UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 23, 2015. The rating agency Moody’s no longer carries SKB-Bank’s ratings, the bank’s press service reports. According to the bank representatives, the contract between SKB-Bank and Moody’s Investors Service recently expired, so the absence of rating information in the future has nothing to do with the bank’s performance. SKB-Bank is currently liaising with Russian rating agencies such as Rus-Rating and Expert RA and also with Fitch Ratings. The bank’s profits amounted to over 47m RUR in the first half of the year; SKB-Bank fully complies with all of the Bank of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 23, 2015. Public hearings on Russian Copper Company’s Tominsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise took place in Dolgoderevenskoye, Chelyabinsk Region, on July 21, 2015, with 477 people (including regulatory bodies’ representatives) attending, the company press service reports. The hearings were dedicated to the environmental impact the development and processing of porphyry copper ore at Tominsky Deposit as well as the waste disposal facilities will make on the surroundings. The deposit’s potential is estimated at 28m tons of ore a year. Russian Copper Company’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 23, 2015. Seversky Pipe Plant/STZ (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company) selected the year’s best mentors. This is the eighth time a competition to single out the most successful mentors has been conducted at the plant, the company press service reports. Seventeen nominees competed for the plant’s Mentor Of The Year Award. In the first round of the competition, a panel of judges assessed their professional achievements, their performance in skills contests, and their innovations and improvement proposals. Then, the selected contestants had to take a test

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, July22, 2015. MMK Trading House Kazakhstan and Russian branches delivered 97,500,000 kg of goods to customers in June 2015. This was 1.7 times better than a year earlier. This is the second time in the company’s history that MMK Trading House has shipped over 90,000,000 kg of metal goods to its customers in one month’s time. This June’s figures broke the previous record of October 2014. The company’s domestic market turnover came to 3bn RUR last month, which was a record-setting figure as well. The house’s Moscow branch also set a new loading record: 1,360,000 kg of goods

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 22, 2015. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development reduced the commission it charges on money orders on July 20, 2015, the bank’s press service reports. The minimum commission for a ruble money order now comes to 30 RUR and that for a foreign currency money order to $15. ‘To complete the transaction, the customer needs to produce their passport and the addressee’s bank’s details. Customers who transfer money directly from their UBRD bank accounts are offered the best terms,’ the press service says. For example, if you book a trip to a health resort for

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 22, 2015. The electric power supplier Oblkommunenergo directed 89.228m RUR to power recovery repairs this year. The company press service explains the funds are to be used on repairing Sverdlovsk Region-based power supply facilities such as transformer substations and electric mains. Money will be invested most heavily in the grids and stations of Polevskoy, Kushva, Kamyshlov, Pervouralsk, and Artemovsky. ‘We have tremendous plans for this year. In terms of money, the funding allocated for the purpose is many times greater than last year’s one. 14m RUR were directed

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 22, 2015. Ural Airlines introduced their new, Saint Petersburg-Tbilisi flight on July 20, 2015, the airline’s press service reports. There were sixty-five passengers on this first-time flight. The scheduled flights to Tbilisi will be operated every Monday, while the return ones to Saint Petersburg will be available on Tuesdays. As it happens, Ural Airlines also introduced the Moscow-Batumi flight as recently as July 10. This flight is operated on Mondays and Fridays.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 22, 2015. Thirty-seven alumni of ChTPZ Group Training Center’s Future of White Metallurgy Program took their oaths to join the military forces in Gorny Shchit, Sverdlovsk Region, the company press service reports. The solemn ceremony was attended by the military officials, managers of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group), and faculty of Pervouralsk Metallurgical School. ChTPZ Group, Central Military District’s Air Command, Sverdlovsk Region Government, and Pervouralsk Metallurgical School signed a special agreement in 2012 which allowed the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 22, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation/UVZ came up with a performance report on development engineers and innovators’ efforts over the last three years, the corporation’s press service reports. Over 500 people submitted their improvement proposals over the last few years, thus saving the company more than 180m RUR. The head plant’s Mechanical Assembly Department 1 has produced the greatest number of proposals so far; Repairs Department 1 comes second, and two of the plant’s Assembly Departments share the third place on the list. The plant also hosted a plenary

