UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 17, 2016. LEPSE (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) held its annual general meeting recently, with Deputy Director-General for Finance Irina Peskisheva presenting her report on the company performance, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘The company’s assets gained 11% in value because we started using our capital stock and increased our reserves. Production output went up by 9% (including an 11% increase in aviation goods output). Also, we have no unpaid loans at the moment,’ she said. According to Peskisheva, LEPSE has not been using any

UrBC, Saint Petersburg, June 17, 2016. The Arktika, Project 22220 nuclear-powered icebreaker, was floated at Baltic Plant in Saint Petersburg the other day. The body of the world’s largest and most powerful icebreaking vessel is made from metal supplied by Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works. In fact, MMK’s share of the Russian shipbuilding supplies market currently comes to over 50%. The company delivered 86,000,000 kg of metal goods to Russian shipbuilders last year, which was 11% more than in 2014 and 1.5 times more than in 2013. Apart from the Arktika and the Siberia, Project 22220 first

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 16, 2016. Omsk Transport Machine-Building Plant (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod) had its management system re-certified recently, the company press service reports. The audit procedure was carried out by Moscow-based MONOLIT-Cert; the plant proved to comply with all the performance standards, was evaluated very favorably, and was re-issued a number of certificates allowing the company to keep repairing, maintaining, installing, and assembling arms and military vehicles as well as selling civilian goods. The plant’s SovAsK job safety and healthcare management

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 16, 2016. Workers from Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil planted 129,700 flowers in the city’s Dzerzhinsky District, the company press service reports. ‘There are several flower beds in the area that are assigned to specific departments at the head plant. Flowers were planted in Tankostroiteley Square, next to I.V. Okunev Palace of Culture, along Leningradsky Avenue and Vagonostroiteley Avenue, and next to our war memorial. This year, we’ve chosen the plant’s 80th anniversary as our theme, with the flower beds and patterns designed by our

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 15, 2016. Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works/NTMK (a member enterprise of EVRAZ Holding) was recently issued a certificate that allows the plant to supply five different types of railcar wheels to the Czech railways České dráhy, ČD, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s press center reports. The certificate was issued for solid-roll, curved-guide wheels VA-409, 428, 314, 004, and 005. The VA-004, VA-005, and VA-314 wheels also got certified under the TSI standard, which means these can be supplied to all the countries in the given region. Two more wheel types will be issued

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 16, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development (UBRD) opened an online shop on the social network VKontakte, the bank’s press service reports. Customers can now submit their bank card or deposit applications to the bank’s official group on VKontakte. The bank’s Internet Communications Director Mikhail Zenkov says today’s customers often look for good quality service and technological advances as well as for appealing terms and conditions, so it’s important to provide banking services where customers need them, social networks included. ’No business goals

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 16, 2016. Ural Airlines’ passenger traffic rose by 17% between January and May 2016 compared with a year earlier, the air carrier’s press service reports. 1.974 passengers have flown with the airlines since the start of the year so far, with passenger turnover up by 11%. 15% more flights were operated in the five months of 2016 against January-May 2015, including 10,164 domestic flights, 3,582 flights to and from the CIS member states, and 2,518 international ones (16,264 flights all in all). The air carrier offered its services to 506,777 passengers in May 2016

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 15, 2016. ChTPZ Group reports the company’s team has won 15 medals at the recent preliminary round of the national blue-collar job championship WorldSkills Hi Tech. The team comprised the Group’s employees in the 18-28 age group from Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant, Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant, and Rimera’s Izhneftemash and Alnas. All the tasks in the initial selection round were modeled on the WorldSkills international standards. Medals were awarded in five different categories: Mechatronics, Mobile Robotics, Electric Wiring, NC Turning, and Welding Technologies.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 15, 2016. EVRAZ Holding’s West-Siberian Metallurgical Works is going to host the corporate round of the blue-collar job championship WorldSkills in Novokuznetsk for the first time on July 4-8, 2016, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s press service reports. Professionals from West-Siberian and Nizhniy Tagil Metallurgical Works are going to compete in four most popular blue-collar and engineering fields: Electric Wiring, Production Management, Welding Technologies, and Mechatronics. The WorldSkills standards provide a detailed protocol for the organization of the contest in every

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 15, 2016. A representative of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Omsktransmash took part in a round table discussion on the ways Omsk-based college graduates and school-leavers can find jobs, the company press service reports. Heads of employment centers for graduates of teacher training colleges and polytechnic schools, management of state-run employment agencies, and representatives of aviation and industrial tech schools also contributed to the discussion. Omsktransmash HR Director Ekaterina Vetchinkina presented her report on how the local employers were actually

