December 4, 2013. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ, a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) and Pervouralsk Palace of New Culture completed their joint project of the Fall 2013/Winter 2014 season with a presentation of a film called City Code. Pervouralsk, the company’s press service reports. City Code is an interactive project on Pervouralsk in the web documentary genre. The filming crew comprises both the locals and guest Russian experts; together, they created an emotionally loaded video portrait featuring Pervouralsk artists and musicians, sports players, firefighters, gorodki players, and

December 4, 2013. The 15th coordination council of ChTPZ Group and Severstal took place at CherMK, with both parties signing a strategic cooperation agreement valid through 2015, ChTPZ Group’s press service reports. The partners agreed to develop their relationship whose strategic aim is to provide ChTPZ Group with Severstal’s great quality produce for manufacturing pipes. A technical cooperation program is being devised, to cover all the technical issues with help from specialized organizations and research institutes. ChTPZ and Severstal are currently working on a joint cross-functional

December 4, 2013. In 2013, Siberian-Ural Aluminum Company (SUAL) had to pay 957,000 RUR in compensation to workers suffering from occupational health damage, Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Service of Court Officers reports. For one, two of SUAL’s former employees sued the company in order to get compensated for the moral damage caused by occupational diseases acquired in the course of working at the enterprise. The plaintiffs used to work at the electrolysis department as a caster of non-ferrous metals and as a pot operator for fused salts. The two men developed occupational

December 3, 2013. The Director-General of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation won the End-of-Year Results in the Urals & Siberia Prize in the category called Lobbyist of the Year. The holding itself won in the category called Information Policy of the Year, the corporation’s press service reports. The End-of-Year Results in the Urals & Siberia Prize ceremony took place for the eighth time this year, with prizes awarded in 23 categories. Just like in the previous years, the winners were selected among politicians, businesspeople, and public figures who made the most

December 3, 2013. Despite not winning the right to host the World Exhibition EXPO 2020, Yekaterinburg got an unprecedented recognition and awareness boost that could yield some economic dividends in the future, former mayor of Yekaterinburg and member of the Soviet of the Federation Arkady Chernetsky said at a press conference. ‘The promotion of Yekaterinburg that took place could happen under no other circumstances whatsoever. The city became dramatically better known in terms of activating business ties and promising commercial contacts,’ Chernetsky said. The former mayor reminded those

December 3, 2013. A new street art project called Two Beginnings by one of Russia’s best known street artists Slava PTRK can now be seen on Yekaterinburg streets. The thing is located at the intersection of Malyshev St and Khokhryakov St. Two portraits, one of a man and one of a young woman, are placed in the window openings of a building. ‘The idea of cutting the portrait in two pieces with the help of strings attached to the wall could not be fully implemented in my first work, so I decided to give it another try. This time, we have a young man and a young woman rather than an old man and a

December 3, 2013. In January-September 2013, all of Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprises’ capital investments amounted to 190.7bn RUR, or 94.2% of the amount invested in January-September 2012 in comparable prices. 77.4% of investments were made by large and medium enterprises (with the money invested by the participatory share construction project participants accounted for), which amounted to 147.6bn RUR, Sverdlovsk Region Economics Ministry reports. In terms of economic sectors, investments were mainly directed to the production sector and to the electric power, natural gas, and water

December 3, 2013. Transport Machine-Building Design Office (KBTM, the Omsk-based member of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) is now launching lean production. According to the corporation’s press service, this cuts down on the number of stages in the production process, reduces order completion terms, enhances the quality of produce, and increases labor productivity, which in the end impacts the company’s competitiveness and profitability. ‘The introduction of lean production at KBTM had to do with the management’s wish to enhance the enterprise’s efficiency. The system is mainly directed at

December 2, 2013. Yekaterinburg catering market turnover came to 23.7bn RUR in the three quarters of 2013, Yekaterinburg Administration’s press service reports. The city’s commodities market committee says that the locals’ appetite and pickiness have grown bigger this year compared with last year, so the cafes and restaurants’ turnover increased by 8.6% in comparable prices (with inflation accounted for). 58 new cafes and restaurants fit for a total of 3,870 people were commissioned in Yekaterinburg in January-September 2013 within the framework of a strategic project called Cuisine for Every

December 2, 2013. Pervorualsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ, a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) shipped its first set of casing pipes with the self-lubricating fluoride polymeric coating of the collar thread called MAOK-PLAUN to Bashneft. The new coating has a range of anti-scratching and sealing properties. The total shipment volume is 1,039,000 kg, the company’s press service reports. ‘The order was not an easy one in terms of logistics and dealing with external partners. PNTZ collars were sent to Taganrog-based Polymer-Service, which specializes in MAOK-PLAUN coating. The collars were then

