UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 4, 2016. Increasingly more people are facing the shortage of flu and common cold medicines, Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly Deputy Vyacheslav Vegner told UrBC. ‘We received complaints from Beloyarsky, Kamensk Uralsky, and small villages. Most of these come from people living in the more remote areas, who, sadly, are served last,’ Vegner said. The official pointed to the local state-run enterprise Pharmacia, where a representative of the political party Spravedlivaya Rossiya Ilya Lobov works as Deputy Director-General. Vegner claims the company management

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 4, 2016. Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg Sergei Schwindt coordinated a meeting on February 2 on the issue of subsidies to non-profit organizations (other than state-run ones) that are part of the local SMEs’ support system. According to the city council’s press service, funds will be allocated as part of the Yekaterinburg SMEs support program for 2014-2016. Yekaterinburg Business Activity Support Center, which is entirely centered on the program’s agenda, has already applied for subsidies. The center helps companies with marketing and finding location, offers all

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 4, 2016. Put together, companies in the transportation sector based in the Urals failed to pay some 91m RUR worth of wages and salaries to their workers on time last year, Ural public prosecution authorities for transportation report. 3,000 instances of Labor Code violations were detected here in the course of 2015, resulting in 1,213 protest warrants, 179 protocols, 159 disciplinary liability cases and 123 administrative liability cases. Additionally, 18 people in decision-making positions received official warnings and 598 claims to protect the workers’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 4, 2016. Galaktika AMM Planning & Accounting, a project presented by Uraltransmash (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation), won silver at the national Project of The Year/Russia’s IT Directors’ Choice Contest 2015 as the Best Solution for Machine-Building Industry. According to the company press service, the contest has been coordinated by the IT directors portal Global CIO since 2012 and gets increasingly more applicants each year. Almost 20% more applications were submitted in 2015 against 2014, a true sign of the event’s growing popularity.

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, February 4, 2016. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) delivered one of its B10M bulldozers to Karachaevo-Cherkesia. The company press service says the machine was purchased by Urupsky Ore Mining Enterprise (a part of UMMC Holding) where a number of such vehicles are already in use. The new tractor will also be used for copper ore production. TechServis ChTZ, the plant’s dealership in the Caucasus and Krasnodar Territory, was the winning bidder in UMMC’s auction. The dealer will provide after-sale services as well.

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, February 4, 2016. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) recently opened an indoor hangar as its railcar wash, something that is currently unique to Russian metallurgical enterprises, the company reports. The new facility can handle at least 1,000 railcars a month, which means customer car-makers and pipe manufacturers will receive at least 60,000,000 kg of high quality products a month in spotlessly clean railcars. The railcar wash that meets all the modern requirements was built at MMK Group’s Remput as part of the existing department (which meant

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 3, 3016. Sverdlovsk Region Labor Ministry announced the number of foreign worker quotas for the year 2016, the ministry’s website states. 19,547 quotas were allocated for Ural Federal District altogether (8,870 for Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region, 6,657 for Sverdlovsk Region, 2,442 for Tyumen Region, 1,182 for Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region, 396 for Chelyabinsk Region, and none for Kurgan Region).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 3, 2016. The overall trend remains negative on Yekaterinburg labor market and has recently been estimated to drop down to -0.11, HeadHunter reports. Job-seekers in Civil Service, Banking, Investment & Leasing, and Top Management find the situation the most uncomfortable; their mood rates dropped to -0.21, -0.18, and -0.17, respectively, whereas those in Medical Services, Sales, and IT appear best off. According to HeadHunter, Yekaterinburg-based employees are not secure about their jobs, less secure, in fact, than in other parts of Russia. People employed in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 3, 2016. 3.5% less new housing was commissioned in Ural Federal District last year compared with the year 2014; the figure came to 7.701m m2, Rosstat reports. Broken down by constituencies, the decrease was 36.7% (246,400 m2) in Kurgan Region, 21.8% (872,900 m2) in Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region, 14.6% (1.707m m2) in Chelyabinsk Region, and 1.8% (266,100 m2) in Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region. In Sverdlovsk Region, 2.5% more new housing was commissioned in 2015 against 2014 (2.483m m2, including 1.2m m2 inYekaterinburg (up 160,000 m2 on 2014)). In Tyumen

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 3, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region-based businesses made 15,655 people redundant last year, the Labor & Employment Department’s press secretary Olga Ruleva informed UrBC. According to Ruleva, 114 companies cut down on their staff in 2015 altogether. ‘Mostly, the people who were made redundant had been employed in civil administration and military security and social welfare organizations (16%), processing industries (15%), banking (12.7%), transportation and communication (10.8%), fossil development (7.3%), and the building industry (5.7%),’ she said.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 3, 2016. Their own carbide mills are now being tested at Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil. The mills were developed by the corporation’s own designers and made by employees from the Tool-Making Department. This is all part of the company’s import substitution program, the company press service reports. ‘This is a project we are working on in cooperation with our long-standing partner Kirovgrad Carbide Plant. Four batches of ten mills each, with the diameters of 10, 16, 18, and 20 mm have been made so far. These mills will be used for

