UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 30, 2019. OOO FORES’s Asbest branch is working to upgrade the plant’s dust-exhaust facilities. According to the company’s press service, the introduction of extra cyclone dust collectors and three sock filters on the rotary drum dryer will make the entire appliance’s performance much more reliable. The addition of a second stage to the de-dusting process and the expansion of filtering facilities helped reduce the filters’ overall workload and provided the necessary reserve. What is more, there’s now considerably less dust at workplaces,’ says Director at OOO FORES’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 29, 2019. OOO FORES intends to direct RUB 100m to job safety and industrial safety projects this year; this is part of the company’s Collective Agreement. Besides, more than RUB 4.6m will get allocated for employee healthcare programs (more than RUB 6m if you account for preliminary checkups and examinations by psychiatrists), the company’s press service reports. Nearly 150 people working for FORES, including 44 employees approaching retirement age, will be able to stay at three local sanatoriums this year. Preretirement-age employees get catered for in accordance

UrBC, Moscow, July 29, 2019. On 26 July 2019, the Bank of Russia Board of Directors decided to cut the key rate by 25 bp to 7.25% per annum. Inflation slowdown is continuing. At the same time, inflation expectations remain elevated. Russian economy’s growth rate is coming in lower than the Bank of Russia’s expectations. Weak economic activity, along with temporary factors, limits inflation risks over the short-term horizon. According to the Bank of Russia’s forecast, taking into account the pursued monetary policy, annual inflation will return to 4% in early 2020,’ the recent press release on

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 29, 2019. There were 612 travel agents in Sverdlovsk Region last year, including 35 companies also acting as tour operators (5.7%) and 6 companies acting solely as tour operators (1%), Sverdlovskstat reports. 170,700 package tours got sold to Sverdlovsk Region-based customers in 2018 (total value: RUB 13.8bn), which was 11.1% less than one year previously. The mean price of a package tour came to RUB 80,700 (up 11% against the year 2017). Russian nationals purchased 117,100 international tours from the local agents last year (compared with 139,200 tours in 2017);

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, July 29, 2019. Chelyabinsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service is currently looking into a complaint placed by a local resident regarding the growing retail bread and pastry prices on offer at Pyaterochka and Magnit supermarket chains, the division’s press service reports. Now the prices are rising for the bread made by AO Pervy Khlebokombinat, which holds a 50% share of Chelyabinsk Region’s wholesale bread market. According to the information the FAS’s Chelyabinsk Region division obtained in December 2018, the manufacturer was going to increase its

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 25, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) heavy-plate Mill 5000 got launched ten years ago this month. The mill has produced more than 10,000,000,000 kg of hot-rolled goods since then, MMK’s Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. Russian President Vladimir Putin contributed to the mill’s solemn launching ceremony back then. Putin spoke very appreciatively of the mill which proved one of MMK’s largest investment projects in decades and aimed to meet the Russian oil and gas sector’s needs first. Putin congratulated the plant’s owners,

UrBC, Moscow, July 25, 2019. 91.12% of voters agreed to the sale of Reftinskaya Power Station to Siberian Generation Company’s KuzbassEnergo for at least RUB 21bn (VAT not included) at Enel Russia’s extraordinary general meeting this month, the company’s press service reports. ‘The subject matter relating to the sale of Reftinskaya Power Station comprises movable and immovable assets, coal/raw stuff stock, and spare parts. The transfer of ownership to KuzbassEnergo must occur within eighteen months of the purchase and sale transaction coming into effect, provided that the transaction has

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 25, 2019. Russians living in Sverdlovsk Region consume 30% more meat than the annual amount recommended by the health authorities, head of Yekaterinburg Medical & Research Center for Disease Prevention and Healthcare for Industrial Workers’ Food Hygiene & Produce Quality/Food Safety Department Tatiana Mazhayeva said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. While the recommended amount comes to 73 kg of meat a year, a Sverdlovsk Region resident living in the city consumes 78 kg of meat a year and someone living in Sverdlovsk Region’s countryside consumes 88 kg

UrBC, Moscow, July 25, 2019. Winners of the company’s Labor Dynasty Contest got selected at ChelPipe Group’s member enterprises, the Group’s press service reports. ‘Eligible to apply for the completion are families with a hundred years or more of accumulated work record at the Group’s member enterprises Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe) and/or Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ). This year, five families submitted their applications, describing their achievements and providing presentations that got assessed by a panel of jurors (including the company’s managers, trade union officials,

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 25, 2019. The environmental program adopted by Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) helped improve the quality of air in Magnitogorsk greatly, MMK’s Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. ‘Magnitogorsk got taken off the list of Russian cities with extremely high air pollution rate in 2018, a report by the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Rosgidromet) states. Thanks to MMK’s large-scale environmental program, the town’s air pollution index will drop down to Low by 2025,’ the company says. Now Magnitogorsk got taken

