February 18, 2015. Sinara Group is going to build a new highway in Volgograd Region to connect Moskovskaya St in Krasnoslobodsk to Vtoraya Pyatiletka in Sredneakhtubinsk. The highway will reduce the time it takes to get from the bridge across the Volga to Bukatin Lug (a new district of Krasnoslobodsk that Sinara Development is putting up there), Sinara Group’s PR Center reports. The highway construction project is part of the government program on the development of Volgograd Region’s transport infrastructure in 2014-2016. The project documentation was prepared by Sinara Development within

February 18, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s experts met with the representatives of Rift Valley Railways, a company that maintains the railways in Kenya and Rwanda. According to the corporation’s press service, the African company’s delegates paid a visit to the company’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil in order to talk over their cooperation prospects. Uralvagonzavod might, for example, compete for the contract for 480 meter-gauge railway platforms. The delegates also took an inertest in Uralcryomash’s tank containers. ‘The terms of delivery we offer, as well as our prices and approach to

February 18, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based businesses’ revenues rose by 13.6% in January 2015 compared with a year earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. For one, the processing sector’s revenues went up by 30.4%, the agricultural, hunting, and timber industries’ revenues went up by 28.5%, and the construction sector’s revenues increased by 8.4%. At the same time, the revenues in the production and distribution of electric power, natural gas, and water and in the education sector declined by 5.4% and 2.5%, respectively.

February 18, 2015. Russian air carriers’ overall passenger traffic might drop by 7.6% in 2015, Russia’s Economic Development Ministry’s updated forecast states. Domestic air travel could shrink due to the weakening ruble and the decrease in the population’s actual income as well as growing airplane leasing expenses. As for last year, air traffic actually rose by 10.2% compared with 2013. The ministry also says that Russians’ falling incomes will result in smaller trade turnover (-5.9% for food items and -10.2% for non-food items). The average household’s private consumption will also go down

February 18, 2015. 305,800 m2 worth of new housing got commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region in January 2015; this was 5.9 times more than in January 2014. According to Sverdlovskstat, the figure includes 143,800 m2 worth of private housing construction, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 2.8 times.

February 17, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant looked at the performance results of its voluntary neighborhood watch team that was set up one year ago, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘1,253 workers from nearly all of the head plant’s divisions joined the watch over the course of the year. Their shifts amounted to 2,100 hours altogether, with an average of twenty people per shift. The voluntary police assistants are foremen, engineers, personnel managers, heads of departments, offices, and divisions, economists, technicians, press operators, janitors, adjusters, millers,

February 17, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court ruled that OAO Pnevmostroymachine should undergo bankruptcy proceedings. On December 5, 2014, a claim was placed with the court by Raifffeisenbank; the plaintiff insisted that Pnevmostroymachine be declared insolvent due to its 29m-ruble debt; the claim was called off after a peace settlement. However, on December 12 the defendant itself submitted an insolvency application. According to the files relating to the case, the company admitted owing 2,357,312,913 RUR to its creditors as of November 1, 2014. The company’s current assets amount

February 17, 2015. The deteriorating economic circumstances have resulted in considerably more office space available for rent in Yekaterinburg. The share of Class A offices to let rose to 23% in the last quarter of 2014, that of Class B+ offices went up from 2% to 11%. The share of vacant Class C offices kept shrinking between December 2013 and September 2014 but increased to 14% in the fourth quarter of the year, Ural Chamber of Real Estate reports. Around 15% of good quality offices are available for rent in Yekaterinburg at the moment and are advertised on the estate market. Experts

February 17, 2015. Ural Airlines is launching a special offer on its Yekaterinburg-Tel Aviv flights: a round trip can now be booked for €129; the tickets are already available for purchase. Special rates hold for flights to be operated between March 18 and May13, 2015 (excluding airport fees and airline charges). The airline reduced the fuel fee for this flight by €36 (one-way trip) and €72 (round trip). Ural Airlines will operate direct flights from Yekaterinburg to Tel Aviv every Wednesday starting March 18, 2015. The flight will be performed on Airbus liners that have both economy and

February 17, 2015. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (pipe-making member enterprises of ChTPZ Group) supplied 2,073,000,000 kg of pipe products to their customers in 2014, which was 395,000,000 kg (23.6%) more than in 2013, the Group’s press service reports. This increase has to do with more shipments on large-diameter pipes onto the home market and more shipments of OCTGs onto the CIS markets. The pipe manufacturing enterprises delivered 1,038,000,000 kg of welded pipes to their customers in the twelve months of 2014; this was 38% more than a year earlier. The

