December 26, 2013. The passenger turnover of Koltsovo Airport is going to rise by 20% by the end of 2013, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeniy Kuivashev said at a press conference when commenting on the fact that Lufthansa is no longer offering flights to Yekaterinburg. ‘This is the company’s internal policy that keeps cutting back on the number of flights to all destinations by 15% to 20%. This will by no means affect the image of the city and the area, but this will affect the image of the airline itself,’ Kuivashev said. According to the Governor, while Lufthansa is leaving Koltsovo

December 26, 2013. Uralvagonzavod signed a protocol of intentions with Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), a major producer of diesel electric locomotives, in order to look into the promising directions of developing and making main haulage locomotives in Russia, the plant’s press service reports. According to this protocol, the two companies expect to have demonstration models in Russia in 2014 so that some operation and certification tests could be carried out next year. Besides, the protocol offers to consider the possibility of setting up a joint engineering center to design a main haulage

December 26, 2013. Seversky Pipe Plant (STZ, a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK)), celebrated one of the most important dates in the history of the company. Fifty years ago, the first pipe was produced at Seversky Metallurgical Plant, and the company soon changed its specialization and its name to Seversky Pipe Plant, the enterprise’s press service reports. Most of the festivities took place at the electric pipe welding department 2 on December 20, where a solemn ceremony of welding the 22,000,000th ton of pipes took place. Deputy DG and TMK Chief Engineer Alexander Klachkov, STZ

December 25, 2013. Head of Yekaterinburg Council Alexander Yakob feels that the city gained some useful experience from competing for the right to host the World Universal Exhibition EXPO 2020, he said at a press conference on December 24. 'First, Yekaterinburg outstripped all the other candidates among other Russian cities. The application campaign was a very high quality one. Not only the BIE members but also many countries of the world on all the continents got to know about Yekaterinburg,' Yakob said. The head of the city council believes that taking part in the EXPO 2020

December 25, 2013. Ural Airlines was awarded with a thank-you letter from the Governor and Sverdlovsk Region Government for its significant contribution to the charity work in the area. For one, the local authorities commented on the airline's great corporate social responsibility and offering tangible help to those in need throughout the year 2013, the air carrier's press service reports. Ural Airlines have received numerous government awards for its charity efforts before. In the ten months of 2013, the airlines spent over 5m RUR on sponsorship and charity projects. Ural Airlines

December 25, 2013. 85,685 new passenger vehicles were sold in Yekaterinburg in January-November 2013, which was 8%, or 5,956 cars less than a year earlier, Auto-Dealer-Yekaterinburg reports. In November, 8,187 automobiles were sold on Yekaterinburg market, which was 2%, or 156 automobiles more than in November 2012. The last time the local car market increased within the course of one month was in February 2013. After this, sales kept gradually going down for eight months in a row. 'More than 93,000 cars will have been sold in Yekaterinburg by the end of the year, and the dip in sales

December 25, 2013. The retail goods turnover in Yekaterinburg could reach some 670-680bn RUR by the end of 2013, Head of Yekaterinburg Council Alexander Yakob said at a press conference. 'The figure came to 611bn RUR in the eleven months of 2013, but December, especially its second half, is always the high shopping season, so we expect the turnover to reach the said level,' the official explained. He also said that the turnover in the processing industry sector rose by 12% in the ten months of 2013, as about 40% of Yekaterinburg's industrial enterprises are machine-building

December 25, 2013. Capital investments in Yekaterinburg businesses totaled in 72bn RUR in nine months of 2013, Head of Yekaterinburg Council Alexander Yakob said at a press conference. 'The figure was 131bn RUR at the end of 2012, and this was actually number one among all the Russian cities. I hope that we will exceed this figure by the end of this year,' Yakob said.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 24, 2013. A new site of Kamensk-Uralsky Foundry Plant (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation) was launched recently, the company’s press service reports. The website, located at www.kulz.ru, complies with the corporation’s company style and presents the plant as an enterprise producing goods that are currently unique to the Russian machine-building industry. Primarily, these are goods for the military and civil aviation sector. The web resource can boast a stylish, modern design, a thought-through structure, and convenient

December 24, 2013. The top members of Sverdlovsk Region Defense Enterprises Union and of Sverdlovsk Region division of the All-Russian Union of Russian Machine-Builders met at UEKhK (a member enterprise of Rosatom’s Fuel Company TVEL) in Novouralsk on Deceber 19, the company’s press service reports. The meeting attendees spoke about the opportunities for cooperating with Novouralsk Industrial Cluster member enterprises and looked at the produce of member companies of the Association of Nuclear Industry Enterprises - UEKhK, AMK UEKhK, Uralpribor, NNKTs, Ural Plant of Gas Centrifuges, and