UrBC, Moscow, February 2, 2016. Russian banks issued their private customers a total of 21.7m loans last year, which was 29% less than one year earlier. Also, the overall loan amount nearly halved (the figure went down by 46%) and amounted to 4.5 trillion RUR, Prime refers to the United Credit Bureau as stating. The number of car loans issued to private customers, for instance, dropped by as much as 57%, down to 230,600, with the consolidated loan amount down to 147bn RUR (2.2 times less than in 2014). The average amount of money lent per borrowing party rose from 608,000 RUR to 638,000 RUR

UrBC, Moscow, February 2, 2016. A new car cost an average of 1.2m RUR on the Russian market last year, which was 20% more than one year previously, Avtostat reports. The price of LandRovers rose most noticeably, by a whopping 61% on average. Cadillac and Volvo ranges grew, respectively, 48% and 43% more expensive, while the prices of Opel and Peugeut varieties increased by 38% and 35%, respectively. Citroen, Toyota, and Audi all grew 30% more expensive on average. The Russian brands Lada and UAZ now come 15% and 18% less cheap. Avtostat’s Director Sergei Tselikov feels the weakened national

UrBC, Moscow, February 2, 2016. The number of Russia’s jobless rose by 3.4% by January 27 and came to 1m people, RIA Novosti refers to the Labor Ministry as saying. ‘The number of people officially out of jobs went up by 3.4% between January 20 and January 27 and came to 1,001,111 people (against 968,639 people on January 20),’ the press service says. Unemployment was actually on the decline in three Russian federal constituencies – Komi, Ingushetiya, and Kirov Region, and on the increase in eighty-two constituencies. The situation looked most worrying in Tyva, the Crimea, Altai, Buryatia,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 2, 2016. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) supplied its last diesel-electric tractor DET 250 to Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works/MMK, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘It has been suggested that we should deliver new-generation vehicles to MMK, but the customer insisted on the ‘classical version’, since these are these machines that are used at most of MMK’s ore mining enterprises. So the latest shipment will be used for ore transportation as well,’ the press service says. Head of the company Sales

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 2, 2016. Stanislav Rovnov, Deputy Director of Uraltransmash (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) and Andrei Palferov, the company’s Deputy Senior Civilian Goods Engineer, were invited by the city mayor Boris Albegov to come to Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia. According to the company press service, Albegov coordinated talks on the options of leasing ten new trams for Vladikavkaz depots. The negotiations were also attended by Fobos-TS Director-General Sergei Lazarev, Director of Sberbank’s North Caucasian branch Dmitri Tokarev, and head of the city

February 1, 2016. Kamensk Uralsky Foundry Plant/KULZ (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) completed its upgrades of a 1,500-kg arc-smelting furnace. According to the company press service, some radical changes were introduced to the electric components of the furnace which is responsible for the smelting process. ‘The furnace operator used to have to change the position of the electrode rods with a remote control all the time to ensure even heating, but now the heating arc gets calibrated automatically. The operator only needs to adjust the basic settings,’ the press service

February 1, 2016. Russians spent 1.78 trillion RUR on new cars last year, which was 23.7%, or 553bn RUR less than in the year 2014, Avtostat reports. The market sagged by a total of 36.2%, or 846 units in quantitative terms. Some 200bn RUR were used to buy Toyotas (down 21.3% on one year previously), nearly 190bn RUR were spent on the German brand Mercedes-Benz (up 8.7%), and 130bn RUR were spent on Hyundai and Kia each (down 4.3% and 16.3%, respectively). Lada only came fifth in the rating, with 126.1bn RUR spent on the new cars (down 20.1% on the year 2014). Head of Avtostat Azat

February 1, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service inspected local businesses’ till machines in over 3,500 inspections last year; this was 5% less than one year earlier. Their press service reports that existing legal regulations were violated by till operators in 96% of cases, which was 5% more than in 2014. The offenders had to pay 20.514m RUR in fines (up 2.6%, or 529,000 RUR, on the year 2014), with 17.912m RUR (87% of the entire fine amount) already transferred to the budget funds. The offenses in question mainly had to do with either complete lack of tills or

February 1, 2016. Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK plans to ship considerably more products to customers both on the domestic and the international markets this year, the company press service says. TMK sold 3,873,000,000 kg of steel pipes to customers last year, which was 11.5% less than in the year 2014. This was mainly because the company’s American customers needed fewer pipes since their drilling activity declined. The shipments dropped by 4% in the last quarter of the year compared with the third quarter and reached 938,000,000 kg. Weldless pipe shipments dropped by 5% compared with 2014