UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 23, 2015. 207 personal bankruptcy applications have been submitted to Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court since the Personal Bankruptcy Act came into effect in Russia, the court’s Deputy Chair Alexander Kryukov said at a press conference. The new law came into force on October 1, 2105. ‘We’ve received 207 applications so far; 109 claims were filed by the debtors themselves, 98 were filed by creditors. 119 cases will get processed in court and 42 were put on hold for the time being for procedural reasons such as unpaid state duties or other unmade payments.

UrBC, Moscow, December 23, 2015. Rosstat reports Sverdlovsk Region’s unemployment rate reached 6.5% in November 2015 (149,900 people out of 2.322m people of working age). In Russia on the whole, the unemployment rate is reported at 5.8%; with 65.1% of population working. This is 4.2% (180,000 people) more jobless and 0.5% (380,000 people) fewer working citizens than in October 2015 and 10.7% (422,000 people) more jobless and 0.8% (540,000 people) fewer working citizens than in November 2014. A person out of job is on average 35.6 years old; 24.3% of the unemployed are in the under-25 age

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 23, 2015.Kamensk Uralsky Foundry Plant/KULZ adopted a new Collective Agreement between the company management and the workforce; the agreement had been drafted by the company trade union and is now expected to regulate the two parties’ relations in the next three years, the company press service reports. The document was signed by KULZ Director-General Anatoly Barabanov and Chair of the Trade Union Committee Alexandra Vinogradova. The agreement contains all the key principles and regulations from the earlier version, with changes in nine paragraphs which are

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 23, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation presented its latest developments at the Russia-Iran Trade & Industry Dialogue Exhibition, the company press service reports. One of the products is the new 12-581-01 gondola car designed specially for Iran as a life-size sample. The company DG Oleg Sienko talked about the corporation member enterprises’ great potential and their wide product range during the exhibition plenary session. He pointed out that Ural Vagon Zavod was known as one of the world’s largest rolling stock manufacturers (30,000 various railcars a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 22, 2015. The number of Sverdlovsk Region’s unemployed came to 31,608 people by December 1, 2015, which is almost 7,000 people more than a year earlier, the local Labor & Employment Department reports. The official unemployment rate was registered at 1.39% this December (against 1.08% in December 2015). The overall number of job-seekers came to 149,887 people by December 1, 2015, with the overall unemployment rate at 6.5%. 89 companies informed the local employment agencies of 12,129 upcoming redundancies between January and November 2015. Also,131 companies

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 22, 2015. 46,000 job patents for foreign workers were issued by Sverdlovsk Region authorities in the eleven months of 2015; this was 13,000 less than one year earlier, head of the Federal Migration Service’s local division Elena Otinova said at a press conference. ‘The figures mainly went down because of the economic crisis and the new, stricter standards of migration laws. Despite this negative trend, Sverdlovsk Region is doing noticeably better than our neighboring constituencies. All in all, the number of job migrants in the Mid-Urals declined only

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 22, 2015. ChTPZ Group’s Training Center, whose job is to offer dual-education training to meet the company’s blue-collar worker needs, launched its own website at www.bbmprof.ru, the company press service reports. ‘Making a presence on the Internet signifies another important step in the development of the Future of White Metallurgy, our corporate training program. The new site offers all the relevant information on all the types of training we provide and is expected to become the focal point of our student and social life,’ says the center’s head Andrei

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 22, 2015. Alexander Chaderin, a start-up technician for NC machines at LEPSE (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) won the first prize as Kirov Region’s Best Worker. According to the corporation’s press service, Chaderin’s photograph, along with those of 59 other best workers in their respective professional fields, will be displayed at Glory Alley in Kirov’s main square. ‘Alexander Chaderni has been working with NC machines for over three decades; he invests in his own continuous professional development, masters all the new and modern equipment,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 22, 2015. Nizhniy Tagil Council ruled that Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant had the best civil defense and emergency prevention practices in 2015. The company press service reports the winner’s certificate and the prize cup were given to the plant’s Senior Engineer Yuri Shangin by head of the city council’s Civil Defense Department Andrei Zhbanov and Deputy Mayor for Construction Konstantin Zakharov. The second prize went to Uralcryomash, also a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation. The awarding ceremony took place during the training drill

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 21, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based farmers’ overall cattle stock declined by 2.4%, down to 115,900 head of cattle, between November 2014 and November 2015, Sverdlovskstat reports. The number of cows at smaller private farms dropped by 11.7%, down to 26,500 head of cattle, while the entire private cattle count decreased by 8.5%, down to 59,000 head. Also, the number of pigs decreased by 12.7%, down to 6,900, while that of sheep and goats went down by 4.6%, down to 68,900. The number of sheep and goats in the agricultural enterprises dropped from 2,500 down to 1,100

