UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 9, 2016. The demand for cheaper copies of expensive brand watches has been on the rise in Yekaterinburg since the end of 2015, GoldTime informed UrBC. ‘The demand for copies of expensive brand watches has soared since late November; customers mostly ask for copies of Hublot and Tag Heuer varieties which can be had for 25,000 to 70,000 RUR. These are primarily mechanical men’s watches manufactured in either China or Belgium,’ GoldTime says. According to the company representative, they have reached an agreement with the Chinese watch-makers who are ready to

UrBC, Moscow, February 9, 2016. The overall number of foreign workers employed in Russia decreased by 1m people by the end of 2015, Kommersant refers to the Federal Migration Service as stating. The labor market analysts believe this has to do less with the devaluation of the ruble and more with shrinking job opportunities and dropping GDP. Olga Chudinovskikh from Population & Demographics Economy Lab at Moscow State University’s Department of Economics says the foreign worker outflow could have been much more drastic if ‘migrants, like most Russians, hadn’t hoped the national currency

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 9, 2016. The overall amount and number of past-due loan repayments and NPLs rose by 30% on the Russian lending market last year, National Credit History Bureau’s Deputy Director Vladimir Shikin told the radio channel Russkaya Sluzhba Novostei. ‘The past-due loan repayments kept growing last year both in nominal value and in percentage against the overall loan volume. This was because the risks Russian banks took in 2012 and 2013 by enthusiastically giving out loans started to take effect. Besides, people’s incomes shrank, so some of them can’t pay any longer,’

UrBC, Moscow, February 8, 2016. Rosalkogolregulirovaniye announced via the normative acts website that it is working on a draft bill to set minimal retail prices for 28%+ alcohol. ‘Setting a price minimum on alcohol products is one of the ways to fight the counterfeit and adulterated items market, eradicate illegal production, and raise excise duty payments,’ the department states. According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the actual price hasn’t been decided on yet. One rumored possibility is that a half-liter bottle might cost 190 RUR rather than the current 185 RUR. This price of a bottle of vodka

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 8, 2016. The number of people who registered as unemployed with Yekaterinburg Employment Center came to 6,154 people on February 1. The official unemployment rate was estimated at 0.85%, Sverdlovsk Region Labor & Employment Department reports. 1,672 people have applied to the local employment agencies this year so far, and 665 out of them have found a job by now. Sverdlovsk Region’s businesses placed job advertisements for 16,615 different vacancies as of February 1, 2016. 10,582 job openings (44.4%) were meant for foreign workers; 12,822 (63.7%) were in the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 8, 2016. The share of pirated building materials on Russia’s and Sverdlovsk Region’s markets could be as high as 40%, Director of Sverdlovsk Region Building Businesses Union Yuri Chumerin announced at the developer’s forum Europe-Asia. According to Chumerin, the problem has grown really acute lately. ‘Some of the local producers who failed to compete fairly are starting to use low-quality materials or to make goods without the proper markings. These are mainly used for low-rise construction, but could also end up in some high-rise buildings. This is a truly grave

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 8, 2016. Yekaterinburg existing homes market supply has decreased by 10% in the last three months, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. ‘There are currently 10,400 apartments and 1,800 rooms in communal apartments on offer in our database; it takes four months on average to make a sale,’ the Chamber says. As of February 1, 2016, the average asking price stood at 70,087 RUR per m2. Prices decreased most in the city’s remotest districts, where the decrease was 2.1% in the last four weeks; the average per-square-meter price is currently 50,736 RUR. As for centrally

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 8, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant recently hosted a meeting of Nizhniy Tagil Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Gornozavodskoy Council, and Sverdlovsk Region Union of Industrialists & Entrepreneurs. According to the corporation’s press service, the attendees voted for delegates to the Russian Federation Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s 7th Convention (scheduled for March 1, 2016). The local chamber’s members voted unanimously for Ural Vagon Zavod’s CEO Vladimir Roshchupkin and President of Nizhiy Tagil CCI Boris Sokolov. The upcoming

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 5, 2016. 52% of Yekaterinburg residents who took part in a recent survey are confident that housing prices will keep going down for the time being, the online portal N1 reports. Only 13% of respondents believe prices will go up; 70% of people in this group say this should happen because of the devaluation of the ruble and the growing building materials prices. At the same time, 65% of people in the 52% group who insist prices will keep declining think the national currency’s exchange rate will actually cause the price decrease. 53% of respondents said they were

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 5, 2016. Inflation rate came to 10.1% in Sverdlovsk Region last year, Sverdlovskstat reports. Food items grew 11% more expensive against the year 2014, alcohol drinks 8.7% more expensive, non-food items and services by 11.2% and 7.3%, respectively. In Russia on the whole, price growth was estimated at 9.7%.