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 15, 2016. Yurga Machine-Building Plant/Yurmash (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) offered summer jobs to thirty-five students of Yurga Vocational/IT School, the company press service reports. The young part-timers will work as welders, steel workers, crane operators, and electrical equipment depot mechanics. They will receive induction and training from experts working at the plant’s steel-making and machine assembly departments. ‘The plant has a long-standing tradition of summer jobs and internships. For many of the trainees, this is a good

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 15, 2016. Nine out of Ural Vagon Zavod’s eleven member enterprises won medals at the Rostec Russian Corporate Games in the Crimea this summer, the company press service reports. The sports championship was held in Alushta on June 10-13. ‘The summer Rostec Russian Corporate Games competition gathered together at Spartak Stadium over a thousand amateur sportsmen and women, representatives of state-run corporations, concerns, for-profit and non-profit Russian companies. The contestants competed in twenty-two different categories; the corporation’s team members competed

UrBC, Moscow, June 14, 2016. Russia’s Central Bank ruled that its key interest rate is to go down from 11% to 10.5%, the authority’s press service reports. ‘The Board of Directors has considered the positive trends such as stabilizing inflation, more optimistic inflation rate forecasts, lowered inflation risks, and signs that the Russian economy is about to enter a recovery stage. The slowing-down of inflation processes means one can expect the inflation rate to gradually go down to under 5% in May 2017 and to the target figure of 4% in late 2017, provided the bank keeps up with its

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 14, 2016. Russia’s Federal Service of Court Officers’ Sverdlovsk Region division found and seized 71 automobiles (worth over 30m RUR in total), the service press officer reports. ‘People with unpaid debts proved very ingenious in hiding their cars. One popular strategy is to keep one’s car in a relative’s garage or in a multi-level or underground parking lot. For example, there was this case with Ferrari 430 (a car you don’t often see in Sverdlovsk Region) in the middle of May,’ the press officer said. The court officers say the new Mobile Tracing app resulted in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 14, 2016. 39,265 mortgage deals were registered by Sverdlovsk Region authorities in January-May 2016, which was 6.3% more than one year earlier, it is reported. Most of the mortgages are for homes (some 27,000 entries in the government register Rosreyestr, 68% of all the contracts). All in all, 115,240 certificates of ownership or other property rights have been issued for different types of housing since the start of the year; additionally, 48,463 certificates have been issued for land allotments. 4,598 contracts with building cooperatives were signed and around

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 14, 2016. Yekaterinburg has remained Russia’s No.1 city with population over 1m people in terms of how many international brands operate there for five years now. According to Magazin Magazinov’s research findings, there are currently 169 brands running their shops in Yekaterinburg; this comes to 36% of the total number of international companies operating in Russia. Krasnodar is Russia’s second brand-friendliest city (152 brands), followed by Rostov-on-Don (131 brands). Yekaterinburg also has the largest per capita amount of shopping space (481 m2 per every 1,000

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 14, 2016. Ural Airlines came up with a special offer on Russia’s Independence Day (June 12), with 25% discounts on domestic flights, the air carrier’s press service reports. Reduced-price tickets can be booked on June 11-13; on sale are flights from Moscow to Irkutsk, Omsk, Rostov, Tomsk, Ufa, and Chelyabinsk, from Saint Petersburg to Barnaul, Kemerovo, and Rostov, from Yekaterinburg to Mineralnye Vody, from Kazan to Simferopol, from Samara to Simferopol and Sochi, from Sochi to Simferopol, and from Vladivostok to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. These flights will be

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 14, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant’s museum in Nizhniy Tagil is now holding A Kaleidoscope of Talents, an exhibition dedicated to the plant’s 80th anniversary, the company press service reports. The exhibition features some 160 works by forty-five arts and crafts professionals. ‘Visitors at the opening ceremony could all find something to their liking and exchange their opinion of the works. A pair of knitted socks with a picture of the Cherepanovs’ locomotive steamer and words ‘Tagil is the City of Craftsmen’ on them, a train and an automobile

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, June 14, 2016. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works issued certificates for the partner companies with which the enterprise plans to produce the highly durable and wear-resistant MAGSTRONG steels. The Priority Partner certificate, signed by MMK Director-General Pavel Shilyaev and Deputy DG for Sales Nikolai Lyadov, was given to one of MMK Group’s repair depots MRK. The paper states that MRK has the special equipment necessary for MAGSTRONG steels treatment and can design and manufacture any kinds of goods through bending, stamping, welding,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 10, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region’s housing supply was estimated at 107.6m m2 last year, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 2.1%. This means there is an average of 24.9 m2 worth of housing per every local, Sverdlovskstat reports. 68.5% of homes in the area have running hot and cold water facilities, sewerage systems, central heating, and natural gas supply or electric cookers. 35.4% of houses and apartment buildings are made of stone or brick and 25.7% and 17.2% are made of concrete panels or wood, respectively.