UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Director-General Alexander Potapov coordinated his first meetings with subordinates during his visits to the corporation’s Nizhniy Tagil-based member enterprises, the company press service reports. For one, Potapov paid a visit to Ural Vagon Zavod’s head plant’s key departments such as the Railcar Assembly, the Metallurgical, and the Mechanical Assembly ones. ‘The head plant currently has plenty of orders for both civilian and military-purpose goods to work on. We keep focusing on the defense procurement requirements as part

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2017. Kortros Group (formerly known as Renova StroyGroup) is now among Russia’s top twenty housing developers in terms of the amount of housing commissioned last year, the company press service refers to the National Housing Developers’ Union (NOZA) data as indicating. Kortros Group got 237,000 m2 of new housing commissioned throughout Russia last year, which was over 50,000 m2 more than one year previously. Most of the new apartment buildings were put up in Akademicheskiy District in Yekaterinburg and in Prima Park in Scherbinka, Moscow Region, Bogorodsky,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2017. MegaFon announced the launch of its 4G network services in Nizhniy Tagil, Kamensk-Uralsky, Serov, Asbest, and Zarechny, the telecommunications provider’s press service reports. ‘This super-fast mobile Internet connection through our LTE network is now available to 700,000 more people based in Sverdlovsk Region. They can get webpages opened instantaneously, watch videos, and play online games comfortably. Over 3m locals are now covered by our reliable connection options, which amounts to 70% of Sverdlovsk Region’s population,’ the company press service

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2017. Sverdlovsk Region-based agricultural units produced 690,200,000 kg of potatoes last year, which was 11% less than one year earlier, according to Sverdlovskstat. The agricultural organizations’ potato yield actually shrank by 16.8%, down to 102,900,000 kg, whereas private individuals and farmers/sole traders produced 480,100,000 kg (-9.4%) and 107,200,000 kg (-11.8%) kg of potatoes, respectively. In point of fact, output figures went down for most other agricultural production categories in the area. For one, grain production dropped by 5.16% last year

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2017. The company’s former Senior Engineer Vyacheslav Gagarinov was appointed the new Managing Director of TMK’s Sinara Pipe Plant (SinTZ), TMK press service reports. Gagarinov’s predecessor Vyacheslav Popkov will now work as TMK Deputy Director-General for Production. ‘Vyacheslav A. Gagarinov was born in Kamensk-Uralsky in 1974. He graduated from Ural State Technical University’s Department of Machine-Building with a degree in Engineering (Metal-Cutting Machines). He later completed a continuous professional development program in economics and business

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, March 20, 2017. A group of AvtoVAZ delegates, chaired by CEO Nicolas Moore, paid a visit to Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK). The visitors went to MMK oxygen converter shop and Sheet-Rolling Department 11 with its brand new cold-roll unit meant for making high quality automobile body sheets. Delegates from MMK’s largest car manufacturing partner looked at how automobile body sheets are made, including those for AvtoVAZ’s latest makes Lada Vesta and Lada X-Ray. For these makes, MMK has been supplying AvtoVAZ with pilot and production batches of

Getting one’s education abroad is an option still considered by many Russian students, despite the recent years’ political and economic troubles. For one, Education Abroad International Exhibition is held in Yekaterinburg for the 13th time this year. New York Film Academy representatives attended the event for the first time this year; their plan is to keep working with the local organizations in the future and coordinate a number of workshops throughout the year. Irina Tokmantseva of Education Abroad Yekaterinburg says the younger locals are quite interested in pursuing a career in arts. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 17, 2017. Following Sinara Transport Machines’ Kalugaputmash Board of Directors’ decision, Valeriy Savchenkov will assume office as the plant’s Director-General on March 13, 2017, Sinara Group’s press service reports. Valeriy V. Savchenkov was born on January 2, 1976. He graduated from Bryansk State Technical University with a degree in Economics and Business Management. Savchenkov started working as an electric jobs technician at Lyudinovsky Locomotive Plant in 1994. He held managerial positions at the plant’s subsidiary Remputmash in 2010-2013. Starting from

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 17, 2017. Players from Ural Football Club paid their first visit to the site of Yekaterinburg Arena; the stadium is currently being rebuilt by Sinara Development in time for the world football championship of 2018, Sinara Group’s press service reports. All the key players, coaches, and the club management, including President Grigory Ivanov, came to their future games location. ‘Sinara Development’s Director-General Timur Ufimtsev told the visitors about the construction progress and about the stadium’s technical parameters. The footballers took a stroll around the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 17, 2017. Ural Electro-Chemical Plant, Novouralsk-based asset of Rosatom’s TVEL, made 22.9bn RUR in revenues last year, the plant’s Director-General Alexander Beloussov announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘This wasn’t one of our best years, but the plant managed to keep operating stably and retain its share of the uranium enrichment market despite the economic crisis and fierce competition. 22.9bn RUR is our peak revenue figure in the last five years. The plant’s net profit thus reached 6.4bn RUR,’ Beloussov said. According to Beloussov, the plant

