UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 14, 2019. EVRAZ Holding, Nizhniy Tagil and Kachkanar Councils, and Sverdlovsk Region Government signed a trilateral socioeconomic cooperation agreement, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Communications Center reports. EVRAZ intends to co-finance the construction of a new bridge across Tagil Pond in Nizhniy Tagil. The company will direct more than RUB 1.3 billion to the project. The holding will also fund a number of other important social infrastructure projects in town (total amount of funding provided: RUB 1.9 billion). Also, a MMA Palace will get put up in Kachkanar;

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 14, 2019. A new turbine unit got launched at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) central power station. The unit comprises a steam turbine and a generator, is more powerful than its older counterpart, and will reduce the per-kW heat spending by 15%. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, Unit T 42/50-2.9 (power capacity: 50 MW) got manufactured at Ural Turbine Plant. The generator was made at Novosibirsk-based ELSIB Scientific & Production Association. The one-cylinder turbine is fitted with the most advanced automated control system available

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 14, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region came No. 14 in the rating of Russia’s top thirty constituencies with the largest car loan markets. The average car loan amount came to RUB 722,437 in Sverdlovsk Region in the first quarter of the year, which exceeds the figures for the previous quarter (RUB 658,766) by 9.7%. According to the National Credit History Bureau, banks operating in Moscow currently issue the largest average car loan amount (RUB 1,094,100), followed by those in Moscow Region (RUB 946,200), and Saint Petersburg (RUB 923,700). Banks operating in Kemerovo Region issue

UrBC, Moscow, May 14, 2019. The year’s inflation appears to be past its peak, as the VAT increase is becoming less of a factor and the temporary inflation-halting variables gain increasingly more impact, the findings of the Central Bank of Russia’s Research & Forecasting Department’s Talking Trends bulletin indicate. According to the bulletin’s April 2019 issue, the monthly growth of consumer prices (adjusted against the seasonal and other factors) falls within the Bank of Russia’s target range. Inflation forecasts tend to stay on the worse-case-scenario side (although to a lesser degree

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 14, 2019. The number of people moving to Sverdlovsk Region in the first three months of the year rose by 97% against one year previously and came to 1,836 people (compared with 931 people in January-March 2018), Sverdlovskstat reports. 25,030 and 23,194 people moved in and out of Sverdlovsk Region, respectively, in January-March 2019. One year earlier, the numbers stood at 26,076 and 25,145 people, respectively. 21,987 locals migrated to different parts of the country, and 20,725 people arrived from elsewhere in Russia. Also, 4,305 foreign nationals (including 3,663

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 13, 2019. Ural Airlines are currently offering their customers a 50% discount on Moscow flights; the promo code is available on the company website. The offer holds for flights operated from Yekaterinburg to Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport and Sheremetyevo Airport and back. According to the air carrier’s press service, you need to activate your MOSCOW promo code when booking your flight on the company website www.uralairlines.com in order to get your discount. ‘The offer holds on May 8-15, 2019 for flights operated between May 8 and June 30, 2019. The discount does not

UrBC, Moscow, May 13, 2019. The Central Bank of Russia incurred RUB 434.679 billion in losses last year (compared with RUB 435.3 billion one year earlier), the bank’s annual report indicates. The CBR’s assets, however, increased by RUB 8.6 billion and amounted to RUB 39.4 trillion altogether. According to the annual report, banks currently operating in Russia made RUB 1.3 trillion in net profit last year (compared with RUB 0.8 trillion in 2017). The banking sector’s performance kept getting affected by a number of banks undergoing financial recovery procedures in 2018. Without these banks’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 13, 2019. EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Coal Company restored the war memorial in Osinniki in time for Victory Day (May 9), the holding’s PR Department reports. ‘The memorial features the names of 240 miners from Kapitalnaya Mine (now known as Osinnikovskaya Mine) who were killed in Great Patriotic War. The memorial was put up in Osinniki’s Stroygorodok area as early as 1985, in celebration of the 40th Victory Day. Raspadskaya Coal Company financed the reconstruction in March 2011, when 24 memorial plaques with the names of the war victims got installed. This year, the

UrBC, Moscow, May 13, 2019. Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) determined that 21.6% of dairy samples they took in 2018 got adulterated, and every one in five products on the store shelf failed to have the ingredients the manufacture claimed it did, the service’s press service reports. It is reported that some 5,500,000,000 kg of milk, 3,000,000,000 kg of dairy products, and 400,000,000 kg of ice cream get produced in Russia every year. Dairy products are invariably among the top ten export items as well. ‘Ready-to-eat animal produce