UrBC, Moscow, July 21, 2015. The Russian Federation Government allocated Sverdlovsk Region 143.14m RUR to get new, natural gas-fueled buses, the Cabinet’s official website states. ‘The subsidies (3bn RUR all in all) were allocated in accordance with the purchasing regulations for buses and utility vehicles and within the framework of the government’s industrial development program and its sub-program for the automobile industry,’ the announcement says.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 21, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s unemployment rate rose from 1.15% to 1.44% in the last six months, the Labor & Employment Department’s Natalia Bordyugova announced at a press conference recently. ‘The overall trend is distinctly negative. There are 32,787 people without a job in Sverdlovsk Region at the moment. However, this is still remarkably different from the recession of 2008-2009 when the number of the unemployed stood at 96,000 people. I would like to believe things aren’t going to get as bad as then,’ she said. The official says there are no signs of

UrBC, Moscow, July 21, 2015. Russians spent 852.8bn RUR on new cars in the first half of the year, which was 25% less than a year earlier, Avtostat reports. 735,200 new cars were sold on the market (down 37% compared with the first half of 2014). The weighted average price of one automobile rose by 18% in the last six months and came to 1.16m RUR. For Russian cars, the price increase was 13% (up to 477,500 RUR), for foreign ones, the increase was 21% (up to1.332m RUR). Avtostat Director Sergey Tselikov says prices are unlikely to keep going up in the short to medium turn, while the second

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 21, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based companies are expected to make 3,250 employees redundant within the next two to three months, the Labor & Employment Department’s Natalia Bordyugova announced at a press conference recently. ‘So far, seventy-five different businesses have informed us they were planning on layoffs this year. Thirty-five companies are already at it, saying they will have to let 3,250 people go,’ Bordyugova said. The official said the labor market was getting grimmer in nearly all respects.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 21, 2015. Armored Warfare, an online multi-player game, now features armored vehicles made by Uralvagonzavod Corporation, the company press service reports. The game players can use the T90 tank and Terminator, a fire support vehicle. ‘These are eighth-level vehicles that the players have been particularly enthusiastic and impatient to try out. These are currently the game’s most powerful and most advanced machines,’ the press service says. The game is being beta-tested at the moment. Uralvagonzavod Corporation and Mail.ru Group are acting as partners in this

UrBC, Moscow, July 20, 2015. Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK Chairman of the BOD Dmitri Pumpyanski is now on the governmental transport committee. The decree to this extent was signed by Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev and published on the official legal news portal. Pumpyanski is going to represent the Russian Union of Industrialists & Employers on the committee. The governmental transport committee was set up in September 2013. The goal is to ensure smooth communication between the government and the Russian business community in the transport field.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2015. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) now offers its services to business customers in yet another office in Novosibirsk (188 Krasny Ave), the bank’s press service reports. This means the UBRD now operates three branches in Novosibirsk where corporates are welcome. Director of the bank’s Novosibirsk subsidiary Larisa Kuchendayeva says the decision to introduce a new branch for business customers was brought about by increased local demand. Novosibirsk subsidiary was added to the bank’s network in the spring of 2012. The subsidiary’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2015. Oblkommunenergo is working on connecting eleven of Sverdlovsk Region-based kindergartens to the power supply network, the company’s press service reports. The project documentation is currently being developed. The new kindergartens are located in Talitsa, Kushva, and Verkniy Tagil. The company’s Deputy Chief Engineer for Capital Construction Tatiana Lobastova explains that under the terms of the contract, the kindergartens must be launched in 2016, however, since these facilities are so important, it was decided to provide them with electric power supply

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2015. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant/PNTZ (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) won in the 12th Mining & Metallurgical Sector’s CSR Leader Contest in the Youth Policy category, the plant’s press service reports. ‘Up to 5,000 people take part in the plant’s Youth Council-coordinated events every year, which is more than a half of our workers, as a matter of fact. We organize spectacular and memorable contests, festivals, and sports competitions. This noticeable level of involvement means our employees in the under-35 age group get a chance to develop their

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant reports they have already fulfilled the MoD procurement order for the year 2015, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘The plant delivered a set of 29 repaired and upgraded T-72B3 tanks to the Ministry of Defense. This was a rather difficult part of the procurement to complete, since this had to be done at the same time as the plant was launching its brand new, third-post-war-generation Armata-platform-based tank. The latter was first demonstrated to the public during the Victory Day Parade on May 9. Still, both

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 17, 2015. Two B10M.0101EL bulldozers made at ChTZ Uraltrac (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) have been delivered to an electric power supplier, the corporation’s press service reports. The two vehicles with mechanical transmission and D-180 motor are both fitted with a 25,000-kg-strong traction hydraulic winch; the latter was also made at ChTZ Uraltrac, the plant making these on a serial scale. ‘The bulldozers were sent by road and delivered to customer via the plant’s local dealer Vigma, which will also be in charge of the after-sales services. The