UrBC, Magnitogorsk, November 11, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK), RPA Innovations Center, and MMK Group’s MMK-InformService launched a new RPA solution at the plant, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. ‘The new solution is meant to collect and systematize the price quotes for raw materials, which takes our stock market and purchasing analysis to a new level. The solution saves our human experts from the Commercial Directorate’s time, allowing them to focus on their expert evaluation of the current state of and trends in the raw materials segment of Russian and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 11, 2019. The 4th nationwide Russian Cities 2020: Project Territory Forum will take place in Yekaterinburg on November 13-14. According to the city council’s press service, the forum will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at 8 Boris Yeltsin St. This year, the event will begin with an open session of Local Government Issues Council under Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District. The points on the session agenda include national projects, digital economy, Smart City technologies, and the legal basis and practices of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 11, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) topped the rating of banks with the best terms for small businesses in Moscow in the third quarter of 2019. The international rating agency Markswebb carries its Business Banking Fees Monitoring Rating every quarter. In the QIII’2019, eighteen leading Russian banks operating in Russia’s capital were featured in the rating. According to the bank’s press service, the UBRD’s Promo package is one of the market’s best offers for freelancers who work as sole traders and self-employed. ‘Under the terms

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 8, 2019. 48,653 crimes got registered in Sverdlovsk Region in January-October 2019, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 5.4%, Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities report. 50.1% of these were minor crimes and 22% pertained to grave offenses/felonies. 14.5% of crimes involved the use of IT and telecom technologies, including 1,572 crimes that involved bank cards, 877 crimes that involved computers, 291 crimes that involved software, 4,073 crimes that involved the Internet, and 3,338 crimes that involved mobile communication

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 8, 2019. As of November 4, 2019, the average asking price on Yekaterinburg existing home market came to RUB 72,519 per m2, down 0.4% on four weeks earlier. According to Ural Real Estate Chamber’s Analytical Department, the number of homes currently for sale rose by 0.1%, or 9,010 units, in the course of one month. The number of rooms in communal apartments on offer dropped by 0.7% in the last four weeks, down to 1,360 units, and the number of homes in the suburbs also declined by 4.9%, down to 685 apartments. It takes about four months on average to sell a place.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 8, 2019. MegaFon is now among Russia’s first telecom companies to launch a mobile app for its vPBX service; the app is already available on Play Market and App Store, the company’s press service reports. This means MegaFon Ural’s customers can now track their customer call statistics, change call distribution settings, and analyze the efficiency of their call center’s performance directly on their smartphone. Now Sverdlovsk Region happens to be the Urals’ No.1 constituency in terms of how interested potential customers are in virtual PBX options. ‘Every one in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 8, 2019. ChelPipe Group is working on a large-scale investment project to make stainless steel weld-less pipes for nuclear plant steam generators, the company’s press service reports. The goal is to launch new production facilities and upgrade the existing ones at ChelPipe Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ); the project requires over RUB 780m in investments. For one, a new pipe finishing and commissioning line and an automated set of non-destructive testing appliances will get launched at the plant’s Cold-Deformed Pipe Production Unit. Fitted with the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 8, 2019. OOO FORES’s Asbest branch finds going back to mentoring practices quite efficient. Now some ten employees received the company’s mentor badges on September 18, thus assuming the responsibility for helping young workers fit in and grow professionally. In late October, an ad hoc committee gathered at the branch’s Deputy Director Arseny Koryakin’s office to look into the preliminary outcomes of the mentorship system. ‘The practices we have gone back to after a long break proved quite efficient. We intend to keep up with the mentorship things, including

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 7, 2019. According to HeadHunter’s recent survey, 44% of Sverdlovsk Region’s residents who submitted their responses do not believe a four-day working week will become a reality within the next three to five years. 34% of those surveyed, however, are positive this is a likely scenario. ’60% of respondents are only prepared to switch to a four-day week if their pay stays the same. 20% would agree to it in any case, and 10% are strongly against it. The idea proved most popular with respondents working in the IT sector and marketing (23% and 22% of respondents,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 7, 2019. Neiva Bank now employs personal consultants to help businesses handle all the difficulties to do with the application of the Federal Law No. 115-FZ (‘On Combating Legalisation (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime and Financing of Terrorism’), the bank’s press service reports. ‘The Ural banks have grown tired of waiting for the Central Bank to see to it that the large-scale locking and blacklisting of companies’ accounts stops. The banking market players must meet the CBR’s regulations and ensure strict financial control over their customers’ accounts, so

