August 1, 2013. Ural Federal District and North-Caucasian Federal District submit the smallest number of patent applications among all the Russian federal constituencies. Ural Federal District's share in the total number of applications comes to a mere 2%, the spokesperson for Rospatent, the Russian Intellectual Property Protection Service, reports. In the first half of 2013, only 731 private individuals applied for patents, and only 2% of these applications were residents of Ural Federal District. 54% of applicants are based in Central Russia, 13% live in the South of Russia, 12% come

August 1, 2013. Auditors from the international certification body TUV NORD CERT (based in Germany) conducted a re-certification audit of MMK-METIZ quality management system to check the system's compliance with the ISO 9001:2008 and ISO/TS 16949:2009 requirements. Following the results of the audit, the auditors' committee recommended TUV NORD CERT to issue a certificate of compliance with the ISO 9001:2008 and ISO/TS 16949:2009 requirements for MMK-METIZ quality management system. In order to be able to supply more goods to the car-makers, MMK-METIZ is also planning to have its

July 31, 2013. the Economic News Agency came up with a political weight rating of Russian businesspeople by order of Nezavisimaya Gazeta. The quarterly rating is called 50 Most Influential Entrepreneurs & Investors in the second quarter of 2013; BOD Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov was given the 17th position in the rating (the Strong Influence category) – the result was the same as in the previous quarter, and this is, in fact, one of the highest positions in the Russian metallurgical industry. The methodology of the rating that Nezavisimaya Gazeta

July 31, 2013. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK), one of the world’s leading OCTG manufacturers, has recently supplied its goods in cooperation with an external manufacturer for the first time. A set of pipes meant for the surface casing was shipped to Kura Valley Operating Company; these will be used for the development of Padar deposit in the Republic of Azerbaijan, the company’s press service reports. ‘The shipment included some surface casing with couplings with premium threaded joints TMK CWB and TMK PF and casing without couplings with premium threaded joints ULTRA-FJ and ULTRA-SF. The

July 31, 2013. Seversky Rabochiy, a company newspaper published by Seversky Pipe Plant (STZ, a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK), won in two specialized contests: it proved the best large-circulation issue dedicated to coverage of trade unions activity among the enterprises in the ore mining and metallurgical sector and also won in TMK Chrystal Furnace company newspaper competition, the company’s press service reports. The company newspaper contest run in the ore mining and metallurgical sector attracted scores of large-circulation newspapers run by Sverdlovsk Region-based

July 31, 2013. A new international photo exhibition was presented at Seversky Pipe Plant’s Severskaya Blast Furnace Museum. The exhibition is called There Are No Borders to the World – There Are Cardinal Directions, the enterprise’s press service reports. The project features two exhibitions, in fact. The first one is called Greece in My Heart and was coordinated at the initiative of and with the efforts of representatives of Corinth Pipeworks S.A. (CPW), a partner of Pipe Metallurgical Company in their joint venture TMK-CPW (based on the premises of one of Seversky Pipe Plant’s departments).

July 31, 2013. The trade turnover in the Ural Customs Administration area decreased by 8.9% in the first half of 2013 and the freight turnover declined by 15.9% against a year earlier as well, the Administration’s press service reports. At the same time, the number of cargo manifests processed rose by 12.4% and the number of foreign trade operators rose by 5.5%; the number if exporting countries dropped by 1.6%, the number of importing countries has remained the same. According to the customs officers, the decrease in the trade turnover involving the CIS member states had to do with decreased

July 31, 2013. Stock exchanges stopped trading Uralkaliy’s shares at 2:58 pm Moscow time as the quotations dropped by over 20% compared with the price at the close of business the day before, Prime reports. The only trading that still goes on is the repo and negotiated deals mode ones. A discrete auction will be held in the T+ mode in the meanwhile.

July 30, 2013. The police detained a person suspected of large-scale theft of alumina from the premises of Bogoslovsky smelter. The suspect in question happens to be the director of one of the enterprise’s departments, the press service of Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry reports. The suspect was interrogated on July 26 in the course of an inquiry relating to large-scale theft of alumina from the premises of Bogoslovsky smelter. On July 27, the alleged offender was arrested for the time of the inquiry procedures. The police officers from the local division of

July 30, 2013. The reconstruction of the federal highway between Perm and Yekaterinburg might become a frozen project. Russia’s Defense Ministry does not grant the road developers permission to cut down trees in the vicinity of Zvezdny, a restricted entry administrative territorial unit, even though the ministry had allowed the builders earlier to put up an overhead road and the driveways leading to it. As the Defense Ministry is not reacting to any queries, the contractors might not be able to meet the commissioning deadline, Kommersant-Prikamye reports. Permdorstroy, the company that is

