UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 23, 2015. Uraltransmash hosted a meeting of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s member enterprises on launch of lean production. According to the corporation’s press service, experts from Yekaterinburg, Rubtsovsk, Nizhniy Tagil, Tomsk, Chelyabinsk, and Kamensk Uralsky who supervise the introduction of the 5S system to their respective plants shared their experience and action plans. The principles of lean production have been integrated into the corporation’s member enterprises for a few years now, so there is certain experience to share, some results to look at, and

UrBC, Moscow, October 22, 2015. Russia’s TV commercials market is expected to shrink by 17% by the end of the year, Interfax refers to Vi as claiming. ‘We can see the prices have grown stable now, and the situation is predictable on the whole,’ Vi Director-General Sergei Vasilyev said at the Dentsu Aegis Network conference recently. Vi expects the commercials market to sag by 17% this year, even though the forecast made in December 2014 spoke of the less optimistic 25% to 40%. The company feels the market will decrease by another 7% after a 10% fall in September, a 14% fall in August, and a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 22, 2015. Yekaterinburg Council intends to purchase fifty more new buses to add to its fleet of public transport vehicles, the city council’s press service reports. This is the second tender the city council is holding this year; the idea is to get 46 to 47 buses on a lease. These buses need to have foreign-made engines and gearboxes, low-floor bodies, and large capacity and to run on natural gas. ‘We expect all the major Russian and the CIS suppliers such as MAZ, LiAZ, NefAZ, and Volzhanin as well as all the other large Russian and CIS bus manufacturers, to make

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 22, 2015. Gagarinsky Health Resort run by Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant/PNTZ (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) won the first prize in Sverdlovsk Region’s Best Children’s Camps Contest, the company press service reports. The winner’s certificate was given to the company representative by Sverdlovsk Region’s Vice Premier Vladimir Vlasov at the All-Russian Children’s Recreation Conference. There were seven countryside camps competing for the prize all in all. Gagarinsky was chosen for its innovative approach to the organization of the plant employees’ children’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 22, 2015. A new, numerically controlled HPM machining center was launched at Kamensk Uralsky Foundry Plant/KULZ (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation). The machine costs over 15m RUR, the company press service reports. The machining center will be used for making metallic moulds, coreboxes, and presstools. The digitally operated unit can make any kinds of fittings that can be up to 1.6 meters long and up to 2,300 kg heavy. Floors had to be taken off and new foundation had to be laid to mount the new machine, since the digitally controlled machining

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 22, 2015. Designers from Tomsk Electro-technical Plant (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) Alexei Drozd and Daria Stepanova took part in the 2nd All-Russian Top 100 Engineers Contest. The corporation’s press service reports the final round was coordinated by Russia’s Economic Development Ministry and Ulyanovsk Region Cluster Development Center. 181 contestants from 30 Russian constituencies, including employees of major industrial enterprises, students, and young researchers competed for the Best Designer title. The task was to complete one of

UrBC, Moscow, October 21, 2015. The overall number of cars registered in Yekaterinburg went up by 22% and reached 439,000 in the last five years, Avtostat reports. In the country overall, the increase was 21%. The number of automobiles grew the fastest in Kazan and Perm (up 34% on five years ago, 366,000 and 242,000 cars, respectively). The number of cars registered in Ufa rose by 28% and came to 314,000. The increase stood at 27% in Siberia’s major cities Omsk and Novosibirsk (328,000 and 443,000 cars, respectively) and at 26% in Krasnoyarsk and Voronezh (310,000 and 308,000 cars,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 21, 2015. Foreign trade turnover between the Urals and the CIS member states came to $1.2bn in the nine months of 2015, which was 42% less than a year earlier, head of Ural Customs Administration Vyacheslav Goloskokov said at a press conference. The official also said the foreign trade turnover between the Urals and the rest of the world dropped by 4%, down to $10.9bn. The constituency’s overall foreign trade turnover amounted to over $12bn, including $1.2bn (10%) resulting from trading with the CIS member states and $11bn (90%) resulting from trading with the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 21, 2015. The number of job openings on Yekaterinburg labor market went up by 13.9% in the third quarter of the year compared with a year earlier, HeadHunter reports. Still, the CV database has been growing much faster than the vacancy one, with four candidates per position on average. Most job openings are related to Sales (34.9%), Blue-Collar Jobs (13.8%), Banking (13.1%), Production (11.3%), and Marketing (9.4%). As for Sverdlovsk Region on the whole, most candidates look for jobs in Sales (17.3%), Career Start/Student Jobs (16.5%), IT/Telecom (7.5%),

