UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 17, 2015. The number of people staying at hotels and similar types of accommodation came to 901,300 in 2014, which was 49,900 guests, or 5.3% less than in 2013, Sverdlovskstat reports. At the same time, local hotels made 4.4% more profit in 2014 compared with 2013 (4.7bn RUR all in all or 2,138 RUR per night). On average, people stayed at hotels for 2.4 nights. As of late 2014, 344 hotels and similar types of accommodation operated in Sverdlovsk Region, including 293 hotels proper (85.2%), 32 furnished apartments (9.3%), 14 tourist halls of residence (4%), 2 boarding

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 17, 2015. Around 40% of Sverdlovsk Region gas-filling stations sell low-quality gasoline, head of Rosstandard's Ural Federal District branch Svetlana Mikheyeva said at a press conference. ''Our prosecution authorities and Rosstandard looked into the quality of gasoline for sale at local filling stations. Around 40% of stations located in Sverdlovsk Region did sell poor quality fuel. The problems were mainly related to increased sulfur content and a lower octane value than declared,' she said. Inspections helped to detect 160 instances of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 16, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region's industrial production index dropped by 3.3% in January through May 2015 against a year earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. The index went down by 4.4% compared with May 2014 and by 1.8% compared with April 2015. In comparison with January-May 2014, the index dropped by 11.4% in the raw resources development sector and by 1.6% in the processing industries sector. The shrinkage was most noticeable in the fossil fuel industry: cargo shipments and overall amount of jobs and services plummeted by 80.4%. Also, the index declined by 49.9% in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 17, 2015. ChTPZ Group's warehouse facility Uraltrubostal presented the Group's pipe manufacturing division's production philosophy (known as White Metallurgy) to over forty customers. According to the Group's press service, visitors to the event could take a tour of production sites at Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (one of the Group's member enterprises), including Iron Ozone 32 (a steel-smelting facility), Finishing Center for making OCTG pipes, the plant's pipe-drawing department that makes 32 to 114-mm hot-worked pipes, and ChTPZ Group

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 17, 2015. Workers from Uralvagonzavod Corporation's head plant in Nizhniy Tagil planted some flowers in the city's Dzerzhinsky District, the corporation's press service reports. 'Thanks to our employees' efforts, flower beds will bloom along Leningradsky Avenue from Dzerzhinsky Avenue to Zarya Street. The company purchased 173,700 plantlets for the purpose,'the press service says. The flowers were planted by workers from the plant's non-standardized equipment, instrument-making, and power departments, industrial safety, labor

UrBC, Moscow, June 15, 2015. Russia’s Health Ministry reports the number of deaths registered in Sverdlovsk Region is alarmingly high; Minister Veronika Skvortsova informed Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev of the problem at a recent demographic policy meeting. ‘In 37 Russian constituencies, the number of deaths exceeded those of births. Jewish Autonomous region, Kursk, Ivanovo, Lipetsk, Orel, Sverdlovsk, and Tambov Region look particularly worrying in this respect,’ the Minister said. According to Skvortsova, several cases of supermortality at specific hospitals (and relating to specific

UrBC, Moscow, June 15, 2015. In Ural Federal District, the average shopping basket grew 3.5% more expensive in May 2015 compared with April and amounted to 475 RUR, Romir reports. This is the amount of money a statistically average person living in the Urals spent at a time when shopping throughout May; the figure for Russia on the whole went up by 2.8% and came to 583 RUR. Following a slight decrease in April (the figure was smaller than in March 2015), the average basket resumed growing more expensive and became comparable with the figures for November 2014 and January 2015. Compared with

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 15, 2015. The overall volume of producer goods shipped by Yekaterinburg-based companies to their customers in January-May 2015 was 30.1% larger than a year earlier, the city council’s press service reports. The local businesses’ industrial production index reached 101.2% in the first quarter of 2015.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 15, 2015. ChTPZ Group Training Center and Pervouralsk Metallurgical School are now accepting applications to join their corporate training program called the Future of White Metallurgy, the Group’s press service reports. Young people from anywhere in Russia who have completed their nine-year secondary education program are all eligible to apply. This year, 150 fellowships will be offered by the government to cover tuition fees of those training to do metal forming, operate electrical and electromechanical equipment, assemble and operate industrial equipment, work as

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 15, 2015. The hockey teams of Uralvagonzavod Corporation and EVRAZ NTMK met in Nizhniy Tagil for a game dedicated to the 70th V-Day anniversary and Russia Day. According to the corporation’s press service, the match was a charity event, with the aim of helping children in foster care. Children from Razvedchik, Nizhniy Tagil’s only hockey school that trains children from orphanages and foster homes, were invited to attend the game. The young supporters were given gift certificates (150,000 RUR) to get new sports uniform and equipment from both teams’ respective

