UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 19, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Scientific & Production Corporation is taking part in WorldSkills Hi Tech 2015, a blue-collar jobs championship, for the second time this year. The event will be held in Yekaterinburg on October 30-November 3. As the championship’s general sponsor, the company will present every winner with a tablet computer. WorldSkills Hi Tech is coordinated by WorldSkills Russia, Sverdlovsk Region Government, Russia’s Industry & Trade Ministry, and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives. The coordination committee is chaired by Russian Vice

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, October 16, 2015. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works/MMK has won in the international Best Risk Management Contest as the Best Risk Management Program for the second time this year. 'The plant presented a report on how risk assessment affects the achievement of a company's goals. At the core of our analysis is mathematical modeling of how identified and described risks of varying degrees affect MMK's business processes. The simulated outcomes make it possible to determine which particular risks turn out to affect the processes most and,

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, October 16, 2015. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works/MMK is now manufacturing a new kind of steel (12HN), to be used for making section iron, the company reports. The plant's Mill 370 is used to make hot-rolled billets that meet the GOST 2590-2006/GOST 10702-78 standards. These are then directed to MMK METIZ (part of MMK Group) and, following some treatment, to the end users. Hot-rolled products made of 12HN steel prove very popular with the machine-building enterprises. The company also started making new, 35HGSA steel this year in an effort to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 16, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s industrial production index went down by 4.7% in September 2015 compared with August 2015, Sverdlovskstat reports. The index also dropped by 15.9% compared with September 2014 and by 4.6% in January-September 2015 compared with January-September 2014. The index dropped by 2.2% for the processing industries last month (by 15.9% compared with a year earlier). Their index for January-September 2015 declined by 3.2% compared with January-September 2014. Also, the industrial production index went up by 8% in the production and distribution

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 16, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region division of Federal Tax Service inspected 2,636 cash tills in the area in nine months of the year, their press service reports. 2,045 cases related to compliance with till operation rules, 386 to accuracy of receipt-recording, and 165 to use of special-purpose bank accounts. Tax authorities determined there were legal violations in 96% of all cases. 15.67m RUR worth of fines were imposed on the people and companies in charge, with 12.32m RUR paid to the budget. There are currently 81,657 cash tills registered in Sverdlovsk Region.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 16, 2015. The average price of a square meter of housing on Yekaterinburg existing home market currently comes to 72,161 RUR, down 5.3% on the start of the year, President of Ural Chamber of Real Estate Eduard Bogdanov reports. ‘We can see prices growing down gradually in all the market segments. At the same time, the market supply is still at its record high. There are currently nearly 11,500 apartments offered for sale in our database, as well as 1,800 rooms in communal apartments. This is not a very good picture to look at. On the other hand people’s incomes

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 16, 2015. The company website of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK www.tmk-group.com was named Steel Industry Website of the Year. According to the company press service, the website won in one of Steelie Awards categories; the contest is coordinated by the World Steel Association. The awarding ceremony took place at the Association’s 49th conference in Chicago, U.S.A. The award was received on the company’s behalf by BOD Chair of TMK IPSCO (TMK’s U.S. division) Petr Golitzin. The World Steel Association is one of the largest and fastest-growing industrial

UrBC, Omsk, October 16, 2015. Omsktransmash (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) hosted a Transmash OBORONPROF conference to elect chairs of the company’s trade union, the corporation’s press service reports. Viktor Kurochkin was re-elected Chair for the next five years. Kurochkin said in his report on the trade union’s performance in 2010-2015 that the organization managed to ensure cooperation with the plant’s management in many aspects. As a result, Omsktransmash won the first prize in the 11th Best Social Partnership Enterprise in 2014. A number of committees were set up

UrBC, Moscow, October 15, 2015. The share of Russian citizens’ past-due loan payments rose by 1.5 times in the last year, National Bureau of Credit History’s data as of October 1 indicate. The share of overdue payments rose most in the consumer loan segment in September: the increase came to nearly 1.7 times, from 9.8% to 16.5%, Banki.ru reports. In the credit card and car loan segment, the rise was around 1.4 times (from 12.8% to 18.4% and from 5.9% to 8.4%, respectively). The share of past-due payments on mortgages went up from 2.7$ in September 2014 to 4.1% in September 2015, the Bureau

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 15, 2015. Ural Customs Administration instituted 71 criminal lawsuits in the nine months of 2015, which was 8% less than a year earlier, their press service reports. 21 cases have to do with customs duty evasion (overall damage 93.5m RUR). 14 criminal suits are related to smuggling of strategic goods and resources such as timber, precious and semiprecious stones (overall damage over 137.7m RUR). 8 suits involve charges of illegal foreign currency transactions; damage is estimated at 168.9m RUR for illegal transfer of money onto non-residents’ accounts and at 753m

