UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 15, 2019. Ural Airlines will be operating more Vladivostok-Sapporo flights in the spring and summer: starting April 27, 2019, Japan-bound flights will get operated three times a week: on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘Late April and early May are the best months to experience the cherry blossom season on Hokkaido. In Japan, the sakura is usually in full bloom in March and early April, but Hokkaido, the country’s northernmost island, has things happening a little later than in the south of Japan. Hanami, or sakura

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 15, 2019. Two employees of EVRAZ Nizhny Tagil Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ NTMK) won the Glory to The Man of Labor awards, EVRAZ’s press service reports. Roll Designer from EVRAZ NTMK’s Rail & Beam Department Vitaly Rubtsov won silver as Best Engineer/Metallurgical Worker and instrumentation and control equipment mechanic from the plant’s IT Directorate Andrei Orlov won bronze as Best Mechanic. EVRAZ NTMK’s employees competed with workers from companies based in several constituencies of Ural Federal District. Andrei Orlov’s competition took place in Novy Urengoi.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 15, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) raised the interest rate on its retail customer-oriented Mobile Deposit by 0.25%, the bank’s press service reports. The maximum interest rate on this deposit type now comes to 6.7% a year if you open the deposit online or using your mobile app and sign up for the bank’s all-inclusive package. The package secures you an additional 1% a year on ruble deposits. Besides, the package also covers text message notifications on any change in the account balance and a debit card. Now Mobile Deposit is the

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, April 15, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) shipped its first batch of new hot-rolled metal goods with unique wear characteristics to customer. The improved performance parameters result from a special technology for removal of excess slag from the surface of a metal sheet, the plant’s press service reports. The new produce with unique parameters stems from Kama Trade Tatarstan (currently a resident in Priority Social and Economic Development Area in Naberezhnye Chelny) putting up Brandsteel Metal-Processing Center (capacity: 240,000,000 kg a year) with

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, April 15, 2019. FRACTURA, ChelPipe Group’s hi tech MSHF appliances, are the key product the Group will be presenting at Neftegaz 2019 International Exhibition, the company’s press service reports. The Group’s oilfield services division Rimera intends to start making hi tech multistage hydraulic fracturing (MSHF) equipment that ensures increased output at hard-to-extract and almost-finished oil deposits. FRACTURA will be made at Rimera’s Izhneftemash’s new, White-Coated Metallurgy-compliant production site in accordance with a Canadian technology. The interactive

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 12, 2019. Passengers on Ural Airlines’ flights can now have their luggage insured with Renaissance Insurance during the check-in at Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘For as little as RUB 100, you can have your luggage insured against loss, damage, or pickup delay (up to RUB 45,000),’ the press service says. You get the insurance payment in case of the following: — irreparable loss (RUB 1,500 per kg, RUB 45,000 max); — damage (the insurance covers the cost of repairs, RUB 45,000 max); — luggage pickup delay (RUB 500 for every

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 12, 2019. Ural hospitals will soon be using MegaFon’s telemedicine platform, which is expected to ensure more safety during complicated scheduled surgeries and emergency operations; the agreement to this effect was signed by MegaFon and V.D. Fedorov Russian Association for Endoscopic Surgery. According to the telecom company’s press service, the platform in question is a cloud service that makes it possible for clinics and hospitals to offer distance medical advice on patients’ health status, diagnosis, prognosis, and patient examination and treatment tactics, as

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, April 12, 2019. ChelPipe Group is going to supply 130,000,000 kg of large-diameter-pipes (LDPs) to Saryarka Pipeline in Kazakhstan, the company’s press service reports. The shipment will get sent to customer by September 2019. The pipes (diameter: 820 mm; wall thickness: 12 mm, 14 mm, and 18 mm; steel grade: K60) all have inner and outer corrosion-resistant coating and were made at the Group’s Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe). ‘Kazakhstan is one of the Group’s largest CIS markets. 47% of Russian-made pipes delivered to Kazakhstan last year came from ChelPipe Group.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 12, 2019. 1,781,082 people flew with Ural Airlines in the first quarter of 2019 (up 8% on a year earlier). 940,561 people flew on the airline’s domestic flights and 840,521 people flew internationally. According to the air carrier’s press service, the airline operated 12,806 flights in January-March 2019 (+5% on a year earlier), including 6,750 domestic flights and 6,056 international flights. The company’s passenger turnover rose by 9% and reached 4,384,388,000 passenger-kilometers. 662,991 people flew with Ural Airlines in March 2019, which exceeded the figures

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, April 12, 2019. Sintering Machine 1 got launched at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Sintering Plant 5 (currently under construction); the machine produced its first batch of sinter cake for the plant’s blast furnace department. MMK Chair of the BOD Viktor Rashnikov and Director-General Pavel Shilyayev both attended the launching ceremony, MMK’s press service reports. According to Viktor Rashnikov, once it gets launched, Sintering Plant 5 (projected capacity: 5.5m tons a year) will provide the plant’s blast furnace department with good quality sinter cake and will

