UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 24, 2016. Miners from Mezhegeiugol Mine (a part of EVRAZ Holding) in Tyva switched to chamber-and-pillar mining, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s PR Department reports. The new technology means that the coal bed is worked by sections, that is, chambers separated from one another with pillars supporting the roof. It takes three teams, each of them working in two sections at a time, to do the preparation work. While a combine machine is hewing coal in extraction chamber 1, miners do the walling in extraction chamber 2. This means that no equipment has to wait idle and labor

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 24, 2016. Workers from LEPSE (Kirov-based machine-building plant and a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod) won prizes at the national skills contest for millers, turners, and mechanics, the company press service reports. The contest was coordinated by the Russian Engineering Union, Russia’s Trade & Industry Ministry, and Profavia, the national trade union for aviation industry employees. LEPSE’s miller Mikhail Lazarev and turner Alexander Chernyadyev won first prizes in their respective categories, while Dmitri Garanin won bronze in Machine Assembling. All in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 24, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Scientific & Production Corporation sponsored the heavyweight (under 90.71 kg) boxing match between the 36-year-old Russian, WBA boxing champion Denis Lebedev and the 32-year-old Argentinean, IBF champion Victor Ramirez. The fight took place in Moscow’s Megasport Palace on May 21. Lebedev, the winner, unified both the WBA and the IBF champion belts through a knockout as soon as the second round. This is the fourth time in a row Lebedev has won a champion’s belt, and the first time for the boxer to win two champion titles at once. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 23, 2016. Students and trainers on ChTPZ Group’s Future of White Metallurgy Corporate Training Program are going to present their company and Chelyabinsk Region in the final round of the 4th WorldSkills Russia Championship, the company press service reports. The championship will be held at Krokus Expo in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Region, on May 23-27. ChTPZ Group’s team (already many-time winners of earlier WorldSkills contests) will compete in five different categories: Alexander Pauls and Ilya Ivanov in Mechatronics, Dmitri Shmarlovsky in NC Turning, Maxim Soloviev in NC

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 23, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant’s youth group and the long-service employees’ council planted a tree alley in Nizhiy Tagil in celebration of the plant’s 80th anniversary. Some eighty people planted 120 trees, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘We chose a pedestrian area between a shopping mall and a the new company clinic next to the war memorial. People working at the head plant have been improving the territory for quite a few years now, with clean-up days every spring,’ the press service says. A clean-up day was also coordinated before

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 23, 2016. EVRAZ NTMK completed the construction of its vanadium slag grinding facility, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s PR Department reports. The project required some 200m RUR in terms of investments and took nine months to build; it now consists of forty-two equipment units located within the plant’s casting department; the site is now under start-up and commissioning. The new grinding facility will be producing metal content-free vanadium slag (grain size under 50mm) and ground slag (grain size under 0.2mm). The company used to make slag with grain size as big as 200mm; now

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 23, 2016. Yurga Machine-Building Plant (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) keeps making support units for SUEK, a major Russian coal producer, the company press service reports. A set of thirty new units was made in April alone, to complement the ten units that were delivered to Uvalnaya Mine in March. The equipment gets made and handed over to customer in strict compliance with the production and delivery schedule. Prior to next delivery, a set of eighteen support units, a part of a conveyor line, a pan line, and a Polis-made KSW-460NE combined

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 23, 2016. Kamensk-Uralsky Foundry Plant/KULZ (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) hired sixty-six new workers under thirty-five last year, the company press service reports. The newcomers were invited to a special solemn ceremony recently, with Director-General Anatoly Barabanov welcoming the new employees to the plant and telling them about the company’s production priorities and short- and long-term plans. He also spoke about what production sections need a fresh start, a creative approach, and some out-of-the-box solutions that the younger

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 20, 2016. Russian Copper Company is now looking for more ways and technological solutions to improve its Tominsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise Project in Chelyabinsk Region. This means that the construction isn’t likely to begin any time before 2017, the company press service reports. ‘This year so far has been dedicated to informing the general public about the actual nature of the project. As we are fully aware of the locals’ concerns relating to the construction of a large-scale industrial facility in the area, the company has carried out a special

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 20, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region’s industrial production index for April 2016 came to 88.4% of the figure for one year earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. Against April 2015, the IPI dropped down by 9.4% in the fossil production sector, by 13.1% in the processing industry, and by 2.8% in the sector for production and distribution of electric power, natural gas, and water. Compared with March 2016, the figures declined by 11.8%, 5.1%, and 15.9%, respectively. At the same time, Sverdlovsk Region’s IPI was 9.8% higher in January-April 2016 against January-April 2015.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 20, 2016. Ural Airlines are introducing a new, scheduled flight from Saint Petersburg via Yekaterinburg via Irkutsk to Khabarovsk and back, the air carrier’s press service reports. Passengers flying from Saint Petersburg can enjoy this new opportunity on Wednesdays; return flights are operated on Thursdays. A special reduced price is offered to passengers eligible for the government subsidies for air travel to the Far East. Tickets for Khabarovsk-Yekaterinburg flight thus start from 6,200 RUR, those for Khabarovsk-Saint Petersburg flight start from 7,300 RUR, those