UrBC, Moscow, May 13, 2019. Russia imported $65.709bn worth of goods from the far abroad in January-April 2019, which was 0.8% less than one year previously, the Federal Customs Service’s report states. According to the service, $18.5279bn worth of goods got imported into the country from the far abroad in April 2019 alone, which exceeded the figures for March 2019 by 3.4%. The import of chemicals rose by as much as 9.1% and amounted to $3.755bn, that of machine-building produce rose by 2.4% and amounted to $9.357bn, that of food items and related raw stuffs rose by 1.5% and amounted to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 8, 2019. ChelPipe Group’s member enterprise Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe) and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) are going to coordinate a series of festive events dedicated to the 74th Victory Day anniversary; more than 4,000 people will attend, the Group’s press service reports. A special ceremony with war veterans, ChelPipe Group employees, and students on the Group’s Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program will take place in Chelyabinsk on May 8. A concert will also be held for the plant’s long-service employees at ChelPipe Culture

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 8, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region’s micro-financing organizations issued RUB 1,307,624,000 worth of micro-loans in 2018, which was 26% less than one year previously, the Bank of Russia’s Ural division’s press service reports. The amount of micro-loans issued to private borrowers dropped by 35% and reached RUB 613,213,000. These were mostly ‘payday loans’ ranging from RUB 2,000 to RUB 30,000 (with the repayment period ranging from three to thirty days). At the same time, the amount of micro-loans issued to sole traders and the self-employed rose by 86% last year and reached

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 8, 2019. Following a recent auction, MegaFon got chosen as the primary Internet service provider for Yekaterinburg Underground. Their contract is now valid through March 2020, the telecom company’s press service reports. ‘MegaFon now provides a reliable connection and high-speed 3G and 4G traffic both at underground stations proper and at the organization’s HQ in Volodarsky St. Under the terms of the auction, eighty-seven employees will also be able to make within-MegaFon-network calls free of charge to ensure efficient co-worker communication,’ the press service

UrBC, Moscow, May 8, 2019. The U.S. finance holding Morgan Stanley intends to stop operating in Russia’s banking sector in 2020, the company’s Russian unit’s annual report for the year 2018 states. According to the report, the Group chose to have its Russian unit restructured by having the bank go into liquidation, getting the banking license annulled, and having all the assets transferred to another company. Morgan Stanley will no longer be holding its banking, brokerage, and depositary activity licenses and will shut all of the respective business units down. The company intends to submit

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 8, 2019. West-Siberian Metallurgical Plant’s (EVRAZ ZSMK) medium-section mill department has produced 50,000,000,000 kg of rolled metal goods since the departments’ Mill 450 got launched, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s Corporate Communications Center reports. To celebrate this production achievement, a guided tour was coordinated for the department’s long-service employees and thank-you letters were presented to both the old-time and current workers at the department. ‘Mill 450 got launched in 1976 as one of the country’s largest rolling mills. The department now makes

UrBC, Moscow, May 7, 2019. The telecom company MegaFon and KARO movie theater chain are cooperating on a special offer this May: if you buy a movie ticket at karofilm.ru through May 29, 2019, you get a promo code to get a free subscription for MegaFon TV’s KARO package, MegaFon’s press service reports. ‘When you buy your tickets to see Avengers: Endgame, you also get a thirty-day subscription to the TV package free of charge. Tickets to other movies will get you a seven-day subscription. Additionally, every subscriber to the package gets a 25% discount on any movie at KARO movie theaters (the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 7, 2019. The demand for acquiring services among the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s business customers is currently sky-rocketing: the number of terminal owners rose by 4.4 times in the first quarter of the year compared with one year earlier, while the transaction turnover increased by 3.5 times, the bank reports. These are the department stores, teaching/training centers, car part sellers, and travel agents which have been signing up for the service most actively lately. In geographical terms, the service is most popular with the UBRD’s business

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, May 7, 2019. After Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works’ (MMK) Industrial Park, Chelyabinsk Region Investment Development Agency, and Metallurgic Deoxidizers Plant signed a cooperation agreement six months previously, a new deoxidizers plant got built and launched in the park, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. The plant is now operating in MMK Industrial Park in Magnitogorsk. Metallurgic Deoxidizers Plant invested RUB 70 million in the project, creating thirty new jobs. ‘The produce is absolutely unique, as it gets made with the plant’s own know-hows and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 7, 2019. 9,549 mortgage loans got issued in Sverdlovsk Region in January-March 2019 (total amount: RUB 19.159 billion), the Bank of Russia reports. Compared with the first quarter of 2018, this was 2.1% less than one year previously in ruble terms and 7.8% less in terms of unit sales. 3,494 mortgages got issued in Sverdlovsk Region in March 2019 (total amount: RUB 7.093 billion). This was slightly higher than in the previous month, when 3,481 mortgage loans (total amount: RUB 6.873 billion) got issued by local banks.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 7, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region came No.13 in the rating of Russia’s top thirty constituencies with the largest credit card limits. In January-March 2018, the credit card limit came to RUB 52,965 on average; a year later, the limit extended to RUB 54,051 (+2.1%). According to the National Credit History Bureau, the country’s average was RUB 55,600 in the first quarter of 2019 (up 11.6% on the first quarter of 2018, when the limit only came to RUB 48,000). As for other Russian constituencies, Moscow had the largest credit card limit in the first quarter of the year (RUB