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, April 11, 2019. Vietnam Expo 2019 International Industrial Exhibition opened in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi on April 10. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is taking part in the event; as it happens, MMK’s Vietnamese market sales doubled last year. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, visitors to the company’s stand at the exhibition can get acquainted with one of Russia’s major metallurgical businesses’ technological potential and learn about its produce characteristics. The focus is on the products for the building industry: hot- and cold-rolled coiled

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 11, 2019. Ural Airlines are introducing additional Moscow-Barcelona-Moscow flights for the May break. Flights U6 845/846 will get operated on May 6 and May 10, 2019. ‘This colorful city is a place where you feel at ease and carefree. Barcelona’s famous lacy, futuristic-looking buildings by Antoni Gaudí, its parks, and its ancient landmarks rub shoulders with the Mediterranean and its beaches. There’s always some festival in full swing here. In early May, for example, Barcelona will be hosting the Battle of the Nations, which is the international historic medieval

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 11, 2019. The Smart City Project implemented in Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy will be used as the basis for digitizing other towns in Sverdlovsk Region and Russia on the whole, Sverdlovsk Region’s Vice Governor Sergei Bidonko announced in the course of Smart City 2019/Digital Transformations in Energy & Utilities Sector Exhibition/Forum. When asked about the recent agreement Sverdlovsk Region Government signed with Rostelecom on launching the Smart City Project in Kamensk-Uralsky and Polevskoy, Bidonko said the Smart City solutions had been tried out

UrBC, Moscow, April 11, 2019. 8.86 million people flew with Russian air carriers in March 2019; this exceeds the figures for one year earlier by 13%. According to Rosaviation, passenger traffic rose most noticeably with Pobeda Airlines with its 726,400 passengers (+47.4%). Nearly 3 million flew with Aeroflot (+13.8%), 908,200 people flew with S7 (+13.6%). 711,300 people flew with Rossiya (+9.1%), and 662,500 people flew with Ural Airlines (+8.8%) last month. The Russian air carriers’ overall passenger turnover thus reached 23.16 billion passenger-kilometers. As for the earlier months, the

UrBC, Moscow, April 11, 2019. Russia’s Economic Development Ministry brought its forecast for the expected increase in people’s actual pay in 2019 from 1.4% down to 1.1%. Respective adjustments have been made to the country’s socioeconomic development scenario for 2019-2024 (available on the ministry’s website). According to the ministry’s report, the scenario in question will be used as a roadmap for setting the federal budget parameters for the year 2019; the final medium-term forecast will get presented in August. Based on the current forecast, Russians’ factual wages and salaries will

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 10, 2019. Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy’s developer RSG-Akademicheskoye is looking for a contractor to design the embankment along the River Patrushikha in the district, the company’s press service reports. The contractor who gets selected in the course of the tender will have to do all the engineering survey work and produce the initial design of and project documentation for the embankment along the River Patrushikha in Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy (Quarter 26). All the project-related jobs should get done between June 2019 and January 2020.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 10, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) was once again featured at the top of the rating of banks with best settlement service terms for businesses operating in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Markswebb’s research findings for the first quarter of the year indicate. ‘The UBRD’s Business Class 12 Package proved to be the best offer on the market. The annual fee covers unlimited payment-to-contractor transactions and employee salary payments, 16% commission on acquiring services, mobile banking, and text message notifications on every change

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, April 10, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) reports its long-term IDR got brought from BBB- to BBB by Fitch Ratings on April 8, 2019, with Stable rating outlook. ‘The agency’s press release says the rating improvement is meant to stress the company’s ability to maintain a conservative financial profile despite the market turbulence (thanks to low production costs, a focus on high value-added produce, the leading position on the Russian steel market, and impressive profit margins throughout the entire economic cycle),’ MMK’s Information & PR Department

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, April 10, 2019. Easter Days, a new play based on Ivan Shmelev’s Summer of the Lord, is now being worked on in Ozersk. The play is part of Rostok Charity Project and is scheduled to premiere on April 28 (Orthodox Easter 2019). According to the ChelPipe Group’s press service, the cast includes sixteen young locals who got selected through audition rounds at the drama theater. The play is part of ChelPipe Group’s and Ozersk Council’s culture/education cooperation agreement. In addition to this performance, the Group will also sponsor a series of large-scale local events

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, April 10, 2019. ChelPipe Group and Gazprom Kyrgyzstan signed a scientific and technological cooperation agreement, the Group’s press service reports. The agreement was signed by ChelPipe Group’s CFO Denis Prikhodko and Gazprom Kyrgyzstan’s Deputy Director-General for Production Issues Alexander Grebenyuk. The two parties agreed to share their technical data and hold regular meet ups in order to improve their pipe produce. The paper also dwells on the fact that the primary goal behind this scientific and technological cooperation is to reduce the environmental impact of gas