August 28, 2015. Two replicas of Russia’s first steam locomotive were made at Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant, the company press service reports. ‘A life-size replica, manufactured by the corporation’s head plant, is now located next to Uralvagonzavod Armored Vehicles Museum in Nizhniy Tagil. The second copy was presented to the city and installed at the entrance of the Park Inn by Radisson last week,’ the press service says. The spot next to the company museum has some special significance, since it is situated near the first stand with the 19th century railcars, including a platform

August 28, 2015. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) now makes new goods using its Mill 5000, the company press service reports. For one, the company can now make hot-rolled normalized sheets from P355NL2 steel in accordance with the STO ММК 297-2010 standards. This steel is used for making chemical-cargo truck tanks. Mill 5000 is also used for making hot-rolled sheets (8.0mm to 32.0mm thick) from 09G2S steel that meet GOST 19281-2014 standards and extra mechanical and operation requirements. These sheets are meant for making parts of pipelines.

August 27, 2015. Gas prices went up in Sverdlovsk Region because the ruble price of oil had increased, Gazpromneft-Ural’s press service informed UrBC. ‘It is generally believed that when global oil prices go down, Russian gasoline prices should follow suit. However, the government’s fiscal measures and the increased dollar exchange rate actually resulted in a 13% increase in Russia’s Urals oil in August. Since the raw material grew more expensive, retail gas prices are not likely to go down at the filling stations,’ the company press service explained. The price of AI 95 went up by 0.05 RUR

August 27, 2015. Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky paid a visit to Eterno, ChTPZ Group’s and Rosnano’s new joint venture meant for making stamp-welded pipeline parts. The plant is expected to create over 400 jobs and become a new taxpayer in the constituency, the Group’s press service reports. The Governor was accompanied by Deputy Governor Ruslan Gattarov, Chelyabinsk Region’s Economic Development Minister Tatiana Kuznetsova, Chelyabinsk Region’s Construction & Infrastructure Minister Viktor Tupikin, and a number of other officials. Visitors to the plant were shown all the

August 27, 2015. A cycling trip dedicated to this year’s 70th Victory Day anniversary took off in Murmansk; the trip is part of the 10th International Russia Arms Expo 2015 Exhibition coordinated by Uralvagonzavod Corporation. First, the participating cyclists, accompanied by Vice President and Chairman of Outsourcing Operators Commonwealth Andrei Shchepochkin, paid a visit to the Leningrad Heroic Defenders Memorial on August 21. The team and captain Alexander Razzhivin then traveled to the starting point of the trip in the Kola Peninsula, whose history is closely interwoven with that of the

August 27, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court pronounced Alapayevsk Chromite Mine insolvent. The company was set up in Alapayevsk, Sverdlovsk Region, in 2013, to produce iron ore. It was determined in the course of the court hearing that Chrome Resource, with 27,776,577 RUR in claims, was one of the company’s creditors. The investigation of the debtor’s financial situation made it clear that the crisis had been brought about by poor management and performance, excessive spending, and lack of efforts to reduce costs. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court thus declared Alapayevsk Chromite

August 27, 2015. Provided the ruble/dollar exchange rate remains more or less at the current level, the number of Sverdlovsk Region residents who will be able to afford a vacation abroad will shrink by 30% to 40%, Director of Natalie Tours Yekaterinburg branch Oleg Khiger told UrBC. ‘If things remain as they are, foreign travel market will sag by 30% to 40%. If the ruble keeps on growing weaker, the decrease might reach 50%. This means that the overall tourist market will only make up around a quarter of what it looked like a year earlier. Those who could afford to travel four times a year

August 26, 2015. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development is now selling portable POS terminals for chip-based and magnetic plastic cards as well as for proximity ones, the bank’s press service reports. The new terminal combines all the functions of the classical device (including transaction reports) with a powerful battery that lasts up to eight hours before you have to charge it again. The primary advantages are the device’s ergonomic design and compact parameters. There is no bulky receipt-printing part, so the terminal is best suited for the kinds of businesses that used to

August 26, 2015. People living in Ural Federal District are now considering moving to a different city in order to find a job more often than earlier, HeadHunter claims. The number of potential job migrants has gone up in nearly all of the district’s largest cities compared to last year. In Tyumen, the figure is up by 4%, and numbers rose by 8%, 10%, 12%, and 21% in Chelyabinsk, Khanty-Mansiysk, Kurgan, and Salekhard, respectively. Yekaterinburg proved the only exception to this trend: the number of people willing to move went down by 8%. The most desirable cities for job-seekers are still

August 26, 2015. MegaFon reports they are developing their Sverdlovsk Region network further; for one, the telecommunications provider introduced new stations in seventeen local towns and settlements between April and July to enhance connection quality and increase the speed of mobile Internet connection for 900,000 people, the provider reports. The new stations were installed in Nizhniy Tagil, Artemovsky, Alapayevsk, Berezovsky, Kamensk Uralsky, Zarechny, Novouralsk, Revda, Turinsk, Talitsa, Sredneuralsk, Troitsky, Malysheva, Svetly, Nikolo-Pavlovskoye, and (for the first time) in

