UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 8, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development completed all the certification procedures and has recently been deemed one of MasterCard’s Principal Members, the bank’s press service reports. The new status allows the bank to issue and process MasterCards and work directly with the system rather than through a Russian sponsor bank. UBRD Bank Card Management Director Alexei Piskunov says this brings the bank to an entirely new level. ‘The new status will ensure a much better quality of service as well as offer the bank and its customers new opportunities

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 8, 2016. 40% (or more) of office space in Yekaterinburg’s recently opened business centers remains unrented, Ural-Hermes reports. The overall amount of available office space went up by 2% to 3% on average in the first half of the year. As of July 1, 2016, only 81%, 84%, and 78% of, respectively, Class A, Class B+, and Class B office buildings’ capacity were used. ‘Given the deteriorating economic circumstances and the tenant companies’ decreased paying capacity, many businesses are trying to cut down on their rental costs, usually by moving to smaller and worse

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 8, 2016. The amount of ferrous metal shipments handled by Sverdlovsk Railways in the first half of 2016 decreased by 8.8%, down to 4,800,000,000 kg, the company press service reports. Iron and manganese ore shipments also went down by 5.2%, down to 6,200,000,000 kg, chemical and mineral fertilizer shipments declined by 9.4%, down to 6,400,000,000 kg, industrial commodities and molding material shipments dropped by 8.6%, down to 4,400,000,000 kg, and cement, lumber, and chemicals shipments dropped by 2.1% (down to 1,200,000,000 kg), 6.2% (down to 1,100,000,000 kg),

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 7, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s UVZSHOP.RU is now offering tank helmets for sale, the company press service reports. Helmets from the company collection are made at the same enterprise which manufactures earphone-headsets for the Russian Armed Forces. The only difference between the actual make and the shop article is that the one at UVZSHOP.RU doesn’t have the special laryngophone-telephone headset options that are only useful in combat. The helmet headsets are used by the crew of combat and special-purpose vehicles. The piece protects the wearer from

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 7, 2016. EVRAZ Holding’s Uskovskaya Mine is now working on a new long face unit 50-10 with the estimated deposit of over 1,800,000,000 kg of valuable GZh coal, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s press office reports. Prior to the launch of the long face, a number of assembly jobs, capital mining operations, and drivage jobs had to be carried out. More than 3.5 km of mine opening had to be cleared up. Also, all the gas was drained from the working seam, with additional surface gas drainage ensured by the use of a degasification station in the process. The long face has been

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 7, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) started working with the Mir National Payment System on July 1, the bank’s press service reports. Mir cardholders can already use their cards to pay for their shopping at malls fitted with UBRD’s POS terminals, take out cash at the bank’s ATMs, and get the needed cash from the bank’s tellers. The ATMs also have a cash-in option and allow the cardholder to check their account balance and make payments and card-to-card transfers. ‘Accepting Mir cards is the first, and very important, stage from which

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 7, 2016. Workers of ChTPZ Group’s Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant are going to celebrate Metallurgist’s Day on July 15-16, the company press service reports. The two plants are going to award their best employees with certificates and thank-you letters from the company and the industry ministries. ‘Special shows and concerts have also been prepared for the plants’ long-service employees at our Culture Palaces’ the press service says. Chelyabinsk and Pervouralsk will both host sports competition and exhibition games between the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 7, 2016. Prices went down by 0.3% on average on Yekaterinburg existing home market in the last four weeks and by 3.2% compared with the start of the year; on average, the price decrease comes to under 0.1% a week, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. Compared with the peak prices of February 2015, homes can currently be had almost 11% cheaper. According to the chamber’s Analytical Department, the average asking price of a Yekaterinburg-based existing home came to 68,491 RUR per m2 on July 4. At the same time, some market segments are losing their value faster than

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 6, 2016. Students from Ural Federal University Higher School of Engineering are undergoing their first introductory internship at Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation in Nizhniy Tagil. The company press service reports fourteen students from Yekaterinburg, Perm, Magnitogorsk, Kirovograd, Chelyabinsk Region, and Kirov Region are studying system analysis and management, and this is the first time they find themselves on an actual production site. The internship is coordinated by UFU’s on-site Chair of Machine-Building (set up at Ural Vagon Zavod in 2014). A week-long

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 6, 2016. Director of Burevestnik Central Scientific Research Institute (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) Georgiy Zakamennykh presented three of the organization’s employees with state awards in accordance with the Russian Defense Minister’s order dated May 31, 2016, the company press service reports. Head of Department Sergei Chkalov received the Mikhail Kalashnikov Medal for his involvement in the commissioning of modern weapons and military vehicles. Chkalov has been working at Burevestnik for over two decades now and holds numerous honorary

