UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, April 24, 2017. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is getting the obsolete gas-filtering facilities at its electric steel-smelting department replaced with newer and more efficient units that will decrease the plant’s harmful atmospheric emissions dramatically. The emissions currently come from MMK’s DSPA 32, the THF steel-smelting vessel, the company reports. The replacements will cost 1.2bn RUR to go through with; the launch of the new units has been scheduled for July 2017, with an expected drop in emissions estimated at over 1,800,000 kg a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 21, 2017. EVRAZ Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) IT Directorate’s Senior Electric Equipment Engineer Alexei Raymov won the third prize in Glory to The Man of Labor, a professional skills contest coordinated in Ural Federal District. Raymov won in Mechatronics, the company press service reports. As part of his contest challenges, Raymov had to assemble, program, and launch a hydraulic pressure station meant for cylinder actuator control. The contestant completed all the wiring jobs and created the necessary programs. The unit was working perfectly

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 21, 2017. Ural Airlines are now offering a 30% discount on all of its flights, the air carrier’s press service reports. The offer only holds for four days (April 20-23, 2017), with tickets available on the company website www.uralairlines.com. Flights will be operated between May 1 and June 30, 2017; this is a limited offer. ‘This 30% discount gets added to the bonus points our Wings Club members collect. If you haven’t joined our loyalty program yet, you can always register at our company website and get the extra 500 bonus points that you can use up immediately

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 21, 2017. The telecommunications provider MegaFon Ural’s engineering made sure the network is ready for the spring floods, the company press service reports. ‘Since it has snowed so much since the start of the year, the floods might be 37% more massive in 2017 compared with the many years’ average amount. According to weather forecasts, the snow will start melting rapidly in the second half of the month, and people living in Karpinsk, Krasnoufimsk, Turinsk, Irbit, Talitsa, Turinskaya Sloboda, Baikalovsky, and other towns are at risk,’ the press service says. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 21, 2017. Thirty-eight Sverdlovsk Region-based organizations informed local employment centers that 5,539 people were leaving their jobs in January-Marchc 2017. This is more than twice last year’s number (2,678 people), Sverdlovsk Region Labor & Employment Department’s report states. Additionally, there are now more people working part-time in the Mid-Urals. Their number rose form 11,495 people on April 1, 2016 to 14,095 on April 1, 2017. 13,708 employees are currently working part time and 354 are faced with a downtime, and 33 people are on unpaid leaves. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 21, 2017. Sverdlovsk Region-based large enterprises proved the ones with the largest amount of loans among all businesses operating in Ural Federal District, Deputy Head of Russia’s Central Bank’s Ural Division Svetlana Furduy said at a conference on bond market trends in Yekaterinburg. According to Furduy, these companies’ gearing coefficient (editor’s note: loan dependence) came to 6.56 by the end of 2015. ‘This means the company borrows 6.56 RUR for every 1 RUR it owns. In 2014, the figure was 5.56’, Furduy said.

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, April 20, 2017. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) supplied 473,000,000 kg of metal goods to carmakers last year, which was 12.6% more than one year previously. ‘Automobile body sheets used to make 6% of MMK’s domestic market sales last year and made 6.5% of home market shipments this year. Given that, as Rosstat says, the Russian car-making market shrank by 7.4% in 2016, the increase of this company’s share of the market is even more impressive,’ the company says. This trend is particularly pronounced with foreign carmakers operating localized

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 19, 2017. Two tanks and a self-propelled artillery unit belonging to Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) are going to head the wheeled and tracked military vehicle parade in Chelyabinsk on May 9, Victory Day. All the three machines date back to the Great Patriotic War times, the corporation’s press service reports. These are the only functioning historic samples of wartime vehicles in the area, which is why they get used by Chelyabinsk Station in the annual V-Day Parade during May break. The procession rehearsals take place well in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 19, 2017. The 1st all-Russian research-to-practice conference on the standards, technologies, and best practices in dual education was held in Moscow during the International Education Show. The conference was coordinated by ChTPZ Group, the International Association for Corporate Education (MAKO), and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI). The Group’s PR Department reports the three days of the conference comprised some twenty discussion sessions, methodology workshops, and master classes. Over six hundred people took part in the event’s business

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 20, 2017. Sinara Group’s Sinara Development is now offering its customers a chance to buy a new home in Yekaterinburg without a down payment and to get a portion of the money back into their settlement account. According to Sinara Group’s PR Center, the offer takes into account the needs of customers willing to buy their own apartment on a mortgage but not having enough savings to start. Under the terms of the new offer, customers can take out a loan at SMP Bank to buy a place in Svoi Krug, Peremena, and Solnechny (currently under construction). The loan is expected