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 24, 2019. China’s Consul-General in Yekaterinburg Geng Liping’s term in office has come to an end, so the official is leaving after nearly three years at the consulate, Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department reports. During her last work meeting with Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev, Liping commented on the highly professional interregional dialogue Sverdlovsk Region and China managed to establish; she also stressed that she personally liked the area very much. According to Liping, she found working in the Urals very comfortable and very

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 24, 2019. The asking prices on Yekaterinburg’s existing home market currently come to RUB 72,611 per m2 on average, Ural Real Estate Chamber’s research indicates. The mean asking price rose by 0.2% in the last four weeks. ‘The number of homes on offer has remained almost the same as earlier and now comes to 8,870 apartments/rooms/houses. The number of homes in the suburbs/countryside dropped by 1.2%. The number of rooms on offer at the moment rose by 0.3%. It now takes slightly longer than earlier to sell a place (a little over four moths),’ the report states.

UrBC, Moscow, July 24, 2019. The most typical pay a worker in Russia gets is RUB 23,500 a month as of April 2019, Izvestia reports. This is the so-called modal income (i.e. the one that occurs most often) for Russians in the workforce. 15% to 20% of all Russia-based workers in gainful employment made this much in April 2019. Most of the experts the newspaper turned to for comment agree that this is the figure that reflects the people’s actual income levels best (unlike the mean income figures that the government officials like so much: RUB 47,700 in April 2019, according to the Federal State

UrBC, Moscow, July 24, 2019. Russia’s migrant inflow reached a ten-year high in January-April 2019 and came to 98,000 people altogether. This looks anomalous, RIA Novosti refers to the Gaidar Institute and RANEPA’s report on the economic situation in Russia as indicating. According to the report, the net migration figures soared from 57,100 people in January-April 2018 to as many as 98,000 people in January-April 2019. All in all, 281,600 people came to Russia in January-April 2019, whereas only 177,300 people did so one year earlier. The number of people leaving the country has remained

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, July 24, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) held its fourth annual Supplier of The Year 2018 Contest this month; the goal is to acknowledge and encourage suppliers’ work and help them keep improving, the company’s press service says. MMK’s Director-General Pavel Shilyayev took part in the awarding ceremony at MMK’s Conference Hall. ‘Awarding the company’s best suppliers around Metallurgist’s Day has grown into a great tradition. We are working with more than 1,100 suppliers at the moment. A functional relationship with its suppliers is one of the key factors in

UrBC, Moscow, July 23, 2019. Western Union now limits the amount of money you can send from Russia to any country other than China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, or Vietnam to RUB 600,000 within thirty days in a row, RIA Novosti refers to the service’s contact center as stating. This is not the first time a limit on money transfers has been introduced within Western Union. Starting April 16, you can send no more than RUB 100,000 per transaction (within thirty days in a row) to China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, or Vietnam. The company representative explained back then the steps had been taken in order

UrBC, Moscow, July 23, 2019. There were 3,376 official auto dealers for light passenger vehicles operating in Russia as of mid-July, Autostat’s recent research findings indicate. The number of Russian auto dealers dropped by 74 in the last six months, as there were as many as 3,450 companies on the market in January 2019. The decrease has to do with the fact that 239 new dealer contracts were signed/renewed and 313 contracts got cancelled, Autostat explains.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 23, 2019. An average consumer loan issued on Sverdlovsk Region’s banking market reached RUB 190,953 on average in the second quarter of 2019, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 2.3%, the National Credit History Bureau’s research findings indicate. In Russia on the whole, the largest consumer loans got issued in Moscow (RUB 422,000 on average), Moscow Region (RUB 306,300), Saint Petersburg (RUB 297,300), Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region (RUB 276,000), and Leningrad Region (RUB 220,300) in the second quarter of 2019.

UrBC, Moscow, July 23, 2019. Not a single pond, lake, or river in Sverdlovsk Region meets the current sanitary standards, which makes swimming in those unsafe, TASS refers to Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor’s press service as stating on Friday. According to the press service, a pond, a lake, or a river must get certified by the sanitary and epidemiological authorities in order to get declared suitable for swimming and bathing in; also, the employee in charge of a particular water reservoir must do lab tests of the water samples on a regular basis. There are only two reservoirs

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 23, 2019. The new Sintering Plant 5 (estimated capacity: up to 5.5m tons a year) got launched at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) this month. Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the launching ceremony. According to the company’s press service, this plant is currently unique to Russia. The new sintering plant has the most advanced equipment and the latest technologies available to date and produces very high quality sinter. The launch of the new facility is expected to reduce the plant’s environmental impact considerably and ensure a dramatic improvement