The turnover of goods between Sverdlovsk Region and the Ukraine exceeded the pre-recession level, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s press service reports. A group of region’s delegates, headed by First Deputy Head of Government Vladimir Vlasov took part in the events dedicated to the Ukraine’s Independence Day. The agenda of the visit comprised the delegates’ meeting with Chairman of Vinnitsa Region State Administration. The trade figures exceeded those of the pre-recession era and rose from $580.8m in 2008 to $684m in 2011. Last year, Ukraine was Sverdlovsk Region’s 5th largest foreign trade

On August 23, OAO Gazprombank raised its share in VSMPO-Avisma Corporation from 7.02% to 13.2% or from 809,870 votes to 1,521,870 votes. Now on August 15, 2012, Gazprombank raised its share in the corporation’s authorized capital from 2.69% to 7.02% or from 309,870 votes to 809,870 votes, Gazprombank’s website reports.

Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company transmitted 3.189bn kilowatt-hours worth of electric power in the seven months of 2012. A year earlier, the figure came to 3.105bn kilowatt-hours, the company’s press service reports. The increase in the amount of electric power transmitted through the company’s network was registered as early as the start of the year. Over the following seven months, the volume of transmitted electric power rose by 2.7% against the seven months of the previous year. ‘The increase in the amount of electric power supplied to consumers has to do with the dynamic

Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation completed the first stage of upgrading its unique sheet-metal press. About 40% of all the jobs have been done by now. The press is meant for making the bottom parts of all the cisterns the company produces. This machine is the only such piece of equipment in Russia, Uralvagonzavod’s press service reports. The upgrades touched upon the entire control system. The old hydraulic system has been replaced with the newly designed system with the control valves for the basic mechanisms of the press. The processes responsible for the safe

Banki.ru’s information & analytics department came up with a rating of banks based on their retail lending portfolio volume as of August 1, 2012. The rating offers data on 949 banks, most of which improved their financial performance indicators over the given period, VUZ-Bank reports. In terms of its retail lending portfolio volume, VUZ-Bank was one of the Top100 in the ranking and was given the 84th position. As of August 1, 2012, its consumer loans portfolio exceeded 6.4bn RUR. According to the data provided by the analysts, the bank’s retail portfolio rose by 3.8% in July. Now

In the first half of 2012, the Russian companies’ balance came to +3865.3bn RUR in current prices: 40,000 organizations made a profit amounting to 4571.5bn RUR, 18,000 organizations made a loss amounting to 706.2bn RUR. In the first half of 2011, the balance (for the comparable range of companies) came to +4060.8bn RUR, Rosstat reports. According to the available data, in the first half of 2012, the share of loss-making organizations went down by 3.7% against a year earlier and came to 31%. The companies’ balance rose in the agricultural sector, the fishing industry, the railway transport

Sverdlovsk Region Government is going to insist on keeping the electrolysis facilities at Bogoslovsky Smelter (BAZ), Head of Government Denis Pasler announced today. ‘Since the first day of negotiations and up to now, Sverdlovsk Region Government has insisted on keeping the electrolysis production at BAZ. In case the liquidation cannot be avoided, RUSAL management has been asked to find jobs for the aluminum production facilities personnel, and the company promised to do so. RUSAL is, after all, a large holding that works in many other directions besides aluminum. We suggest considering the

Sinara Pipe Plant, a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) coordinated a professional competence contest among the company’s young foremen. This was done within the framework of a multi-faceted personnel involvement program and the Youth Project, TMK’s press service reports. The board of jurors comprised some representatives of the HR Department, the Personnel Training & Development Center, and the plant’s trade union committee. Ten finalists, all of them in the under-35 age group and winners of the department-level contests, took part in the final stage of the competition. First,

The share price of Samsung Corporation, which lost a patent case to the American company Apple in California Federal Court on Friday, August 24, decreased by 6.9% during Monday trading in Seoul, RIA Novosti reports. The court declared Samsung guilty of violating Apple’s patent rights and made the offender pay its rival $1.05bn. Samsung representatives announced earlier that they would appeal against this ruling.

