UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 5, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region Government’s debt decreased by 6.3% in January-February 2018, the government’s Information Policy Department reports. The constituency’s debt went from RUR 75.6bn on January 1, 2018 down to RUR 69.6bn on March 1, 2018. As to the debt’s structure, the share of marketable obligations dropped by 2.5%, while the share of debts related to loans provided from the federal funds reached 29.7%. Sverdlovsk Region’s Finance Ministry Galina Kulachenko announced earlier that the constituency’s debt would be fully paid off two years than initially

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 5, 2018. Prices went up by 0.9% on Yekaterinburg’s existing home prices compared with the beginning of the year, Ural Chamber of Real Estate’s analytical report states. Existing home prices rose by 0.3% in Yekaterinburg in the last twelve months. However, the average figures are down 11.5% against February 2015. Asking prices currently come to RUR 67,855 per m2 on average. In general, prices haven’t tended to decline this year so far, regardless of the housing type. Studio apartments grew 1.1% more expensive in the first two months of the year, with asking price at

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 2, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Kachkanar Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise (KGOK) had a new machine vision system installed at its palletizing department, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Relations Center reports. The new system is meant to control the quality of pellets and boost the indurating machines’ productivity by 7,000,000 kg a year, as well as to cut down on the plant’s natural gas spending. ‘The fully automated system allows for contactless measurement of pellet parameters in four indurating machines. Every machine is fitted with four granulometer units, each

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 2, 2018. Ural HR Forum will be held in Yekaterinburg this March with support from the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD); the forum will be dedicated to employee interaction at every stage from selection and recruitment to efficiency appraisal, the bank’s press service reports. Twenty speakers from Russia’s leading companies such as MTS, Danone Russia, HeadHunter, Beeline, Sberbank, and Ural Federal University will present their reports at the forum. The event will be held at the Angelo Hotel at 55A Bakhchivandzhi St from 10 AM to 6 PM. Ural HR

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, March 2, 2018. The year 2017 proved a special one for Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) thanks to a number of new production records set last year, the company press service reports. The plant’s hot-roll Mill 2500 reached a 180m-tons-of hot-rolled-metal-goods point last February after the initial launch in 1960. This rolling mill, one of MMK’s largest, is currently being reconstructed (with all the renovation jobs to be completed by 2020). This is expected to raise the mill’s production output from 3.6m tons to 5m tons a year. MMK is also planning to build a new

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 2, 2018. VTB Bank is coordinating Investor Day at the Hyatt Regency Yekaterinburg Hotel on March 3, 2018; the event begins at noon, the bank’s press service reports. Moscow Exchange and VTB Group’s leading experts, members of VTB shareholders’ counseling committee, investment companies representatives, and private investors are going to share their relevant investment ideas. VTB Group will present its financial performance report for the year 2017. Visitors to the workshop will learn about the bank’s new stage of business development and about its shareholder

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 2, 2018. Ural Airlines are starting a new, scheduled flight from Khabarovsk to Sochi, with a stopover in Irkutsk, on May 28, 2018, the air carrier’s press service reports. The flights will be operated on a weekly basis, so Russians living in the Far East and Siberia will be able to get to Sochi as fast as possible: the time in the air is now down by as many as three hours. U6 160 Khabarovsk-Irkutsk-Sochi will be available on Mondays, U6 159 Sochi-Irkutsk-Khabarovsk on Sundays. Prices start from RUR 15,715 for Khabarovsk-Sochi flights and from RUR 12,640 for

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, March 1, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is currently taking part in the international building exhibition UzBuild-2018 in Uzbekistan. The exhibition opened today, MMK Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. Uzbekistan’s market is one of MMK’s key interests in the CIS zone. The plant delivered more than 300,000,000 kg of metal goods to its Uzbek customers last year, which amounted to 80% of MMK’s Central Asia sales. ‘MMK is presenting a wide range of metal products at the event, most of these being meant for the building industry: hot- and

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, March 1, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) recently completed repairing and remodeling its central work wear and footwear depot, the plant’s Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. The renovation jobs were part of MMK Director-General Pavel Shilyayev’s special project; the goal was to improve the system of supplying the plant’s metallurgical workers with individual protective gear. ‘The old hangar that used to serve as a stock issue point has been replaced with a spacious, light-filled structure. New central heating and ventilation units were

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 1, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region-based companies’ consolidated profits (excluding small businesses) amounted to RUR 257.1bn in January-December 2017; this was 10.6% more than in 2016, Sverdlovskstat reports. 1,101 local businesses made RUR 279.2bn in profits, which exceeded the figures for the year 2016 by 5.7% and amounted to 7.6% of revenues stemming from sale of goods and services (compared with 8.5% in January-December 2016). 403 businesses incurred RUR 22.1bn in losses, which was 30.2%, or RUR 9.6bn less than in January-December 2016; the overall share of loss-making

