UrBC, Magnitogorsk, October 3, 2018. ChelPipe Group is going to take part in the 8th Saint Petersburg International Gas Forum on October 2-5, 2018. According to the company press service, the Group’s shareholder Andrei Komarov, Director-General of the company’s pipe-manufacturing division Boris Kovalenkov, CFO Denis Prikhodko, and Tech Director Kirill Nikitin will all be representing their company at the event. ChelPipe Group intends to present a stand featuring ping-pong tables made to look like large-diameter pipes. The company also plans an open-to-all ping-pong championship; visitors to

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, October 3, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) still remains one of Russia’s leading twenty privately owned businesses according to Forbes Russia, MMK’s press service reports. The magazine carried yet another rating of the country’s two hundred largest private companies recently. The rating only features the businesses where the state and foreign owners have a stake of 50% at the most. The preceding year’s revenue is the decisive criterion in the ranking. Put together, the corporations that made it to the top 200 made RUR 36 trillion in revenues last year. MMK

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 3, 2018. Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy got founded nine years ago on September 30. The celebrations involved a traditional show and a large-scale willow tree planting session that took place along the boulevard between Quarter 0 and Preobrazhensky Park (from Wilhelm de Gennin St to Anatoly Mekhrentsev St). According to akademekb.ru, the newly planted trees are specimens of crack willow (Sálix fragílis) 2 to 2.5 meters tall. The tree alley will get extended all the way to Chkalov St in the future. In addition to this, Preobrazhensky Park’s landscape now

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 3, 2018. Ural Airlines are introducing a new Sochi-Baku-Sochi flight starting from November 3, 2018, the air carrier’s press service reports. The direct flights will be operated on the modern and comfortable Airbus A320 aircraft every Saturday (departure (Sochi): 6:30 PM; arrival (Baku): 9:20 PM; departure (Baku): 10:20 PM; arrival (Sochi): 11:15 PM). Prices start from RUR 8,154 (one way, all fees included). Flights operated from Sochi Airport are an important part of the airline’s destination network. Every year, new domestic and international flights get

UrBC, Moscow, October 2, 2018. Russian air carriers incurred RUR 40.2bn in losses in the first half of the year, Kommersant refers to the Russian Air Transport Operators Association’s data as indicating. This is, in fact, more than twice the amount of losses incurred one year earlier. Most of these were related to domestic flights (RUR 37.1bn), with the remaining RUR 2.9bn pertaining to international flights. The Association states the losses have to do with rising jet fuel prices. The airlines had to spend 40.1% more on fuel in the first six months of 2018, that is, RUR 167bn all in all.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 2, 2018. Dmitri Koltykov from EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) won the Sverdlovsk Region round of Glory to The Man of Labor Contest as the Best Welder among all the competing companies/employees in the mining and metallurgical sector, EVRAZ Holding’s press service reports. Workers from fifteen Sverdlovsk Region-based mining and metallurgical enterprises took part in the challenge. They had to do a theory-based quiz and a practical task of overhead welding of metal sheets. The judges’ panel (welding experts supplied by the

UrBC, Moscow, October 2, 2018. The average booking window as registered among Russian tourists looking for hotel rooms abroad has been shrinking dramatically since August 2018. The window is currently ten to fifteen days (25% too 30%) shorter than before, tutu.ru refers to its recent research findings as indicating. In September, Russians typically booked their international trips twenty-nine days in advance on average (-30% on a year earlier). The trips themselves grew one day shorter, on average. ‘It turns out tourists are afraid to make their plans beforehand and book early. They tended to

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, October 2, 2018. President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov came to Magnitogorsk upon Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky’s invitation today. The presidential delegation started their tour of the city from Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) production site, the company’s press service reports. The visitors took a look at Blast Furnace 1 and went to see the unique heavy-plate Mill 500 and the top-of-the-range cold-roll mill unit at MMK’s Sheet-Rolling Department 1. President Minnikhanov spoke very highly of the plant’s production facilities. ‘Magnitogorsk

UrBC, Moscow, October 2, 2018. Some of the amendments in the package popularly known as the ‘Yarovaya law’ came into effect on October 1. This means Internet service providers are now obliged to store all of their users’ online traffic produced in the last thirty days. The storage units’ capacity is expected to rise by 15% a year for the next five years to come. The ‘Yarovaya law’ was signed by the President on July 7, 2016. The initiative imposed much stricter data user tracking and storing regulations and imposed a number of new obligations on the ISPs and online services. The part of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 1, 2018. Rosset’s Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems (FGC UES) got 137 power substations and 21,600 km of electric mains in Ural Federal District ready for the fall/winter. According to FGC UES Western Siberia’s PR & Media Group, the issues relating to Ural Federal District’s preparedness for the coming cold season was discussed at the recent National HQ for Power Facilities Security’s meeting on the fall and winter of 2018/2019 in Surgut on September 27. The meeting was chaired by Russia’s Deputy Energy Minister Andrei Cherezov. FGC UES operates two