December 2, 2013. Ural Airlines are planning to introduce an additional slot for its Nizhniy Novgorod-Prague flights. Starting from March 19, 2014, the residents of Nizhniy Novgorod will be able to travel to Prague twice more often than before, that is, every Wednesday and Saturday, the airline’s press service reports. ‘This city has over 500 spires and towers soaring up in the sky – the mediaeval castles, the legendary fortresses, the unique cathedral, and the old churches. This is a city of hundreds and even thousands of histories, each of them living a life of its own in the narrow winding

December 2, 2013. Perm’s public prosecution authorities for transportation took measures against the owner of high-rise buildings that did not take proper care to ensure the safety of flights. The press service of Ural public prosecution authorities for transportation reports it has been detected that a power station and a number of metallic supports for the electric mains are located on the premises of Perm Airport. The facilities belong to MRSK Urala and violate the existing air code in that they have no daytime marking or warning lights on them, which might jeopardize the safety of flights

December 2, 2013. The employees of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation took part in the 1st All-Russian Blue-Collar Youth Forum in Chelyabinsk that gathered together over 400 representatives of various Russian enterprises. According to the corporation’s press service, the holding employees won in professional skills contests that were held during the forum. The event was coordinated by the Federal Youth Policies Agency, Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Igor Kholmanskikh, and Chelyabinsk Region Government. The main idea

November 29, 2013. This year, the supply of available office space tended to decrease, while the rent growth slowed down. According to experts from Ural Chamber of Real Estate's Analytical Departments, the overall macroeconomic situation, which is anything but favorable, was the primary reason for this. The amount of new office space getting commissioned has been on the decrease. Whereas some 240,000 sq m of office space were commissioned in the last two years (mainly the business centers that were started even prior to the outbreak of the recession), only 33,000 sq m were commissioned

November 20, 2013. The Expert-Ural magazine carried a rating of the Urals and West Siberia-based companies that were most actively engaged in innovative activity in 2012. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) proved the most active among all the metallurgical companies in this territories. The rating was based on the data from the annual accounting reports published on the companies' official websites and in the information/analytical system SPARK. Geographically, the scope of the rating covered Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk Region, Orenburg Region, Tyumen Region (including

November 29, 2013. Students of ChTPZ Group's company education program called 'The Future of White Metallurgy' attended a series of lectures on modern technological art; this was part of the third session of Science Art Lab. The project is being implemented by Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ, a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) in cooperation with Pervouralsk Palace of New Culture and with some support from the Russian Ministry of Culture, ChTPZ Group's press service says. Professor Dmitri Bulatov, the leading expert of Baltic Federal University's Innovations Park in

November 28, 2013. Yekaterinburg bookmakers did not prove interested in the city competing for the right to host the World Exhibition EXPO 2020. Today is the day when the hosting city for the event in 2020 will be announced in Paris, and no stakes can be made on Yekaterinburg winning or losing. This might have to do with the fact that the locals are not very interested in the exhibition themselves. One of the local bookmakers said Yekaterinburg residents used to be offered to make their stakes on important social or political events, but people expressed no interest whatsoever. This is why

November 28, 2013. ChTZ-Uraltrac (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod) is going to ship 3 DET 400 bulldozers to Cherepetskaya Power Station. The bulldozers will be used in putting up a new power generating unit and will also be operated at the station’s coal yard to transport coal, the corporation’s press service reports. The warranty set of spare parts for the bulldozers will be delivered onto the nearest technical warehouse that belongs to the plant, which is in Moscow, so that the necessary parts could be delivered to the customers as soon as possible if necessary. To launch the

November 28, 2013. Ford Motor announced that it was calling off more than 160,000 Escape units due to frequent cases of engine inflammation, RIA Novosti reports. The process will involve cars with 1.6 liter engine assembled in 2013 and sold on the North American market. The company explains the problem is that the cylinder heads turned out not to be strong enough. This part of the engine was destroyed during operation, which resulted in some oil getting into the engine and caused inflammation. The company reports that 13 such cases have been registered. In addition to the calling-off, the

November 28, 2013. The supply of office space in Yekaterinburg is 3.5 times behind Moscow’s, the analysts from Jones Lang LaSalle found out in the course of their comparative analysis of office space in non-capital cities of Russia. ‘The supply and demand in the office space segment usually reflect the pace of a city’s economic development, which, in its turn, affects the scale at which different businesses prefer to penetrate the market and therefore to become the potential tenants on the local market. Moscow is definitely Russia’s leading and largest office space market, which nearly 1.3 sq