UrBC, Moscow, March 24, 2020. ChelPipe Group launched its own media platform Trubnik Online, with daily news updates on pipe production, pipe-manufacturing technologies, and metallurgical industry’s current trends, and some information about the Group’s employees and the Future of White-Coated Metallurgy In-Company Training Program, ChelPipe Group’s press service reports. ‘The launch of the media platform is just one example of how communication channels can evolve within the framework of the Group’s overall client-centered transformation; the idea is to put the client - a business partner, a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 23, 2020. Sverdlovsk Region-based businesses’ overall turnover rose by 13% in January-February 2020 compared with January-February 2019, Sverdlovskstat reports. The local food manufacturers’ turnover dropped by 31%, that of metallurgical enterprises by 5.2%, and that of drinks manufacturers by 3.6%. At the same time, building companies’ turnover went up by 35.3%, that of trading businesses by 33.4%, and that of logistics companies by 2.2%.

UrBC, Moscow, March 23, 2020. The conference for tech entrepreneurs Startup Village Livestream’20 will take place in a digital format at Skolkovo on May 21-22, 2020; the Open Innovations Startup Tour events in Ufa, Tomsk, and Krasnodar have been put off till September 2020. Startup Village Livestream’20 will prove the first large-scale virtual conference both for Skolkovo Innovation Center in particular and for Russia in general. Thanks to the event’s online format, the conference will be free and open to everyone. To access the program, you’ll need to sign up on the conference website.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 23, 2020. 85,595 consumer loans got issued to Sverdlovsk Region-based applicants in January-February 2020, which was 7.5% less than one year earlier (92,566 loans got issued in January-February 2019), the National Credit History Bureau’s report states. Sverdlovsk Region was still among the country’s top five constituencies in terms of the number of consumer loans issued in January-February 2020. Moscow (123,400 loans) was No.1, followed by Moscow Region (112,900), Krasnodar Territory (102,100), and the Republic of Bashkortostan (88,100). In Russia on the whole, the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 23, 2020. Director-General at ChelPipe Group’s pipe-manufacturing division Boris Kovalenkov and heads of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) and Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe) trade unions Sergei Oshurkov and Viktor Skryabin signed new Collective Agreements that will remain valid through 2023, ChelPipe Group’s press service reports. Under the terms of the agreements, the Group will direct more than RUB 680 million to its social welfare programs every year. ‘Meeting all of its social welfare obligations and continuous improvements in the workers’ living

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 23, 2020. Yekaterinburg’s housing management companies now have to use chlorine-based disinfectants when doing their regular cleaning routines; the step has been taken in order to prevent the possible spread of the novel coronavirus type COVID-19. This set of preventative measures was suggested to the town mayors by Sverdlovsk Region’s Ministry for Energy & Utilities, Yekaterinburg Council’s website states. District Akademicheskiy Housing Management Company was among the first to implement the new measures. A demonstration of the cleaning procedure was provided

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2020. The U.S. Consulate-General in Yekaterinburg reduced its visa operations temporarily/indefinitely in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic effective March 18, 2020, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow’s website states. ‘Visa appointments have been cancelled for the foreseeable future. We will resume routine visa services as soon as possible but are unable to provide a specific date at this time,’ the website states. The U.S. Consulate General in Yekaterinburg will provide emergency consular services only.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2020. 84 patients who possibly have coronavirus are now being examined at Yekaterinburg’s Clinic 40; there’s also one patient each in Kamensk-Uralsky and Novaya Lyalya, Vice Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Pavel Krekov said at a press briefing in Yekaterinburg today. ‘Some of them [the patients - Ed.] are only known to have come in contact with the diagnosed; they are healthy, they only came in contact with those who have the disease,’ Krekov said. When asked whether Vektor Lab in Novosibirsk (which is currently working on the new virus tests) diagnosed

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, March 20, 2020. The profits due to Mechel’s shareholders dropped by 81% in 2019, down to RUB 2.4 billion. According to the company’s official releases, Mechel’s (IAS-compliant) consolidated revenues declined by 5% last year on the year 2018 and reached RUB 296.6 billion. The company’s EBITDA dropped by 29% in 2019 against 2018 and came to RUB 53.4 billion. ‘The profits due to Mechel’s shareholders decreased by RUB 10.2 billion in 2019 compared with 2018 and amounted to RUB 2.4 billion. A drop in gross profits (-RUB 26.1 billion) caused by shrinking sales to third parties

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2020. Ural Airlines canceled a number of flights from Russia to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, the company’s website states. The air carrier canceled flights from Ufa, Kazan, Krasnodar, Chelyabinsk, Moscow (Domodedovo), Nizhnevartovsk, Krasnoyarsk, Saint Petersburg, and Samara to Yerevan, Khujand, Dushanbe, Kulob, Bishkek, Osh, and Baku and back. However, Saint Petersburg-Dushanbe and Dushanbe-Saint Petersburg flights will still get operated once a week; flights from Moscow Region’s Zhukovsky Airport to Khujand, Dushanbe, and Bishkek will get

