UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 10, 2015. As of December 7, 2015, the average price of a square meter of an apartment for sale on Yekaterinburg existing homes market came to 71,029 RUR, down 6.8% on a year earlier, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. The market supply has remained at its all-time high for four months now: there are currently over 11,500 apartments and over 2,000 rooms in communal apartments for sale at the chamber’s database alone. Because of the low demand, it still takes quite a while – four to five and a half months – to make a sale. Prices dropped most for apartments in the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 10, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil coordinated its annual defense and emergencies drill contest to sum up this year. According to the corporation’s press service, the event’s main goal is improvements in the quality of personnel protection at the company’s member enterprises. ‘Ural Vagon Zavod’s Civil Defense & Emergencies Administration looked into how efficient the enterprises’ civil defense measures are and how well the staff are instructed in how to act in a civil or military emergency. They also checked how ready the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 10, 2015. Kamensk Uralsky Foundry Plant hosted this year’s last meeting of the job competence committee which is in charge of giving appraisals to managers as well as white- and blue-collar workers after one year in a particular job position, the company press service reports. The committee checked whether the employees’ qualifications and skills were relevant for their job position. The appraisal procedure involved workers from the Maintenance Department: the leading expert, senior engineers, and the legal counsel. The department’s head Sergei Kaisin provided

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2015. 16,098 mortgages were issued to customers by Sverdlovsk Region-based banks between January and September 2015, Deputy Chair of Ural Bankers’ Union Evgeniy Bolotin said at a press conference. ‘The number of mortgage loans dropped by 32.1% compared with a year earlier, their overall amount decreased by 36.7%. The figure came to 25.8bn RUR altogether,’ Bolotin said. According to Bolotin, the average mortgage amount also shrank considerably this year.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2015. Office rent grew 8% to 32% cheaper in Yekaterinburg this year, depending on the market segment, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. The average monthly rent dropped by 18% compared with Q4’14 for Class A office space and so currently amounts to 1000 RUR to 1,400 RUR per m2; that for Class B+ office spacedropped by 21%, down to 920 RUR per m2, that for Class B office space dropped by 8%, down to 820 RUR per m2, and that of Class C office space dropped by 32%, down to 540 RUR per m2. The chamber’s analysts report the number of vacant Class A offices went

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2015. The average per-square-meter price of a new home comes to 62,800 RUR in Yekaterinburg at the moment, which is 2% less than a year earlier (64,100 RUR). Also, the average price of an apartment also decreased by 13% and currently comes to 3,233,000 RUR, a report by N1.RU and E1.Nedvizhimost states. Prices went down because homes in new apartment buildings tend to be smaller: their area shrank from 60 m2 to 51 m2 on average in the last year. These are the two-bedroom apartments whose size changed the most, N1.RU reports: these grew, on average, 13% smaller

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2015. A group of delegates from the oil-producing company Rosneft paid a visit to Seversky Pipe Plant (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK), TMK press service reports. The delegates’ main goal was to look at the outcomes of a recent large-scale reconstruction, including a new electric steel-smelting facility and a FQM pipe-rolling facility. The delegation comprised head plant and daughter companies’ representatives and experts from Rosneft’s scientific research and design institutes. Rosneft is TMK’s key customer and buys around half a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil hosted its 36th trade union conference. The event was attended by 363 delegates, representatives of the plant’s and the corporation’s management, Chair of the All-Russian Defense Industry Workers’ Trade Union Andrel Chekmenev, Chair of Sverdlovsk Region Trade Union Federation Andrei Vetluzhskikh, and Mayor of Nizhniy Tagil Sergei Nosov. ‘The company management is fully aware of the trade union movement’s importance. This is exactly why we have always been able to reach a compromise and to keep

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 8, 2015. The average bribe comes to 80,000 RUR in Sverdlovsk Region, head of the public prosecution authorities’ anti-corruption division Vladimir Kurochkin said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. Kurochkin said 563 corruption-related crimes were uncovered in the area between January and September 2015, which was 18% less than a year earlier; in seventy-four cases, the crime was to do with bribe-taking. ‘The overall corruption-related damage is estimated at 416m RUR. 32m RUR were reinstituted voluntarily by the accused and 304m RUR worth of assets got seized

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 8, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region is not one of Russian constituencies that are ‘successful tourist territories’, the Information Communications Center Rating reports. ‘Our center relied on the opinions shared by the expert community, namely, those from Otdykh V Rossiyi Media Group (the company behind the magazine on domestic travel by the same name) and the online portals Russian Tourism and Tourism Investments. The Russian constituencies were evaluated on the basis of nine different criteria, including the overall number of hotel rooms per capita, the number of locals