July 30, 2013.Ural Airlines and Koltsovo Airport coordinated the first-ever joint spotting session in Yekaterinburg as a way to celebrate the 70th anniversary of civil aviation industry, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘On July 23-26, Ural Airlines’ aircraft and Koltsovo Airport had cameras pointed at them all the time. Every day at dawn, whatever the weather, spotters could make interesting and exciting shots of the takeoff and landing as well as of the servicing of the aircraft. The best vantage points were set up for hundreds of photographers from all over the country. The survey

July 30, 2013. The prices on the new homes market in Yekaterinburg rose by 6.5% over the last three months. According to the spokesperson for Ural Chamber of Real Estate, this price increase has to do with the fact that the number of finished or nearly finished buildings rose over the given period; besides, certain apartment buildings sold particularly well. ‘As a result, the new homes market split into two groups different in terms of quality. The first group comprises ‘weak’ projects where the pricing policy does not change for four to six months and more regardless of the stage the

July 30, 2013. OboronGeoGroup, a company set up to develop the resource base of Russian Chrome 1915, is now applying for insolvency, Kommersant refers to Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court as reporting. The enterprise was set up to develop Zhizhinskoye-Sharomskoye chromium deposit, but the project was frozen due to its economic inexpediency. OboronGeoGroup produced and sold 13,000 tons of ore, but all the jobs were stopped in late 2012 when it turned out that the actual amount of chromium in the deposit was less than expected,’ RosSpetsSplav’s press center explained. The chromium content in

July 29, 2013. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ, a member of ChTPZ Group) company museum celebrated its 40th anniversary recently. The museum is Pervouralsk's largest historic and cultural center and one of the most available and fullest sources of information about the history of the plant and the most remarkable workers and Pervouralsk residents, the enterprise's press service reports. 'This is not a coincidence that the museum offers data on both workers and residents: the city was developing alongside with the plant. This is why not only the plant's top management,

July 29, 2013. Ural Airlines keeps expanding the network of destinations available from Irkutsk. A new international China-bound flight will be launched on October 21, 2013: the Irkutsk-Harbin one, the air carrier's press officer reports. The price of a one-way ticket comes to ?90 (fees excluded). The new scheduled Irkutsk-Harbin-Irkutsk flight will be operated every Monday. Harbin is one of the most important cities in the North-Western China. In addition to being an administrative and economic resource hub, the city is also a home to the country's largest ski resort Yabuli;

July 29, 2013. Markswebb Rank & Report, an analytics agency, did a research on the efficiency of m-banking services offered to private individuals; the result was the Mobile Banking Rank 2013. Life Financial Group's m-banking was rated as the 11th best iPhone application and 19th best Android app, VUZ-Bank's press service reports. There are 29 banks in the rating that offer their customers iPhone apps and 28 banks that offer applications for Android. The criterion against which the quality of mobile apps was assessed was just how fully the customers' needs were satisfied.

July 29, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region is going to be given 5bn RUR worth of federal budget subsidies to have its agricultural equipment and vehicles upgraded and replaced, Russia's Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fedorov said during his bilateral meeting with Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev, the Governor's Information Policies Department reports. 'I can say say that we intend to allocate another 5bn RUR to renovate the agricultural vehicles. I believe Sverdlovsk Region is going to get a very visible share of this. So far, we have only allotted this area 2.3bn RUR,'

July 29, 2013. Over 20 industrial enterprises based in Sverdlovsk Region are going to receive subsidies from Sverdlovsk Region budget so that they can pay the interest on the loans they took out to implement their investment projects, the region's government's press service reports. Following a tender, the Ministry for Industry & Science decided to offer government support to 22 businesses; the subsidies total to 186.3m RUR and are to be directed to the payment of loans taken out to finance investment projects. The interest in question comes to no more than two-thirds of the

July 26, 2013. Yekaterinburg office buildings market is gradually growing bigger: 9 new business centers will be commissioned in 2013 alone. The city council reports that the office space amounts to 1.441m sq m in the business centers alone, and some 100,000 sq m get commissioned every year. This year, 140,000 sq m worth of office space are expected to be commissioned. At the same time, Ural-Hermes Consulting Company's analysts point out that the office buildings market's development will slow down over the next two to three years. This has to do with the fact that the buildings

July 26, 2013. Yekaterinburg Zheleznodorozhny District court took into account the claims made by the district prosecution authorities and seized the immovable assets belonging to a 24-year-old shareholder and Director of Pink Pelican Travel Bureau, the press officer of Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities reports. The investigative team believes the woman illegally took hold of the money obtained from her customers under the tourist services contracts; these amount to about 1.5m RUR. 18 criminal lawsuits were instituted involving the company director on June 26-28, 2013, with