March 19, 2015. Ural Airlines are launching an additional Yekaterinburg-Prague flight for the sake of the Russian national hockey team’s supporters who’d like to attend the world hockey championship, the airline’s press service reports. The extra flight will be operated on May 13, one day before the quarter-final games. The championship will be held in Prague and Ostrava, the Czech Republic, on May 1-17, 2015. The Russian national team will play against those of Finland, the United States, Slovakia, Norway, Byelorussia, Slovenia, and Dania (Group B) in Ostrava. Ural Airlines also operate

March 19, 2015. ChTPZ Group’s Training Center (as well as a number of other local sites) is going to host Sverdlovsk Region round of WorldSkills Russia 2015 on March 24-26. Candidates will compete in five categories: Mechatronics, Mobile Robotics, Operation of NPC turning machines, Operation of NPC mills, and Welding Technologies. Teams from fourteen local colleges and vocational schools submitted their applications to take part in the event, ChTPZ Group’s press service reports. ChTPZ Group’s team will consist of students and alumni of the company’s corporate training program known as the

March 19, 2015. Head of Yekaterinburg Council Alexander Yakob held a V-Day Parade Committee meeting to look into preparations for the 70th anniversary of Russia winning the Great Patriotic War. According to the city council’s press service, the military parade in Yekaterinburg’s main square is traditionally the key celebration event. This year, the city council asked the Central Military District’s command to have their air forces join the parade. The military supported the idea, so, for the first time in Yekaterinburg’s history, aircraft will take place in the V-Day Parade on May 9, 2015.

March 19, 2015. MRSK Urala’s Board of Directors decided to cut the company’s investment program for this year as well as for the years 2016-2020. According to their data, overall capital investment will shrink by nearly 20% in 2015-2020, from 24.232bn RUR down to 19.417bn RUR (VAT excluded), Finam Investment Company reports. Capital investment will go down 21%, to 5.49bn RUR, in 2015, by 25.5%, to 4.06bn RUR, in 2016, by 15%, to 4.838bn RUR, in 2017, and by 18%, down to 5.03bn RUR, in 2018. As for the years 2019 and 2020, 5.35bn RUR and 5.438bn RUR will be invested, respectively. Fixed assets

March 19, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation put up two apartment buildings for its employees in Dzerzhinsky District of Nizhniy Tagil. The new homes are meant for highly skilled workers with useful specializations, blue-collar workers and employees from the new medical unit that is about to be completed. The apartments are turn-key ready and will be let to Uralvagonzavod’s employees from outside Sverdlovsk Region, the corporation’s press service reports. The decision to build homes was made in 2013, when the company suffered from acute shortage of machine-building workers. The housing option

March 18, 2015. The 10th Russia Arms Expo, the international exhibition of arms, military vehicles, and ammunition, is likely to become the most spectacular one so far in terms of the scale of the vehicle demonstrations, the event coordinators report. The shooting range in Nizhniy Tagil will undergo major reconstruction for the purpose. For one, all of the racing tracks, the target layout, the helipad, and lines of fire and firing positions will be rebuilt and expanded. ‘All this will improve the range quality and will naturally help produce a better quality show at the exhibition,’ the

March 18, 2015. Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky paid a visit to Karabashmed (a member enterprise of Russian Copper Company Group) in the course of his business trip to Karabash. The Governor could have a look at the construction site of the new sulfuric acid department, RCC press service reports. The department’s head Andrei Chernenkov explained four startup complexes would be built for the facility all in all. The first one is ready to be launched, and startup and commissioning jobs will begin on the second one this month. Besides, a tank washing station, a modular unitized

March 18, 2015. Vysota 239, a production department at Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) was given the 9th position on the list of the world’s 25 most beautiful plants; the list was made by CMMS Software Insight, an American web resource on computerized maintenance management systems in the industrial sector. An unusual color scheme and pedestrian walks and recreation areas with parquet floors as shiny as a basketball court make Vysota 239 look more like an amusement park than like a pipe-producing department, says CMMS Software Insight Managing Editor Justin

March 18, 2015. This year, Sverdlovsk Region Government will provide 232m RUR to subsidize air carriers which operate domestic flights, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department reports. A number of airlines are planning, for example, to operate flights from Koltsovo International Airport to Barnaul, Kazan, Nizhniy Novgorod, Tyumen, Perm, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, and Volgograd this year. The list of airlines entitled to subsidies, as well as the list of routes was made by Rosaviation at the start of the year.

