July 2, 2013. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeniy Kuivashev approved of the main directions chosen for the development of tourism in the region through clusters. The Governor’s Information Policies Department reports that up to 60% of the Region’s area is expected to be involved in the tourism industry. At the moment, only about 20% are used, this 20% being mainly Yekaterinburg and places along Yekaterinburg-Nizhniy Tagil freeway. ‘We definitely need a totally new share of incoming tourism on the market. The Mid-Urals have every opportunity to show the entire range of tourist attractions it

July 2, 2013. Starting July 1, the rates set for six kinds of communal housing services went up by 10 to 15% on average in Sverdlovsk Region and in the rest of Russia. This increase was announced as early as last year and was explained by the necessity of the country’s socioeconomic development. In Sverdlovsk Region, the upper limit on an increase in retail prices of natural and liquefied gas and heating energy is set at 15% for private households. The water and central heating rates rose by 12% on average. In Russia on the whole, the heating and water supply rates grew by 10% on average. The

July 1, 2013. Head of Uralvagonzavod Railway Carriage Assembly Department Leonid Matveyev was elected the honorary citizen of Nizhniy Tagil. The overwhelming majority of the municipal Duma deputies voted for his candidacy, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press service reports. Leonid Matveyev was born in Serebryanka, Prigorodny District, Sverdlovsk Region, in 1951. He came to work at the corporation in 1970 and stayed with the Railway Carriage Assembly Department for over 36 years, moving from an electric welder to the head of this department that is known for the

July 1, 2013. Galatea, a first-class ballet studio at Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ, a member of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation) Palace of Culture, performed very successfully in Tidal Wave, an international children’s contest held in Tuapse. The holding’s press service reports that the little ballerinas took back home with them to the South Urals five laureates’ certificates (four first-degree ones and one second-degree one). ‘Not a single out of twenty classical dance casts (including those from Abkhazia, Ukraine, and different parts of Russia) was able to get as

July 1, 2013. Rosatom Corporation is one of the world’s nuclear technologies market leader and is currently working on a number of power-generating units for nuclear power stations in Russia and abroad, acting Designer-in-Chief of Hydropress Vladimir Piminov said at the opening of the international industrial forum Atomexpo 2013. ‘The Russian nuclear industry is one of the world’s most advanced in terms of R&D in the field of reactor and fuel design, nuclear power stations maintenance, and personnel qualifications. Our enterprises have enormous experience in solving large-scale problems,

July 1, 2013. This year, the Innoprom 2013 exhibition will serve as a venue for discussing relevant fields in which the Russian industry could develop with a number of foreign experts; the key findings of this discussion will be used for drafting a special bill on the country’s industrial policy that will be ready as soon as by the end of 2013, Russia’s Deputy Minister for Industry & Science Georgiy Kalamanov told the media at a press conference that took place in Moscow on the eve of the Inventor & Innovator’s Day. 510 companies from 70 different countries will join the 4th

July 1, 2013. 37,501 new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles were sold in Yekaterinburg in January-May 2013, which was 5%, or 1,814 cars less than in the first five months of 2012. According to Auto-Dealer-Yekaterinburg, 7,923 cars were sold in the city in May 2013, which was 14%, or 1,246 cars less than a year earlier. This is the greatest drop in sales over the course of one month after the peak of the recession passed in 2009. Lada was still the best-selling car on Yekaterinburg market in the five months of this year. As for the foreign cars, the top three are KIA, Hyundai, and –

June 27, 2013. Ural Airlines is now converting to Amadeus, a modern online check-in system that will first be introduced for some of the flights that depart from Yekaterinburg and will later on be launched for all of the company’s other flights, the airline’s press service reports. Very soon, Ural Airlines Yekaterinburg passengers will be able to enjoy the benefits of Amadeus online check-in system. The check-in process will get faster and easier and will thus save one’s time, while the updated user interface will make every check-in step effortless. The boarding card will be new, too: all

June 27, 2013. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) is going to pay a dividend of 2.194bn RUR for the year 2012. According to the company’s press service, this was the decision taken at the annual general meeting in Moscow. Besides, the meeting resulted in the approval of the annual report and of the annual accounting report for 2012.

