UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, July 4, 2016. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Trading House keeps selling increasingly more highly durable steel to Krasnodar Territory-based CLAAS, TUCANO harvesters manufacturer. At the moment, 70% of the harvester’s parts are made from Russian steel. The plant and the trading house started doing business together even prior to the launch of the new production departments, when MMK delivered some pilot batches of metal goods to CLAAS plants in Germany. According to the terms of the contract the two parties signed in August 2015, CLAAS gets

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 4, 2016. 35 alumni of ChTPZ Group’s Future of White Metallurgy Corporate Training Program completed their compulsory army term in a unit in Gorny Shchit that the Group curates, the company press service reports. The demobilized alumni will now come to work at the Group’s finishing center for making OCTGs, the steel-smelting Iron Ozone 32 Department, and other pipe-rolling departments of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group). It is reported that 142 corporate training program alumni served their army terms in Gorny Shchit in the last four

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 4, 2016. A modern five-axis numerically controlled treatment unit was launched at Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil recently, the company press service reports. ‘The five-axis cutter head, high torque drives, and linear-axis optical scales allow for very high treatment quality and precision and offer an unlimited range of technological options,’ the press service says. The 2.6 x 4 m working area makes it possible to treat spare parts and billets of almost any size out of the entire existing range. There are three ways for the operator to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 4, 2016. Yurga Machine-Building Plant (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod) paid its 85m-ruble tax debt, the company press service reports. ‘The plant is currently undergoing a reformation period to increase its competitiveness and is, for example, producing machines at (almost) prime cost. The company has nearly no funds available, so all the advance payments get directed to salaries and wages and purchasing supplies necessary to make the machines. Despite the economic difficulties, the plant still managed to pay over 85m RUR to Kemerovo Region’s budget in June

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 4, 2016. Sinara Group and Siemens’s joint venture Ural Locomotives produced 2ES6 Sinara freight loco No. 600 in June 2016. According to the Group’s press service, the loco was launched on the eve of the plant’s sixth anniversary on July 1 and went straight to South Ural Railways to be used there. The new-generation DC freight locomotive with a collector traction engine was first designed by the company in 2005; the first loco got commissioned at early as December 1, 2006, and the make later came to be known as Sinara.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 4, 2016. Starting from July 1, Sverdlovsk Region’s living wage is set at 8,862 RUR a month for the non-civil-service sector, up 8% on a year earlier, the constituency’s government reports. The living wage in the civil service, machine-building industry, chemical industry, consumer goods sector, and agriculture will go up on October 1, 2016. The last increase (to 8,154 RUR a month) was introduced in 2015, in two stages. The current living wage comes to 88.5% of the officially determined cost of living in the area for the third quarter of the year (10,008 RUR). The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 1, 2016. Prices went down by 3% on Yekaterinburg existing home market in the first half of 2016 compared with December 2015, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. Compared with one year earlier and with the peak prices of mid-February 2015, prices declined by as much as 7.4% and 10.5%, respectively. The average per-square-meter price is reported to come to 68,600 RUR on average at the moment. Prices dropped most noticeably for the centrally located homes, from 97,600 RUR per m2 on average in late 2015 down to 93,900 RUR (-3.8%). In terms of size rather than location, the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 1, 2016. Yekaterinburg authorities adopted a program for building and reconstruction of schools in different parts of the city, including Akademichesky District. According to this plan, an extension to school 23 and a new section of school 181 will be put up in the area before 2020, which will ensure education facilities for 550 children and teens altogether. The first school will require 863.5m RUR to extend, with 129.5m coming from the city budget and 734m from Sverdlovsk Region’s budget. The construction has been scheduled for 2017-2020. The second one at 22

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 1, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development expanded the list of criteria that make a business eligible to apply for bank guarantees (up to 10m RUR), with no collateral required, the bank’s press service reports. For one, the bank will look into a company’s tender-bidding record for the last three years; those winning and completing at least two projects will be prioritized. Then, customers with a settlement account in the bank that was opened at least six months ago can apply for BGs (up to 300,000 RUR) with no collateral required. Thanks to the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 1, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation organized the fourth amateur Olympics at a number of kindergartens in Nizhniy Tagil. According to the company press service, 120 six- and seven-year-olds competed at one of Ural Vagon Zavod’s best gyms. In 2014, the event attracted children from 26 different kindergartens; in 2015, 28 kindergartens took part in the competition, and this year, as many as 30 of them sent their teams to the contest. ‘The event is part of our corporate social responsibility program and is intended to introduce more cooperation with local pre-schools.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 1, 2016. Yurga Machine-Building Plant (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) completed its acceptance tests of mining equipment made by order of Siberian Coal Company for its Uvalnaya Mine, the company press service reports. The plant has been making and supplying to customer some powered support system units and conveyor equipment in time and in full for the last four months now. A portion of the lava equipment got assembled for acceptance tests the other day, including eighteen support system segments MKYu.4U-12.5/25, conveyor KSYu381, and combined

