UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 6, 2016. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant/ChTPZ Board of Directors met on April 29 to look at last year’s performance, the company press service reports. The BOD members accepted preliminarily the annual accounting report and the annual report for 2015 and suggested passing last year’s dividends and directing profits to the company’s investment, production, and social development. The BOD also suggested that the shareholders vote in favor of the company Charter and internal documentation’s latest amended versions as well as approve of a number of beneficial

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 6, 2016. Uraltransmash (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) held its traditional Donor’s Day, the company press service reports. ‘Dozens of plant workers arrived at the mobile blood donation station by 9 AM. It came as a surprise that first-time donors or those who haven’t donated blood in a long time cannot contribute this time because the local blood transfusion station is switching to a new automated system this year. So not all those willing to do so could actually donate their blood,’ the press service says. Thirty-nine people, who donated 17.5

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, May 05, 2016. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) came up with a way to use the oil-soaked furnace clinker left over from the metal-rolling departments in its sintering departments. ‘We are currently assembling the equipment necessary for the transfer and drying-up of the staff so that it can be reused industrially. The reuse of 75,000,000 kg of furnace clinker is expected to result in 63.2m RUR in savings a year, and the equipment will pay off in under a year,’ MMK says. Unlike the dry clinker with 72% iron content (a known reliable stuff that

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 5, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region’s retail trade turnover decreased by 5.5% in January through March 2016 compared with one year earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. As it happens, sellers and sole traders operating off farmers’ markets and the like were responsible for 96.9% of the overall turnover figure, while those selling their produce at retail markets and fairs were responsible for 3.1%. The share of food items (including beverages) and tobacco products in the overall amount of goods rose by 0.6% against January-March 2015 and reached 49.3%. At the same time, the amount

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 5, 2016. The telecommunications provider MegaFon doubled the speed of Internet connection it offers at 102 Sverdlovsk Region towns; this was possible due to the Dual Carrier HSDPA technology the ISP is using, the company press service reports. Dual Carrier HSDPA consists in high-speed packet data transfer from a base station to a mobile phone. ‘The settings have been activated at 323 base stations this year so far, which means our subscribers can now enjoy the speed of up to 42 megabits per second. The base station’s capacity is thus used to its fullest, which

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 5, 2016. Ural Airlines operated this year’s first flight from Moscow to Lisbon on May 1, 2016, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘A special greeting ceremony was organized for the arriving passengers in Lisbon, with a water arch created by fire engines; travelers leaving Lisbon for Moscow were also treated to the famous pastéis de nata (popular Portuguese egg tarts),’ the press service says. The scheduled flight is operated twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays, on A320 planes that offer both economy and business class seat options.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 5, 2016. Students on ChTPZ Group’s Future of White Metallurgy Corporate Training Program took part in the semi-finals of WorldSkills Russia in Ural Federal District. According to the company press service, Dmitri Shmarlovsky won in NC Turning, Maxim Soloviev won in NC Milling, and Vassily Kozyritsky and Nikita Kazakov won bronze in Mechatronics. All the tasks in this local round of the national contest were in full compliance with the international WorldSkills standards. ‘Our champions proved that ChTPZ Group’s corporate training project offers great professional

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 5, 2016. 4,500 workers of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant took part in the traditional Clean-Up Days in April, the company press service reports. The clean-up of the plant’s premises and the surrounding streets of Nizhniy Tagil took place on April 20-29, with employees from all of the head plant’s departments contributing to the event. The participants could choose between cleaning up outside or improving their workplaces. The money they earned during the clean-up will be directed to the general clean-up fund and will later be used for planting more trees in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 4, 2016. The Invincible Ones. World’s Best Soldiers and Chelyabinsk Region’s Natives, a film dedicated to the Great Patriotic War, was presented to students of Chelyabinsk School 56 by Russian Copper Company and the local TV channel Ural1, the company press service reports. The film focuses on a number of Chelyabinsk Region-born children playing with toy soldiers and narrating the stories of real-life combatants. Sixteen toy figurines, based on the Great Patriotic War veterans (including the artillerist Mikhail Medyakov from Chelyabinsk, the sailor Ivan Govorukhin

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 4, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development is currently launching a pilot try-out of its debit card courier delivery service, the bank’s press service reports. At the moment, the service is available in Yekaterinburg, Orenburg, and Sterlitamak. ‘This is a very simple thing to do. Once an order is placed, the customer can choose the convenient delivery date, time, and location, whereupon the card, the envelope with the PIN number, and all the papers get delivered in a special securely sealed package. Once the customer’s identity has been verified, the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 4, 2016. Ural Airlines are offering plane tickets at a reduced price in time for the holiday season, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘Tickets for flights operated from Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and Samara can be booked with a 20% discount only between April 30 and May 3,’ the company says. The special offer holds for flights operated from Moscow to Barnaul, Batumi, Belgrade, Chita, Irkutsk, Kutaisi, Larnaca, Lisbon, Omsk, Tivat, Tomsk, Ulan-Ude, and Ufa and back; from Yekaterinburg to Baku, Batumi, Barcelona, Heraklion, Krasnodar, Mineralnye

