March 17,2015. It now takes an average of five months to sell an apartment on Yekaterinburg existing homes market; some places don’t get sold for a year, says head of Ural Chamber of Real Estate’s Analytical Department Mikhail Khorkov. ‘Quite a few sellers tend to overestimate their offer’s actual worth and set the market’s highest asking price from the start. In most cases, this results in the seller having to reduce their prices,’ Khorkov said. This was the case for about 18% of apartments offered for sale via the Chamber’s database in February 2015. Under 3% of property owners decided to

March 17, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation is launching a new professional development program for its technicians, who will be able to upgrade their skills at the subsidiary of National Research Nuclear University MEPhI in Lesnoy, Sverdlovsk Region. The head plant’s employees will be given courses in computer programming, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘Today’s engineer/technician must be able to do computer programming in order to be on a par with operators and programmers. Our course is meant to minimize the risks as well as to solve the problem of operator and programmer

March 17, 2015. A number of production departments at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) set new local performance records, MMK reports. The company’s furnace shop produced the record-setting 10.28m tons of pig iron using its eight blast furnaces in 2014. The steel-smelting department made 13.03m tons of steel, which is the best result since 2007 and second best result since 1991. The oxygen converter shop produced over 10m tons of steel. The coke and by-product processing department produced some 5.6m tons of coke last year, which is the best result since 2004 and the second best

March 16, 2015. UTair Airlines were fined for the 13-hour delay of their Yekaterinburg-Bangkok flight. ‘The plane originally designated for the flight was late arriving at Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport; the airline failed to replace the aircraft in time, so the passengers only got to travel much later,’ Ural public prosecution authorities for transportation’s press service reports. Thus administrative action was taken against the company, with charges based on Article 14.4 (Part 1) of the Russian Federation Administrative Offense Code (rendering of services to private individuals which

March 16, 2015. First Freight Company’s Chelyabinsk subsidiary handled 53,500,000 kg worth of cement truck shipments in February 2015, which was 42% more than a year earlier. According to the company’s press service, their freight turnover actually doubled in this segment and amounted to 45,700 ton-kilometers. The company’s share of South Ural Railways cement truck shipment market went up from 26% to 32%. ‘The increase had to do with our good quality service, including the trucks arriving to loading stations on time and cargo delivery exactly on time, as well as with our employees’ efforts to

March 16, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region Finance Ministry took out a 500m-ruble loan from Tyumen-based Zapsibkombank, the bank’s official statement goes. The money will be used either partially to finance the local budget deficit or to pay off Sverdlovsk Region’s debts. According to the statement, the bank has been cooperating with Sverdlovsk Region Government for two years now. The government actually issued a decree allowing the local ministries to borrow over 35bn RUR from banks this year. Finance Minister Galina Kulachenko explains the loans will be used to cover the budget deficit and pay off

March 16, 2015. Uraltransbank’s Board of Directors will meet next week, on March 20. The BOD members will look at the report on how and whether the instructions and recommendations left by the Bank of Russia’s inspectors have been met, the bank reports. Getting acquainted with the report on how the BOD’s decisions made on February 4, 2015 were complied with, as well as with the business plan for the year 2015, is another point on the meeting’s agenda. Additionally, the BOD will consider ways of improving Uraltransbank’s corporate governance and will assess the efficiency of the bank’s

March 16, 2015. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) shipped a set of hi tech casing pipes to Tatneft, which will use them for producing super-viscous oil at Ashalchinskoye deposit in Tatarstan, TMK’s press service reports. The set included casing pipes with premium threaded joints TMK UP QX. These joints are known for their impressive compression, tension, and flexing strength and meet the CAL4 requirements, which means they can be used in the most complicated oil production conditions. The joints are also unique in that they can be assembled onto a slanting support of a drilling rig. The pipes

March 16, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant’s Executive Director Vladimir Roschupkin met with directors of Nizhniy Tagil schools. ‘Five best schools were awarded with money prizes based on their school/society cooperation efforts in 2014. These are School 9, Gymnasium 86, School 95, Lyceum 51, and School 61. Accepting students for vocational training in jobs that are important for Uralvagonzavod, coordination of job counseling events, introducing schoolchildren to engineering jobs, a focus on precise sciences, and students taking part in Physics contests were all important

March 13, 2015. The number of jobs on Yekaterinburg labor market decreased by nearly a quarter compared with November 2014, findings of a research carried out by E1.Rabota indicate. ‘The number of job openings went down by 17% in December, which could have been related to the end-of-year factors, and rose by 14% as soon as January. However, the figure declined by 18% in February and by 23% against November 2014,’ E1.Rabota says. The transport and automobile sector was the most affected one, as the number of available jobs dropped by 40%; the number of vacancies in the retail trade and

