UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 21, 2015. Foreign trade turnover between the Urals and the CIS member states came to $1.2bn in the nine months of 2015, which was 42% less than a year earlier, head of Ural Customs Administration Vyacheslav Goloskokov said at a press conference. The official also said the foreign trade turnover between the Urals and the rest of the world dropped by 4%, down to $10.9bn. The constituency’s overall foreign trade turnover amounted to over $12bn, including $1.2bn (10%) resulting from trading with the CIS member states and $11bn (90%) resulting from trading with the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 21, 2015. The number of job openings on Yekaterinburg labor market went up by 13.9% in the third quarter of the year compared with a year earlier, HeadHunter reports. Still, the CV database has been growing much faster than the vacancy one, with four candidates per position on average. Most job openings are related to Sales (34.9%), Blue-Collar Jobs (13.8%), Banking (13.1%), Production (11.3%), and Marketing (9.4%). As for Sverdlovsk Region on the whole, most candidates look for jobs in Sales (17.3%), Career Start/Student Jobs (16.5%), IT/Telecom (7.5%),

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 21, 2015. Ural Customs Administration have banned over 1,800,000 kg of embargoed foods from entering the country since the start of the year, the administration’s head Vyacheslav Goloskokov said at a press conference. ‘11 administrative lawsuits were instituted in connection with attempts to import sanctioned foods in the Urals,’ he said. Additionally, 170 kg of sanctioned foods were destroyed after the Sanctioned Foods Destruction Act had been adopted on June 29, 2015. This was mainly EU- and US-made produce.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 21, 2015. A new NC processing center was recently launched at Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant’s Assembly Department 1. The new set came to replace a number of obsolete Soviet-made all-purpose machines, the company press service reports. ‘Our new equipment can actually replace an entire production line. Up to now, we used to need several different machines for milling, drilling, and boring, but the new unit means we can do everything with just this center. One advantage of the new center is that tools get replaced automatically, which ensures reliability

UrBC, Moscow, October 20, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based employers owe their workers a total of 600,000 RUR in delayed wages and salaries, Rosstat reports. According to the statistics agency, the main reason employers haven’t been paying their workers is lack of own funds. The overall amount of delayed pay came to over 3.46bn RUR in Russia on the whole on October 1, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 233m RUR. 3.34bn RUR (96.5%) were not paid in time because of lack of funds (up 178m RUR on a month earlier). 122 m RUR were not paid because funding came late from all sorts of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 20, 2015. An earthquake occurred in Sverdlovsk Region yesterday; no serious damage was caused by the seismological disturbance, MoE’s local division o reports. The Russian Academy of Sciences’ geophysics service reports the magnitude of the earthquake was 4.1, its depth 10 km. ‘Experts from the geophysics lab run by the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Ural branch say the epicenter could be located between Nyazepetrovsk and Revda, 35 km to the east of Mikhailovsk. Vibrations could be felt in buildings located as far as Yekaterinburg, Pervouralsk, and Novouralsk. No

UrBC, London, October 20, 2015. Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK, one of the world’s leading OCTG producers, is holding Investor’s Day in London, the company press service reports. A presentation by TMK management, headed by BOD Chairman Dmitri Pumpyansky, will dwell on the efforts the company makes to keep operationally efficient and financially stable and on TMK’s Russian division’s success and import phaseout achievements under the current market opportunitites. Data on the market dynamics, the company’s latest news, company strategy, and shareholder value growth potential will be presented

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 20, 2015. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant/ChTZ (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) is going to make an upgraded PK 70 loading tractor with a range of extra options by order of a mining company. According to the corporation’s press service, the plant design engineers have completed all the development work and directed their files to the production departments so that the first sample of a new loader could be made. If this sample proves successful with the customer, the plant might get an order for a set of such loading tractors. Alexander Bobrenev from

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 20, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod held its first singing contest, with economist Tatiana Melkozerova winning the grand-prix for her cover of Lara Fabian’s Desperate Housewife. The company press service reports the contest took off on September 18. 60 people came to compete in the first selection round and 21 employees of Ural Vagon Zavod, Ural Transport Machine-Building Design Office, and Ural Railcar-Building Design Office made it to the finals. Contestants performed in five categories: opera singing, pop/rock, folk, rap, and variety show. The panel of judges comprised

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 19, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region received 180bn RUR in corporate income tax for January-September 2015; this is 7.2% (12bn RUR) more than a year earlier, the local division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service reports. 85.8% of the total amount came from the processing industries, production and distribution of water, natural gas, and electric power sector, the building industry, retail and wholesale trade, transportation and communication, the real estate sector (including the rental market), the tertiary sector, and the financial sector. Compared with January-September