June 27, 2013. The net profit of Yekaterinburg Electrical Grid Company came to 388.13m RUR in 2012. Most of this money (372.14m RUR) will be directed to investment, 15.98m RUR will be used to pay dividend. These decisions were made at the annual general meeting, where a new BOD comprising 9 members was also selected, the company’s press service reports. The AGM was held by Yekaterinburg Electrical Grid Company on June 21, 2013; the points on the agenda covered issues relating to profit distribution, the payment of dividends, selecting the new Board of Directors and the audit team, and

June 27, 2013. According to a recent market research called the Russian Freights Market: Current State of Affairs and Forecasts, slightly less than a half of the country’s fleet of freight cars was made up of gondola cars in January 2013, and out of these gondola cars, more than 25% were past their lifespan limits, RBC reports. Then, 24% of the freight cars pool was made up of tankers and over 16% was made up of platforms and covered trucks. As of January 2013, First Freight Company was Russia’s largest freight cars operator: it is using slightly more than 15% of the country’s fleet of

June 27, 2013. There will be fewer non-industrial companies featured at the International Exhibition Innoprom 2013, Formica State Corporation’s PR Director Anton Attrashkin said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. However, Forimica’s DG Maxim Zverkov explained that the international exhibition was still open for all kinds of exhibitors. ‘Anyone who is willing to do so can take part in the exhibition. The thing is, non-industrial companies drop out naturally because the event does not involve their target audience, so there soon will be no medical enterprises at Innoprom,’ Zverkov said.

June 26, 2013. Three B-11 bulldozers made by ChTZ-Uraltrac (a member of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation) arrived in the village of Ust-Neira in the east of Yakutia. According to the corporation’s press service, it took the bulldozers two and a half months to travel from Chelyabinsk to Oimyakon District through Magadan, where the company’s local service center is located. ‘Poisk Prospectors’ Crew selected a new make of the tractor with the final reduction gear and hydromechanical transmission. What is more, the machines have the Webasto pre-heater and double glazing of

June 26, 2013. ChTPZ Group intends to take part in the Job Counseling Day during the Innoprom 2013 exhibition, the company’s press service says. This year, the group is going to present its business, society, and army cooperation project at the exhibition; this will be a part of a multi-faceted new-generation employee training program. More than 50 volunteers, including people from the Group’s White Metallurgy division, ChTPZ Educational Center students, and the first alumni of the Future of White Metallurgy Program who have served their term in the army, will take part in the event.

June 26, 2013. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) and Gazprom Neft signed a joint scientific and technological cooperation program for 2013-2015. The program aims to provide the oil company with highly competitive, home-produced pipe products with enhanced technological and economic properties, TMK press service reports. TMK has been cooperating with Gazprom Neft for a long time by supplying pipe casing, pipeline components, and oil well tubing for oil production and transportation, including pipes with premium thread joints. The two parties’ further cooperation that was reflected in the

June 26, 2013. In 2012, the average salary in Yekaterinburg came to over 33,000 RUR a month, which was 22% better than in Russia on average, Head of Yekaterinburg Administration Alexander Yakob said at Yekaterinburg Duma meeting recently. He explained that the unemployment rate registered in Yekaterinburg in late 2012 – 0.49% - was the lowest within the last 18 years, while the large and medium enterprises industrial production index stood at 115%, which was 11% better than in Russia on average and 4% better than in Sverdlovsk Region on average. ‘The Urals’ capital is traditionally No.1 among

June 26, 2013. UC RUSAL is going to reduce aluminum production at Bogoslovsky smelter down to 25,000 tons a year, with only Section 6 in operation. The company expects to produce 300,000 tons less of aluminum altogether this year than last year, which has to do with unfavorable market opportunities, RUSAL First Deputy DG Vladislav Soloviev said in his interview to Prime Agency. ‘The matters are quite settled with Bogoslovsky - we will buy Bogoslovsky heat & power station and will only leave Section 6 in operation, which will produce about 25,000 tons of metal,’ the top manager replied to

June 25, 2013. The start-up and commissioning of two new MaXXturn 65 SMY Emco Maier program-controlled turning and machining units is about to be completed at Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant. The Austria-manufactured units were purchased within the framework of the National Special Purpose Defense Sector Development Program for 2013-2020 and cost more than 34m RUR to get, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press service reports. Under the preliminary estimates, the two new units could replace at least ten old single-spindle machines. The advantages of the new

June 25, 2013. Head of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation Oleg Sienko said he was willing to support India in expanding and upgrading its railway network. This was said on the first day of Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum during the Russia-India Business Conference attended by Russia’s Industry & Trade Minister Denis Manturov and India’s Minister for Industry & Trade Anand Sharma, the corporation’s press service says. It was reported that the two countries’ cooperation was a partnership on preferential terms, based on close and multi-faceted trade and

June 25, 2013. Lyudinovsky Locomotive Plant (LTZ, a member of Sinara Transport Machines) got a compliance certificate from the Federal Railway Transport Certification Register. Its TEM14 loco’s design documentation was classed O1, which means the company can now produce a pilot batch of locos. After the first stage of TEM14 loco certification had been completed, LTZ got down to getting the certificate allowing it to make a pilot batch, Sinara Group’s PR Center says. The two-diesel TEM14 locomotive was designed by Sinara Transport Machines Innovational Development Center by the order of