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 4, 2016. Yekaterinburg Architecture & Urban Development Council adopted the plan for the second extension of Academic District, the city council’s press service reports. The concept was developed by the state-run organization General Plan Workshop. The council proposed a number of changes during the last consulting session, and these have been by now taken into account by the designers. The developer now presented a plan for accommodating 107,000 people on 450 hectares, with 3.33m m2 worth of housing in apartment buildings five to twenty-five storeys high.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 4, 2016. The self-propelled gun 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV (made at Uraltransmash, a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) will be featured in Victory Day Parade in Yekaterinburg on May 9, the corporation’s press service reports. The unit was first presented in Moscow’s Red Square during the V-Day Parade last year. ‘Koalitsiya-SV is currently the latest generation of SP guns whose firing speed, range, and precision are by far better than those of its Russian or foreign counterparts,’ the press service says. The SP gun is meant for destruction of tactical nuclear

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, April 27, 2016. Moody’s Investors Service promoted Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works’ CFR from Ba2 to Ba1 and its PDR from Ba2-PD to Ba1-PD. Incidentally, these ratings conform with Russia’s current ones; MMK is now one of the few national metallurgical enterprises whose ratings got confirmed by Moody’s. The improvement is reflexive of Moody’s expectations for MMK financial indicators to remain at least as good, for its debt burden to be reduced, and for the company’s performance indicators, profit figures, and cash generation to still remain high. According to a press

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 29, 2016. Soyuz-2.1A, a rocket launcher carrying three satellites took off at Vostochny spaceport on April 28. Uralcryomash (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) was among the companies directly involved in the cosmodrome preparations. ‘Our Nizhniy Tagil experts have been contributing to all of Russia’s space programs, including the very first one,’ the company press service says. Uralcryomash engineers took part in the construction of the launcher system, namely, the transportation and filling equipment. The company had to design the equipment

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 29, 2016. Metcombank Chairman of the Board Dmitri Torbenko was among Russia’s fifty most successful bankers according to Sravni.ru, the bank’s press service reports. Sravni.ru carried a rating of Russian bankers whose businesses achieved the best financial performance indicators in the last five years. Torbenko was given the 43d position in the rating. The web portal’s research involved 230 banks and was based on these banks’ asset volume as of April 1, 2016. To make it to the rating, a banker had to have been in office for at least two and a half years between 2011

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 29, 2016. Ural Airline makes its flights to Larnaca, Heraklion, Rimini, and Tivat available again, the air carrier’s press service reports. Yekaterinburg-Larnaca flights will be operated every Wednesday and Sunday starting from April 27 and also on Fridays starting from May 27; Yekaterinburg-Heraklion flights will be operated on Thursdays starting from April 28 and also on Tuesdays and Sundays starting on May 29; Yekaterinburg-Rimini and Yekaterinburg-Tivat flights will be operated every Saturday starting from May 28. ‘The best time of the year for a holiday at the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 29, 2016. Yekaterinburg existing home prices have gone down by 2.5% since the start of the year (and by 8.7% compared with one year earlier), Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. The average asking price came to 68,929 RUR per m2 on April 25, 2016. There are currently slightly over 10,200 apartments and 1,850 rooms in communal apartments for sale in the chamber’s database. It typically takes four and a half to five and a half months to make a sale. Prices declined most noticeably for centrally located and remotest homes in the last four months (-2.9% to 3% on average).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 29, 2016. Yekaterinburg Leninsky District Court upheld a motion regarding the detainment of Alexei Pyankov, Sverdlovsk Region Public Property Management Minister, who will remain in detention until June 25. The official was detained after a search of his home and office on April 26. The searches were related to two criminal lawsuits, one of them with charges of bribe-taking (Article 291 (Part 5) and Article 291.1 (Part 4) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code). ‘The inquiry officers believe the minister accepted a total of 31.5m RUR worth of bribes for

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 28, 2016. Karabashmed (a member enterprise of Russian Copper Company) organized a guided tour of the premises for students from Karabash School 1 on April 21, the company press service reports. The event was part of the National No Turnstile Week, carried out at Karabash Employment Center’s initiative. The plant’s Senior Chemist Alexander Zavarin took the school-leavers on a bus tour of the mines, all of the production departments, and the railway station, telling the young people about the plant’s history and development throughout the 20th century and its upgrades