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 30, 2016. Kamensk-Uralsky Foundry Plant/KULZ (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) is about to start making friction drives for special-purpose vehicles as part of the state-run import substitution program, the company press service reports. ‘Our machine-building plants used to get these in Ukraine, but now KULZ is getting ready to start manufacturing the drives on site. We are busy renovating our existing facilities and getting new ones, buying digitally controlled treatment units, hydraulic presses, batch mixing units, and thermal treatment

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 30, 2016. Sputnik Sports Club’s junior team performed at the national track-and-field championship in Cheboksary, the club’s sponsor Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation reports. The ten sportsmen and women took part in the competition as part of Sverdlovsk Region team. This is, in fact, a difficult time for the athletes. ‘It was decided shortly before the championship that the All-Russia Athletic Federation (RusAthletics) would not be allowed to compete internationally. Nevertheless, all our sports players did their best to win the right to go to Rio de Janeiro Olympics,’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 30, 2016. SKB-Bank made it to the list of Russia’s ten largest banks in terms of capital value on June 1, 2016. The list was made by the Kommersant-Dengi magazine. The rating excludes banks with headquarters in Moscow or Saint Petersburg. According to the magazine, SKB-Bank’s capital value came to 14,214,473,000 RUR on June 1, 2016. This is the 58th position in the all-Russian bank rating, the bank’s press service reports.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 30, 2016. Sinara Group’s charity foundation completed its Pou Sto 2016 job counseling contest and selected the winning schools which will be awarded grants to equip their science labs. Their press service reports grants have been awarded to nine schools in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Kamensk-Uralsky, and Polevskoy, with one more lab to be soon set up in Training & Job Counseling Center in Verkhnyaya Pyshma. School 3 in Kamensk-Uralsky, the contest finalist, will spend its 100,000 RUR on buying chemistry lab supplies and equipment. Lyceum 10, the silver winner, will spend

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 30, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s savings certificate portfolio amounted to 1.7bn RUR on June 1, thus doubling in amount since the start of the year, the bank’s press service reports. A savings certificate is a type of securities that certifies the amount of one’s bank deposit. The interest rate is fixed for the entire deposit period and the interest gets added to the principal amount from the start. The press service says customers tend to choose the certificates as an alternative to regular deposits increasingly more often. The average

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 29, 2016. Even though Russia and Turkey are resolved to resume their relations now, the threats of terrorist attacks on the Turkish soil, including popular tourist locations, are still there, Director of Ural Tourist Association Mikhail Maltsev informs UrBC. The Kremlin announced yesterday that the Turkish President Erdogan sent his formal apologies and condolences to Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the accident that killed a Russian pilot operating a SU 24 airplane. It is believed this could result in the two countries becoming friends again and in trips

UrBC, Moscow, June 29, 2016. The number of Russians traveling abroad declined by 22% in the first quarter of 2016 compared with the start of the year, that is, down to 1.479m people, Interfax refers to the Russian Tourist Industry Union as reporting. ‘This is quite a decrease, but it is still only half as big as last year’s, when the tourist traffic dropped by 40.3% in the first quarter of 2015, down to 1,899m people. This is the third year in a row that the tourist numbers keep decreasing. In the first quarter of 2014, the decrease was 4%,’ says the Union’s press secretary Irina Tyurina.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 29, 2016. The number of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s customers who failed to make their very first loan repayments declined by 33% in the five months of 2016 compared with January-May 2015, the bank’s press service reports. The overall amount of past-due debts also went down by 12%. Also, the share of the bank’s private customer loan book that this amount constitutes is now 2% less than one year earlier. According to the bank’s Retail Credit Risk Control Director Alexander Trofimov, they have been working to improve the borrowing parties’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 29, 2016. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) got a certificate allowing it to make wheels for Lastochka, a high-speed electric train, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s press office reports. The paper was issued by Russia’s Federal Railway Transport Certification Register and is valid through 2021. The 920-mm Lastochka wheels are made from carbonized Type 2 steel in accordance with the Russian GOST standard. The product hardness comes to 255-320 HB. NTMK had to make a pilot set of wheels for them to get assessed and accepted by an ad hoc committee