December 24, 2013. A demonstration run of a new generation of trams designed by Uraltransmash took place within the framework of a cooperation agreement signed by Uraltransmash and Yekaterinburg Council; the agreement provides for a number of measures to improve the servicing and maintenance of the Mid-Urals’ capital’s public transport system, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. The representatives of Sverdlovsk Region Government, Yekaterinburg Council, Renova StroyGroup, Academic District, and the media were shown the samples of Russia’s first three-section, fully low-floor

December 24, 2013. Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company got a certificate that proves the company’s quality management system complies with the international ISO 9001:2008 standard on December 20, 2013, the company’ press service reports. The certificate was issued after the electrical network company had been inspected by a board of external auditors from an independent certification authority. For one, the auditors looked into all the procedures relating to the technological hookup and came to the conclusion that these procedures meet the legal requirements and the company’s internal

December 24, 2013. In the nine months of 2013, Mechel’s net loss amounted to #2.2bn RUR, which was 4.1 times more than a year earlier ($550.094m), the company’s report states. This figure was actually quite less than what the analysts had predicted – they thought the net loss would come to $597.167m. ‘The company has lived through this year under the unchanging unfavorable sales market situation, which affected its basic financial performance indicators considerably. Successful negotiations were held with the creditor banks for a break until the end of 2014. A lot of non-core assets have also

December 23, 2013. Deputy Heads of Yekaterinburg Administration Evgeniy Lipovitch and Alexander Vysokinsky looked at the new makes of tramways on Friday, December 20. According to Yekaterinburg Administration’s press service, the two officials took a ride on Russia’s first low-floor tram and also tested the carriages that are powered by accumulators. Both samples were assembled at Uraltransmash (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation). According to the plant’s Chief Civil Goods Designer Vladimir Soloviev, the accumulator-powered trams can run for about 70km in the summer and for

December 23, 2013. MegaFon is Russia’s first mobile carrier to launch 4G network in Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region. Now the residents of Nizhnevartovsk and Nefteyugansk can enjoy access to fast mobile Internet with the speed of up to 50 Mb/sec (and up to 150 Mb/sec in the future), the company’s press service says. ‘Mobile Internet is a very popular service with Yugra residents. The volume of Internet traffic in the area exceeded 4m gigabytes in this year alone. We are now offering our customers a new technology – high-speed mobile 4G Internet connection by MegaFon that is available to

December 23, 2013. RBC.Rating came up with a rating of non-Moscow Russian banks as of October 1, 2013. VUZ-Bank was given a rather good 72nd position in the rating. The volume of banks’ net assets was the primary criterion for assessment, the bank reports. The final list comprised 402 lending institutions registered outside Moscow. The banks with HQ in Saint Petersburg were not excluded from the rating. The total net assets of all the non-Moscow banks stood at nearly 5.8 trillion RUR as of October 1, 2013. The federal constituencies with the largest number of banks and greatest net asset

December 23, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region Economics Ministry announced a tender for the organization of the international exhibition Innoprom; the sum of the contract comes to up to 300m RUR. The winner will be given the right to coordinate the event for three years in a row, whereas the tender only used to be good for one year before. The order for the coordination and implementation of the event is placed on the government purchases website. According to the order specifications, the contractor will have to devise a long-term concept for the exhibition that will include the theme of the event,

December 23, 2013. Starting January 1, 2014, the Federal Act 44-FZ on Contract System in the Field of Government & Municipal Purchases of Goods, Work, and Services dated April 5, 2013 will come into effect. The new law sets out a single standard for such civil law contracts. Under the legislation, online trade operators will be allowed to open accounts to control the money coming in from the purchasers in the form of security, but these accounts will have to be opened with the certain financially stable banks whose list must be confirmed by the Russian Federation Government, SKB-Bank’s

December 20, 2013. Industrial production output in Yekaterinburg grew by 12.6% in the ten months of 2013. According to the spokesperson for the city council, the industrial production index was 109.2% over the same time period. 'Today's Yekaterinburg is a multi-functional center. Most of the socioeconomic development indicators of the Urals' capital keep on improving. The high industrial growth rate makes a positive impact on the salaries and wages – the median figure now comes to nearly 36,000 RUR,' the message states.

December 20, 2013. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ, a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) was declared the winner of the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Prize for Energy Saving in 2013; the plant won in the category denominated as Mining & Metallurgical Facility Organization, the plant's press service reports. In 2013, PNTZ carried out a set of measures that saved the company 80m RUR. For one, the lighting in the four departments was replaced with the more modern kind, an automatic control system was launched at the compressor plant of the gas department, and a filtering facility was