UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant keeps implementing its operation and maintenance and warranty services program for the company’s railcars, the company press service reports. To ensure the best service, the company management decided to focus on two primary tasks: maintenance and in-plant repairs of railcars. ‘First, a lifespan maintenance unit was set up to control our rolling stock. We landed contracts with railcar repair depots such as VRK-1 and VRK-2 as well as with a number of private depots that will store our spare parts for us. There are

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Uralcryomash is now making its new 15-5106 tank-type railcars (65.4m3 large) on a serial scale; the tanks are meant for transportation of liquefied natural gas and ethylene, the company press service reports. The first batch of five railcars got shipped to customers and will soon be in full use. The corporation’s press service says this new tank car is Uralcryomash’s unique development and the only such liquefied natural gas tank in the 1,520mm zone. This 15-5106 tank underwent a full cycle of certification audits and got

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2016. Russia’s first final repository for short-lived radioactive waste was recently launched in Novouralsk, NO RAO’s press service reports. The first batch of radioactive waste materials (47m3 in thirteen packs) got disposed of between November 28 and December 2. The event was attended by members of Novouralsk NGOs, the local nuclear facility representatives, and reporters, who could all watch the containers placed under the ground. The repository is an underground facility that meets all the new legislative standards and the IAEA requirements and is meant

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2016. Special workshops on how to make environmentally friendly New Year’s trees will be held at schools in Yekaterinburg’s Akademichesky District this week, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. Kids will learn how to make a tree out of paper, rags, coffee beans, clothes pins, cocktail straws, lace, and all sorts of buttons, beads, pebbles, and flowers. Some of the trees will be made from plastic, grocery plastic bags, and glass. Twenty ‘objets d’art’ of different shapes and sizes are expected to come out as a result. ‘The year 2017 is Russia’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2016. Ural Airlines are now offering their customers tickets for Yekaterinburg-Paris and Yekaterinburg-Rome flights at a special price: 17,100 RUR and 20,660 RUR, respectively, the air carrier’s press service says. Flights to Paris are operated every Thursday, those to Rome every Sunday. The ticket price covers one piece of luggage under 10kg. ‘Shopping for a new wardrobe during Europe’s traditional sales season or scrolling the numerous Christmas markets are both great winter break options. Ural Airlines invite you to enjoy the Christmas magic in one of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 8, 2016. Russia’s Industry & Trade Ministry sent a thank-you letter to Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko in order to thank the company for taking part in the 3d National WorldSkills Hi Tech Championship, the corporation’s press service reports. It is stressed that ‘the championship grew to become one of the most efficient ways to find and train potential employees and generate the most up-to-date approaches to blue-collar workers’ continuous professional development. F.E. Dzerzhinsky Ural Vagon Zavod Scientific & Production

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 8, 2016. Miners of EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Coal Company’s Uskovskaya Mine met this year’s target output figures and produced 2,000,000,000 kg of coal between January and November, EVRAZ Holding’s press office reports. The mine’s five drift crews have worked through over 9km of mine openings since the start of the year, with average labor productivity at 5.6m per worker a month (the best result throughout the company so far). Uskovskaya miners manage so well due to efficient organization of labor and the use of advanced equipment. For example, the mine is

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 8, 2016. ChTPZ Group, Chelyabinsk Region Education & Science Ministry, and A.V. Yakovlev Chelyabinsk State Vocational School signed a trilateral agreement on a public-private partnership (a five-year training program), the Group’s press service reports. The paper was signed by the Group’s pipe division’s Director-General Alexander Grubman, Minister Alexander Kuznetsov, and the school director Natalya Pimenova. The idea is to introduce and promote a dual education system in Chelyabinsk, with learning time divided between theory (40% of time) and practice (60%

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 8, 2016. The share of online transactions made via a smartphone browser or app came to 70% of all e-banking transactions at the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD); one year earlier, the figure was only 50%, the bank’s press service reports. Mobile banking grew more popular both because increasingly more people now own smartphones (Yandex reports 29% of unique web page hits come from mobile devices, 75% of which are phones) and because m-banking options are now much more diverse. ‘Our customers’ feedback shows clearly that they are no longer

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 8, 2016. Mobile phone users based in Ural Federal District are moving their phone numbers and accounts to the telecommunications provider MegaFon increasingly more often, the company press service reports. Based on the available data, the number of MegaFon’s new subscribers doubled compared with the beginning of the year. Interestingly, ‘mobile number migrants’ are typically men under thrifty-five (62%) rather than women (38%). According to MegaFon’s analysts, every one in four MNP applications submitted by subscribers in the Greater Urals gets submitted by

