April 6, 2015. ChTPZ Group and Metalloinvest looked into their cooperation results of the year. For one, their joint 100% Quality Program proved very efficient, ChTPZ Group’s press service reports. ‘When we started thinking about the program a few years ago, up to 8% of our produce had defects of one sort or another. Things look completely different now, with deviations at under 0.01%. This means the system is working,’ says Metalloinvest Management Company Home Sales Director Andrei Prosyanik. Because all of the production and managerial processes got integrated, it only takes about three

April 6, 2015. A meeting of TMK Scientific & Technological Council dedicated to technical strategy and technical rationale for investment was held at Sinara Pipe Plant/SinTZ (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK). Production of threaded pipes with premium threaded joints at SinTZ was the main point on the agenda, the company’s press service reports. ‘The council member went on a tour of Pipe Rolling Department 2 and OCTG Department 4, where pipes with TMK UP premium threaded joints are manufactured. Experts spoke about the plant’s short- and long-term investment

April 6, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region made over 8bn RUR worth of loan payments in March 2015. Oblastnaya Gazeta reports the constituency’s debt stood at 51.1bn RUR on March 1, 2015. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Information Policy Department refers to Sverdlovsk Region Finance Ministry as stating that the debt amounted to 42.4bn RUR on April 2, 2015; this is 14.7% less than at the start of the year. ‘We have been negotiating with banks and getting our interest rates reconsidered and reduced; we are also trying to work with the Russian Finance Ministry to convert our commercial loans into state

April 6, 2015. Russian grain export halved after a levy was introduced on February 1, 2015, Prime reports. ‘Following the introduction of export duties, the amount of grain exported decreased by more than two times compared with last year in the course of just two months,’ the Agriculture Ministry representatives say. Incidentally, prior to February 1, the day the duty came into effect, grain export figures exceeded those for a year earlier by 30%. A 15% export duty (plus a flat sum of €7.5, minimum of €35 per 1,000 kg all in all) was introduced on February 1, 2015 to stabilize the domestic

April 3, 2015. Plant 9 (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) started using a new wire electrical discharge machine. The launch of this new piece of equipment was part of the company’s retooling and fleet of machines renovation program, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘It took us six months to do all the assembly and start-up and commissioning jobs before the machine could be launched. Then, a trial part was processed. Special attention was paid to training the workers who will be using this WEDM machine: the training and maintenance instructions were provided by an

April 3, 2015. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant/ChTPZ and Rosnano have set up a joint venture for making pipe fittings out of nano-structured materials. ChTPZ has a 50.1% shareholding in Eterno, while Rosnano’s stake in the business comes to 49.9%. The new production facility is expected to be launched at ChTPZ site in Chelyabinsk by the end of 2015; 300 new jobs will be created. By now, the production building has been completed and all the necessary equipment is being assembled at the moment. The new plant will manufacture stamp-welded fittings such as bends, tees, and hermetization and

April 3, 2015. The amount of European visas issued to Russians plummeted by 30% to 40% this year, Senior Consul at Consulate-General of Hungary in Yekaterinburg Pal Fabian announced in the course of a press breakfast at a tourist fair. According to Fabian, this was mainly caused by shrinking tourist traffic and therefore the demand for visas, which, in its turn, has to do with Russia’s economic hardships. ‘As for the year 2015, the situation is far from rosy. The demand for visas is on the decrease. Apart from visas to Hungary, we also issue those to Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Denmark, and

April 3, 2015. 400 cars were stolen in Sverdlovsk Region in the first three months of the year: this was five cars less than in the first quarter of 2014. 170 out of these 400 automobiles couldn’t be found and returned to their owners, Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region division of the Internal Affairs Ministry’s Criminal Investigation Department Natig Bairamov announced at a press conference. According to Bairamov, cars in the medium price range (600,000 RUR to 800,000 RUR) are stolen most often. The three most frequently stolen brands are Toyota Corolla, Mazda 3 and 6, and Ford Focus. Also,

April 3, 2015. The company’s 5,000,000th metric ton of steel produced with the help of an arc furnace was made at Seversky Pipe Plant/STZ (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company). The arc furnace was first used on October 17, 2008. STZ managed to produce its 5th million of metric tons of steel in fourteen months, just like all the earlier millions, which means that the plant workers have mastered all the modern steel-making technologies successfully and are great professionals, the company reports. The arc-furnace steel-smelting operations were performed by a shift of workers

April 2, 2015. Heads of Omsk Region Inter-industrial Cooperation Center met with the management of Omsktransmash (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) on the company’s premises. The two parties agreed to work together on fulfilling their Defense Procurement obligations, improving the plant’s infrastructure, and development of cadre potential, the corporation’s press service reports. The Inter-industrial Cooperation Center was set up in 2014 in order to promote cooperation between Omsk Region’s small and large enterprises. The Center also aims to help businesspeople in their

