UrBC, Chelyabinsk, November 10, 2015. Vyborgsky Shipbuilding Plant (a member enterprise of United Shipbuilding Corporation) commenced working on the diesel-electric icebreaker Aker ARC 130 А. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is going to be one of the key suppliers of ship steel for the project, MMK reports. Vyborgsky Shipbuilding Plant landed a contract for the construction of two Finnish-designed Aker ARC 130 А icebreakers for Gazpromneft Novy Port. The two 22-Megawatt vessels are expected to be commissioned in 2017. Both of them will be able to break up to two meters of ice and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 9, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region Government carried a budget proposal for 2016 recently. Revenues are expected at 173.6bn RUR, with 50.9bn RUR to be directed to education, 37.4bn RUR to healthcare, and 42.2bn RUR to social welfare projects. This year‘s expenses came to 176.2bn RUR, which is nearly 3bn RUR more than the expected revenue figures for next year. In 2016, expenses will actually have to be cut down drastically down to 189.5bn RUR (10bn RUR less than the 199.1bn RUR originally proposed for this year). Budget deficit is estimated at 15.957bn RUR (against 29bn

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 10, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region Government cut the constituency’s reserve funds and the anti-corruption budget, the Legislative Assembly deputy Andrei Alshevskikh wrote on his Facebook page. ‘The government’s reserve fund for 2016 comes to 500m RUR (300m less than a year earlier). 350,000 RUR will be allocated for corruption control measures against 1.2m RUR this year (-70%),’ he wrote. Alshevskikh says the Governor Administration will cost 238.7m RUR to maintain (compared with 238.5m RUR this year). Chairman of Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly will get 4.1m

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 10, 2015. Sverdlovsk Railways handled 15.7% less of building materials shipments than a year earlier; the overall figure was 14.8m tons, the freight forwarder’s press service reports. The amount of chemical and mineral fertilizers sent as cargo decreased by 1%, down to 11.9m tons, that of scrap metal decreased by 11.7%, down to 2.1m tons, that of coke decreased by 12.2%, down to 1m tons, and that of cement decreased by 2.8%, down to 2.1m tons. The overall amount of cargo handled by the company came to 114.4m tons in ten months of 2015, which is 2.5% more than in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 10, 2015. Eleven flights arrived in Yekaterinburg from Egypt (eight from Hurghada and three from Sharm El Sheikh) by 10:00 AM on November 9, bringing 1,699 passengers (including 453 children) back home, Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the MoE reports. ‘A team of MoE experts is present at Koltsovo Airport on a 24-hour basis, collaborating closely with the airport’s management and special-purpose units. A group of MoE psychologists and doctors from our emergency medicine center are available to help the arriving passengers. Special attention will be paid to seniors

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 10, 2015. Yekaterinburg developers commissioned 913,000 m2 of new housing and 707,000 m2 of commercial estate in ten months of the year, the city council reports. Three sections of Das Haus Apartment Complex in Vosmoye Marta St/Aviatsionnaya St/Tsiolkovsky St/Stepan Razin St, an apartment building at 9 Elektrikov St, an apartment building at 6 Patriotov St, the first sections of Rassvetny Apartment Complex in Rassvetnaya St/Syromolotov St/ 40-letiya Komsomola St, an apartment building at 126 Tatishchev St, and an apartment building at 1 Nikolai Ostrovsky St were

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 10, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s museum can now boast a new exhibit TMV2, the pilot make of a multi-purpose wheeled/rail-mounted vehicle, the company press service reports. The machine is used to relocate railcars within the premises of industrial enterprises and repair depots and to deliver hydroficated tools and equipment to emergency sites on railways. TMV2 is an independent vehicle and not an extension on an existing machine. 700,000-kg strong, it can tow up to fifteen empty cars on railways. The development and production of this towing device is a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 9, 2015. Ural State Pedagogical University‘s and Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University‘s Learned Councils voted for the two colleges to merge into one, USPU‘s press service reports. An ad hoc committee decided on the preliminary name for the integrated college, which is Bazhov University. The idea is to get USPU reorganized through a merger with RSVPU, the former being the college applying for reorganization and the latter a partner one. Now Russia‘s Education Ministry announced the start of a selection procedure on October 16, 2015 to pick out the best

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 9, 2015. The average price of a square meter of housing on Yekaterinburg existing homes market has declined by 6% since the start of the year, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. As of November 2, 2015, the average asking price came to 71,682 RUR per m2. Prices dropped most in the city‘s least expensive outskirts: down 1.9% in the last four weeks, 52,815 RUR per m2 on average. Also, centrally located apartments grew 1.4% less expensive, 98,008 RUR per m2 on average. As for the city‘s second and third most expensive locations, prices went down by 0.7%, down to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 9, 2015. Alexei Dolgikh, a PTK 860 turner from Uraltransmash (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) won the second prize in Glory to the Man of Labor, a professional skills contest, the corporation‘s press service reports. ‘Alexei has won in similar contests many times before. Last year, for example, he came second in an in-plant competition, and this August, he was No.1 in Ural Vagon Zavod Corporaiton‘s Best Turner contest,‘ the press service says. The competition was held at Venta Plant and attracted twenty-one contestants from Yekaterinburg,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 9, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod assessed the results of the year-long series of amateur Olympics dedicated to the V-Day 70th anniversary. There were twenty-five championships altogether, with 23,000 people taking part (+2,000 participants on last year). According to the corporation‘s press service, the games are held on a yearly basis in order to promote physical culture and sports among the workers. A billiard tournament and a relay race took place for the first time this year. ‘Just like in the previous years, the championships that attract the most participants are