The Educational Services Consumers’ Rights Protection Society found some violations of the law in the way B.N. Yeltsin Ural Federal University carried out this summer’s student enrollment campaign. The public prosecution authorities and the educational watchdog Rosobrnadzor will look into the Society’s claims, Kommersant reports. The Society’s head Viktor Panin said in his annual report that a lot of violations had been revealed on the part of colleges in the last enrollment campaign. ‘The enrollment committees admitted candidates with poor Russian State Exam scores and not those with greater

The agenda of the third day of the 7th International Russian Defense Expo 2012 opened with the awarding ceremony where Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) Scientific Production Corporation’s workers were given thank-you letters signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. 19 employees were also given Honorary Awards for their proactive position in life and for setting up the Protection of the Man of Labor Movement. The awards were given out by Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Igor Kholmanskikh, the company’s press service reports. ‘For over 70 years,

In the seven months of 2012, transport tax payments decreased by 2.8 times, or by 1,683.8m RUR and came to 944m RUR in Sverdlovsk Region. These data are available from the report provided by Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service to the region’s Legislative Assembly deputies and uploaded on deputy Andrei Alshevskikh’s blog. ‘The decrease in the payments has to do with the changes in the tax legislation relating to the deadlines set for private individuals to pay their transport taxes,’ the tax authorities report. Under the new version of the law, the Russian Federation

Sverdlovsk Region was not on the list of Russian constituencies that would get subsidies within the framework of the federal Housing Program for 2011-2015; to be more precise, the region failed to make it to the list of finalists of the sub-program on the promotion of housing construction in Russian Federation constituencies for the year 2012; this news is available via the Russian Federation Government’s website. Subsidies (nearly 2.41bn RUR altogether) will be paid to 26 Russian constituencies this year, including Tyumen Region and Chelyabinsk Region: these will receive 9.637m RUR and

Seversky Pipe Plant (STZ), a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK), is switching to digital telephone communication, the company’s press service reports. The company’s automatic telephone system in the plant administration area that ensures communication inside the plant and in the central districts of the northern part of Severka has already gone 100% digital. The new commutation equipment with the capacity of 6,000 telephone numbers has been launched. This equipment is much more compact than its older counterpart, it is more energy efficient, produces less heat, and is less sensitive

The Russian retail company Magnet is considering the purchase of 24 large-scale supermarkets of Monetka, the Ural brand; the supermarkets come up to 5,500 sq m on average. These stores might costs up to $70m, Kommersant says. ‘Magnet is interested in buying twenty-four supermarkets that belong to one of the largest provincial companies, the Urals-based Monetka, a source on the market told the newspaper. Monetka’s primary proprietor Roman Zabolotnov confirmed that negotiations were in progress, but ‘no decisions have been made yet.’ Magnet’s co-owner Sergey Galitsky says he is ‘interested in

Sverdlovsk Region is one of the Russian regions with the highest amount of loans offered to customers. These data are available from the report on loans issued to private individuals as of July 1, 2012 that is available on the Central Bank’s website, SKB-Bank’s press officer reports. The greatest number of loans was issued in or near the capital: Moscow (501bn RUR worth of loans), Moscow Region (212bn RUR), and Saint Petersburg (151bn RUR). Sverdlovsk Region is confidently in the fourth place: as of July 1, the local residents have borrowed a total of 109.3bn RUR from banks. Other regions

In the first half of the year, 57 people were killed and 153 people were injured at Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprises, plus twenty group accidents at work were registered, Deputy Minister for Industry & Science of Sverdlovsk Region Valery Turlayev said in the course of a seminar on Production Safety in Nizhniy Tagil on August 23. ‘The unsatisfactory organization of the production jobs is still the main cause of accidents, followed by violation of the traffic rules and other factors. Most often, people are killed when they fall from heights; the second most common reason is collisions

The construction of the special economic zone known as the Titanium Valley will be funded through buying out the shares of the management company, the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s PR Department reports. On August 22, the Federal Financial Markets Service registered the decision to go through with an additional 300m-RUR issue of the Titanium Valley Special Economic Zone’s shares. The shares will be purchased by Sverdlovsk Region Government. This means that, after the regional government’s decree has been issued, the Titanium Valley Special Economic Zone Management Company will get the

Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation presented is most promising vehicles at Russian Defence Expo 2012 in Nizhniy Tagil. The corporation’s exhibits comprised a wide range of various products for the Russian Ministry of Emergencies, the defense industry, and the forestry facilities. Uralvagonzavod launched an outdoor demonstration of vehicles meant for putting out forest fires: the firefighting unit LPA 521 manufactured at the company’s Rubtsov subsidiary and RT-M-160U tractor with an added firefighting device made on the site in Nizhniy Tagil. Visitors to and participants of

On August 17, 2012, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development signed a $5.3m lending agreement wiht the German Commerzbank AG, Frankfurt for a six-year period, the bank’s press service reports. The crediting resources offered are guaranteed by the German export credit agency Euler Hermes and are meant for the purchase of 270 ATMs manufactured by Wincor Nixdorf, the bank’s long-time partner. The agreement means the UBRD is getting more active on the international markets and enjoys great trust among its foreign partners. The UBRD is currently focused on expanding its ATM network in