UrBC, Magnitogorsk, August 27, 2018. MMK Group-run and -sponsored Metallurg Charity Foundation coordinated a meeting to discuss the upcoming School Start Day in Magnitogorsk, MMK press service reports. The meeting was attended by heads of local children’s clubs and schools, Head of Magnitogorsk Social Welfare Department Irina Mikhailenko, Head of Magnitogorsk Education Department Natalya Safonova, members of Metallurg’s Board, and a number of sponsors. MMK allocated more than RUR 145 for its multi-aspect children’s support project in the seven months of 2018; School Start Day celebrations are

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 27, 2018. Yekaterinburg-based travel company Fond Mira announced it was going into liquidation and was no longer offering international travel services. According to Rostourism’s press service, the company will now get written off the list of Tourpomoshch Association and will eventually get its personal liability fund money back. Starting August 24, a list of the company’s third-party liabilities will get made and extended. Fond Mira’s management claims, however, that all of its obligations will have been settled by then already. Still, an ad hoc support center and

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, August 27, 2018. MMK Group’s member enterprise MMK-Ugol launched new filtering facilities at its Kostromovskaya Mine; incidentally, the mine started operating exactly ten years ago this month. Provisional Governor of Kemerovo Region Sergey Tsivilev and MMK’s Director-General Pavel Shilyayev both attended the opening ceremony, the company press service reports. The plant’s new filtering system will get introduced in several steps. First, the plant’s mafiuacturing water will now get filtered additionally at the speed of 405 m3/hour (rather than 300-400 m3/hour as was the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 27, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) and Nizhniy Novgorod Region’s Agriculture Ministry reached an agreement on preferential-terms lending for local agricultural businesses and farms. This means the UBRD is now among the authorized banks that joined the preferential-terms lending program (with backup/compensation from Nizhniy Novgorod Region’s budget funds), the bank’s press service reports. The bank’s Nizhniy Novgorod branch has already signed a 150-million-ruble lending agreement with Linda Group. The loan has been issued for a

UrBC, Moscow, August 27, 2018. Only one in three Russian travelers (33%) buys a guided tour from their tour operator when vacationing abroad, tutu.ru’s press service refers to the travel service’s recent survey findings as indicating. Every one in two respondents (49%) said they were their own guides, that is, they normally rented a car or used public transport to get to the famous landmarks. 18% of those surveyed tend to book their guided tours from a street booth. In their opinion, this is often less expensive than buying from a tour operator.

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, August 24, 2018. ChelPipe Group’s net profit (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) came to RUR 5.621bn in the first half of 2018, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by as much as 168%, the company press service reports. The company’s revenues amounted to RUR 94.941bn in the first half of the year, up 31% on a year earlier. The Group’s gross profits came to RUR 23.477bn (+36% on a year earlier). ChelPipe Group’s EBITDA increased to 17.1%. According to the company’s analysts, this was due to improved performance through larger output

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 24, 2018. EVRAZ Holding opened a Miners’ Dynasties Photo Exhibition in Mezhdurechensk in celebration of the upcoming Miner’s Day, the holding’s press service reports. There are twenty photographs in the exhibition altogether, featuring families of Kuzbass miners from Mezhdurechensk, Novokuznetsk, and Malinovka; the photos were taken by Pavel Markelov and Denis Rassokhin. The collection is now housed by the city’s Exhibition Hall. The people in the photographs are six labor dynasties: the Kutzes from Raspadskaya-Kokskovaya Mine, the Titovs and the

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, August 24, 2018. MMK Group’s asset MMK METIZ made RUR 260.7m in net profit in the second quarter of the year, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 1.7 times, the Group’s press service reports. The company’s net profit reached RUR 413.42m in the first half of the year overall, which was actually 40% less than in the first half of 2017. MMK METIZ’s sales revenues came toRUR 11.513bn in January-June 2018, which was 20% more than one year earlier. Second quarter’s sales amounted to RUR 6.13bn, which was 14% more than one year earlier.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 24, 2018. Twenty of Komi’s remotest locations will get stable mobile connection and high-speed Internet access in the first quarter of 2019 thanks to MegaFon; the company intends to invest more than RUR 110m in the constituency’s digital development, the ISP’s press service reports. The Republic of Komi’s Government and the digital operator MegaFon agreed to invest in the territory’s communications development together. A large-scale telecom construction works will soon be taking place in Komi’s poorly accessible and remote locations in order to introduce better

UrBC, Moscow, August 24, 2018. The Bank of Russia will refrain from buying foreign currency for the Russian Finance Ministry between August 23 and September 30, 2018. ‘The decision was made in order to make the financial authorities’ actions more predictable and to decrease the forex markets’ volatility. The eventual decision to resume buying foreign currency will be taken based on the actual financial market situation throughout September 2018,’ the bank states. The last period the Bank of Russia halted its foreign currency purchases was six days long, and the Central Bank purchased larger