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 20, 2016. Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK and the Italian company SMS MEER S.p.A signed a contract for production and delivery of modern equipment needed for thermal treatment of weldless pipes, TMK PR Department reports. The order is to be fulfilled by Seversky Pipe Plant and Rumania-based TMK-ARTROM. The two plants will have to supply their customer with heating furnaces, tempering furnaces, hardening appliances (inner and outer sprayers and a hardening bath) as well as equipment for pipe sizing and straightening and for closed-cycle water conditioning. Seversky Pipe

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 20, 2016. Omsktransmash (a member of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) congratulated and awarded the winners of Star, a multi-field engineering contest for high school students coordinated by Russian Engineering Union and the League of Assistance for Defense Enterprises, the corporation’s press service reports. The solemn awarding ceremony took place in Omsk State Technical University on May 17. The contest finalists were given winners’ certificates and gifts with Omsktransmash and Russian Engineering Union’s Omsk division logos. ‘162 students from Moscow, Chelyabinsk,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 19, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region’s cattle stock amounted to 263,200 head of cattle by the end of April 2016, which was 6.2% less than one year earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. The number of cows dropped by 4.5%, down to 118,800 head of cattle, while that of sheep and goats declined by 5.6%, down to 78,000 head of cattle. Poultry stock rose by 6.9%, up to 14m head, pig stock rose by 5.7%, up to 350,200 head.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 19, 2016. MegaFon Ural Infrastructure Director Anton Shcherbakov took part in a round table discussion on the development of Russian and global broadband access technologies markets, 4G/5G expansion, and ways of improving telecommunications services. The speakers also talked about the global experience in LTE development, the prospects of 5G networks, ways in which the ISP/carrier and the subscriber can improve the quality of service, and mobile data transfer and this market’s current demand and supply ratio. ‘Sverdlovsk Region’s is a highly competitive market, as

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 19, 2016. EVRAZ Consolidated West Siberian Plant/EVRAZ ZSMK supplied its first batch of R50 rails for Baku Underground; it is reported the batch amounts to 1,000,000 kg. ‘The CIS member states have always bought large amounts of our rail goods, and we are now happy to take our cooperation with Azerbaijani partners to the next level. Baku Underground is our first-time customer, but we are confident that our rich experience in making underground rails for other cities on the post-Soviet territories will ensure a great partnership,’ says the plant Managing Director

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 19, 2016. Electromachine (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) opened an interactive study lab for NC machine operators and technicians in Chelyabinsk, the company press service reports. To equip the lab, numerically controlled Fanuc, Siemens, and Heidenhain machines were purchased for eight students’ workplaces and one trainer’s workplace, as well as manuals and textbooks. The would-be NC machine operators will be able to learn the standard ISO G-code programming as well as the modern dialog programming. Besides, the plant intends to buy the exact

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 19, 2016. 1,467,139 passengers have flown with Ural Airlines since the start of the year so far, which is actually 19% more than one year earlier, the air carrier’s press service reports. The number of flights operated by the airline rose by 14% against last year, with 12,157 flights operated in the four months of 2016 (7,567 domestic ones, 2,817 flights to or from the CIS member states, and 1,773 international ones). The company’s passenger turnover reached 3.33m passenger-kilometers in January-April 2016, exceeding the figures for a year earlier by 19%. Ural

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, May 19, 2016. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works/MMK sheet-rolling department made 1,540,000 kg and shipped to customers 1,591,000 kg of zinc-coated pipes in April 2016. This is a record-setting figure throughout the department’s entire history of making hot-rolled galvanized products, the company press service reports. The last time a record was set was in February, when the department produced 1,461,000 kg and shipped to customers 1,514,000 kg of zinc-coated pipes. Last year, the output came to 6,700,000 kg, while this year, the output reached some

UrBC, Moscow, May 18, 2016. Russia’s GDP declined by 1.2% in the first quarter of the year compared with one year earlier, Rosstat’s data indicate. ‘The GDP physical volume index has preliminarily been estimated at 98.8% of last year’s amount,’ the agency reports. In fact, the country’s GDP already dropped by 3.8% in the last quarter of 2015 and by 3.7% in the year 2015 altogether.