UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2017. Moody‘s Investors Service upgraded Metcombank’s ratings, the bank’s press service reports. The bank’s long-term local currency and foreign currency deposit rating rose from B2 to B3, with the rating outlook adjusted from Positive to Stable; its adjusted credit rating went up from b2 to b3, and its long-term counterparty risk assessment changed from B1(cr) to B2(cr). Metcombank’s short-term local currency and foreign currency deposit ratings have remained the same (at Not Prime), as has its short-term counterparty risk assessment (Not Prime), with rating

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2017. Ural Airlines are now offering their customers direct flights to the Black Sea, the air carrier’s press service reports. For one, direct flights from Samara to Sochi, Anapa, and Simferopol are available already. ‘The Russian South has plenty of holiday-making options to offer and is well-known for its seaside, the sun, its dolmen stones and antique ruins, its horse-riding tours, off-road jeep adventures, health resorts, and much else besides,’ the press service says. Ticket prices for Samara-Simferopol flight start from 7,300 RUR (from 8,300 RUR in July

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, April 18, 2017. Russia’s General Board of State Expert Review completed its processing of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) project on the construction of a new sintering plant. Having looked into the application provided, the experts ruled the engineering survey results and project documentation bot meet the existing technical requirements and other norms and approved of the project, Magnitogorski Metall reports. MMK intends to put up a department for raw stuffs storage and treatment, a sintering department, a furnace gas desulphurization

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 17, 2017. ChTPZ Group and Pervouralsk Polytechnic School signed an agreement on implementing educational projects together during the 1st Research-to-Practice Dual Education Conference, the Group’s press service reports. The paper was signed by ChTPZ Group’s Director-General Alexander Grubman and the school’s Director Elena Marchenkova. Under the terms of this agreement, Pervouralsk Polytechnic School is now part of the Group’s Future of White Metallurgy corporate training program, a dual education project the Group has been running since 2011. Students on the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 17, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation is taking part in the 22nd International TransRussia 2017 Exhibition in Moscow on April 18-20, the company press service reports. The holding intends to present its new-generation cryogenic tank/cistern railcar that is currently unique to Russia. KTsM 40/0.7 was designed by the corporation’s member enterprise Uralcryomash for transportation and storage of liquefied natural gas and liquid ethylene. Uralcryomash is a well-established cryogenic equipment manufacturer that has contributed to space exploration programs. KTsM 40/0.7

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 17, 2017. Russian Copper Company Chair of the Board of Directors Igor Altushkin is now a member of M.I. Glinka Chelyabinsk State Academic Opera & Ballet House’s board of trustees, the company press service reports. The board’s first meeting took place on April 13, the Patron of the Arts Day. The trustees talked about how the design of the theater workshop/stage props and backdrops storage facility was proceeding and about the necessary capital repair. They could also see a presentation on Dream Kaleidoscope, a family musical featuring Chelyabinsk Region’s most

UrBC, Moscow, April 17, 2017. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) paid its eighth coupon yield on BO 5 Series bonds on April 14; the bond investors received 179.51m RUR in coupon yield altogether, the bank’s press service reports. The interest rate comes to 12% a year, which amounts to 59.84 RUR per share with face value of 1,000 RUR. The next coupon yield repayment has been scheduled for October 2017. The bank went through with its two-million BO 5 Series bond issue (total face value: 2bn RUR) in April 2013. In September 2014, the UBRD also had an additional bond issue

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 17, 2017. The amount of Internet traffic processed at Sverdlovsk Region-based shopping malls doubled this year, while the number of smartphones used there went up by 20%, the telecommunications provider MegaFon’s press service reports. Smartphones are now a customer’s best shopping helper. According to Nielsen analysts, Russian shoppers tend to rely on their smartphones to collect product information: 53% visit more than one website to find the best price offer, and 52% resort to social network discussions to make a decision. Quite a few do a price match online

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 14, 2017. New homes will be put up for sale in Yekaterinburg’s Akademicheskiy District’s Preobrazhensky Quarter in late April or early May 2017, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s Deputy Director Filipp Tretyakov says. ‘Ready-to-move-in homes have always been and remain our priority. This year, around 10% to 15% of new apartments were funded within the participatory share lending schemes; if this offer enjoys demand, the figure is likely to go up to 30%,’ he explains. Apartments on offer through participatory share lending contracts are now available in Preobrazhensky Quarter,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 14, 2017. Ural Airlines are offering free tickets for domestic flights to the Great Patriotic War veterans on the eve of Victory Day, the air carrier’s press service reports. Starting from April 17, 2017, fully funded economy class tickets are available to war veterans; people accompanying them on their flight can get theirs at a 90% discount. Flights will be operated from Moscow to Barnaul, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Irkutsk, Kaliningrad, Mineralnye Vody, Novisbirsk, Omsk, Rostov-on-Don, Saint Petersburg, Simferopol, Sochi, Tomsk, Ulan Ude, Ufa, and Yekaterinburg on May