August 26, 2015. The 5th Annual Junior Hockey League Championship took off at UVZ Corporation’s Ice Sports Palace in Nizhniy Tagil, the corporation, which acts as the tournament’s official partner, reports. This is the first time the Cup games began in Sverdlovsk Region. Matches will be played on three ice arenas (in Yekaterinburg, Nizhniy Tagil, and Verkhnyaya Pyshma) on August 24-30. Eight teams from Sweden, Finland, the United States, Byelorussia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, and Russia, including Chaika from Nizhniy Novgorod and Avto from Yekaterinburg, are competing for the prize. Two games were

August 26, 2015. Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to report on Russian Copper Company’s successfully completed project, Mikheevskiy Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise, the company press service reports. ‘Our natural resource-extracting companies are doing quite well, with RCC’s new copper mine increasing our output by 28%. Our metallurgical enterprises have proven rather stable as well,’ the Governor said. Mikheevskiy is Russian Copper Company’s green field project, with over 27bn RUR in investments, which has created some 1,000 new

August 25, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) inspected 7,300 kg of fish and discarded 3,400 kg (46.3%) as unfit to eat, their press service reports. The current percentage exceeds that of last year by 1.8 times. For one, the number of cases when fish was found unsuitable for consumption because the food did not meet the normative quality requirements rose by 4.3 times. Inspectors took 166 food samples, of which 28.3% did not meet the normative requirements and 25.4% did not comply with the bacteriological standards. Also, 23.5% and 20% of

August 25, 2015. Moscow Arbitration Court refused to overrule the Central Bank’s decision to annul Plato-Bank’s license, despite the Yekaterinburg-based bank’s owner Andrei Lazarev’s claims. The legal grounds for the decision haven’t been made open to the public just yet. Plato Bank was set up in 1992 as a limited liability company then known as Commercial Bank Iset. The company acquired its current name in March 1996. It is reported that 87% of the bank’s shares belonged to Lazarev. Plato-Bank’s license was annulled as early as May 13, 2015. The Central Bank took the step ‘since the lending

August 25, 2015. RAEX demoted Uralsib Leasing Company’s credit rating from A to B++ and revoked it because the company decided not to go on with it, the rating agency’s website states. The rating was reconsidered because the company’s end owner, Bank Uralsib, can no longer support it financially on the same scale as before. Besides, growing losses (from 244.9m RUR in the first half of 2014 up to 2.5bn RUR in the first half of 2015), poor quality of the leasing portfolio, and high foreign currency risks keep affecting the company’s solvency.

August 25, 2015. Up to 8% of Yekaterinburg’s shopping space might become vacant by the end of the year, Ural Chamber of Real Estate reports. It is reported that the amount of currently unused shopping space has gone up from 2% to 4.2% over the last year. For one, Gulliver Kinder in Vostochny Mall, Poltinnik Furniture and Corporation Center (a white goods store) in Antey Shopping Club, StroyArsenal Hypermarket in Wow House Mall, Corporation Center in Kirovsky Lux Mall, Eldorado in Fan Fan, and Snow Queen in Karnaval Mall all closed down in the last twelve months. Given this dropping demand,

August 25, 2015. Ural Railcar-Building Design Office (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) added a new gondola car with improved performance characteristics to its range of 12-196-02 makes. According to the corporation’s press service, the new car is another addition to their range of innovative products mounted on 18-194-1 bogie that can handle more weight than before and only has to get overhauled every 500,000 km. ‘The new gondola car is unique in that its capacity was extended to 94 m3, yet its size still makes it possible to do the unloading with all existing kinds of

August 25, 2015. Lyudinovsky Locomotive Plant/LTZ (a member enterprise of Sinara Transport Machines) was issued a compliance certificate that states its TG16M main-line locomotives meet the Federal Railway Transport Register requirements, Sinara Group reports. ‘This is a new page in the plant’s history. Customers only used to know LTZ as a shunter manufacturer, but now main-line locos open new markets and therefore offer a promising future for the plant and the town. This will also make Kaluga Region a leading railway vehicle-manufacturing area,’ says Governor of Kaluga Region Anatoly

August 24, 2015. Ural Airlines are launching a new China-bound flight from Khabarovsk. According to the company press service, the first such flight (Khabarovsk to Changchun and back) will be operated on October 13, 2015. Flights will be available every Tuesday, with return flights on Wednesdays. Prices start from 7,655 RUR (one way) and 13,355 RUR (round trip), all fees included. ‘Changchun is an interesting place for businesspeople. This is one of China’s most investment-friendly cities with some 3,000 enterprises in all sectors of industry ranging from metallurgy to hi tech. This is a

August 24, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil is holding a company arts contest in September. A talent show of sorts will take place at I.V. Okunev Palace of Culture, the company press service reports. ‘The idea is to offer some entertainment to the plant workers as well as to reveal their creative potential and build up on company traditions. Both the head plant employees and workers from the corporation’s other member enterprises located in Nizhniy Tagil are eligible to compete in opera, stage, folk, pop, rock, and rap singing,’ the press service says. As the