UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 25, 2016. More than twenty of Karabashmed workers underwent continuous professional development training this February, Russian Copper Company reports. ‘Just like all the other member enterprises of Russian Copper Company, Karabashmed pays special attention to its workers’ professional development and organizes CPD workshops on a regular basis. Three foremen from the plant’s Metallurgical Department underwent training and passed exams on Hazardous Waste Treatment (Hazard Class I-IV) on February 2-18,’ the company press service says. Also, nineteen workers from

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 25, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region Military Neuropsychiatric Hospital (whose patients are all war veterans) switched to MegaFon as their telecommunications services provider, the company press service reports. The hospital’s team were all able to keep their old phone numbers as part of the MNP service. ‘MegaFon keeps building a more expansive network in the remotest residential areas of Yekaterinburg to ensure mobile connection and Internet access to its customers. Shirokaya Rechka, where the hospital is located, base stations were tuned to work in 2G, 3G, and 4G

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 25, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant’s People’s Guard did forty-four tours of on-call duty (2,380 man-hours) in Nizhniy Tagil’s Dzerzhinsky District last year, the company press service reports. The guard members (all of them workers of the company head plant) helped local police detect 356 administrative offenses. Twelve of them received thank-you letters, which were added to their work record, and 113 people were offered one to three extra days of paid leave. ‘The People’s Guard and the police officers patrol the city streets, squares, and park

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 25, 2016. Russian Copper Company’s representatives took part in a meeting with Austrade’s Senior Trade Commissioner Duncan Cole and Honorary Consul Vladimir Gorokhov on February 18-19, the company press service reports. The two officials met with their Ural counterparts and members of the local business community to talk about the potential partnerships in the mining sector, infrastructure development projects, agriculture, and education. Advisor to Company President Igor Aksenov said on his company’s behalf that Russian Copper Company and Australian Trade

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, February 25, 2016. MMK Group’s performance efficiency enhancing programs saved the company $135m in production costs last year, which means the prime cost of the company produce declined by nearly 3%, the company reports. Last year, the Group’s member enterprises made a special focus on energy efficiency improvement projects, encouraged innovation, inventions, and improvement proposals. The savings from energy spending cutting programs and low-budget yet highly efficient investment projects amounted to $30m in 2015. Also, improvements in the

UrBC, Moscow, February 24, 2016. Russia’s State Duma adopted a bill on Friday that makes creation of pyramid schemes illegal, with up to 1m RUR in fines (5,000 to 50,000 RUR for private individuals, 20,000 RUR to 100,000 RUR for public individuals, and 500,000 RUR to 1m RUR for legal entities), Finmarket reports. The same fines will be imposed on those advertising and promoting pyramid schemes. The amendments to this effect will be made to the Administrative Offense Code. The Duma also adopted amendments to the Criminal Code, making organization of financial pyramids a crime. Under this new

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 24, 2016. Gold is expected to fluctuate within the $1,240-1,263/$1,200-$1,220 per troy ounce range in the nearest future, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s press service refers t o the bank’s Precious Metals Operations Director Evgeniy Afanasiev as saying. ‘Gold prices have gone up by 17.5% since the start of the year, reaching a peak of $1,246.4 per troy ounce on February 11. The demand was reinforced by investors’ mistrust of the central banks’ policies and panic on the global financial markets. The European Central Bank and Bank of Japan,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 24, 2016. 34% of transactions carried out by the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s clients in January were made online, the bank’s press service reports. In 2015, customers used the e-banking services most in December, when the share of online transactions was 31%. As for January 2016, 65% of all client transactions were remote ones (e-banking, ATMs, and POS terminals). The bank representatives explain the share of remote payments started growing at the end of last year, when customers used their cards to pay for holiday shopping. The number of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 24, 2016. Yekaterinburg-based Plant 9 (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) elected its Youth Council members, the company press service reports. ‘The goal is to make sure our younger workers feel part of the team,’ says Deputy Director-General for HR Nikolai Ovchinnikov. ‘We always welcome their initiative and creative attempts and would really like the council to be a full-fledged, living organization rather than just a formal one.’ Vassiliy Kablukov will now be in charge of R &D. He said in his presentation that the innovative and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 24, 2016. Sputnik Hockey Club (sponsored by Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) made it to the Supreme Hockey League’s playoff, which was this season’s primary goal, the corporation’s press service reports. The team beat Saratov’s Kristall 3:2 and secured the 14th position out of sixteen playoff slots. Two more Ural teams (Chelyabinsk’s Chelmet and Orsk’s Yuzhniy Ural) competed for the playoff as well and won their decisive games earlier, so the only way for the Nizhniy Tagil team to make it to the playoff was to beat their rivals with the three-goal score. Kristall is