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 21, 2015. Ural Customs Administration have banned over 1,800,000 kg of embargoed foods from entering the country since the start of the year, the administration’s head Vyacheslav Goloskokov said at a press conference. ‘11 administrative lawsuits were instituted in connection with attempts to import sanctioned foods in the Urals,’ he said. Additionally, 170 kg of sanctioned foods were destroyed after the Sanctioned Foods Destruction Act had been adopted on June 29, 2015. This was mainly EU- and US-made produce.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 21, 2015. A new NC processing center was recently launched at Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant’s Assembly Department 1. The new set came to replace a number of obsolete Soviet-made all-purpose machines, the company press service reports. ‘Our new equipment can actually replace an entire production line. Up to now, we used to need several different machines for milling, drilling, and boring, but the new unit means we can do everything with just this center. One advantage of the new center is that tools get replaced automatically, which ensures reliability

UrBC, Moscow, October 20, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based employers owe their workers a total of 600,000 RUR in delayed wages and salaries, Rosstat reports. According to the statistics agency, the main reason employers haven’t been paying their workers is lack of own funds. The overall amount of delayed pay came to over 3.46bn RUR in Russia on the whole on October 1, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 233m RUR. 3.34bn RUR (96.5%) were not paid in time because of lack of funds (up 178m RUR on a month earlier). 122 m RUR were not paid because funding came late from all sorts of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 20, 2015. An earthquake occurred in Sverdlovsk Region yesterday; no serious damage was caused by the seismological disturbance, MoE’s local division o reports. The Russian Academy of Sciences’ geophysics service reports the magnitude of the earthquake was 4.1, its depth 10 km. ‘Experts from the geophysics lab run by the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Ural branch say the epicenter could be located between Nyazepetrovsk and Revda, 35 km to the east of Mikhailovsk. Vibrations could be felt in buildings located as far as Yekaterinburg, Pervouralsk, and Novouralsk. No

UrBC, London, October 20, 2015. Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK, one of the world’s leading OCTG producers, is holding Investor’s Day in London, the company press service reports. A presentation by TMK management, headed by BOD Chairman Dmitri Pumpyansky, will dwell on the efforts the company makes to keep operationally efficient and financially stable and on TMK’s Russian division’s success and import phaseout achievements under the current market opportunitites. Data on the market dynamics, the company’s latest news, company strategy, and shareholder value growth potential will be presented

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 20, 2015. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant/ChTZ (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) is going to make an upgraded PK 70 loading tractor with a range of extra options by order of a mining company. According to the corporation’s press service, the plant design engineers have completed all the development work and directed their files to the production departments so that the first sample of a new loader could be made. If this sample proves successful with the customer, the plant might get an order for a set of such loading tractors. Alexander Bobrenev from

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 20, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod held its first singing contest, with economist Tatiana Melkozerova winning the grand-prix for her cover of Lara Fabian’s Desperate Housewife. The company press service reports the contest took off on September 18. 60 people came to compete in the first selection round and 21 employees of Ural Vagon Zavod, Ural Transport Machine-Building Design Office, and Ural Railcar-Building Design Office made it to the finals. Contestants performed in five categories: opera singing, pop/rock, folk, rap, and variety show. The panel of judges comprised

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 19, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region received 180bn RUR in corporate income tax for January-September 2015; this is 7.2% (12bn RUR) more than a year earlier, the local division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service reports. 85.8% of the total amount came from the processing industries, production and distribution of water, natural gas, and electric power sector, the building industry, retail and wholesale trade, transportation and communication, the real estate sector (including the rental market), the tertiary sector, and the financial sector. Compared with January-September

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 19, 2015. The local developers’ demand for new land allotment is down by 40%, Sverdlovsk Region Public Property Management Minister Alexei Piankov said at Ural Estate Forum. ‘What we need under current circumstances is a thoughtful approach to what lots are offered at land auctions. Firstly, the land allotments need some sort of infrastructure around. Secondly, we cannot afford to sell everything for a song in order to sell as much as possible. Allotments for private houses are in good demand now, sometimes a decare-big lot with an opening bid of 500,000 RUR went

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 19, 2015. Sales went down by 30% to 35% on Yekaterinburg new homes market, the constituency’s Construction & Infrastructure Development Minister Sergei Bidonko said at Ural Estate Forum. ‘The market’s current supply is made up of buildings commissioned in the pre-recession years 2012-2014. This reserve is gradually wearing thin, and there are considerably fewer new development projects here. This has to do with a 30% to 35% decline in new homes sales,’ Bidonko said. According to the minister, the market supply is expected to shrink in the nearest future.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 19, 2015. 119,000 foreign citizens have arrived in Sverdlovsk Region since the start of the year, which is 20% less than a year earlier, Head of Russia’s Federal Migration Service Sverdlovsk Region division Vassiliy Pribavkin said at a press conference. He said the decline was most noticeable in early 2015 and was mainly brought about by economic factors and changes in the migration legislature. ‘On average, citizens of CIS member states make up 85% to 87% of the overall number of foreigners arriving in the area. Most of them (45% to 53%) come from Tajikistan,