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 14, 2017. ChTPZ Group shareholder Andrei Komarov signed an agreement to finance a children’s musical school at Chelyabinsk Opera House this year, the company’s PR Department reports. On April 12, the agreement was signed in M.I. Glinka Chelyabinsk Academic Opera & Ballet Theater during Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Boris Dubrovsky’s meeting with the theater’s board of trustees (where the Group’s shareholders Andrei Komarov and Alexander Fedorov are members). During the meeting, a presentation was made of Dream Kaleidoscope, a family musical featuring the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 14, 2017. Ural Airlines are to operate a special flight to bring the Holy Fire from Jerusalem to the Urals, the air carrier’s press service says. A large delegation from Yekaterinburg Diocese is heading for the Holy Land to take part in the Holy Fire ceremony. Their trip was funded by Russian Copper Company,’ the press service says. The delegation comprises local parish goers, benefactors, and a quite a few teachers and heads of educational establishments. While in the Holy Land, they will go on guided tours of major Jerusalem pilgrimage destinations and will get to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 14, 2017. Rosset’s Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems will direct 1.1bn RUR to repairing grids in the Greater Urals this year, the company press service reports. Most of the funds will be spent on repairing electric mains: 7,400 insulators are to get replaced, over 1,400 supporting beams will have to be repaired, and 432 km of ground wires are to be assembled. Also, it will be necessary to pull down around a thousand trees that might obstruct the mains and clear 5,700 hectares of main lines. Additionally, substations commutation equipment needs to be

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 13, 2017. ChTPZ Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) successfully underwent an audit procedure to prove its compliance with the ISO 14001:2004 environmental management standards, the Group’s PR Department reports. The plant’s environmental management system was found both functional and suitable. TÜV Rheinland Cert GmbH auditors looked into how well the plant met the environmental protection regulations and industrial environmental safety standards for pipe manufacturers. That PNTZ now holds an environmental management compliance certificate means the plant

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 13, 2017. Sverdlovsk Region’s Senior Federal Inspector Andrei Berezovsky made a tour of Russian Copper Company’s Uralgidromed’s production sites, Russian Copper Company’s press service reports. The visit to the plant took place on April 11 as part of the inspector’s business trip to Polevskoy. Uralgidromed’s Director-General Nikolai Azarov told the visitor about the know-hows of hydro-metallurgical production process that the company relies on. A special discussion was held on environmental protection solutions the plant has been implementing. ‘Uralgidromed has been

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 13, 2017. Russian Copper Company’s Kyshtym Copper Electrolysis Plant’s (KMEZ) copper-smelting department made 38,900,000 kg of anodes in the first quarter of 2017, providing anodes and copper powder for all of the plant’s copper electrolysis departments, Russian Copper Company’s press service reports. ‘This is the first time the plant’s copper-smelting department has produced so much in the course of one month,’ the press service says. KMEZ’s copper electrolysis department made 31,915,300 kg of copper cathodes in the first quarter of the year. Thanks to an

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 13, 2017. Ural Airlines offered its service to 1,334,352 passengers in the first quarter of the year, which was 28% more than one year previously, the air carrier’s press service reports. The airline operated 10, 256 flights in the given period, including 6,380 domestic ones, 1,521 international ones, and 2,355 flights around the CIS member states. This was 18% more than in the first quarter of 2016. The company’s passenger turnover amounted to 3,056,765,000 passenger-kilometers, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 30%. 467,188 passengers flew with the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 13, 2017. A Ural Federal District resident spent an average of 444 RUR per grocery shopping session last month, which was 1.6% less than in February 2017, Romir Holding’s research findings indicate. The country’s average came to 528 RUR in March 2017, which was 0.6% less than in February. The figure went down for nearly all kinds of shops except for supermarkets, where there actually was a 1.3% increase against February 2017. As for hypermarkets, the average receipt amount dropped by 1.3% last month. This amount also declined by 2.6% and 4.3% for discounters and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 12, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation recently got its all-purpose platform railcar 13-192-01 with a wooden floor and collapsible side panels certified by Federal Railway Transport Register for compliance with the Customs Union Regulations 001/2011. The certificate is valid for the next five years. According to the company press service, the railcar is meant for use in Russia, the CIS member states, the Baltic states, and everywhere throughout the 1,520-mm zone and is suitable for transportation of wheeled and caterpillar-tracked vehicles as well as long and bulky

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 12, 2017. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) got its new technology for making coking coal with the help of an upgraded dry-quenching plant patented, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Relations Center reports. The patent, titled ‘Ways of Improving Metallurgical Coke Quality’, states that NTMK now holds exclusive rights to the technology and enjoys the legal protection of this right through April 8, 2035. The patent was issued by Russia’s Federal Intellectual Property Service. ‘The new technology allows for less wasted coke during the