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 19, 2015. The local developers’ demand for new land allotment is down by 40%, Sverdlovsk Region Public Property Management Minister Alexei Piankov said at Ural Estate Forum. ‘What we need under current circumstances is a thoughtful approach to what lots are offered at land auctions. Firstly, the land allotments need some sort of infrastructure around. Secondly, we cannot afford to sell everything for a song in order to sell as much as possible. Allotments for private houses are in good demand now, sometimes a decare-big lot with an opening bid of 500,000 RUR went

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 19, 2015. Sales went down by 30% to 35% on Yekaterinburg new homes market, the constituency’s Construction & Infrastructure Development Minister Sergei Bidonko said at Ural Estate Forum. ‘The market’s current supply is made up of buildings commissioned in the pre-recession years 2012-2014. This reserve is gradually wearing thin, and there are considerably fewer new development projects here. This has to do with a 30% to 35% decline in new homes sales,’ Bidonko said. According to the minister, the market supply is expected to shrink in the nearest future.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 19, 2015. 119,000 foreign citizens have arrived in Sverdlovsk Region since the start of the year, which is 20% less than a year earlier, Head of Russia’s Federal Migration Service Sverdlovsk Region division Vassiliy Pribavkin said at a press conference. He said the decline was most noticeable in early 2015 and was mainly brought about by economic factors and changes in the migration legislature. ‘On average, citizens of CIS member states make up 85% to 87% of the overall number of foreigners arriving in the area. Most of them (45% to 53%) come from Tajikistan,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 19, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Scientific & Production Corporation is taking part in WorldSkills Hi Tech 2015, a blue-collar jobs championship, for the second time this year. The event will be held in Yekaterinburg on October 30-November 3. As the championship’s general sponsor, the company will present every winner with a tablet computer. WorldSkills Hi Tech is coordinated by WorldSkills Russia, Sverdlovsk Region Government, Russia’s Industry & Trade Ministry, and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives. The coordination committee is chaired by Russian Vice

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, October 16, 2015. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works/MMK has won in the international Best Risk Management Contest as the Best Risk Management Program for the second time this year. 'The plant presented a report on how risk assessment affects the achievement of a company's goals. At the core of our analysis is mathematical modeling of how identified and described risks of varying degrees affect MMK's business processes. The simulated outcomes make it possible to determine which particular risks turn out to affect the processes most and,

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, October 16, 2015. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works/MMK is now manufacturing a new kind of steel (12HN), to be used for making section iron, the company reports. The plant's Mill 370 is used to make hot-rolled billets that meet the GOST 2590-2006/GOST 10702-78 standards. These are then directed to MMK METIZ (part of MMK Group) and, following some treatment, to the end users. Hot-rolled products made of 12HN steel prove very popular with the machine-building enterprises. The company also started making new, 35HGSA steel this year in an effort to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 16, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s industrial production index went down by 4.7% in September 2015 compared with August 2015, Sverdlovskstat reports. The index also dropped by 15.9% compared with September 2014 and by 4.6% in January-September 2015 compared with January-September 2014. The index dropped by 2.2% for the processing industries last month (by 15.9% compared with a year earlier). Their index for January-September 2015 declined by 3.2% compared with January-September 2014. Also, the industrial production index went up by 8% in the production and distribution

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 16, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region division of Federal Tax Service inspected 2,636 cash tills in the area in nine months of the year, their press service reports. 2,045 cases related to compliance with till operation rules, 386 to accuracy of receipt-recording, and 165 to use of special-purpose bank accounts. Tax authorities determined there were legal violations in 96% of all cases. 15.67m RUR worth of fines were imposed on the people and companies in charge, with 12.32m RUR paid to the budget. There are currently 81,657 cash tills registered in Sverdlovsk Region.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 16, 2015. The average price of a square meter of housing on Yekaterinburg existing home market currently comes to 72,161 RUR, down 5.3% on the start of the year, President of Ural Chamber of Real Estate Eduard Bogdanov reports. ‘We can see prices growing down gradually in all the market segments. At the same time, the market supply is still at its record high. There are currently nearly 11,500 apartments offered for sale in our database, as well as 1,800 rooms in communal apartments. This is not a very good picture to look at. On the other hand people’s incomes

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 16, 2015. The company website of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK www.tmk-group.com was named Steel Industry Website of the Year. According to the company press service, the website won in one of Steelie Awards categories; the contest is coordinated by the World Steel Association. The awarding ceremony took place at the Association’s 49th conference in Chicago, U.S.A. The award was received on the company’s behalf by BOD Chair of TMK IPSCO (TMK’s U.S. division) Petr Golitzin. The World Steel Association is one of the largest and fastest-growing industrial