March 18, 2015. An up-to-date OES analyzer was launched at the central lab of Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s LEPSE Electric Machine-Building Plant in Kirov. The analyzer can determine the composition of various metals and iron-, copper-, aluminum-, tin-, and titanium-based alloys. The launch of this new machine means that optical emission spectroscopy can be performed faster and in a more precise way, which takes the lab onto a better, higher level, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘In contrast to our old equipment, the new spectrometer relies on the CCD (charge-coupled device) that is

March 17, 2015. Ural division of Rostechnadzor (the state work safety watchdog) completed its investigation of an accident at UMMC’s Sredneuralsky Copper-Smelting Plant. The accident was caused by poor work organization and equipment defects, the division’s press service reports. It was determined in the course of the inquiry that a pile of hot dust collapsed through the inspection window of an electric filter and injured the cleaner who was examining the inside of the machine. ‘The inquiry committee detected the following causes of the accident: design defects of the filter and poor work

March 17, 2015. Last year, Ural Federal District turned out to be the second worst federal district in the country to invest in transport infrastructure projects, INFOLine’s research findings indicate. ‘Transport infrastructure projects are big in Central Federal District (238), while North Caucasian Federal District (31) is in the last place,’ the agency says. According to INFOLine, only 75 such projects are being implemented in Ural Federal District at the moment.

March 17, 2015. Yekaterinburg is a universally recognized business travel destination thanks to the great quality of its hotel service, Executive Director of Ural Tourism Association Mikhail Maltsev told UrBC. Maltsev says that Forbes Magazine listing Yekaterinburg as one of Russia’s top ten cities with European quality service is one proof of his point. ‘Any positive publicity is good for the city, this is a plus. On the whole, I’m confident Yekaterinburg truly deserves to be at the top of various ratings: a number of coordination committees and professional communities in cooperation with

March 17,2015. It now takes an average of five months to sell an apartment on Yekaterinburg existing homes market; some places don’t get sold for a year, says head of Ural Chamber of Real Estate’s Analytical Department Mikhail Khorkov. ‘Quite a few sellers tend to overestimate their offer’s actual worth and set the market’s highest asking price from the start. In most cases, this results in the seller having to reduce their prices,’ Khorkov said. This was the case for about 18% of apartments offered for sale via the Chamber’s database in February 2015. Under 3% of property owners decided to

March 17, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation is launching a new professional development program for its technicians, who will be able to upgrade their skills at the subsidiary of National Research Nuclear University MEPhI in Lesnoy, Sverdlovsk Region. The head plant’s employees will be given courses in computer programming, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘Today’s engineer/technician must be able to do computer programming in order to be on a par with operators and programmers. Our course is meant to minimize the risks as well as to solve the problem of operator and programmer

March 17, 2015. A number of production departments at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) set new local performance records, MMK reports. The company’s furnace shop produced the record-setting 10.28m tons of pig iron using its eight blast furnaces in 2014. The steel-smelting department made 13.03m tons of steel, which is the best result since 2007 and second best result since 1991. The oxygen converter shop produced over 10m tons of steel. The coke and by-product processing department produced some 5.6m tons of coke last year, which is the best result since 2004 and the second best

March 16, 2015. UTair Airlines were fined for the 13-hour delay of their Yekaterinburg-Bangkok flight. ‘The plane originally designated for the flight was late arriving at Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport; the airline failed to replace the aircraft in time, so the passengers only got to travel much later,’ Ural public prosecution authorities for transportation’s press service reports. Thus administrative action was taken against the company, with charges based on Article 14.4 (Part 1) of the Russian Federation Administrative Offense Code (rendering of services to private individuals which

March 16, 2015. First Freight Company’s Chelyabinsk subsidiary handled 53,500,000 kg worth of cement truck shipments in February 2015, which was 42% more than a year earlier. According to the company’s press service, their freight turnover actually doubled in this segment and amounted to 45,700 ton-kilometers. The company’s share of South Ural Railways cement truck shipment market went up from 26% to 32%. ‘The increase had to do with our good quality service, including the trucks arriving to loading stations on time and cargo delivery exactly on time, as well as with our employees’ efforts to

March 16, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region Finance Ministry took out a 500m-ruble loan from Tyumen-based Zapsibkombank, the bank’s official statement goes. The money will be used either partially to finance the local budget deficit or to pay off Sverdlovsk Region’s debts. According to the statement, the bank has been cooperating with Sverdlovsk Region Government for two years now. The government actually issued a decree allowing the local ministries to borrow over 35bn RUR from banks this year. Finance Minister Galina Kulachenko explains the loans will be used to cover the budget deficit and pay off

March 16, 2015. Uraltransbank’s Board of Directors will meet next week, on March 20. The BOD members will look at the report on how and whether the instructions and recommendations left by the Bank of Russia’s inspectors have been met, the bank reports. Getting acquainted with the report on how the BOD’s decisions made on February 4, 2015 were complied with, as well as with the business plan for the year 2015, is another point on the meeting’s agenda. Additionally, the BOD will consider ways of improving Uraltransbank’s corporate governance and will assess the efficiency of the bank’s