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, November 7, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) came 26th in the Russian industrial enterprises’ productivity rating, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. The company’s labor productivity was estimated at RUB 25.62m per employee in 2018. ‘This is one of the best performance indicators in the Russian metallurgical sector and the best one among the country’s largest integrated metallurgical works. In 2017, labor productivity at MMK was estimated at RUB 21.75m per employee,’ MMK says. According to MMK representatives, the continuous increase in labor

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, November 7, 2019. A series of environmental projects implemented by Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) made Magnitogorsk air two times cleaner than before, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. According to the company, the town’s air pollution figures are currently at their all-time low, which is confirmed by data from both the plant’s air monitoring stations and those belonging to Rosgridomet. MMK has invested more than RUB 21bn in green projects since 2017. The company implemented a whole range of environmental projects to bring the air pollution levels

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 7, 2019. ChelPipe Group’s team won nine medals in the 6th national blue-collar job championship WorldSkills Hi Tech 2019 in Yekaterinburg, the Group’s press service reports. ‘The Group’s experts and contestants (including children from ChelPipe Group Tech Clubs, students on the Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program and Tatarstan’s College of The Future Corporate Training Program, and employees of the company’s pipe-manufacturing and oilfield service divisions) competed in thirteen categories in General, Junior, and 50+ sections,’ the press

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, November 6, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) recently held a job skills contest for the plant’s best sintering shop workers of the year 2019, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. ‘This is the second time MMK has coordinated a contest like this. Until last year, our sintering shop employees had no opportunity of competing professionally within the context of job skills championships, which was not the case for all the other metallurgical workers. The problem was that the obligatory practical challenge section of the contest was difficult to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 6, 2019. Ural Airlines’ latest addition to the company’s fleet of aircraft arrived at Koltsovo Airport on November 1. This is the third plane from the neo range that the airline has bought this year, the air carrier’s press service reports. According to the press service, the new air liner runs on CFM International’s LEAP-1A engines, just like the Airbus A320neo units the airline has been using since August. The engines are highly fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly. ‘The aircraft (side number: VP-BOP) has an improved cabin with better air conditioning

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 6, 2019. Russian President Vladimir Putin held a Q&A session with the WorldSkills movement participants during a call-in show, the Kremlin’s website states. Large companies’ representatives, college students, and government officials were all present for the show. ChelPipe Group was among the companies invited to take part in the session. The Group’s Chair of the Board of Directors Andrei Komarov said ChelPipe Group was among Russia’s first enterprises to support WorldSkills. ‘We see putting funds in personnel training programs as fundamental investments into

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 6, 2019. The winners of the annual Vassily Tatishchev and Georg-Wilhelm de Gennin Award (named after the city’s founding fathers) were announced in Yekaterinburg today, the town council’s website states. The executives behind District Akademicheskiy Comprehensive Area Development Project Alexei Vorobyov (member of the BOD at the special-purpose housing developer RSG-Akademcheskoye), Veniamin Golubitsky (President at Kortros Group and member of the BOD at the special-purpose housing developer RSG-Akademcheskoye), Viktor Maslakov (member of the BOD at the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 6, 2019. EVRAZ Holding’s team won eighteen medals in the national round of WorldSkills Hi Tech 2019, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Communications Center reports. ‘EVRAZ NTMK representatives won in two categories. Alexander Polishchuk and Artem Kartashov from the plant’s IT Directorate won silver in Mechatronics. Polishchuk has taken part in the company rounds of the WS Championship many times before; he also contributed to the plant’s research and tech conferences and won the fourth prize in Glory to The Man of Labor Contest in 2019. Wiring technician from EVRAZ

UrBC, Moscow, November 5, 2019. The average monthly rent you have to pay for a home in Russia’s large cities rose by 27% in the course of the year, Izvestia refers to Avito Nedvizhimost as stating. In Russia on the whole, rental prices went up by about 13% between October 2018 and October 2019 and now come to RUB 23,000 a month on average. The price increase was much more pronounced in cities with population over 1m people. Rents increased by 27% on average (up to RUB 37,000 a month) in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, and Omsk. The rental prices of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 5, 2019. All local agribusinesses officially closed this year’s harvesting campaign, Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department reports. ‘The companies managed to harvest everything in time and in full. The target crop output figures have been met, with this year’s yield actually exceeding last year’s amounts for every crop category,’ Sverdlovsk Region’s Agriculture Minister Dmitri Degtyarev says. According to Degtyarev, Sverdlovsk Region now has 100% of the needed forage (nearly 3,000 kg per head of cattle). 777,000,000 kg of grains have been collected