April 8, 2015. The German automobile concern Daimler/Mercedes might put up a factory in Sverdlovsk Region: the constituency was shortlisted along with Saint Petersburg and Kazan, TASS refers to President of Russian Investment Agency Yuri Spiridonov as saying. ‘Negotiations are in progress, and the company representatives are in Saint Petersburg all the time. They are considering three areas, including Kazan, where they run a commercial vehicle assembly facility, and Sverdlovsk Region,’ Spiridonov said. According to Spiridonov, five passenger vehicles (S, E, ML, GL and A Series) might be

April 7, 2015. The first semi-final round of WorldSkills Ural Federal District took place at Culture Palace of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant/PNTZ (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group). According to the Group’s press service, the solemn opening ceremony was attended by Russia’s official delegate to WorldSkills International, Head of Blue Collar Training & Vocational Education Department at Russian Education & Science Ministry Natalya Zolotareva, Director-General of WorldSkills Russia Robert Urazov, Deputy Head of Education Projects at the Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian

April 7, 2015. Ural Airlines launched a new mobile app for checking in online. The air carrier’s customers can now check in for their flight using an iOS mobile phone or a tablet. Their boarding card will be sent to their email address and will also be available within UralAirlines app, the airline’s press service reports. Ural Airlines introduced their mobile app in May 2014. So far, users have been offered such services as the flight schedule, booking and buying a ticket online, online interactive announcement board, passenger help, and others. A new version of the app is to be made

April 7, 2015. The net loss of Uralmashzavod (UZTM) came to 2,317,528,000 RUR in 2014, the company’s annual accounting report states. The plant’s revenues dropped by 37% last year and amounted to 4,541,944,000 RUR against 7,179,381,000 RUR in 2013. Proceeds from sales of machines and equipment on the home market decreased from 5,921,119,000 RUR down to 3,193,543,000 RUR. At the same time, proceeds from sales on India’s market rose from 444.071m RUR to 455.702m RUR. Figures also looked better on the CIS sales and the markets of the countries of the far abroad: 892.699m RUR in 2014 against

April 7, 2015. Ural Federal University intends to enroll 20% fewer full-time students by 2020. Stricter eligibility and admission requirements will be introduced to reduce the number of students from 24,000 to 20,000 people, Rector Viktor Koksharov told the Expert Ural magazine. ‘This is one the things necessary to make our college more competitive. Applicants will have to face stricter requirements during the next enrollment campaign; for one, their Russian state exam scores will have to be higher than those recommended by Rosobrnadzor, so some of the applicants won’t get admitted because of

April 7, 2015. Consumer prices rose by 1% in Sverdlovsk Region this March; this is an 8.1% increase on the start of the year, Sverdlovskstat reports. Food prices (excluding strong drinks) went up by 2.3% (and by 12.4% compared with the beginning of the year), the price of strong drinks increased by 1.9% (by 4.9% compared with the start of the year), and those of non-food items rose by 1.5% (by 7.3% compared with the start of the year).

April 6, 2015. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant/ChTZ (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) is going to take part in the Victory Day Parade with tanks with the names of their creators on them. According to the corporation’s press service, the plant usually offers historic samples of combat vehicles from its collection for the parade, which takes place in Chelyabinsk on May 9. The collection comprises tanks that were designed or manufactured at the plant and that are now stored on its premises. Every spring, tanks such as T-34 and IS-3, SP guns such as ISU 152, and infantry combat

April 6, 2015. ChTPZ Group and Metalloinvest looked into their cooperation results of the year. For one, their joint 100% Quality Program proved very efficient, ChTPZ Group’s press service reports. ‘When we started thinking about the program a few years ago, up to 8% of our produce had defects of one sort or another. Things look completely different now, with deviations at under 0.01%. This means the system is working,’ says Metalloinvest Management Company Home Sales Director Andrei Prosyanik. Because all of the production and managerial processes got integrated, it only takes about three

April 6, 2015. A meeting of TMK Scientific & Technological Council dedicated to technical strategy and technical rationale for investment was held at Sinara Pipe Plant/SinTZ (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK). Production of threaded pipes with premium threaded joints at SinTZ was the main point on the agenda, the company’s press service reports. ‘The council member went on a tour of Pipe Rolling Department 2 and OCTG Department 4, where pipes with TMK UP premium threaded joints are manufactured. Experts spoke about the plant’s short- and long-term investment

April 6, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region made over 8bn RUR worth of loan payments in March 2015. Oblastnaya Gazeta reports the constituency’s debt stood at 51.1bn RUR on March 1, 2015. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Information Policy Department refers to Sverdlovsk Region Finance Ministry as stating that the debt amounted to 42.4bn RUR on April 2, 2015; this is 14.7% less than at the start of the year. ‘We have been negotiating with banks and getting our interest rates reconsidered and reduced; we are also trying to work with the Russian Finance Ministry to convert our commercial loans into state

