UrBC, Magnitogorsk, April 3, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) intends to start reconstructing its Blast Furnace 2 in 2020, which is part of the plant’s overhaul program. The blast furnace is expected to undergo major upgrades, which will reduce its environmental impact dramatically, the company’s press service reports. The legendary Komsomolka (Blast Furnace 2) was launched in the summer of 1932, a few months after the plant itself opened. The furnace now makes some 3,800,000 kg of cast iron a day. The upgrades will involve dismantling and replacing all the components of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 3, 2019. Ural Airlines are going to operate more flights from Moscow to Blagoveshchensk and back (via Yekaterinburg) in the summer; the flights will get operated starting April 2, 2019. According to the air carrier, flight U6 29 Moscow-Yekaterinburg-Blagoveshchensk will be available every Monday and Friday. Flight U6 30 Blagoveshchensk-Yekaterinburg-Moscow will be available on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Prices start from RUB 13,300 (one way) and RUB 26,600 (there and back). In addition to flights U6 29 and U6 30, Ural Airlines will also keep operating daily flights U6

UrBC, Moscow, April 3, 2019. A new department to control compliance with the environmental legislation was set up within the Central Administration For Surveillance Over Compliance With Federal Law by the order of Russia’s Prosecutor-General, the authority’s press service reports. There are two subdivisions within the new department: one of them will be in charge of controlling compliance with the environmental protection legislation and laws to protect the Arctic; the other one will be responsible for controlling compliance with the laws on protection and use of mineral resources. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 3, 2019. ChelPipe Group’s Pervouralsk New Plant (PNTZ) set up a special sanitary protection zone around the site. The size of the zone (i.e. how far the plant’s environmental impact can be felt) got determined by the Federal Supervision Agency for Customer Protection and Human Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor). The zone position data have been entered into the Unified State Register of Immovable Property, the Group’s press service reports. The company spent RUB 35 million on the project to determine the zone limits. Experts from the Rospotrebnadzor-certified lab took

UrBC, Moscow, April 3, 2019. Russia’s Finance Ministry proposed a series of amendments to Russia’s Fiscal Code, including the switch from the tourist tax to the hotel tax in 2023. The proposal is now available at regulation.gov.ru. Companies and private individuals dealing in accommodation/hotel services will all have to pay the tax. However, companies and private individuals dealing in children’s healthcare and recreation services are expected to be tax-exempt, as are sole traders operating on a tax patent scheme and private individuals on the Earned Income Tax scheme. The amount of tax will

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 2, 2019. EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Coal Company presented the students of Osinnikovsky Mining School (OGTK) a new electro-mechanical lab, the company’s press service reports. ‘The students’s work stations have everything necessary for theoretical and practical training: electrical control panels with automatic appliances, electric engines, and special-purpose tools. The lab also has a 3D simulator of the power substation inspecting and testing routines. The simulator gets used to learn the basics of trouble-shooting. At the end of the simulator test, the software

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 2, 2019. MMK Group’s Lysva Metallurgical Plant launched its Polymeric Coating Unit 5 and started making SteelArt rolled goods with decorative prints three years ago this month, MMK’s press service reports. The unit makes rolled metal goods with three-layer polymeric coatings that imitate the look and feel of natural materials like stone, wood, and brick very closely — yet these are considerably less expensive and easier to assemble than the actual thing. The construction and launch of Unit 5 went through with support from Russia’s Industry & Trade Ministry, as

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 2, 2019. Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems (FGC UES) completed renovating its 500-kilowatt Tyumen Power Substation: the substation now has a completely new set of power equipment (total capacity: 1252 МVА), upgraded switchgear appliances, and remote control systems, FGC UES Western Siberia’s PR & Media Group reports. ‘As a result, new electric power consumers can now get connected to the substation; plus, the entire facility, which is crucial to the transit of electric power in Tyumen-Ural line and is also a part of Tyumen Power Station 1 and Tyumen

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 2, 2019. EVRAZ Nizhny Tagil Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ NTMK) supplied more than 3,000 H-beams onto the construction site of Grozny Mall in the Northern Caucasus, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Relations Center reports. The H-beams (6.5 to 12.5 meters long) got used to put up the principal framework of the building. The parallel beams are made from S345-5 steel with vanadium alloy, which makes the product more wear- and corrosion-resistant. The use of parallel beams in the construction process makes it possible to both cut down on costs and increase the framework’s

UrBC, Moscow, April 2, 2019. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to have old-age pensions paid out since January 1, 2019 adjusted to exceed the living wage; the decree is now available on the legal information portal. According to the Finance Ministry’s estimates, this will cost the budget some RUB 15 to 20 billion. The President first mentioned the need to reconsider the pension indexation principles and have the current pensions adjusted during his address to the Federal Assembly. Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev promised the extra payments would be made by July 1. As of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 1, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) sold 1,800,000,000 kg of long products last year, 98% of which got directed to customers on the home markets (including the CIS member states), the company’s press service reports. MMK’s Sales Department’s Senior Officer Alexander Margishvili gave a talk on the company’s performance in 2018 during the conference on rolled section steel and profiled iron in Moscow. According to Margishvili, even though the Russian rolled section steel-making facilities are currently being underused (their current workload in Russia