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 20, 2016. Ural Airlines’ customers directed over 1m bonus points to the air carrier’s Wings of Good charity project, the company press service reports. 1,055,104 bonus points have been transferred to Ural Airlines’ partners’ accounts (Rusfond and the Konstantin Khabensky Foundation) since the program started. ‘We’d like to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who supported this airline’s project and gave the Wings of Good to children who need our help,’ their press service says. Ural Airlines activated the donation option on the eve of two public holidays (February 23 and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 20, 2016. Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg for Commodities Market & Services Vladimir Bolikov took part in the opening of a new mall in Akademichesky District on February 18. The city council’s press service reports 70% of shopping space at the mall located at the intersection of Wilhelm de Gennin St and Krasnolesye St have already been rented by local and national tenants. Bolikov feels this obvious interest in the new mall is only logical: the building has been put up in a very promising and still growing neighborhood, and people who live here tend to be

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 20, 2016. META (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) sold 1,291,000,000 kg of scrap metal last year, which was 4% less than in the year 2014. This figure included 718,000,000 kg of the group’s own scrap metal and 573,000,000 kg of transit materials, the company press service reports. The slight decrease in sales had to do with the market’s overall downward trends (-7% on the year 2014). At the same time, META managed to fully meet Pevouralsk New Pipe Plant’s (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) scrap metal needs, even though these rose by 11% (90,000,000 kg) in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 20, 2016. Seversky Pipe Plant/STZ (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK) used its new FQM unit to make the record-setting 41,000,000 kg of pipes in one month. Rosneft and Surgutneftegas were the key customer for this produce, TMK press service reports. ‘The January output has been the best since the day the unit was launched, and it was also above our target figures for the month. This modern weldless pipe-making facility with the projected capacity of 600,000,000 kg was installed at our Pipe-Rolling Department 1 in October 2014, and the output

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 20, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) and VUZ-Bank are going to offer a workshop on anti-crisis marketing and advertising on February 25, the bank’s press service reports. The workshop will be conducted by Sergei Zhikin, head of Wild Owl Branding & Design Studio. His company has already developed brand books and ad campaigns for FK Ural, Cultura Fisica (a fitness studio), the Artists’ Quarter (a set of apartment buildings), and ERGO~ (a chain of filling stations). Zhikin plans to dwell on how creative features work in actual

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 19, 2016. The telecommunications provider MegaFon is now working with Chelyabinsk Power Station to provide landline connection for 700 separate phone numbers and to create encrypted data transfer channels and digital telemetric data transfer channels in the near future, MegaFon Ural’s press service says. The company Fortum launched natural gas-fueled Power Generating Unit 1 at Chelyabinsk Power Station in December 2015 as part of their investment program. The plan is to build eight new gas-fueled units and to upgrade existing equipment. This project is of unique

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 19, 2016. Starting from February 8, the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange is going to trade in the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s Eurobonds issued by UBRD Capital Limited, the MICEX press service reports. The coupon yield on the bonds in circulation is estimated at 12%, with bi-annual payoffs. This year, payments will be made on June 27 and December 27, with $60 off every $1,000 invested in the bonds. The smallest lots available for trading come for $1,000. ‘It is only relatively recently that MICEX started dealing in Eurobonds that come from

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 19, 2016. Voters in Hi Tech Mail.Ru’s online project said MegaFon was the best telecommunications operator in 2015, the company press service says. The annual Runet’s Best Gadget Prize gives the web portal users a chance to vote on the best mobile devices as well as the best telecom services and gadget retailers. This time, over 400,000 votes were submitted between December 23, 2015 and February 16, 2016; it was reported voters spent over 3m RUR on their favorite mobile devices and ISPs. Any one voter could only submit one vote in every prize category. This year,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 19, 2016. ChTPZ Group’s pipe-manufacturing plants – Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant — supplied 2,019,000,000 kg of pipes to customers last year, which was 3% less than in 2014. According to the company press service, this slight decrease in sales was related to their key customer Transneft completing its large pipeline-building projects, their CIS-based customers putting off some of their pipeline-building projects, and the overall drop in the industrial, energy, and building markets’ demand for pipes. The Group sold 4% more weldless

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 19, 2016. Omsktransmash (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) switched to lean production principles in January 2014; in only two years’ time, the system was introduced at most of the company’s production departments and saved the company 2.8m RUR last year (which exceeded the savings figures for 2014 by 15%), the company press service reports. The lean production principles are a key component of the kaizen management. Developed in Japan, the system spread throughout the world and was adopted by hundreds of industrial enterprises. At the core of