UrBC, Moscow, October 15, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region proved No.5 on Russia’s premium and luxury car market this year, Avtostat reports. Nearly a half (47.4%) of the more expensive cars get registered in Moscow and Moscow Region, around 11% get registered in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Region. As for the Russian provinces, 4.2% get registered in Krasnodar Territory, 2.7% in Tatarstan, 2.4% in Sverdlovsk Region, 2.1% in Rostov Region, 1.9% in Tyumen Region (including Yamalo-Nenetsky and Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Regions), 1.8% in Samara Region, 1.7% in Chelyabinsk Region, and 1.5% in Nizhniy

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 15, 2015. Yekaterinburg-based processing enterprises produced and shipped to customers 184.3bn RUR worth of goods and services in the eight months of 2015, the city council reports. This figure is 30% better than that for a year earlier. Given the local production dynamics over the course of one year, a number of industrial branches can be said to be doing very well,’ the city council says.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 15, 2015. The amount of shipments processed by UVZ-Logistic (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) rose by 16% in the third quarter of the year compared with the previous quarter and amounted to 10.22m tons. According to the corporation’s press service, coal shipments amounted to 7m tons, which was 35% more than in the previous quarter. The overall cargo turnover went up by 16.8% and came to 32.14bn ton-kilometer, which exceeded the figures for the second quarter of 2015 by 22.6%. The increase was possible due to more shipments at West-Siberian

UrBC, Moscow, October 14, 2015. The overall amount of past-due car loan payments went up by 22% since the start of the year and came to 64.1bn RUR, Sequoia Credit Consolidation reports. The figure mainly increased because of a dramatic rise in interest rates (up to 30% a year in January-March). The rates are now back to 17%-19% a year, yet new car loans are still hardly affordable. Experts don’t think any substantial decrease in interest rates very likely, as Russia’s macroeconomic situation remains unstable. In the United States, in the meantime, interest rates remain under 4% (and under

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 14, 2015. Letting one’s Yekaterinburg apartment turned 0.4% less profitable than one year ago, N1.ru and E1.Nedvizhimost report. The most profitable places to let are one-bedroom apartments in Vokzalny District, where one can expect an 8% ROI. Studio apartments in the remote areas of Komperssorny and Elizavet are in the second place, and apartments in Shartash Market, Elmash, and Vtuzgorodok are in the third place. Two-bedroom apartments in VIZ, Uralmash, Parkovy, Krasnolesye, Shirokaya Rechka, UNC, Zarechny, and Khimmash have a ROI of under 5% a year. ‘Rental

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 14, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s government debt rose by 4.077bn RUR in the third quarter of the year and amounted to 48.224bn RUR against 44.146bn RUR in the previous quarter, Sverdlovsk Region’s Finance Ministry reports. The overall amount of budget loans issued to the constituency came to 11.079bn RUR on October 1, the overall amount of loans taken out from banks came to 34.154bn RUR. Sverdlovsk Region also received 1.34bm RUR and 1.65bn RUR worth of state and local government guarantees, respectively.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 14, 2015. Only 42% of Yekaterinburg-based survey respondents get paid officially. 38% of those surveyed said an officially declared salary was not their main priority in the choice of employer; they would be willing to get paid under the table in the future, E1. Rabota and Zarplata.ru refer to the findings of their survey (involving 2,643 people) as indicating. 38% of respondents admitted they were getting some portion of their salary paid under the table, while 20% of those surveyed said their entire salary was not getting officially declared. 53% of those

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 14, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod’s Personnel Training Center can now boast a new lab/seminar room for automated metal treatment with an innovative set of equipment and software. According to the corporation’s press service, the equipment was supplied within the framework of the company educational establishment infrastructure development program. Ural Vagon Zavod and Ural Federal University were among the program’s eleven finalists, with UFU investing 30m RUR in the corporate department’s development. ‘The new lab is a perfect platform for both theoretical and practical

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, October 13, 2015. MMK Trading House (a member enterprise of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works) came up with a performance report for the three quarters of the year. The company delivered 100,000,000 kg of goods to its customers in the third quarter of 2015, with the overall resulting revenues at 10bn RUR. This was 8% better than the target figure. As for the three-quarter period, the company sold 140,000,000 kg of goods more than a year earlier, with revenues up 7.5bn RUR on January-September 2014, the company reports. The company's Moscow

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 13, 2015. The cost of new homes in Sverdlovsk Region went down by 2.3% in the third quarter of the year compared with the second quarter; existing home prices went down by 4.9%, Sverdlovskstat reports. Apartments in the medium price range grew 0.2% less expensive, while the price of better quality homes was down by 3.4% and that of premium class ones by 3.7%. The average price of a new home now comes to 59,775 RUR per m2. As for the existing home market, all types of dwellings grew less expensive: those of lower quality by 12%, those of average quality by 6.8%,