UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2015. 219.6bn RUR were transferred by Sverdlovsk Region to Russia’s consolidated budget between January and November 2015, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 7%. The federal budget received 60.5bn RUR in revenues (up 6.3%, or 3.6bn RUR, on last year). Most of these came from VAT payments (54.2bn RUR, or 89.5% of the total amount). This year’s VATs were 3.5bn RUR, or 6.8%, greater than a year earlier. Also, 5.3bn RUR worth of corporate tax payments (up 15.1% on last year) were transferred to federal budget as well. Sverdlovsk Region’s budget

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2015. 1.504m m2 worth of new housing got commissioned in Yekaterinburg in the eleven months of 2015, with 88,000 m2 commissioned in November alone, the city council reports. This figure includes 144,000 m2 worth of private houses, 19,000 m2 worth of low-rise apartment buildings, and 837,000 m2 worth of regular apartment buildings. In November, the apartment building Academic at 54A Shchors St, an apartment building in Section 1.1 of Akademicheskiy District (47 Wilhelm de Gennin St), and the set of apartment buildings Baltiysky at 2 Mikheyev St were

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, December 7, 2015. Seven types of ChTPZ Group’s OCTGs with nano-particles within the welding seal were awarded the Russian Nano-Technological Product Decoration, the company press service reports. The solemn awarding ceremony took place in Moscow during the 4th Nano-Industry Enterprises Congress. The decoration was given out by head of Rosnano State Corporation Anatoly Chubais. These 508 to 1420mm OCTGs were made in accordance with the Group’s own technology. A special combination of welding materials and welding modes resulted in presence of nano-particles in the welding

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil hosts Blue-Collar Youth, the 3d youth education forum. The company press service reports this is the first time the forum is being held on a national scale; thus this has become the biggest event so far. Over 300 students from vocational schools based in forty-four different Russian Federation constituencies came to the communication platform at Painting Department 2. The largest group comes from Ural Federal District. The forum, coordinated by the Federal Youth Policy Agency, runs under the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation presented its new developments at the 9th International Russian Transport 2015 Exhibition – a venue for advertising the railway, automobile, aviation, and shipbuilding industries’ most important projects. According to the company press service, the corporation’s head plant presented its railway bogie 18-555 for the first time. The product is meant to replace all the current 23.5-ton-force bogies used in lightweight cargo railcars. Head of the company’s Railway Vehicle Promotion Division Mikhail Boyko says the new product’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 4, 2015. Chinese, Azerbaijan, and Mexican suppliers can fully compensate for lack of Turkish products on Sverdlovsk Region’s food market, President of Ural Chamber of Commerce & Industry Andrei Besedin said at a press conference. ‘There are six or seven countries out there that feel both ready and very lucky to enter the Russian market instead of Turkey. Azerbaijan in one such country, as well as the countries of Latin and Central America,’ he said. Deputy Head of Ural Customs Administration Alexei Yagovitin says Turkey was the area’s No.1 tomato importer

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 4, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s employers delayed paying 573mRUR worth of salaries and wages in the eleven months of 2015, the constituency’s Senor Labor Inspector Fyodor Kravtsov said at a press conference. ‘The situation is far from perfect. 573m RUR worth of wages and salaries were not paid on time. So far, we’ve managed to make employers pay 490m RUR and 83m RUR are still owed to their workers. All in all, 1,700 people working for twenty-five different companies haven’t been paid on time,’ Kravtsov said. He added 8,200 complaints related to labor rights

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 4, 2015. A new clinic (part of the Bud Zdorov! Chain) for employees of Sinara Pipe Plant (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK) and all the other town locals opened in Kamensk Uralsky on December 2, TMK press service reports. The opening ceremony was attended by Sverdlovsk Region Healthcare Minister Arkadiy Belyavskiy, TMK Deputy Director-General for Organizational Development Nikolai Kolbin, Deputy Director-General of Ingosstrakh Tatiana Kaigorodova, Sinara Pipe Plant Managing Director Vyacheslav Popkov, and the chain’s DG Vyacheslav Novikov.

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, December 4, 2015. ChTPZ Group shareholder and BOD Chairman, Deputy of Chelyabinsk Region Legislative Assembly Alexander Fedorov won the Delovoy Kvartal magazine’s Man of The Year Award for the second time in a row. The solemn awarding ceremony took place at the Congress & Exhibition Hall recently. The prize, indicative of Fedorov’s success in large-scale improvements, of efficiency of his projects, and of his contribution to the company, the pipe-manufacturing industry, and Chelyabinsk Region’s development, was awarded by a group of experts comprising business community

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, Deccember 4, 2015. ChTPZ Group’s corporate training program the Future of White Metallurgy was awarded the first prize in the blue-collar jobs training contest by the Russian Education & Science Ministry and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives. The prize was given to the company representatives at the 10th International Global Education 2015 Congress & Exhibition, the company press service reports. ‘We trained over 400 highly skilled workers, each of whom now has three to four kinds of qualifications, in the last four years. Most of the program alumni find jobs,