March 13, 2015. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) had its weldless hot-rolled pipe department upgraded; a new bandsawing machine UMSY 600SP, which cost around 15m RUR, was launched there, ChTPZ Group’s press service reports. The new equipment is meant for cutting solid billets, pipes, and sections (diameter up to 600mm) made of various metals and alloys. The machine’s capacity comes to 100m per minute. This mechanical cutting method comes to replace the flame pipe-cutting one. The use of the latter worsened the quality of metal at the pipe’s ends, so 40mm had to be left at both sides of

March 13, 2015. Lexus LX 570 proved the most frequently stolen car make in Ural Federal District last year: 10% of all the cars that were stolen in 2014 were this make, the Ural division of AlfaStrakhovaniye’s press service says. VAZ Samara, VAZ Priora, and Opel Insignia came next on the list: 6.3%, 5.7%, and 5.4%, respectively, of all the stolen cars pertain to these brands. Put together, Toyota and Lexus made up 30% of all the cars stolen in 2014. The makes most popular with thieves are Toyota Land Cruiser (4.3%), Toyota Land Cruiser Prado (3,6%), Lexus RX (3,1%), and LX (10%). Russian cars

March 13, 2015. Four of Yekaterinburg-based shopping malls are working on the development of new interior and function concepts, head of the city council’s commodities market committee Elena Chernysheva announced at a press conference. According to Chernysheva, these are Megapolis, Globus, Gallery 11, and Park House. ‘There are 34 shopping malls in Yekaterinburg at the moment. A few new ones opened last year, for example, Strelka and Krasnolesye, as well as the fourth extension of Greenwich Mall. Another shopping center, presumably called Maxi Dom, is soon expected to open in the place where

March 13, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko and Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways Javid Gurbanov held talks in Baku. According to the corporation’s press service, the talks were dedicated to the two parties’ cooperation opportunities. For one, the executives agreed on the number and types of freight cars that will be delivered by the Russian company to Azerbaijan Railways. These are gondola cars, covered cars, grain cars, cement carrier cars, platforms, oil tanks, and hoppers. A contract for the delivery of 2,900 units of various makes of freight cars to Azerbaijan

March 12, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation adopted an upgrades and re-equipment program for its head plant. The program will involve the plant’s car assembly, mechanical assembly, metallurgical, and some other departments, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘Uralvagonzavod’s technical and technological upgrades are meant to replace the worn-out facilities as well as to stimulate production development. They will allow the plant to complete its strategic tasks, including breaking into new markets, improving product quality, and much else besides,’ the press service says. This year, the

March 12, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based courts processed 291 bribery-related cases in 2014, with verdicts of guilty pronounced on 304 people. A year earlier, 221 cased were processed and 234 people were sentenced, Sverdlovsk Region Court’s press service reports. According to the available statistics, the number of those who had to face liability for bribery-related crimes has been on the rise for four years in a row. 69% of cases (201) have to do with bribe-taking, compared with 62% in 2013. Among those found guilty were five law-enforcement officers, eight officers of the Federal Service for

March 12, 2015. The average price on Yekaterinburg housing market has gone down by 0.3% over the last four weeks: one square meter of a place for sale on the existing homes market now comes to 76,449 RUR, Ural Chamber of Real Estate reports. Prices decreased down to 69,957 RUR per m2 (-0.5%) against early February in the city’s second most expensive area, while those in the third and fourth most expensive districts went up considerably, up to 66,344 RUR and 56,219 RUR per m2, respectively. Prices in downtown Yekaterinburg and in the most expensive districts fluctuated only a little and stayed

March 12, 2105. ChTPZ Group intends to work on new types of pipes for the fuel and energy sector that haven’t been produces in Russia before. The order for the new produce was placed by Gazprom, as the company needs something to replace the foreign pipes. ChTPZ Group and Gazprom representatives met on the premises of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant to set out the first stages of their cooperation and import replacement projects. ‘Gazprom would like us to develop and offer on the market the pipes that can be used at their deposits as successfully as their foreign counterparts, and this within two

March 12, 2015. Visitors started signing up for the 6th International Industrial Exhibition Innoprom 2015, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department refers to the event coordinator Formica as saying. The Innoprom 2015 Exhibition will be held in Yekaterinburg on July 8-11. For the first time this year, five specialized fairs will be held in machine-building, industrial automation, energy efficiency, optics and lasers, and urban technologies. ‘It is essential to make sure this local event acquires national status. We expect the local budget’s expenses relating to Innoprom to

March 12, 2015. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works and CROC completed a pilot version of a virtual desktop system that enables users to switch from PCs to ‘thin clients’. ‘Desktop virtualization is a computer technology and infrastructure that makes it possible to transfer all of a personal computer’s functions (calculations, company and user data storage, Windows settings and desktops) onto a virtual space on a server. This means that the software becomes independent from the hardware,’ MMK says. ‘Thin clients’ are special desktop terminals whose hardware components are much less