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2020. NEYVA Bank’s experts believe the CBR needs ‘a more stable picture’ to make any key rate-related decisions at tomorrow’s meeting. Now the Russian Central Bank’s Board of Directors is scheduled to meet on Friday, March 20; the meeting will dwell on the further key rate policy and on the country’s entire monetary and lending policy. Finance analysts believe the CBR’s key rate is highly likely to remain the same (6% p.a.) or to go up by 0.25% to 0.5%. Both the CBR and the Russian Government announced earlier that tax relief measures would be in order to

UrBC, Moscow, March 19, 2020. The telecom company MegaFon is upping the amount of prepaid voice call time available to subscribers with activated roaming service, MegaFon Ural’s press service reports. ‘The current Russia-EU air travel ban means our customers who are in Europe at the moment need to make considerably more calls. In times like this, staying in touch with your family and being able to make important calls, including the ones related to how you’ll be getting home (government hotlines, airlines’ call centers, and travel agents) are both crucial,’ the company says. Starting March

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 19, 2020. Ural Airlines adjusted their schedule for the flights operated from Russia to Central Asia, the air carrier’s website states. The airline cancelled flights from Ufa, Kazan, Krasnodar, Chelyabinsk, Moscow (Domodedovo), Nizhnevartovsk, Krasnoyarsk, Saint Petersburg, and Samara to Yerevan, Khujand, Dushanbe, Kulob, Bishkek, Osh, and Baku and back. However, Saint Petersburg-Dushanbe and Dushanbe-Saint Petersburg flights will still get operated once a week; flights from Moscow Region’s Zhukovsky Airport to Khujand, Dushanbe, and Bishkek will get operated twice

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 19, 2020. Head of the Russian Tourism Association’s Ural division and Director of Ural Tourism Association Mikhail Maltsev told UrBC about the travel market in times of COVID-19 outbreak. ‘We are talking about a global quarantine here. I believe the remaining non-quarantined countries such as Turkey will be the next to follow suit and close their borders. This will be followed by Russian constituencies, then cities, and then quarters closing their ‘borders’ as well. I am not an epidemiology expert, but this scenario doesn’t seem unlikely. Some of the people in the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 19, 2020. ChelPipe Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) completed its project on upgrading the OCTG facility so as to increase product output and improve quality control of this high-margin product type. According to ChelPipe Group’s press service, as a result of the upgrades, the company’s Finishing Center will be able to make 50% more pumping and compression pipes of the upset variety and 30% more casing pipes. The project required RUB 50 million in investments. ‘ChelPipe Group sees the development of promising product segments and making more niche, high

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 19, 2020. NEYVA Bank is expanding its subsidiary network and opening two new branches, in Saint Petersburg and in Novosibirsk, this March, acting Chair of the Board at NEYVA Bank Konstantin Levushkin told UrBC. ‘A new branch in Saint Petersburg opens this week. The location is outstanding, almost in the heart of the city, next to Rubinstein St. A branch in Novosibirsk will open a week later, at the end of March, since things have been going so well for the business there. We already operate two branches in Krasnodar, and now there will be two branches in Novosibirsk

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 18, 2020. Ural bankers believe that banks can remain stable by maintaining a business model that relies on conservative risk management; at the same time, a crisis can prove an extra opportunity to benefit from the market’s high volatility for quite a few banks. According to acting Chair of the Board at NEYVA Bank Konstantin Levushkin, the Russian Central Bank currently tends to look closely into a bank’s business model, that is, a bank’s way of making money (if any), and into the way the global market situation and the weakening Russian ruble could affect a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 18, 2020. As of March 9, 2020, the average asking price on Yekaterinburg existing home market came to RUB 72,456 per m2 (down 0.2% on one month earlier), Ural Real Estate Chamber’s Analytical Department’s recent report states. The number of apartments on offer in Ural Real Estate Chamber’s database dropped by 0.3% (down to 8,430 units) in the last four weeks as well. It currently takes 121 days on average to sell an existing home in Yekaterinburg.

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, March 18, 2020. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) supplied more than 650,000,000 kg of metal goods to customers in the automobile industry last year, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. ‘MMK’s annual sales to carmakers have broken a record for the second time in a row: in 2017, the plant sold 565,000,000 kg of metal produce to car manufacturers, and in 2018, the figure came to as much as 598,000,000 kg. In 2019, the company’s efforts to increase sales to carmakers and spare parts manufacturers resulted in more than 650,000,000 kg of produce getting sold,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 18, 2020. An ad hoc committee has been set up under Yekaterinburg Duma to handle the technicalities of creating District Akademicheskiy, the city’s eighth administrative district. The work group will be chaired by Director-General at Akademicheskiy Management Company Nikolai Smirnyagin. Duma deputies Anastasia Nemets, Ira Ovchinnikova, Elena Deryagina, and Sergey Voronin are on the committee as well, says Chair of Yekaterinburg Duma Igor Volodin. Now Yekaterinburg Duma decided in December 2019 that Yekaterinburg should get its eighth administrative district in the