April 13, 2015. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) is going to supply a set of eight tractors to one of Uzbekistan’s oil and gas companies. All the vehicles will be manufactured in April and shipped to customer in May, the corporation’s press service reports. According to the plant’s CIS & International Sales Director Alexander Sergeyev, it took the parties about a year to sign the contract. The plant and its dealer won the respective tenders in Uzbekistan and now has agreements on supplying as many as two sets of vehicles. Tractors from the

April 13, 2015. Kamensk Uralsky Foundry Plant/KULZ (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) is now collecting applications from workers who’d like to go on holiday to Alushta, a health resort in the Crimea; the trip and the stay will be covered by the plant, which will cost the company nearly 2m RUR, the corporation’s press service reports. All the organization issues are taken care of by the company trade union. ‘We feel it is important to give our employees a chance to recharge their batteries and get a good rest. Besides, our CSR project also supports the Crimean economy. It’s

April 13, 2015. LSR.Nedvizhimost-Ural expects to get 87,000 m2 worth of new housing commissioned in Yekaterinburg this year, the company CEO Vladimir Kritsky said at a city council meeting. ‘Given the current sales dynamics, we decided that the commissioning of some of the apartment buildings in Michurinsky Complex in Shirokaya Rechka should be postponed till 2016,’ Kritsky said. Now the company introduced some 120,000 m2 of new homes in 2014. Kritsky announced in March 2015 that the target figure for 2015 was 100,000 m2. The figure has now been reduced down to 87,000 m2.

April 13, 2015. Yekaterinburg-based Glazurit, a car dealer that specialized in Opel and Chevrolet makes up to now, is going to switch to other brands. Glazurit explained to an UrBC reporter that the company management was currently negotiating with suppliers. The plan is to start selling some new brands after all the Opel and Chevrolet makes still left in stock have been sold. No announcements have been made yet as to which brands the company is planning on representing. In fact, most of Yekaterinburg motor shows are now putting their remaining Opel and Chevrolet pieces on sale. ‘We are now

April 13, 2015. Ural Airlines is going to offer free flights to the Great Patriotic War veterans and their companions in celebration of the 70th Victory Day. The company will cover flights operated on May 3-12, 2015, the airline’s press service reports. Ural Airlines offers free flights to war veterans every year to give them a chance to visit their relatives, friends, and fellow veterans. For more details, please go to our website,’ the press service says. The reimbursements are only offered to the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War veterans, so applicants need to provide a veteran certificate

April 10, 2015. 4,556 people were made redundant by Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprises between January 1 and April 8, 2015, Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly Deputy Andrei Alshevskikh reports. The number of laid-off workers rose by nearly 3,000 people between January 28 and April 8; the number of those working part-time went up by 1,716. 7,692 employees found themselves on forced leaves by April 1 compared with 634 workers on January 28. The number of enterprises operating entirely part-time increased by 36 between January 28 and April 8 and now comes to 132 companies. The number of

April 10, 2015. Heavyweights that are over 12,000kg big will have to pay for using Sverdlovsk Region highways, the local government’s website states. The new system will be enacted after the Russian Transport Ministry’s bill on changes in the Russian Federation Fiscal Code has come into effect. ‘Under the new legislation, federal constituencies are allowed to decide whether to let heavyweights use their highways if they pay a compensation for the damage their cause,’ the website states. Sverdlovsk Region authorities are definitely going to use this option. According to Sverdlovsk Region

April 10, 2015. Ural Airlines are introducing new flights to Saint Petersburg: according to the airline’s press service, a Saint Petersburg-Chita flight with an en-route stopover in Yekaterinburg will be launched on May 25, 2015. Chita-Saint Petersburg flight will be operated at 4:45PM every Monday and Thursday; the return flight is operated at 7:55AM on Fridays. Starting from May 26, 2015, morning flights will be operated from Barnaul to Saint Petersburg on Wednesdays and Saturdays; the return evening flights to Saint Petersburg will be available on Tuesdays and Fridays. Additionally,

April 10, 2015. A pylon with a countdown timer for the 10th Russia Arms Expo was unveiled in Nizhniy Tagil; this year’s exhibition will take place at an exhibition center on September 9-12. The pylon is located in front of the town hall in the city’s main square. The solemn timer-setting ceremony was performed by Mayor Sergey Nosov. ‘We are looking forward to the event and are preparing for it. This is why the countdown for the nationally and locally important exhibition begins. An international arms, military vehicles and munitions exhibition is a motivating factor to grow and to get better.