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 8, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant recently hosted the 3d All-Russian Blue-Collar Youth Education Forum on its premises. The company press service reports participants spoke about the vital problem young blue-collar workers are facing these days learned about Sverdlovsk Region’s enterprises from informative presentations, and did a lot of teamwork. Members of the two winning teams can now enjoy the unique internship opportunity offered by Ural Vagon Zavod and EVRAZ NTMK, Nizhniy Tagil’s primary employers. The practical tasks given to the forum

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 8, 2015. Chelyabinsk-based Electromash (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) is trying to introduce Total Production Maintenance principles at the plant. The company press service says the system is being launched by work group leaders and members at all the primary production departments, with help from maintenance mechanics and the Lean Production launch group. ‘The secret behind TPM is that it does away with treating daily checkups and minor, seemingly unimportant faults as a formality. It is exactly these things that actually cause prolonged

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 8, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko presented the company’s new, 23.5-ton-force strong 18-555 bogie to President of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov. According to the company press service, the bogie is meant to be part of lightweight cargo railcars where the more expensive heavy-duty bogies are not necessary. The new product could prove indispensable for regular railcars, platform cars, and tank cars. The bogie’s other advantage lies in reduced impact on the railway infrastructure, which means operation and maintenance of railways

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2015. 219.6bn RUR were transferred by Sverdlovsk Region to Russia’s consolidated budget between January and November 2015, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 7%. The federal budget received 60.5bn RUR in revenues (up 6.3%, or 3.6bn RUR, on last year). Most of these came from VAT payments (54.2bn RUR, or 89.5% of the total amount). This year’s VATs were 3.5bn RUR, or 6.8%, greater than a year earlier. Also, 5.3bn RUR worth of corporate tax payments (up 15.1% on last year) were transferred to federal budget as well. Sverdlovsk Region’s budget

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2015. 1.504m m2 worth of new housing got commissioned in Yekaterinburg in the eleven months of 2015, with 88,000 m2 commissioned in November alone, the city council reports. This figure includes 144,000 m2 worth of private houses, 19,000 m2 worth of low-rise apartment buildings, and 837,000 m2 worth of regular apartment buildings. In November, the apartment building Academic at 54A Shchors St, an apartment building in Section 1.1 of Akademicheskiy District (47 Wilhelm de Gennin St), and the set of apartment buildings Baltiysky at 2 Mikheyev St were

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, December 7, 2015. Seven types of ChTPZ Group’s OCTGs with nano-particles within the welding seal were awarded the Russian Nano-Technological Product Decoration, the company press service reports. The solemn awarding ceremony took place in Moscow during the 4th Nano-Industry Enterprises Congress. The decoration was given out by head of Rosnano State Corporation Anatoly Chubais. These 508 to 1420mm OCTGs were made in accordance with the Group’s own technology. A special combination of welding materials and welding modes resulted in presence of nano-particles in the welding

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil hosts Blue-Collar Youth, the 3d youth education forum. The company press service reports this is the first time the forum is being held on a national scale; thus this has become the biggest event so far. Over 300 students from vocational schools based in forty-four different Russian Federation constituencies came to the communication platform at Painting Department 2. The largest group comes from Ural Federal District. The forum, coordinated by the Federal Youth Policy Agency, runs under the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation presented its new developments at the 9th International Russian Transport 2015 Exhibition – a venue for advertising the railway, automobile, aviation, and shipbuilding industries’ most important projects. According to the company press service, the corporation’s head plant presented its railway bogie 18-555 for the first time. The product is meant to replace all the current 23.5-ton-force bogies used in lightweight cargo railcars. Head of the company’s Railway Vehicle Promotion Division Mikhail Boyko says the new product’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 4, 2015. Chinese, Azerbaijan, and Mexican suppliers can fully compensate for lack of Turkish products on Sverdlovsk Region’s food market, President of Ural Chamber of Commerce & Industry Andrei Besedin said at a press conference. ‘There are six or seven countries out there that feel both ready and very lucky to enter the Russian market instead of Turkey. Azerbaijan in one such country, as well as the countries of Latin and Central America,’ he said. Deputy Head of Ural Customs Administration Alexei Yagovitin says Turkey was the area’s No.1 tomato importer

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 4, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s employers delayed paying 573mRUR worth of salaries and wages in the eleven months of 2015, the constituency’s Senor Labor Inspector Fyodor Kravtsov said at a press conference. ‘The situation is far from perfect. 573m RUR worth of wages and salaries were not paid on time. So far, we’ve managed to make employers pay 490m RUR and 83m RUR are still owed to their workers. All in all, 1,700 people working for twenty-five different companies haven’t been paid on time,’ Kravtsov said. He added 8,200 complaints related to labor rights