UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 13, 2019. Raspadskaya Mine's teams reached this year's target output ahead of schedule, extracting 6,500,000,000 kg of coal by early December. EVRAZ Holding's Raspadskaya Coal Company's management congratulated the miners on their success. According to the company's press service, miners at Raspadskaya Mine worked on three different coalfaces this year, with three stoping teams at work. The mine produced up to 750,000,000 kg of coal every year. To ensure efficient extraction and stoping performance, four new highly productive

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 13, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly Council confirmed the agenda for this year's final sitting. One of the points the deputies will be looking into is setting up the 8th administrative district in Yekaterinburg (District Akademicheskiy). The draft bill to this effect was originally initiated by Yekaterinburg Duma. 'Two draft bills concerning Yekaterinburg will be considered. Yekaterinburg Duma's proposal to set up District Akademicheskiy of Yekaterinburg as an administrative unit will be worked through in three readings at the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December13, 2019. MegaFon, Rostelecom, VimpelCom, and MTS signed an agreement of intentions to work together on the development of the fifth-generation communication networks in Russia. According to MegaFon's press service, the parties are looking into ways they could join their efforts in order to introduce the 5G subsystem within priority frequency ranges. 'We are also considering setting up a joint venture. In case a JV does get established, the company will deal in electromagnetic compatibility research and in finding new slots within the RF spectri of 700

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, December 12, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and Ausferr Tech & Research Center won the annual ComNews Awards in Best Industrial Solution/Best IT Project in Metallurgical Sector, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. ‘The award went to the two companies’ joint project on an information system that is meant to help manage technologies and product quality at an end-to-end cycle metallurgical enterprise. Starting as early as the nineties, MMK has kept working on production process automation and metallurgical appliances upgrades as well as on

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 12, 2019. According to NEYVA Bank, the Central Bank of Russia’s next meeting could result in the decision to bring the key rate down to as little as 6.25% p.a. Now the CBR’s upcoming meeting on December 13, 2019 will be dedicated to the future of the key rate. Financial analysts believe there are at least two possible scenarios: keeping the rate at 6.5% p.a or bringing it down. According to NEYVA Bank’s representatives, there are quite a few factors that could possibly affect the key rate dynamics, ‘from the world’s leading Central Banks’ policy to the inflation

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, December 12, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and G.I. Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University are going to take part in the 6th annual all-Russian VuzPromExpo 2019 in Moscow (opening today), MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. During the exhibition, the plant will be presenting a joint project on setting up a hi tech production facility that MMK is working on in collaboration with G.I. Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University. ‘The enterprise and the university are working to set up a hi tech production facility for the innovative

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 12, 2019. Volunteers from Gorod Pervykh (an environmental NGO created at the initiative of ChelPipe Group) cleaned up a new tourist route where Pervouralsk’s first Environmental Path will open in 2020, the Group’s press service reports. ‘The ten-kilometer-long route goes along the foot of the mountains next to the Chusovaya River from Kamenka to Nizhnyee Selo. Gorod Pervykh volunteers covered the route on foot in order to explore the area and clean up the river banks. The environmental event was scheduled around International Mountain Day and World Volunteer Day

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 12, 2019. ORMZ, EVRAZ Holding’s plant in Osinniki, Kemerovo Region, made 1m m2 of lags in the eleven months of 2019, EVRAZ Raspadskaya Coal Company’s press service reports. ‘Lags are used by stoping teams for rock lining on a daily basis. Based on the plant’s experts’ calculations, the amount they produced should suffice for 92 km of mine work,’ the press service says. The plant’s lag output increased dramatically due to some serious production upgrades and improvements in production processes. The plant’s employees made some engineering changes in the resistance

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, December 11, 2019. UiPath awarded MMK Group’s MMK-Informservice for the largest-scale RPA project among Russia’s production enterprises, Information & PR Department at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) reports. Sales Director for Russia at UiPath Artem Vinogradov presented the award to MMK Informservice’s Director Vadim Feoktistov and Head of MMK-Informservice’s Skills & Innovations Center Mikhail Verisov during his visit to MMK. ‘MMK Group’s Skills & Innovations Center definitely chose the right direction to develop and proved very efficient when

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 11, 2019. Ural Airlines will be operating additional flights to Prague, Barcelona, and Dubai around New Year to complement the airline’s regular schedule, the air carrier’s press service reports. There will be daily flights to Prague as well as weekly flights to Barcelona on Saturdays and six flights a week to Dubai. ‘The extra flights mean our customers will have even more trip-planning flexibility around New Year’s break: Flight U6 701 (Yekaterinburg-Prague) will be available on December 30 and January 6; Flight U6 702 (Prague-Yekaterinburg) will be available