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 11, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based utility companies and suppliers owe Uralsevergaz over 4.523bn RUR for the natural gas supplied in 2015, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s website states. The debt stems from the end users’ unpaid electricity and heating bills and the fact that the engineering infrastructure is greatly worn out. As of April 1, 2015, Uralsevergas was provided with 226.7m RUR worth of city council-backed guarantees; the two parties keep working out the debt repayment schedule. At the same time, only 85m RUR have been directed to city councils from

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 11, 2015. 5,493 people without jobs registered with Yekaterinburg Employment Center by June 1, 2015. The official unemployment rate thus remained the same as in the previous month and came to 0.76%, Sverdlovsk Region Labor & Employment Department’s press service reports. 10,632 people applied to the department looking for a new job since the start of 2015; 5,573 out of them (33.6%) were actually employed at the time of application. Sverdlovsk Region-based businesses placed ads for 16,691 openings, including 9,187 vacancies (55%) for foreign workers. 9,242

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 11, 2015. The Russian Government allocated 21,342,245,300 RUR to crop farming improvements. The document to this extent is available at the official website. Sverdlovsk Region’s share will amount to 241,270,800 RUR. Remarkably, the neighboring Chelyabinsk Region will get at least twice as much, namely, 434,302,000 RUR. Kurgan Region, with its 189,465,000 RUR worth of subsidies, got the third biggest amount among Ural Federal District’s constituencies. Tyumen Region will get 165,206,000 RUR, while Khanty-Mansiysky and Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Regions were allocated

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 11, 2015. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant/PNTZ (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) is starting to use a new fault detector meant for ultrasonic analysis and thickness measurement of boiler tubes, the Group’s press service reports. The use of the new unit will result in more efficient quality control of pipes and tubes made of stainless, carbonated, low-alloy and alloyed steels and will enable the company to meet its customers’ additional requirements. The multi-functional fault detector was designed by Yekaterinburg-based Introtest and proved unique in terms of what

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 11, 2015. Special entertainment programs will be offered to children of Nizhniy Tagil at I.V. Okunev Palace of Culture square every Thursday in the summer. The programs are organized and sponsored by Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant. According to the corporation’s press service, on June 11, young visitors will see a story of Neznaika in Sun City, and a week later, they will go on an adventure with Pippi Longstocking. On June 25, a magician’s school will welcome its new apprentices. ‘In early July, children will get to meet characters from Pavel Bazhov’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 10, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region Government adopted a draft bill determining the living wage for the third quarter of 2015 today. The average living wage per capita will amount to 9,599 RUR a month, the Prime Minister’s press secretary reports. ‘The bill was drafted in accordance with the local laws 15 OZ (dated January 4, 1993) and 47 OZ (dated May 24, 2013) and with the help of the methodology adopted by the Russian Federation Government,’ says Sverdlovsk Region’s Deputy Economics Minister Tatiana Gladkova. Gladkova said the average living wage would come to 9,599 RUR a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 10, 2015. Some 780 people whose unpaid electricity bills amount to over 10,000 RUR (per subscriber), are not allowed to leave the country, Director of EnergosbyT Plus Sverdlovsk Region Georgiy Kozlov said at a recent press conference. ‘A lot of efforts are made to make local debtors pay their electricity bills. For one, those planning to go abroad won’t be able to do so as long as the bill remains unpaid,’ he explained. According to Deputy Head of the Federal Service of Court Officers’ Sverdlovsk Region division Elena Sidorova, court officers are now working on

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 10,2015. TMK-ARTROM (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK) has recently commissioned a department for precision pipe production; the pipes are meant for the car-making industry and for manufacturing of hydraulic cylinders, the company press service reports. TMK-ARTROM is currently one of Europe’s leading weldless industrial pipe manufacturers, exporting nearly 85% of its produce to more than fifty different countries. The new department is fitted with up-to-date equipment meant for knurling treatment of the internal sides of cold-worked weldless

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 10, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko took part in an industrial conference in Moscow. According to the corporation’s press service, the event’s agenda covered a plenary session where its participants could talk about the strategic development plans for the Russian industrial sector. In his speech, Oleg Sienko emphasized the special role that industry plays in the current economic conditions. ‘Futures, stock indices, and exchange rates have been a trendy topic lately. However, industry is the only sector that produces actual goods,’ the

UrBC, Moscow, June 10, 2015. Most of Russia’s industrial enterprises are located in provincial parts of the country, so both the federal and the local governments need to focus on getting more highly skilled young Moscow college graduates to work there, Uralvagonzavod Corporation Director-General Oleg Sienko said at an industrial conference (dubbed Country Lives till Plants Work) in Moscow. ‘At the moment, the corporation has to put up new housing, schools, sports and infrastructure facilities, the economic difficulties notwithstanding, in order to simply retain its staff, let alone attract