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 21, 2015. Five employees of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation were given important government awards for their achievements; the awards were presented to them by Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Igor Kholmanskikh, the company press service reports. Four of the awardees work for the corporation’s head plant, and one more, Vladimir Brusov, is the Director of Volchansky Mechanical Plant (one of the corporation’s member enterprises). Brusov was awarded the Order of Friendship (by President’s Decree 526 dated October

UrBC, Moscow, December 21, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based employers owed their workers 7m RUR in unpaid wages and salaries as of December 1, 2015, Rosstat reports. In Russia on the whole, the debt amount came to 3.9bn RUR (up 395m RUR, or 11.3%, on November 2015). 37% are owed by employers in the processing sector, 29% by those in the construction industry, 9% by those in the sector for production and distribution of electric power, water, and natural gas, 7% by those in the transportation industry, 6% by those in the fossil production industry, and 5% by those in the agricultural, hunting,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 21, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant recently hosted the 3d All-Russian Research to Practice Blue-Collar Job Training Conference dedicated to current problems and developmental prospects of vocational education; the conference participants talked about ways of training efficient blue-collar workers whom the industry needs, the company press service reports. Speakers also talked about the ways in which the academic and the business communities could cooperate, and about the ways to make educational establishments pedagogically, scientifically, and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 21, 2015. Omsktransmash (Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Omsk-based member enterprise) met its defense procurement target figures for the year 2015. The last set of upgraded tanks was recently delivered to the Russian Armed Forces, the company press service reports. Under the company’s government contract, Omsktransmash had to give a complete overhaul and an upgrade to the T72 tanks so as to achieve a considerable improvement in their performance characteristics,’ the press service says. The tank upgrades comprised quite a few technological stages which resulted

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 18, 2015. Two workers from Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant – repair mechanic Oleg Belousov and engineer Andrei Ryabov – are going to serve a two-year term as Sverdlovsk Region Youth Parliament deputies. The company press service reports forty-eight delegates representing ten different parties and associations ran for the office in Nizhniy Tagil/Gornouralsk. Ural Vagon Zavod’s Nizhniy Tagil youth group got most of the votes, which entitled it to two seats in the parliament out of twenty-five. The voters were Sverdlovsk Region residents in the 14-30 age

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 18, 2015. A project presented by ESK ChTPZ (a daughter enterprise of Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant/ChTPZ) won the International Small-Scale Power Generation – Large-Scale Achievements Prize, the company press service reports. The awarding ceremony took place in Chelyabinsk during the 5th Energy Forum coordinated by the Ural Small-Scale Power Generation Association. This year, the company set up an electric power fiscal metering unit at the plant’s primary substation. To do this, the company workers installed i-TOR, the innovative 110-kilowatt facility made by

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 18, 2015.Koltsovo Airport had to close temporarily because of two reported bomb threats, the airport’s press service informed UrBC. ‘We received two emails, one reporting that the Angelo Hotel, the airfield, and the planes were all supposedly mine-laid. The other email claimed the airport terminal had bombs inside as well,’ the press service says. All the passengers on the planes as well as all the hotel guests and people in the airport terminals have been evacuated by now. Special rescue forces are now working at the scene.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 18, 2015. The average per-square-meter price on Yekaterinburg existing home market dropped by 7.7%, down to 70,821 RUR, since the start of the year, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. Prices have been declining the fastest (-1.7%) in the city’s remotest and cheapest districts and now come to 51,902 RUR per m2 on average. Centrally located apartments and those in the city’s second priciest districts are now 0.8% cheaper, 98,079 RUR per m2 and 75,370 RUR per m2 on average, respectively. Homes in the third most expensive districts grew 0.6% cheaper, down to 65,213

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 18, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based borrowers’ mortgages amount to 1.862m RUR on average, 3.7% of loan repayments are by now past-due, the National Credit History Bureau reports. According to the bureau, this percentage of debts is the lowest among all the popular retail loans at the moment. All in all, the number of mortgages issued in Russia since the start of the year has gone up by 11%, whereas the number of unsecured loans dropped by 10% and that of car loans by 9%. It is reported, however, that the quality of new mortgages has been deteriorating over the last

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 17, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s souvenir shop UVZSHOP.ru and Russia’s leading model and board games manufacturer Zvezda are launching their new collection of toy-sized replicas of military vehicles produced by the corporation’s member enterprises. According to the company press service, the first two models – T90S (tank) and Solntsepek TOS-1A (flame-throwing unit) – are already on offer in shops. 10,000 copies were made for each of the two models. Toy replicas of Terminator and Terminator 2 (combat fire support vehicles) and Meta-S (self-propelled