April 6, 2015. Russian grain export halved after a levy was introduced on February 1, 2015, Prime reports. ‘Following the introduction of export duties, the amount of grain exported decreased by more than two times compared with last year in the course of just two months,’ the Agriculture Ministry representatives say. Incidentally, prior to February 1, the day the duty came into effect, grain export figures exceeded those for a year earlier by 30%. A 15% export duty (plus a flat sum of €7.5, minimum of €35 per 1,000 kg all in all) was introduced on February 1, 2015 to stabilize the domestic

April 3, 2015. Plant 9 (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) started using a new wire electrical discharge machine. The launch of this new piece of equipment was part of the company’s retooling and fleet of machines renovation program, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘It took us six months to do all the assembly and start-up and commissioning jobs before the machine could be launched. Then, a trial part was processed. Special attention was paid to training the workers who will be using this WEDM machine: the training and maintenance instructions were provided by an

April 3, 2015. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant/ChTPZ and Rosnano have set up a joint venture for making pipe fittings out of nano-structured materials. ChTPZ has a 50.1% shareholding in Eterno, while Rosnano’s stake in the business comes to 49.9%. The new production facility is expected to be launched at ChTPZ site in Chelyabinsk by the end of 2015; 300 new jobs will be created. By now, the production building has been completed and all the necessary equipment is being assembled at the moment. The new plant will manufacture stamp-welded fittings such as bends, tees, and hermetization and

April 3, 2015. The amount of European visas issued to Russians plummeted by 30% to 40% this year, Senior Consul at Consulate-General of Hungary in Yekaterinburg Pal Fabian announced in the course of a press breakfast at a tourist fair. According to Fabian, this was mainly caused by shrinking tourist traffic and therefore the demand for visas, which, in its turn, has to do with Russia’s economic hardships. ‘As for the year 2015, the situation is far from rosy. The demand for visas is on the decrease. Apart from visas to Hungary, we also issue those to Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Denmark, and

April 3, 2015. 400 cars were stolen in Sverdlovsk Region in the first three months of the year: this was five cars less than in the first quarter of 2014. 170 out of these 400 automobiles couldn’t be found and returned to their owners, Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region division of the Internal Affairs Ministry’s Criminal Investigation Department Natig Bairamov announced at a press conference. According to Bairamov, cars in the medium price range (600,000 RUR to 800,000 RUR) are stolen most often. The three most frequently stolen brands are Toyota Corolla, Mazda 3 and 6, and Ford Focus. Also,

April 3, 2015. The company’s 5,000,000th metric ton of steel produced with the help of an arc furnace was made at Seversky Pipe Plant/STZ (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company). The arc furnace was first used on October 17, 2008. STZ managed to produce its 5th million of metric tons of steel in fourteen months, just like all the earlier millions, which means that the plant workers have mastered all the modern steel-making technologies successfully and are great professionals, the company reports. The arc-furnace steel-smelting operations were performed by a shift of workers

April 2, 2015. Heads of Omsk Region Inter-industrial Cooperation Center met with the management of Omsktransmash (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) on the company’s premises. The two parties agreed to work together on fulfilling their Defense Procurement obligations, improving the plant’s infrastructure, and development of cadre potential, the corporation’s press service reports. The Inter-industrial Cooperation Center was set up in 2014 in order to promote cooperation between Omsk Region’s small and large enterprises. The Center also aims to help businesspeople in their

April 2, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s budget deficit came to 22bn RUR by the end of 2014, which is the largest figure among all of Ural Federal District’s constituencies. A comparative budget implementation table with data for 2014 was carried in Rossiyskaya Gazeta’s March issue (No.64). The Federal Treasury was quoted as the source of the data provided. Chelyabinsk Region’s budget deficit, for example, stood at 4bn RUR, while that of the usually depressed Kurgan Region at 3.9bn RUR. At the same time, Sverdlovsk Region Treasury’s spending and income figures (232.6bn RUR and 210bn RUR,

April 2, 2015. 44% of those running a small business are aware of the current state support programs, yet only 13% say they have applied for these: such are the findings of an all-Russian research coordinated by National Agency for Financial Studies (NAFI) among managers. 20% of applicants run companies that were set up over fifteen years ago. Around a third (31%) of small business owners/managers said they knew about this option but never used it. 28% of respondents are somewhat aware of the existing state programs; most of these respondents are employed with companies which were founded in

April 2, 2015. EVRAZ Group’s net loss (calculated in accordance with the IAS) rose by 2.3 times last year compared with the year 2013 and thus came to $1.278bn, the company’s report states. According to this report, losses were mainly related to devaluation of the company’s assets ($540m) and damage done by the changes in the ruble/dollar exchange rate ($1.005bn) The Group’s revenues shrank by 9% and stood at $13.061bn. Net debt dropped by 11%, down to $5.8m; as a result, the company’s net debt/EBITDA ratio came to 2.5.