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 23, 2018. More than 1,000,000 kg of beams made at EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Plant (NTMK) got used to build an agricultural facility in Voronezh Region. According to the company’s press service, another 1,000,000 kg of 25 SH1 and 30 SH1 H-beams (length: 10 meters to 13 meters) will get delivered onto the construction site before the end of summer. The beams will be used to put up the roof of the building. EVRAZ NTMK makes over three hundred different types of H-beams with various properties by customer’s order. The beams are used for

UrBC, Moscow, August 23, 2018. It appears people working in the trade and service sectors are the most active applicants for micro-loans this year. They received, respectively, 25.7% and 24.9% of all micro-loans issued in the first half of 2018, the micro financing organization SmartCredit reports. According to SmartCredit, the largest share (18.2%) of micro-borrowers in 2016 was made up of production sector workers. In 2017, those employed in the trade and service sectors outstripped the production sector employees and continue to do so this year. Thus 16.6% of micro-loans got issued to

UrBC, Moscow, August 23, 2018. 64% of Russians who took part in a recent survey say they now have to have more cash with them when traveling abroad in order to pay for their meals, guided tours, bus fares, and so on, OneTwoTrip’s press service refers to its recent research findings as indicating. 17% of respondents said they still found it hard to keep within their original budget and ended up spending more. ‘On-the-spot everyday expenses make up a big share of travel-related costs and prove a key factor in deciding where to go on vacation. A rather low-key dinner or lunch at some European

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, August 23, 2018. Officers from Troitsk Customs Point, Chelyabinsk Region, handed over 188.2 kg of beef tongues (Duty Number: 0206210000) imported from Denmark to Rosselkhoznadzor authorities, the latter’s press service reports. The shipment containing foods whose import to Russia is prohibited was going from Zatobolsk, Kostanay Region, Kazakhstan, to APK NaturProdukt in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region. It was determined that the waybill information did not quite match the data stated on the veterinary certificate: while APK NaturProdukt was stated as the consignee, the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 23, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region-based customers got RUR 6.2m back upon returning poor quality products in the first half of 2018, the local division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) reports. 1,342 customer complaints got placed with the agency in January-June 2018; most of them had to do with smartphones, household appliances, and furniture. It is also reported that the share of faulty items rose in the first half of 2018 compared with one year earlier. For one, the share of poor quality household cleaning products went up from 34.4% to 52.9%;

UrBC, Moscow, August 22, 2018. 57% of Russians who took part in tutu.ru’s recent survey say they would be willing to cancel their international trips if the EUR/RUR exchange rate rose to more than RUR 80 to RUR 90 per €1, the travel service tutu.ru reports. ‘We conducted a survey after the currency exchange rate started fluctuating to see what changes would make our travelers reconsider going abroad. 4,300 respondents shared their opinions on August 13-20. It turns out that the EUR/RUR exchange rate of 1/80 is the ‘psychological benchmark’ that would be decisive in this respect,’ the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 22, 2018. Only 7,000 out of Russia’s 400,000 customers on the foreign exchange market are actually doing their business with legal, Central Bank-registered forex dealers, head of Forex Dealers’ Association Evgeny Masharov announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘Only eight companies who are the Association members actually meet all of the Central Bank’s requirements. This means that more than two hundred other companies have been operating with no proper permits, so the customers are facing risks in trusting such market players,’ Masharov said. According

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 22, 2018. 4,680 lost luggage claims have been placed with Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport in the first half of the year, the airport’s press service reports. The airport’s passengers have checked in more than 846,000 pieces of luggage in these six months all in all. The share of lost items thus came to 0.56% of the entire number. Koltsovo Airport has also introduced an online luggage search system by now.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 22, 2018. MMK’s annual guitar poetry festival will be held at Gornoye Ushchelye Children’s Center on September 1, the company’s press service reports. This is the nineteenth time the festival will be held this year. Members of MMK Group’s trade union are expected to take part in the event. The goal is to promote art songs and single out the talented authors and performers who could represent MMK Group at the All-Russian amateur guitar poetry festivals. Besides, the event is meant to help performers of guitar poetry, amateur songs, hiking songs, and other

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 22, 2018. MMK Group’s Perm Territory-based Lysva Metallurgical Plant (LMZ) made RUR 430m in net profit (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) in the first half of 2018, compared with RUR 275 in net loss one year earlier, MMK refers to the company’s financial report as stating. LMZ’s revenues rose by nearly 2.4 times, up to RUR 6,798bn, its gross profit rose by 3.2 times, up to RUR 1.051bn. Sales revenues increased by 3.3 times, up to RUR 721m. The plant’s long-term liabilities dropped from RUR 4.276bn at the start of the year down to RUR