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil rounded up its annual flu vaccination campaign (fully covered by the company). According to the plant’s press service, over 12,000 people got flu shots altogether. This year, Russian vaccines based on A and B virus strains were used throughout the country. Ural Vagon Zavod purchased the trusted Russian vaccine Grippol+. Every plant worker could get a flu shot at the company medical lab or at any of the seventeen medical units located at the production departments. To make sure as many employees

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2016. ChTPZ Group and Rosnano’s joint venture, Chelyabinsk-based ETERNO is now making stamp-welded split tees with the help of nano-technologies; these are meant to serve as import substation products for the oil and gas industry. According to ChTPZ Group’s press service, the solemn opening ceremony of the production facility was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov, Rosnano Chair of the Board Anatoly Chubais, and ChTPZ Group shareholders Andrei Komarov and Alexander Fedorov. With ETERNO’s split

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2016. The telecommunications provider MegaFon is launching this year’s last large-scale smartphone sale this December, the company press service reports. New Year’s discounts will reach as much as 50% on certain types of smartphones and tablets; these special prices will be offered throughout the entire country as well as at the company’s online shop through January 31, 2017. More than a hundred different makes can be purchased at a bargain price this time, including Highscreen Spark-2 that comes in black, blue, orange, and yellow at half-price (1,745 RUR) and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2016. Ural Airlines are now offering their customers reduced-price plane tickets for Israel-bound flights, the air carrier’s press service reports. The offer is good for Samara-Tel Aviv-Samara flights starting from December 3, 2016. Tickets start from 7,160 RUR (one way) and 15,220 RUR (round trip), including one piece of luggage under 10kg. ‘A winter trip to Israel is a great idea for those going on a pilgrimage, those interested in ancient architectural landmarks, and those who enjoy wintertime landscapes. This is also a good choice for people looking for

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) paid its customers over 3m RUR within the framework of their ‘Bring A Friend’ program this year, the bank’s press service reports. Some 6,000 people joined the program and recommended the bank to their friends and acquaintances; as a result, the share of deposits opened at the bank based on friends’ advice rose from 5% to 14% against the beginning of the year. ‘People feel more comfortable settling for this or that particular bank if their friends or acquaintances recommend it. This kind of good

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 6, 2016. Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, Vice Premier Arkadiy Dvorkovich, Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov, Industry & Trade Minister Denis Manturov, and President of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov came to Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s stand at the 10th International Russia’s Transport 2016 Exhibition, the company press service reports. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko presented the company’s sample polymeric tank railcar meant for transportation of a wide range of chemicals. This KTsKh.PKM-25/0.4 tank was designed with

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 6, 2016. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) now makes 20P channel beams; 600,000 kg of these were shipped to customers in November, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s press office reports. The beams are hot-rolled from construction steels with the help of special mills. Depending on the customer’s needs, they can be made out of low-alloyed steel with improved performance characteristics. These 20P beams are popular with Russia- and CIS-based construction businesses and oil and gas companies. These beam types are particularly suitable for low

UrBC, Moscow, December 6, 2016. ChTPZ Group plans to sell over 1,700,000,000 kg of pipes by the end of the year, the company Director-General Alexander Grubman said in his interview to Interfax. ‘As we are now selling more goods that result in high margin profits, our revenues are expected to reach 130bn RUR by the end of the year, and approximately just as much next year,’ Grubman said. According to Grubman, the demand for pipe products will come to around 9.2 to 9.3m tons on the Russian market this year; the executive believes next year’s figures will be more or less comparable.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 6, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region’s annual price increase came to 5.8% compared with last year, Sverdlovskstat reports. Food items grew 5.8% more expensive, non-food items 6.6%. Alcohol drinks are now 7.2% more expensive, while the price of services rose by 5.2% on average. Inflation rate amounted to 5.2% in the Mid-Urals since the start of the year and to 0.5% in November 2016 against October 2016.

UrBC, Moscow, December 6, 2016. A draft bill that will speed up the lifting of the ban on leaving their home country for those who paid off their debts will probably be complemented by amendments that will also raise the upper debt limit that makes it illegal for the debtor to travel abroad, Vedomosti reports. The bill was drafted by the Justice Ministry and proposed to the State Duma in October; the lower chamber public construction and legislation committee intends to get the paper ready for the first hearing by December 8. People with 10,000 RUR or more worth of unpaid debts are now not