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 1, 2018. 305 batches of poor quality alcohol produce (3,230 liters altogether) were confiscated in Sverdlovsk Region in 2017, Rospotrebnadzor’s regional division reports. Rospotrebnadzor officers inspected 557 alcohol-selling locations last year, with problems detected in 33% of cases (183 stores). ‘650 alcohol samples were taken, and 117 (18%) of them turned out unsatisfactory. This included 13 samples of imported drinks (2% of all samples),’ the division says. Problems were detected in samples of vodka, cognac, wine, and wine-based drinks. Following the checks,

UrBC, Moscow, March 1, 2018. Head of Rostourism Oleg Safonov believes over 1.5m people will arrive in Russia for the World Football Championship of 2018, Interfax reports. ‘We expect one and a half million people to come, but a more precise estimate will have to be based on ticket sales data (which will be over by the end of May). Perhaps the final figure will prove even larger than this. For the time being, we believe we are looking at a traveller traffic increase of 1.5m people,’ Safonov said. In the meantime, Yekaterinburg Council reported earlier they were counting on 100,000 visitors to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 27, 2018. The developer RSG Akademicheskoye is coordinating a series of tender to design two kindergartens, the company press service reports. The first tender has to do with design and survey work for a kindergarten fit for 250 children in Quarter 26, Akademicheskiy District, Yekaterinburg. The pricing negotiations will begin at RUR 2,474,752. The second one has to do with a scheme design for a kindergarten fit for 200 children in Quarter 10, Akademicheskiy District, Yekaterinburg. The pricing negotiations will begin at RUR 1,083,126. Candidate companies can

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 28, 2018. Students on ChTPZ Group’s Future of White Metallurgy Corporate Training Program won a dozen medals in Sverdlovsk Oblast round of the 6th blue-collar job championship WorldSkills Russia, the company press service reports. First-year student Ignatiy Yevdokimov won gold in Industrial Mechanics & Assembly. Third-year student and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s measuring and control appliances and automation technician Artem Ulyanov got a gold medal in Wiring. A third-year student on ChTPZ Group’s training program and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s energy

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 28, 2018. Ural Airlines is offering a 30% discount on all flights to be operated between March 1 and May 31, 2018 (as long as you book before March 4 and fly back before June 9, 2018), the air carrier’s press service reports. The offer applies to the Black Sea resorts, European cities, and destinations in China and the CIS member states. For more information, please visit the comapny website uralairlines.com. ‘To save even more money on your flight, you are invited to join Ural Airlines’ Wings Club. You get a welcome bonus of RUR 1,000 when you sign up on the

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, February 28, 2018. MMK Group’s Shlakservis made 1.17m tons of metal-containing particles for Magnitogorsk Iron & Still Works (MMK), the Group’s Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. This production output of 2017 outstrips everything the plant has produced on an annual scale so far. The magnet particles get extracted from the byproducts supplied by the blast furnace, electric steel-smelting, and converter departments; Shlakservis supplies MMK with a ferrous stuff that brings down the cost of metallurgical production considerably, helps cut the plant’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 28, 2018. Yekaterinburg residents’ housing bills rose by 11.6% in 2017 compared with one year earlier, Yandex.Dengi states. In 2016, a monthly housing bill paid online amounted to RUR 2,910 on average. A year later, the figure rose by 11.6%, according to Yandex.Dengi’s data. All in all, locals’ everyday expenses increased by 1.5 times in the course of one year. In 2016, an average local spent RUR 83,000 a year on housing, telecommunication services, household appliances, and remodeling; in 2017, the figure was RUR 122,000.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 26, 2018. A Children’s Singing School opened within M.I. Glinka Chelyabinsk State Opera House with support from ChTPZ Group shareholder Andrei Komarov, the company press service reports. The singing school stems from the Children’s Musical School. The goal is to ensure the development of gifted young locals’ potential. ‘The children will learn signing, acting, choreography, and elocution with the help of experienced teachers, directors, choreographers, and musicians. The theater provided a special room to coordinate these classes. Students from Children’s Singing

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 27, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s business customers will now find it easier and cheaper to learn about the latest business management techniques and attend management gurus’ workshops, the bank’s press service reports. You can now sign up for businesspeople-oriented training programs at the bank’s branches in Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk. The training is coordinated by Business Education Center Group, a company that has dealt in management and employee training on the national scale since 1996. By signing up for the program through

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 27, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) received a thank-you letter and a memorial stele in recognition of its efforts to protect the environment and of its projects throughout the Year of The Environment in Russia/Year of Nature Reserves in Sverdlovsk Oblast,’ the holding’s press service reports. In 2017, EVRAZ NTMK had its dry coke-quenching plant upgraded, which reduced atmospheric emissions by 20%. This was part of the plant’s four-way agreement with Russia’s Ministry for Natural Resources & The Environment, Russia’s