upgrades of the loco depot in Havana. The contract was landed with support from the state-run agency EXIAR, which provides a 100%

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 27, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation is launching its new 15-5181 tank railcar for transportation of chemicals on a serial scale, the company press service reports. ‘Our 15-5181 make is expected to enjoy enormous demand on the special-purpose tank railcar market; it has been subjected to the entire range of preliminary and certification testing as well as strength and braking tests,’ the press service says. A trial loading/unloading run of a sample tank was carried out at one of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works sites. The tank got certified for compliance with

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region’s police officers detected 9,358 faulty vehicles on local roads in the first half of 2016, the Internal Affairs Ministry’s local division reports. 960 such vehicles are buses. Faulty buses, cars, or motorbikes caused twenty accidents in the first six months of the year, with twenty people killed and thirty-two injured.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2016. Since the start of the year, 3,453 drivers got fined by police officers from Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry for driving automobiles whose appearance or performance failed to comply with the existing safety requirements, the ministry informed UrBC. The fines amounted to 1,726,500 RUR all in all. It is reported that 1,670 car owners actually failed to bring their cars back to standards and were again ordered to do so; three drivers faced administrative fines and two more — administrative arrest. In Yekaterinburg alone,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2016. SKB-Bank was given the 55th position in the overall national bank rating in terms of asset volume and proved 9th largest bank among Russia’s lending organizations located outside the two capitals; the ratings were created by the Kommerstant-Dengi magazine’s analysts. According to SKB-Bank, their assets reached 116bn RUR on July 1, 2016. Its own funds (13.9bn RUR) are Russia’s 63d largest amount among national banks. ‘SKB-Bank was also among the country’s largest lending organizations in terms of the amount of consumer loans issued to borrowers, and, it

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2016. Ural Airlines are now running a special Summer Without Borders Campaign, with up to 30% discounts on flights to be operated between September 12 and October 31, the air carrier’s press service reports. The flights will be operated to the south of Russia, around the CIS member states, and internationally. For the entire list of available destinations, please visit the company website; tickets are available at www.uralairlines.com, Uralairlines app, over the phone center, or at a booking office.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Electromachine now needs 5.5% less time to get its electric motors assembled, and this at the same cost, the corporation’s press service refers to head of Lean Production Group Denis Akmedyanov as saying. The enterprise introduced a lean production committee, chaired by Electromachine Director-General Igor Afanasiev, in February 2016. Meetings are held directly on production sites, including Building 16 in March, Building 4 in April, and Building 6 in May. The agenda of these meetings covered the launch of the 5S system,

UrBC, Saint Petersburg, July 25, 2016. United Shipbuilding Corporation’s Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg started working on the Ural, Russia’s second serial Project 22220 nuclear-powered icebreaker. The body of the vessel will be made entirely out of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) ship steel. MMK is going to supply some 15,000,000 kg of ship steel for the Ural altogether, their press service explains. As it happens, MMK steel was also used for the first icebreaker Arktika and the first serial ship Sibir. In fact, the plant is responsible for over 50% of all the metal goods sold

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 25, 2016. 685,660 people flew with Ural Airlines this June, which exceeds the figures for one year earlier by 20%, the company press service says. The air carrier operated 4,887 flights all in all, including 3,122 domestic flights, 1,042 international flights, and 723 flights around the CIS member states. This is 14% more than one year earlier. The company’s passenger turnover came to 1,661,397,000 passenger-kilometers in June 2016 (up 21% one June 2015). As for the entire year so far, Ural Airlines have offered their services to 2,659,801,000 passengers in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 25, 2016. Small and medium enterprises are switching to cloud telephony increasingly more often these days; the number of MegaFon subscribers using this service has tripled since the start of the year, the telecommunications provider reports. The company is confident that the demand has been rising due to obvious economic benefits and the possibility of easily setting up a contact number with a smart call-distributing system. In response to this new trend, MegaFon is offering its business customers a new option: a company can now subscribe to Hosted Telephony, get an

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 25, 2016. SKB-Bank recently came up with a new version of an m-banking app, the bank’s press service reports. The application is now available to iOS and Android smartphone users at App Store or Google Play. ‘The app offers users detailed account/deposit/loan information, allows them to make a money order or pay their bills. An m-bank user can also apply for a loan or a deposit online as well as contact our loan officers via a mobile chat. There is also card2card, a service that ensures instantaneous card-to-card cash transfer; all you need is the receiver’s card

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 25, 2016. ChTPZ Group shareholder and co-chair of Foundation for Development of Tube Industry Andrei Komarov was recently awarded the title of Russia’s Honored Metallurgist, the company press service reports. This was a way to acknowledge Komarov’s immense contribution to metallurgical industry’s development and many years of tireless work. The awarding decree was signed by Russia’s Industry & Trade Minister, while the honorary badge and the certificate were presented to Komarov by ChTPZ Chair of the BOD Alexander Fedorov. ‘Andrei Komarov is the primary

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 25, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation coordinated the company stage of the blue-collar jobs championship WorldSkills in Welding Technologies, the company press service reports. The first prize went to welder from the corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil Ilya Repin. Silver went to Dmitri Velikiy, also a head plant employee, and welder Ivan Osipovitch from the corporation’s member enterprise Uraltransmash won bronze. The winners are going to represent Ural Vagon Zavod at WorldSkills Hi Tech in Yekaterinburg this November. The corporation’s Deputy Director-General