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 1, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region’s banks issued 3,800 automobile loans in January-February 2019, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 7%, the National Credit History Bureau reports. In Russia on the whole, the number of newly issued car loans came to 108,100 (up 8.2% on January-February 2018). ‘Even though the state-run subsidy programs are no longer in place, more cars were bought on credit in early 2019 than in early 2018. Additionally, the increase in sales got boosted by improved lending terms (thanks to the car makers’ support, among other things). This

UrBC, Moscow, April 1, 2019. Rostourism took around sixty travel agents off the united federal register of tour operators in March, the agency’s reports indicate. Most of the tour operators in question failed to produce evidence of having the funds to back up their obligations during the new licensing period; three companies stopped dealing in international tourism altogether; and three more companies informed Rostourism they were going into liquidation as travel agents. As of March 29, 2019, there were some 4,400 tour operators on the register all in all.

UrBC, Moscow, April 1, 2019. Russians’ debt ratio reached 9.9% last month; this is the nearest the figure has ever got to the all-time high registered in 2014 (10.4%), TASS refers to the Central Bank of Russia’s Financial Stability Director Elizaveta Danilova as stating. According to Danilova, the primary factor affecting the people’s debt burden is the growing amount of unsecured consumer loans. At the same time, the mortgage-related debts have been quite low in the last few years and are only growing gradually. This has to do with the fact that mortgages are long-term loans with (typically)

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, April 1, 2019. Chelyabinsk Region’s banks issued 3,664 automobile loans in January-February 2019, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 10.3%, the National Credit History Bureau’s press service says. In Russia on the whole, the number of newly issued car loans came to 108,100 (up 8.2% on January-February 2018). ‘Even though the state-run subsidy programs are no longer in place, more cars were bought on credit in early 2019 than in early 2018. Additionally, the increase in sales got boosted by improved lending terms (thanks to the car makers’ support, among

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 29, 2019. ChelPipe Group and B.N. Yeltsin Ural Federal University signed a roadmap agreement on cooperation in 2019, the company’s press service reports. The paper was signed by ChelPipe Group’s HR Director Alexander Luzhbin, UFU Vice Rector for Information Policy Alexei Fayustov, UFU Vice Rector for Studies Sergey Knyazev, Director of UFU Institute for New Materials & Technologies Oleg Sheshukov, and Deputy Director of UFU Higher School of Economics & Management Flyur Urmanov. The two parties will work together on the following: ChelPipe Group’s Intern

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 29, 2019. Yekaterinburg Council’s Transport Committee approved of GorTrans’s proposal to extend bus line 18 to Akademik Sakharov Ave, in District Akademicheskiy and then to Akademgorodok (end stop), the town council’s website states. Now automobiles were allowed in Akademik Sakharov Ave. as early as the beginning of March; Yekaterinburg Council’s Transport Committee also decided to send large buses (Line 18) there as well. The buses only used to go as far as the end stop at the intersection of Wilhelm de Gennin St. and Pavel Shamanov St. in Akademicheskiy. According

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 29, 2019. EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Coal Company’s Raspadskaya Mine has produced 2,000,000,000 kg of coal since the start of the year, the company’s press service reports. ‘Our miners are raising their output by the year: in 2018, they only got to the 2,000,000,000-kg threshold in April,’ the press service says. Three mining and six developing sections were behind this year’s production figures. Alexei Ivanov’s team (Section 17) produced the most: 718,000,000 kg of coal. Rustam Muminov’s team (Section 1) produced 656,000,000 kg; and Stanislav Kovtunets’s team

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 29, 2019. ChelPipe Group’s shareholder and President of Uralsky Trubnik Hockey Club Alexander Fedorov congratulated the team on their victory in the Russian Hockey Championship. The players came back from Irkutsk today, having beaten Baikal-Energiya 7:2 and winning bronze (the club’s best result so far), the Group’s press service reports. ‘ChelPipe Group has been supporting Russian hockey in Pervouralsk for over a decade now. Our programs involved around 6,000 young hockey players, and we take pride in the fact that more than a half of Uralsky Trubnik’s players come

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 29, 2019. 79% of people living in Ural Federal District say they have been hit by Russia’s ongoing economic downfall; this is 11% more than the country’s average (68%), Public Opinion Foundation’s research findings indicate. According to the research, only 14% of Ural Federal District-based Russians feel there’s no crisis in Russia whatsoever. In the country on the whole, the figure is 20%. As for the country’s future prospects, 24% of locals believe the downfall trend will keep gaining momentum; 8% hope for improvements; 4% believe in complete recovery; 20% feel