UrBC, Pervouralsk, February 5, 2016. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant/PNTZ (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) is going to deliver 1,200,000 kg of weldless high-pressure boiler pipes made of T22 steel in accordance with the ASME-SA213/SA-213М standard to Krasny Kotelshchik Taganrog Boiler Plant by the end of this year’s first quarter. This produce will be used to make equipment for Long Fu 1 Heat & Power Station in Vietnam. The product’s compliance with the customer’s technical requirements is controlled by the Taganrog plant’s experts right on PNTZ premises. By the customer’s order, the pipes

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 5, 2016. Armata, a team of high school students from Nizhniy Tagil sponsored by Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation, performed successfully at the international competition Planet’s Erudite 2016, the company press service reports. Six ninth-graders from Physics & Mathematics Lyceum 39 represented the city of Nizhniy Tagil at the competition in Moscow. There were also over a hundred students from places all over Russia (ranging from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka) as well as from Byelorussia, Tajikistan, and Estonia. Vadim Kaigorodov answered correctly the largest number

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 5, 2016. A new riveting, assembling, and welding line intended for hatches of full metal gondola cars was recently commissioned at Ural Vagon Zavod’s Backframe Department, the company press service reports. The production line was designed and manufactured by Ural Scientific & Technological Unit (UNTK), one of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s member enterprises. ‘This is actually the fifth such production line the department is operating. UNTK designers introduced a number of changes which strikingly improved the equipment’s performance. The fifth-generation

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 4, 2016. Increasingly more people are facing the shortage of flu and common cold medicines, Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly Deputy Vyacheslav Vegner told UrBC. ‘We received complaints from Beloyarsky, Kamensk Uralsky, and small villages. Most of these come from people living in the more remote areas, who, sadly, are served last,’ Vegner said. The official pointed to the local state-run enterprise Pharmacia, where a representative of the political party Spravedlivaya Rossiya Ilya Lobov works as Deputy Director-General. Vegner claims the company management

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 4, 2016. Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg Sergei Schwindt coordinated a meeting on February 2 on the issue of subsidies to non-profit organizations (other than state-run ones) that are part of the local SMEs’ support system. According to the city council’s press service, funds will be allocated as part of the Yekaterinburg SMEs support program for 2014-2016. Yekaterinburg Business Activity Support Center, which is entirely centered on the program’s agenda, has already applied for subsidies. The center helps companies with marketing and finding location, offers all

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 4, 2016. Put together, companies in the transportation sector based in the Urals failed to pay some 91m RUR worth of wages and salaries to their workers on time last year, Ural public prosecution authorities for transportation report. 3,000 instances of Labor Code violations were detected here in the course of 2015, resulting in 1,213 protest warrants, 179 protocols, 159 disciplinary liability cases and 123 administrative liability cases. Additionally, 18 people in decision-making positions received official warnings and 598 claims to protect the workers’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 4, 2016. Galaktika AMM Planning & Accounting, a project presented by Uraltransmash (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation), won silver at the national Project of The Year/Russia’s IT Directors’ Choice Contest 2015 as the Best Solution for Machine-Building Industry. According to the company press service, the contest has been coordinated by the IT directors portal Global CIO since 2012 and gets increasingly more applicants each year. Almost 20% more applications were submitted in 2015 against 2014, a true sign of the event’s growing popularity.

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, February 4, 2016. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) delivered one of its B10M bulldozers to Karachaevo-Cherkesia. The company press service says the machine was purchased by Urupsky Ore Mining Enterprise (a part of UMMC Holding) where a number of such vehicles are already in use. The new tractor will also be used for copper ore production. TechServis ChTZ, the plant’s dealership in the Caucasus and Krasnodar Territory, was the winning bidder in UMMC’s auction. The dealer will provide after-sale services as well.

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, February 4, 2016. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) recently opened an indoor hangar as its railcar wash, something that is currently unique to Russian metallurgical enterprises, the company reports. The new facility can handle at least 1,000 railcars a month, which means customer car-makers and pipe manufacturers will receive at least 60,000,000 kg of high quality products a month in spotlessly clean railcars. The railcar wash that meets all the modern requirements was built at MMK Group’s Remput as part of the existing department (which meant

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 3, 3016. Sverdlovsk Region Labor Ministry announced the number of foreign worker quotas for the year 2016, the ministry’s website states. 19,547 quotas were allocated for Ural Federal District altogether (8,870 for Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region, 6,657 for Sverdlovsk Region, 2,442 for Tyumen Region, 1,182 for Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region, 396 for Chelyabinsk Region, and none for Kurgan Region).