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 11, 2019. OOO FORES’s Asbest branch keeps improving working conditions and working on a safer work environment, the company’s press service reports. Starting December 1, many of the plant’s employees started getting two breathing masks per shift rather than just one. ’This is one of the measures taken to improve the employees’ working conditions following a special assessment of the said conditions. The company’s respective committee carried out the ad hoc assessment procedure for the charge makers at the plant’s Propping Agents Department and Dry Grinding

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 11, 2019. Rosatom State Corporation’s new Skills Center opened at Novouralsk Tech School; this is the corporation’s first center to focus on training Industrial Automation experts, Ural Electrochemical Combine’s press service reports. Workers of Rosatom’s TVEL’s Novouralsk-based asset Ural Electrochemical Combine, employees of other nuclear industry-related enterprises that represent Rosatom and their divisions at WorldSkills Hi Tech, WorldSkills Competition, EuroSkills, and AtomSkills, and students and external customers are seen as the center’s primary target

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, December 11, 2019. ChelPipe Group’s 17th Snezhnost Charity Theater Festival opened in Chelyabinsk this week, the Group’s press service reports. Chelyabinsk Region’s Culture Minister Alexei Betekhtin, ChelPipe Group’s shareholder Alexander Fedorov, and People’s Artist of Russia Konstantin Raikin took part in the event’s opening ceremony. ‘The musical Look at Me Flying was this year’s opening play at Snezhnost, as it proved so popular in the past. The play was performed by the young actors from Children’s Singing School created at the initiative of and with support from

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 10, 2019. TVEL and Ural Electrochemical Combine’s management met with the NGO members and residents of Novouralsk and Sverdlovsk Region at the initiative of Rosatom State Corporation’s Public Council and with support from Ural Electrochemical Combine, the latter’s press service reports. The issues relating to safe treatment of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) interested the locals very much. First Vice President at TVEL Mikhail Zarubin stressed in his opening address that depleted UF6 was a strategic stock of a valuable resource vital to the Russian nuclear industry’s

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, December 10, 2019. Chair of the BOD at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov and Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Alexei Teksler held a work meeting to talk about a series of projects on Magnitogorsk’s socioeconomic development and about MMK contributing to National Projects, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. Governor Teksler said Chelyabinsk Region Government and Magnitogorsk Council worked in close cooperation with the plant. ‘Under your management, MMK has been making a positive impact on the development of Chelyabinsk Region in general

UrBC, Moscow, December 10, 2019. The telecom company MegaFon opened its first Experience Store with a focus on the customers’ digital experience at Metropolis Mall in Moscow. According to the company’s press service, this is their next step towards upgrading MegaFon’s retail network. Before the end of the year, a hundred outlets in different parts of Russia (including the Urals) will get updated as well. ‘Experience Store is a new format of a retail outlet. The place is four times bigger than MegaFon’s typical stores; smartphones and tablets, including the latest iPhone makes, are displayed

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 10, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) reduced the interest rates it charges on all of its mortgage options: the rates now start from 8.8% a year (8.6% for homes in buildings still under construction). According to the bank’s press service, you can also apply for a mortgage refinancing scheme starting at 8.8% a year; if you used your multiple-child allowance to cover a portion of your mortgage payments, the rate goes down to 8.9%; if you’d like to use your existing real estate as the loan collateral the rates start from 11.5% a year.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 10, 2019. Ural Airlines’ tickets for new, direct Moscow-Mumbai flight are now available for booking, the air carrier’s press service reports. Starting March 30, 2020, the flight will get operated four times a week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. All flights will get operated on Airbus А320neo liners; the flight is six hours and forty-five minutes long. ‘If you book before the end of the year, special price offer applies for the flights to be operated between March 30 and October 24, 2020: prices start from RUB 12,070 (€170) for Moscow-Mumbai flights

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2019. The share of vacant shopping space in Yekaterinburg malls has gone down from 13% in 2016 to 7% in 2019, Head of Analytical Department at Ural Real Estate Chamber Mikhail Khorkov says. ‘Back in 2016, 13% of mall space remained empty; this year, the figure had gone down to 7% on average and to 6% in the city’s largest shopping malls. In the meantime, rental prices show no signs of dropping, even though quite a few managing companies did adjust their prices inflation-wise. This means the conditions are ripe for the rental rates to start going down slowly,’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2019. Yekaterinburg still faces quality warehouse shortage, Development Director at Logopark.ru Vitaly Khil says. ‘There aren't enough conveniently located warehouses with a proper set of papers and quality buildings. For one, there’s a shortage of facilities under 10,000 m2 large located within the city. These places might charge you 15% to 20% more than the warehouses outside of Yekaterinburg Ring Road. We’ve had cases when Class C warehouses got rented for the price of a top quality facility because of their prime location,’ Khil said at at the Russian