February 16, 2015. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ-Uraltrac, a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) is going to sell its customers two unusually colored 2B10M bulldozers. The company has produced green, grey, blue, and even red vehicles before. These two are going to be entirely dull black, with only the plant’s logo at the front and the model’s details on the cabin visible. This kind of coating was originally meant for an exhibition, yet the demand for the vehicles is so high that the customers agreed to get the black bulldozers now instead of waiting for some differently colored

February 16, 2015. A criminal lawsuit involving Valentina Rossomagina, a manager from Hoff (a supermarket), will be heard at Yekaterinburg Verkh-Isetsky District court on February 16. The woman is charged with negligent homicide (Article 190 (part 2) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code). According to Sverdlovsk Region Court’s press service, a cupboard collapsed on a three-year-old child, who later died in hospital as a result of the injury. As it turned out, the cupboard had not been fixed to the wall.

February 16, 2015. Orenburg Airlines (a member enterprise of Aeroflot) backed out of its decision to operate flights from Yekaterinburg to London (UK), New York (USA), and Toronto (Canada), RIA Novosti refers to Rosaviation as saying. The air carrier no longer offers 24 flights altogether, including those from Moscow to Miami, Liège, and Varadero, and from Saint Petersburg to Cancun. It was announced earlier that UTair also decided not to operate any flights from Yekaterinburg to Sanya (China).

February 16, 2015. 1,008 Sverdlovsk Region-based companies and sole traders were at different stages of bankruptcy proceedings at the start of the year; this was 12% more than in early 2014, Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Tax Service reports. 817 businesses are now involved in insolvency suits and are run by trustees in bankruptcy; this number makes up 81% of all the bankruptcy cases. 180 companies and sole traders (18%) are under observation procedures, one business is undergoing a financial recovery procedure, and ten companies (1%) have been subjected to trusteeship. 95

February 16, 2014. Over 750,000 Sverdlovsk Region residents received their property ownership certificates last year, while the number of mortgage deals rose by 12%, Rosreyestr’s press service reports. Nearly 900,000 citizens applied for the certificates, and the number of those who decided to get their cadastral registration along with the ownership certificate went up by 22%. Most of the applicants are private individuals; 40% of property ownership certificates are based on a purchase and sale agreement and 11% are based on the dwellers’ privatization rights.

February 13, 2015. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is planning to retain its current production output during the next decade and therefore make some 12,000,000,000 kg of metal goods at its primary production site in Magnitogorsk. To ensure maximum output, MMK will focus on efficiency, the company’s Business Development & Management Director Maxim Lapin said at an Adam Smith Conferences media event dedicated to the CIS and Russia’s metallurgical and mining industry. ‘MMK strategy for the following decade is making sure its head plant in Magnitogorsk remains efficient, which

February 13, 2015. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is planning to retain its current production output during the next decade and therefore make some 12,000,000,000 kg of metal goods at its primary production site in Magnitogorsk. To ensure maximum output, MMK will focus on efficiency, the company’s Business Development & Management Director Maxim Lapin said at an Adam Smith Conferences media event dedicated to the CIS and Russia’s metallurgical and mining industry. ‘MMK strategy for the following decade is making sure its head plant in Magnitogorsk remains efficient, which

February 13, 2015. All the preparations for the Russian Classic hockey game that is to take place at Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant’s stadium on February 14 are complete in Nizhniy Tagil. Nizhniy Tagil’s Sputnik will play against Yuzhniy Ural from Orsk. ‘Russian Classic is more than a grand hockey match. This is a performance that is meant to show Nizhniy Tagil as a city where serious and positive changes are taking place. Nizhniy Tagil has always been keen on sports: take, for example, the successful round of the World Cup Ski Jumping Championship, as well as the upcoming hockey

February 13, 2015. LEPSE Electric Machine-Building Plant (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) launched Combomax 400, a laser welding unit. This new Russian equipment, made by Bulat, was delivered onto the plant in late 2014 as part of the company’s import replacement program, the corporation’s press service reports. The unit is meant for welding parts of electric mechanisms, eliminating the defects of castings, repairing compression molds, and for other operations where welding without thermal deformation is required. ‘Combomax 400 has a powerful laser beam source that allows

February 13, 2015. One of the world’s major pipe manufacturers, Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) bought a 100% stake in ChermetServisSnabzheniye. The transaction cost the company some 2,73bn RUR. This purchase is not going to affect the capital expenses in 2015; on the contrary, the deal is expected to reduce the CAPEX by over 34% compared with 2014, the company’s press service reports. ChermetServisSnabzheniye was set up in 2000; it is now one of the largest players on the Russian scrap ferrous metal market and keeps building up on its sales and revenues. ChermetServisSnabzheniye is TMK’s