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 6, 2016. Over 3,500 employees of Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) and Kachkanar Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise and their children are going to stay at summer camps and health resorts this season, with their trips and stays covered by EVRAZ Holding, the company’s Ural branch’s press office reports. The holding has already directed some 80m RUR to fund the employees and their children’s summer vacations. The kids are going to company camps Baranchinskiye Ogonki in Nizhniy Tagil and Chaika in Kachkanar and to a number of day camps in their

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 6, 2016. Metcombank increased its authorized capital by 12bn RUR; the decision was made at the bank’s annual general meeting, the company press service reports. The increase was made possible due to a new issue of ordinary shares (12m shares with nominal value 1,000 RUR each). ‘The Bank of Russia registered our report on the issue on July 1, 2016. Upon the registration of our share issue report by the state, the bank’s authorized capital officially amounts to 16bn RUR,’ the bank’s press service says. According to Metcombank Chair of the Board Dmitri Torbenko, an

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 6, 2016. Rental prices went down by 4% to 5% in Yekaterinburg shopping malls in the first half of 2016, Ural-Hermes’s research findings indicate. ‘It’s worth noting that prices will keep decreasing gradually enough, as a faster decline is impossible because of high inflation rate in Russia on the whole. This means rental figures will remain almost the same in nominal terms but their actual value will be going down considerably,’ the company states. According to Ural-Hermes’s analysts, quite a few shopping malls are switching from rent to a certain percentage of a

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, July 6, 2016. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) decided to redeem its Series 19 bonds on the day their 6th coupon period ends, July 21, 2016, the company reports. This decision pertains to all the bonds in the issue. The company went through with the 5bn RUR bond issue on July 25, 2013; originally, the bonds were supposed to have been in circulation till 2023.

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, July 5, 2016. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) designed a new product catalogue for carmakers to better suit their needs. ‘The new catalogue with a focus on car parts (http://mmk.ru/auto/) will help our car manufacturing customers choose the particular steel types necessary for this or that part. The catalogue features images of various parts of an actual automobile by one of the Russian carmakers as well as information on the types of MMK steels needed to make them. There are currently fourteen different car parts presented in the catalogue,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 5, 2016. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant/ChTZ (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) shipped a bulldozer fitted with a tree plucker to Saratov Region, the company press service reports. The machine is meant for foresters and pipe- and road-builders who need to clear their work sites from trees and stumps. ‘This bulldozer is a serially produced make, but this particular order is a bit unusual in that the machine was purchased by a private farm owner. The customer needed an all-purpose vehicle that could serve both as a bulldozer and a tree plucker and area

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 5, 2016. Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works/NTMK (a member enterprise of EVRAZ Holding) is now busy with scheduled repairs of its heat and power station, the one that supplies heating and electric power to the city of Nizhniy Tagil, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s press office reports. The company allocated over 250m RUR to get ready for the heating season 2016/2017. Nine power sources are to undergo overhauls: the station’s boiling equipment, two turbine power generating units, the steam-and-air unit, steam boilers, and so on. Additionally, parts of manifolds,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 5, 2016. West-Siberian Metallurgical Works/ZSMK (a member enterprise of EVRAZ Holding) is holding the company round of the blue-collar job championship WorldSkills, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s press office reports. The championship will be held on July 4-8, 2016 and will involve teams from ZSMK and Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works/NTMK. The contesters will have to demonstrate their skills in four categories: Electric Wiring, Production Control, Welding, and Mechatronics. ‘EVRAZ Holding decided to focus on hi tech categories, since these are the industries

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 5, 2016. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) delivered its first set of pipes meant for the construction of oil wells in the Arctic shelf to customer, the company press service reports. The pipes have been made by order of Gazprom Neft Shelf (Gazprom Neft’s daughter enterprise) for Prirazlomnoye oil deposit in the Pechora Sea. The order comprises casing pipes of various sizes with TMK UP PF premium threaded joints and GreenWell dry-dope coating, including H2S resistant pipes with strength grade L80 SS and P110 SS. The pipes were manufactured by Volzhsky Pipe Plant and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 5, 2016. A steam turbine got launched at the power station in Yekaterinburg’s Akademichesky District; the turbine generator got synchronized with the United Energy System and supplied 7 megawatts worth of power to the network, T Plus’s Sverdlovsk Region branch reports. The turbine was first checked at 3,000 rpm in an idle-run mode, with all its emergency control facilities set up and thoroughly tested. The turbine was brought to its projected capacity and then down to the technological minimum in order to test how efficiently the machine reacts to workload changes at