UrBC, Moscow, November 6, 2015. The Russian market’s business activity was estimated at 49 points in October 2015, which was the lowest indicator in the last seven months, Finmarket refers to Markit as stating. According to Markit, the PMI index in the tertiary sector dropped down from 51.3 points in September to 47.8 points in October, which means it has gone down below the critical point for the third time in the last five months. The tertiary sector’s activity experienced a downfall because new orders mostly failed to come and a certain portion of production facilities were left idle.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 6, 2015. Ural Federal District has been investing less in logistics and operates fewer logistics facilities than Russia’s other federal districts, InfoLine reports. ‘Very few new projects were started between January and October, which may, in 1.5 to 2 years, result in warehouse shortage, as the new supply will grow limited,’ the agency says. There are currently fourteen large warehouse facilities in the district, which is the smallest number among all federal districts. Far Eastern Federal District, on the other hand, has the largest number of such facilities

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 6, 2015. Yekaterinburg Council has issued 661 construction permits since the start of the year, the city council’s press service reports. 483 permits were issued for 625 re-started construction projects, including 81 apartment buildings (total area 848,000 m2), 203 private houses and low-rise housing (total area 91,000 m2), and 301 non-residential buildings (total area 1.038m m2). ‘Some of these projects are apartment buildings in Sector 9 of Akademichesky District in Krasnolesye St, Chkalov St, and Amundsen St. Akademichesky Yug acts as the developer for the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 6, 2015. Alexander Litvinenko, assistant foreman from ChTPZ Group’s Finishing Center, won the first prize in Industrial Automation at the 2nd WorldSkills Hi Tech 2015 Championship, the company press service reports. Additionally, the Group’s employees Ilya Ivanov and Alexander Pauls won silver in Mechatronics and Alexander Ilynykh and Roman Barkhatov came second in Mobile Robotics. All the contestants who represented ChTPZ Group at the championship are the Future of White Metallurgy Program alumni; the program is the company’s PPP implemented in cooperation with

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 6, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation congratulated the winners of WorldSkills, the national blue-collar job championship. According to the corporation’s press service, their HR Director Sergei Saranchuk, acting on behalf of the company (the event’s sponsor), presented all of the gold winners with an up-to-date tablet computer. Students from Nizhniy Tagil Metal Treatment School (part of the corporation’s Corporate University) Ivan Uzkikh and Almat Ibrayev won the third prize in Industrial Robotics. Both winners are currently in their last year of studying Welding

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 5, 2015. Inflation rate went up by 0.9% in October 2015 compared with September 2015, Sverdlovskstat reports. Food items grew 1.2% more expensive, while prices of strong drinks and non-food items rose by 1.1% and 1%, respectively.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 5, 2015. A number of Lastochka electric trains (made by Sinara Group’s Ural Locomotives) will get launched by Sverdlovsk Railways on commuter routes on November 5, Sinara Group reports. ES2G 001 and 002 go from Yekaterinburg to Nizhniy Tagil, with stops in Verkh-Neivinsky and Nevyansk, twice a day, and from Yekaterinburg to Kamensk-Uralsky, with stops in Koltsovo, Aramil, and Khramtsovskaya, once a day. The first route takes two hours and the second one one and a half hours to complete. There are five cars per every train. November timetable is already available

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 5, 2015. Job-seekers on Yekaterinburg labor market are now asking to be paid, on average, 35,000 RUR a month, which is 3,000 RUR more than at the start of the year, HeadHunter reports. Yekaterinburg happens to be Ural Federal District’s only city where pay expectations have gone up. In the rest of Sverdlovsk Region, applicants typically expect to be paid exactly as much as a year earlier (25,000 RUR a month in Kurgan, 30,000 RUR in Tyumen and Chelyabinsk, 35,000 RUR in Surgut and 50,000 RUR in Salekhard). ‘Judging by the proposed pay figures quoted by

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 5, 2015. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant/PNTZ (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) is launching an extra magnetic particle test unit, the company press service reports. The new unit will ensure quality control of 100% of OCTG couplings that are produced by PNTZ Finishing Center. The MPT unit can test up to 2,400 product units with the diameter of 73 to 195mm per shift. The apparatus works to identify localized stray magnetic fields that emerge in the defective area with the help of ferromagnetic particles which serve as an indicator. The unit was supplied by the