April 2, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s budget deficit came to 22bn RUR by the end of 2014, which is the largest figure among all of Ural Federal District’s constituencies. A comparative budget implementation table with data for 2014 was carried in Rossiyskaya Gazeta’s March issue (No.64). The Federal Treasury was quoted as the source of the data provided. Chelyabinsk Region’s budget deficit, for example, stood at 4bn RUR, while that of the usually depressed Kurgan Region at 3.9bn RUR. At the same time, Sverdlovsk Region Treasury’s spending and income figures (232.6bn RUR and 210bn RUR,

April 2, 2015. 44% of those running a small business are aware of the current state support programs, yet only 13% say they have applied for these: such are the findings of an all-Russian research coordinated by National Agency for Financial Studies (NAFI) among managers. 20% of applicants run companies that were set up over fifteen years ago. Around a third (31%) of small business owners/managers said they knew about this option but never used it. 28% of respondents are somewhat aware of the existing state programs; most of these respondents are employed with companies which were founded in

April 2, 2015. EVRAZ Group’s net loss (calculated in accordance with the IAS) rose by 2.3 times last year compared with the year 2013 and thus came to $1.278bn, the company’s report states. According to this report, losses were mainly related to devaluation of the company’s assets ($540m) and damage done by the changes in the ruble/dollar exchange rate ($1.005bn) The Group’s revenues shrank by 9% and stood at $13.061bn. Net debt dropped by 11%, down to $5.8m; as a result, the company’s net debt/EBITDA ratio came to 2.5.

April 2, 2015. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ, a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) delivered 104,700 kg of 139.7x10.54mm casing pipes with gas-proof, first-generation ChT-VC Premium threaded joints to Gazprom Dobycha Nadym. According to ChTPZ Group’s press service, based on the customer specifications the cold-resistant pipes were provided in two strength grades, E (90,000 kg) and P110 (14,700 kg). The first shipment of the pilot batch was sent to Gazprom’s natural gas deposits in 2014. After the trial runs were successfully completed, Gazprom placed an order for more; the pipes were made

April 1, 2015. Ural Airlines won the national Russian Wings Prize once again: the air carrier won in Domestic Flights and E-Commerce categories for the year 2014, the airline’s press service reports. The awarding ceremony (the eighteenth one since the prize was established) took place at the Renaissance Moscow Monarch Center Hotel in Moscow. 38 Russian and 58 foreign air carriers, as well as 13 airports and other companies in the civil aviation sector, competed for the prizes. Winners were selected by secret ballot by members of three expert groups. The Russian Wings Prize was founded by the

April 1, 2015. This April, ChTZ Uraltrac (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) is going to make and deliver to its customers six bulldozers which will be named after the prominent Urals-based home front workers who contributed greatly to the development of the defense industry during war times. According to Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service, the bulldozers will bear the names of Soviet statesmen who were involved in the Southern Urals’ tank-making industry. ‘Head of the Communist Party Chelyabinsk Region Committee, who took part in the development of the area’s

April 1, 2015. SKB Bank keeps expanding its ATM network in Saint Petersburg. The new branch, the third one in Saint Petersburg, started operating in Ozerki (one of the city’s busiest districts) recently, the bank’s press service reports. The branch is located very close to Prospekt Prosveshcheniya Underground Station (136 Engels St Bldg 1A). The place is open for private customers from 9AM to 7PM on weekdays and from 10AM to 4PM on Saturdays; business customers and sole traders are welcome to come from 9AM to 4PM on weekdays. The branch presents a new office format with modern design,

April 1, 2015. Renting an office in Yekaterinburg grew cheaper in the first quarter of the year; the market supply in the sector is also on the rise, Ural Chamber of Real Estate’s Konstantin Oktayev told UrBC. ‘18% of all Class B offices in the city are now available for tenants (up 4% on the last quarter of 2014); the same is true of 20% of Class A offices (-3%) and 12% of Class B+ ones (+1%). This increase in the market supply has to do with a lot of new office buildings that got commissioned in the first quarter of 2015,’ Oktayev explains. The analyst says that average rental rates have

April 1, 2015. Pavel Turkov, a setter-up of numerically controlled machines at Ural Locomotives, won the third prize in a professional skills contest called Glory to the Man of Labor!, Sinara Group’s PR Center reports. According to head of Ural Locomotives HR Department Andrei Pryakhin, the event is a very important one for the company. ‘Our company currently runs its own employee training system. NC machine operators and setters-up are the people today’s machine-building really needs,’ he said. Local contests winners from machine-building enterprises based in Kurgan, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, and

April 1, 2015. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) managed to decrease its expenses by $524m last year thanks to united efforts of all the production and administrative divisions. The company reports this was made possible due to improved organization of labor during large-scale repairs and equipment upgrades ($75m), improved supply chains, more efficient composition of raw materials, and better coordination of technical jobs ($57m), reorganization of maintenance procedures and implementation of innovative materials ($114m). Cutting down on managerial expenses resulted in another $8m in