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, December 3, 2015. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) has been selling increasingly more products to international car manufacturers with factories in Russia. The company sales to foreign carmakers quadrupled in 2015 compared with the year 2014. MMK delivered 405,000,000 kg of galvanized and cold-rolled products to carmakers last year and 278,000,000 kg in the first eight months of 2015. Now the automobile-making industry is the company’s top priority market, so MMK’s goal is to become the market leader. MMK intends to become the No.1 supplier for

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 3, 2015. The average amount of a mortgage loan went down in Sverdlovsk Region this year, Manager of VTB24 Ural Branch Sergei Kulpin said at a press conference. ‘Mortgages used to amount to 2m RUR on average last year, now the figure is down to 1.7m RUR. Borrowers appear to have a more realistic assessment of their financial capacity. Also, prices dropped by 7% on average on both existing and new homes markets, which affected the loan amount as well,’ Kulpin said. He said VTB24 had issued 1,037 mortgage loans (with 1.9bn RUR worth of state-provided funding)

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 3, 2015. Prices went down by 6.6% on Yekaterinburg existing homes market in the eleven months of 2015, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. ‘The average per-square-meter price gradually declines by about 0.2% a week. As of November 30, 2015, this came to 71,159 RUR,’ the Chamber’s analysts say. There are currently 11,600 apartments and over 2,000 rooms in communal apartments for sale in Ural Real Estate Chamber’s database. It still takes quite a while (4.5 to 5.5 months or longer) to make a sale. In terms of location, prices declined least noticeably (-0.4% on the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 3, 2015. Snezhnost, ChTPZ Group’s 13th annual charity festival for children, opens in Chelyabinsk on December 4 with Konstantin Raikin Higher Acting School’s Let’s Play Cartoons, the company press service reports. The Group has run this charity festival for socially vulnerable children since 2003. This year, Snezhnost is also supported by the Russian Culture Ministry. Over 7,500 children from South Ural cities will be able to see the country’s best plays at Chelyabinsk’s major theaters. Children of the Group’s employees are traditionally invited, as well as local

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 3, 2015. Every year, Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant funds its workers and their families’ stays at health resorts and sanatoriums as part of its CSR projects. This year, for example, 5,257 workers and their children will have used this offer by the end of the year, the company press service reports. The main goal is to prevent occupational illnesses in workers employed at hazardous production departments. This year, 1,400 such employees were sent to Pine Mountains Resort, 186 people went to Ust-Kachka Resort, and 274 people went to Malachite Resort.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 3, 2015. Uraltransmash (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) got its low-floor tram bogie patented, the corporation’s press service reports. The bogie was designed by the plant’s Director-General Alexei Nosov, Senior Civilian Goods Designer Sergei Soloviev, and Senior Designer Engineer Sergei Chernykh. The product was developed for Russia’s first fully low-floor tram. The wheels are mounted on independent axles and all the parts pertaining to the middle section are on the outer surfaces, which makes room for the low floor in the central section of

UrBC, Moscow, December 2, 2015. 1.2m new cars were sold on the Russian market between January and October 2015, which was 34% less than a year earlier, Avtostat reports. Russian customers spent 1.46m trillion RUR on new automobiles this year so far (down 21% on the ten months of 2014), whereas the price of a car went up by 19.7% and came to 1.181m RUR on average. The price of foreign cars rose by 21.3% up to 1.343m RUR on average, that of Russian cars increased less noticeably, by 17.3%, and came to 504,000 RUR on average. Avtostat Director Sergei Tselikov believes Russian customers will have

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 2, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region only came 12th on the list of Russian constituencies with the greatest number of press kiosks, the Association of Russia’s Printed Press Distributors’ press service reports. The association reports there is one such kiosk per 3,836 people in the area, as opposed to the required one kiosk per every 2,500 people. Kaliningrad Region was at the top of the rating (one kiosk per 2,197 people), followed by Chelyabinsk Region (one kiosk per 2,489 people) and Mari El (one kiosk per 2,696 people). Things look bleakest in Chechnya, Altai, Adygeia,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 2, 2015. The number of jobs on Yekaterinburg labor market went up by 1% in November 2015, HeadHunter Ural reports. Most job openings are in the Housekeeping, Science & Education, Art & Media, and Tourism, Hotels, Restaurants segments. ‘The number of vacancies went up in most professional areas with the exception of Insurance (-27%), Sports Clubs & Fitness (-27%), and Accounting (-24%),’ says HeadHunter Ural’s head of press department Maria Zabotina. As for job-seekers, the number of CVs submitted into the system increased by 40% in November compared

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 2, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region authorities are going to sell 2.7bn RUR worth of state-run enterprises’ shares by auction next year, Sverdlovsk Region Public Property Management Minister Alexei Pyankov said at a Legislative Assembly meeting. According to Pyankov, the constituency expects these enterprises to bring 3.7bn RUR in revenues. 2.7bn RUR are to result from selling shares of companies such as Pervouralsk and Nizhniy Tagil printing offices, Sverdlovsk Poultry Factory, and Kuryi Health Resort. Sverdlovsk Region Government actually preferred to keep its stake in