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 17, 2017. Ural Airlines’ performance indicators improved considerably in the last year, with results much better than the sector’s average, the air carrier’s press service reports. The airline’s passenger traffic rose by 19% (compared with a 3.8% overall drop in the Russian civil aviation sector), payload rose by 3.5% (compared with -1.3% in the country on the whole), and the airline’s share on the national market rose by 1.5%. ‘The increase in passenger traffic and improved performance efficiency resulted in much better key financial performance indicators: the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 17, 2017. The average monthly pay came to 32,759 RUR in Sverdlovsk Region last year, which was 2.1% less than in the year 2015, in comparable prices, Sverdlovskstat reports. Locals’ factual pay keeps going down for the third year in a row. The average monthly amount shrank by 1% in 2014 and by 10.1% in 2015, whereas their factual income declined by 3.2% in 2014, by 6.4% in 2015, and by 6.2% in 2016.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 16, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s railcar-building management system now officially complies with the International Railway Industry Standard, the company press service reports. A certificate to this effect was issued by Russian Register and is valid through January 23, 2020. ‘The certificate proves that the head plant’s management system was thoroughly looked into and found to meet the IRIS requirements with respect to design, development, and production of freight platforms and tank cars. Certified were the railcar body, body parts, bogies, coupling gear,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 16, 2017. Rosset’s Federal Grid Company United Energy System completed the upgrades of protection relays and automation equipment at one of Orenburg Region’s key energy hubs, the 220-kilowatt Kargalinskaya Substation, the company press service reports. This resulted in more reliable power supply for the industrial end users, households, and oil and gas companies in Orenburg Region. ‘The 220-kilowatt switches were fitted with up-to-date digital, microprocessor-based devices; differential bus protection was introduced as well, as was an automated process control

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 16, 2017. The pipe manufacturer TMK delivered its first batch of boring pipes with TMK UP EXD pipe joints to AO Samotlorneftepromkhim, TMK press service reports. ‘Our new pipe joints are better than their first-generation versions in many respects. For one, the improved design has ensured more efficient hydraulic parameters during boring jobs. Next, TMK UP EXD joints are suited for higher torque factors than the earlier TMK UP TDS ones (+20%). Also, a differently shaped section reduces the wear of coupling threads caused by assembling and disassembling of drill

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 16, 2017. Sverdlovsk Region-based employers owed their workers 7.763m RUR in unpaid salaries and wages as of March 1, 2017, which exceeded the figures for early February by 2.1 times, Sverdlovskstat reports. At the same time, the figure is 30.8% lower than on March 1, 2016. It is reported that money is owed to 311 workers all in all.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 15, 2017. Russian Copper Company’s Kyshtym Copper Electrolysis Plant in Kyshtym got a new charging machine for its copper smelting department, the company press service reports. Charging machines are used for loading furnace charge into the copper smelting furnaces. The new unit was bought in order to replace the obsolete German Dango & Dienenthal equipment made in 1997. ‘It took Krasnoyarsk-based Henkon Siberia one year to make the charging machine for the plant. The machine is actually based on Dango & Dienenthal’s project, but this is an upgraded and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 15, 2017. Ural Airlines keep expanding the number of flights operated from Sochi, so a new direct flight from Sochi to Tbilisi will be available starting from May 1. The flight will be operated twice a week, every Monday and Friday, the air carrier’s press service reports. Prices start from 12,950 RUR for a round trip (all fees included). ‘The first things that come to mind when one thinks of Tbilisi are borjomi, khvanchkara, khinkali, khachapuri, the old city of Mtskheta, the Scioni Cathedral, and the breath-taking mountains. In addition to the numerous churches

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 15, 2017. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s Visa Maximum holders got nearly 4m RUR in cashback in the first three months within the launch of the new card type (between October 28, 2016 and January 31, 2017, that is), the bank’s press service reports. The cardholders made 193,000 transactions (total amount: 240m RUR) in the given period altogether. Under the terms of the cardholders’ agreement, 1% off every purchase gets transferred back to the cardholder’s account (10% off every purchase in special categories such as Cafes & Restaurants,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 15, 2017. Rusnickel’s Rezhnickel is planning to make 917 people redundant as the company is going in liquidation, Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Labor & Employment Department Natalia Bordyugova said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. The news of liquidation was first made public in January 2017. As UrBC reported earlier, the decision was made because of the falling nickel prices and London Metal Exchange. Rusnickel makes high quality nickel in Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprises and is Russia’s second largest nickel producer and supplier.