April 10, 2015. The UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships is now over at Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. Russian sports players won prizes as well as scored enough points to become eligible to compete in the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics in 2016. 153 riders from 30 different countries competed in the championship. Russia was represented by eight sports players from Udmurtia, Samara, Tyumen, Moscow, and Moscow Region. Three of the players on the Russian national team were members of Armada, a club sponsored by Uralvagonzavod Corporation: Alexei Obydyonnov, Nikita Nagnibedov, and Sergey

April 9, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s number of migrant workers has plummeted by 50% since the start of the year compared with a year earlier, Deputy Head of Russia’s Federal Migration Service Sverdlovsk Region division Vadim Lysakov said at a press conference. ‘We issued 4,900 work patents this year against 9,400 patents in 2014. Most of the foreign workers arrive from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan,’ Lysakov said. According to the official, the drop had to do with the recent legislative changes: for one, all foreign workers must now pass a Russian language test.

April 9, 2015. SOT/Rimera (a division of ChTPZ Group) supplied its first 50,000 kg of hot-bended pipe bends for the Power of Siberia Pipeline in March 2015. According to the Group’s press service, the 1,420mm bends (wall width 32mm) are made of K60 steel and have a corrosion-resistant Pk40 coating. Shipments will come to 500,000kg altogether and are expected to be all completed by May. Business Trend provides external auditors for the produce. ‘The Power of Siberia isn’t Gazprom’s only project to use SOT pipes in the second quarter of 2015. Rimera is also planning to make large shipments for

April 9, 2015. Volchansky Mechanical Plant (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) is planning to expand its product range. The company manufactures railway cars and will soon start making Platform 23-5179 for transportation of rolled sheets, the corporation’s press service reports. Ural Railway Design Office (a corporation’s member enterprise as well) provides the design documentation for the new variety. This is not the first time the plant and the design office work together on the development, introduction, and serial production of special-purpose carriages. The platform is

April 9, 2015. Omsk-based Secondary School 122 and Omsk Transport Machine-Building Plant signed a support agreement to promote the two parties’ cooperation, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. ‘This agreement means our corporation’s member enterprise representatives can work with teens, contribute to their education, and provide job counseling for the plant’s potential employees. The school, in its turn, will offer in-depth training in the fields that are crucial for those who are planning to apply for tech schools,’ the press service says. Based on this agreement, the plant’s

April 9, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region residents are finding themselves forced to sell their ready businesses ever more often due to cash flow problems, Rmarket’s Andrei Seleznev told UrBC. ‘Many business people’s incomes dropped because of the devaluation of the ruble, while their spending went up at the same time. Besides, loans are now virtually unavailable in Russia. This means entrepreneurs just have considerably less money to keep on developing, so many of them have to offer their companies for sale. Some of them do it on their own through services such as Avito.ru and some use special

April 8, 2015. The international rating agency Moody’s Investors Service confirmed Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works/MMK CFR at Ba3; the company’s PDR was confirmed at Ba3 PD, with Stable rating outlook. This confirmation completes the rating re-evaluation procedure that was instituted for a number of Russian companies on December 23 because of a dramatic deterioration of conditions for operating in Russia and increased risks of a prolonged economic downfall. Moody’s explains in their press release that MMK should remain competitive expenses-wise (for one, the prime cost of slabs dropped

April 8, 2015. Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky suggested that Sverdlovsk Film Studio should not be privatized and should be converted from federal to local government property instead, Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Public Property Management refers to Medinsky’s letter to Governor Evgeniy Kuivashev as stating. ‘The studio might try out a different format, talks on the subject are under way, with no details just yet. Nor do we have a specific interested investor or customer at the moment,’ the studio’s Director-General Mikhail Churbanov says. Now Sverdlovsk Film Studio was actually

April 8, 2015. QR codes will appear on Nizhniy Tagil’s important war landmarks in celebration of Victory Day. The whole thing is coordinated by Uralvagonzavod Corporation, the company press service reports. ‘Thanks to these 2D barcodes, it will take smartphone users just a click to find out about the historic places and learn about the well-known local residents’ contribution to winning the war, as well as about the efforts of those who were evacuated to Ural Tank Plant 183 (know known as Uralvagonzavod),’ the press service says. The QR codes will appear in Glory Square, Memorial Hill, and

April 8, 2015. Russian Federation General Prosecutor’s Office used court authority to make Slavyanka’s Yekaterinburg branch pay its former workers’ wages (over 3m RUR all in all), their press service reports. It was determined that the company did not actually employ 169 workers but signed service contracts instead to have its military-purpose facilities taken care of; the contracts were later annulled, with no payments for the work done. The victims went to the military prosecution authorities, and an investigation of the company’s activity was carried out. ‘The garrison’s military

April 8, 2015. Sysert-based Energomash-Uralgidromash is now involved in a criminal suit, with charges of neglect to pay workers’ wages, Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities’ press service reports. It was determined that the company owed its workers more than 68.7m RUR as of April 1, 2015. The money is owed for the period between November 2014 and March 2015. Based on the findings of their inquiry, Sysert public prosecution authorities instituted administrative proceedings against the company’s director, with charges based on Article 5.27 (Part 1) of the Russian Federation