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 1, 2018. Russia’s leading pipe manufacturer and integrated oilfield solutions supplier ChelPipe Group reports a second installment of money has been received as part of the syndicated credit line opened to the company by a club of six major international banks in December 2017. According to the company’s press service, the second tranche ($24m and €10m, to be repaid within the next four years) got provided by ICBC Bank, Banca Intesa, Commerzbank (Eurasia), PAO Rosbank, and Agricultural Bank of China. Raiffeisenbank acts as the facility agent in the case. The

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, October 1, 2018. A refractory lining resistance record was set for the twin hearth furnace (THF) of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Electric Steel-Smelting Department this month, MMK Information & PR Department reports. The periclase-carbonaceous refractory lining remained three full months in THF No. 32 and withstood 1,265 melting rounds successfully. The last time a lining resistance record was broken was in 2005, when the inside lining held through 1,259 melting rounds. Being able to use the same lining for an increased number of melting operations means a

UrBC, Moscow, October 1, 2018. The Bank of Russia is adjusting its national payment system to comply with the international standards, so a new standard was adopted to regulate the financial messaging taking place when money gets transferred upon a customer’s initiative, the bank’s website indicates. ‘The standard provides a description of how the financial messaging system should operate in compliance with the international standard ISO 20022 and in compliance with the Russian national payment system law. The standard also covers all the basic interaction scripts for the actors involved in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 1, 2018. Ural Airlines offer a 50% discount to passengers with disabilities and a 20% discount to passengers aged 12-27 on its Zhukovsky-Tbilisi and Tbilisi-Zhukovsky flights on October 22, 2018-April 20, 2019. The discount is available to people in the 12-27 age group (20% off) and people with Group I disabilities and Group II and III lifelong disabilities (50% off). You can book your reduced-price tickets to Tbilisi between September 27, 2018 and April 20, 2019 at a booking office as long as you produce proof of eligibility. You can book a specific seat over the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 28, 2018. Ural Airlines offer passengers flying from Samara a 7% discount on their Tel Aviv flights if they book on the company website, the air carrier’s press service reports. The offer holds for Samara-Tel Aviv-Samara flights through October 17, 2018. The flights themselves will get operated between November 8, 2018 and March 28, 2019 (with the exception of December 27, 2018-January 10, 2019). The 7% discount is only offered if you book online at www.uralairlines.com. ‘Tel Aviv is a city that is never dull. Israel’s largest resort offers plenty of walking and

UrBC, Moscow, September 28, 2018. Russia’s Economic Development Ministry recently confirmed its original forecast for the expected USD/RUR exchange rate: 1/64 by the end of the year, Prime refers to Minister Maxim Oreshkin as stating. ‘As I said earlier, our end-of-the-year forecast is still RUR 64/USD 1: this is, approximately, the level the ruble should essentially stay at under current conditions. So this is more or less the level expected to last till the end of the year,’ Oreshkin said in answer to the question as to what exchange rate the ministry expected to see in late December.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 28, 2018. Ural Airlines are introducing a new flight from Moscow Region’s Zhukovsky Airport to Almaty (Kazakhstan) and back. The flights will be available on weekdays starting from December 24, 2018. ‘You can go on a business trip or a vacation on Almaty-Zhukovsky flight five times a week, Monday to Friday. Flight U6 2463 to Almaty departs from Zhukovsky at 11:00 AM, flight U6 2464 to Zhukovsky departs from Almaty at 7:25 PM local time,’ the company’s press service reports. Economy class tickets are available for as little as $185 (one-way) and $293 (round

UrBC, Moscow, September 28, 2018. There are still too many people living below poverty line in Russia, even though 2018 will likely be the first one in the last four years when working-age people’s and retirees’ disposable incomes are expected to go up, Interfax refers to Head of Accounts Chamber Alexei Kudrin as stating. ‘Poverty rate is still alarmingly high: 19.3m people, that is, 13.2% of the country’s population, live on less than a living wage,’ Kudrin said at the State Duma session Thursday. According to Kudrin, ‘this year will be the first one to result in growing disposable incomes:

UrBC, Moscow, September 28, 2018. The state-run company Dom.rf raised the interest rate it sets for mortgages, the company website indicates. The interest rate on a mortgage involving an existing home now comes to 10%-10.25% a year rather than the earlier 9%-9.25%. The interest rates on mortgages relating to new homes come to 9.25%-9.5% a year, depending on how large the down payment is. Urban Group’s apartments will be available for a 9.75% to 11% interest rate on a mortgage. Now the Bank of Russia determined in the course of a meeting on September 14 that the key rate would go up from 7.25%

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, September 27, 2018. MMK Group’s member enterprise Magnitogorsk Metal Goods Plant (MMK METIZ) is currently implementing its large-scale investment program on mastering new metal goods types and doing production upgrades. The investments are estimated to amount to more than RUR 2.5bn, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. According to head of MMK METIZ Sales Management Department Marina Kholopova, who presented her report at the 7th All-Russian Wire 2018 Conference in Gelendzhik, the upgrades program will run from 2017 to 2019. The goal is to strengthen the