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 20, 2017. The 2nd annual job safety conference was held in Chelyabinsk on April 13-14. The event was part of the all-Russian Work Safety Week and was coordinated by Russian Copper Company’s Environment, Work & Industrial Safety Department and Chelyabinsk-Vostok-Service, the company press service reports. The conference was attended by forty-nine managers and job and industrial safety experts working at Russian Copper Company. This year’s agenda was larger than the previous year’s one and covered mastering new techniques and performance improvement mechanisms.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 20, 2017. Rosatom’s Ural Electrochemical Works (UEKhK) based in Novouralsk completed the upgrades of its monitoring and metering instruments and its process control system used at the solid radioactive waste treatment department, the company press service reports. As a result of these upgrades, the monitoring of SRW treatment and that of equipment and security systems is now fully automated. Additionally, the SRW treatment costs were reduced by fourteen times. The automated process control system allows for efficient monitoring of VIKMAX 400 grinding unit that was

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2017. EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Mine has produced 1,000,000,000 kg of coal this year so far, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s Corporate Relations Center reports. This is 19% better than one year previously, and as much as 25% better in terms of overburden operations. ‘Our mining team has been keeping up with their last year’s production and overburden operations tempo. To make sure everything runs efficiently and safely, the company is now upgrading its mining and transportation equipment on a large scale. Thanks to clever production process planning the mine’s output

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Omsktransmash manufactured and launched a recirculating water supply/cooling unit for its hot-forming line, the company press service reports. The new unit is meant to prevent overheating of the caterpillar track-making line. The unit consists of a 4-m3 tank, a heat transfer plant, and a number of booster pumps to ensure water recirculation. The plant used to rely on regular tap water for the purpose in the past, which resulted in great financial expenditure and energy costs. ‘According to the plant’s experts, a new unit like

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2017. EVRAZ Holding’s Kachkanar Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise (KGOK) recently supplied some pellets to Slovakia, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Relations Center reports. The order was placed by the country’s largest metallurgical enterprise U. S. Steel Košice. The shipment amounted to 10,000,000 kg of pellets. ‘The pellets meet the chemical composition and physical property requirements set out by the customer. The iron content comes to over 60%, and its great strength and homogeneity parameters ensure good quality metal output. KGOK pellets got tested

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2017. Rosset’s Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems enforced stricter control and surveillance measures for its Urals-based electric mains and substations because of the likely floods, the company press service reports. Should this prove necessary, the company team is fully ready to react to possible emergencies in Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Kirov, Orenburg, and Kurgan Regions as well as in Perm Territory and Udmurtia. There are over 17m people living in the area altogether. The company engineers are currently busy inspecting the main sections that are most

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Director-General Alexander Potapov met with the head plant’s employees, the company press service reports. The meeting was held with the plant’s trade union committee, with the DG focusing on the current business situation and holding a Q&A session for the committee members. ‘We are currently in a moderately stable state. The corporation was founded ten years ago this year, and has grown to be a key business both in Russia and abroad. We are proud to work here and proud of the goods we make. We do face some difficulties,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2017. ChTPZ Group is going to present its White Well Project at Neftegaz 2017, a major oil and gas exhibition. The project is currently unique to Russia, the Group’s Communications Department reports. ‘The White Well Project involves the Group’s pipe-manufacturing and O&G sector-servicing divisions and touches upon selection, production, and delivery of submersible equipment and further after-sale services. Our White Well equipment sets have been tested successfully and are now being used by Russia and the CIS member states’ largest oil and gas companies.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2017. EVRAZ Holding’s member enterprises are holding their fourth annual Safety Week on the eve of World Work Safety Day, the company press service reports. This year, special events will get hosted by the company production sites to draw attention to transport and gas safety issues. Besides, both EVRAZ workers and local residents will get training in environmental awareness, the benefits of a healthier lifestyle, and household safety rules. Safety Week will also feature work meetings on how to ensure safety in gas-containing locales, on transport safety, and on

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2017. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) is now offering reduced mortgage interest rates starting from 10.8% a year, the bank’s press service reports. ‘The decision has been brought about by the current market situation. We’ll deal with this on a case-by-case basis, with the actual interest rate depending on the type of mortgage, the borrower category, and the size of the down payment,’ says UBRD Mortgage Director Lyubov Toropitsina. Toropitsina says the bank is designing its own mortgage schemes without any outsources’ help, so the UBRD