March 01, 2013. Focusing on the mass-market customer, that is, putting up more economy class apartment buildings, proved one of Yekaterinburg housing market’s most pronounced trends recently, the Ural Real Estate Chamber’s press service reports. A very small share of frozen projects is another noticeable tendency. This share only comes to 5% of all the construction jobs at the moment; this amounts to only 105,000 sq m out of nearly 2m sq m worth of housing that is currently under construction at this or that stage. In geographical terms, the building projects are distributed rather unevenly

March 01, 2013. ChTPZ Group’s educational project known as the Future of White Metallurgy won in an independent Russian HR Brand 2012 Prize in the Region category for its outstanding work on the company’s reputation as an employer. The pipe manufacturing company’s achievements in the field of improving the popularity of blue-collar jobs and its positive impact on the business results were also awarded a special Business Prospects Prize by the contest partner MTS. ‘Our professional community’s great estimate of our educational program is both pleasing and prestigious. This public-private

March 01, 2013. Svyaznoy Bank put a temporary halt on issuing its new premium World MasterCard and VISA Infinite cards, the company’s website states. In January 2013, the Central Bank also ordered Svyaznoy Bank to stop issuing multi-purpose cards. The regulatory authority was then worried about the bank’s speedy growth rate that was a few times ahead of the market’s average dynamics. Besides, this week the Central Bank prolonged the limitation imposed on the company in terms of deposit transactions; the ban was extended by three more months. The bank explains that the new sanctions had to do

March 01, 2013. A former employee of Home Credit & Finance Bank Tatiana Tkachenko was sentenced to three years in prison for loan fraud by Alapayevsk Municipal Court, Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities report. The court detected that in June-September 2012, Tkachenko, then a loan officer at Home Credit & Finance Bank’s Alapayevsk subsidiary at Triline, used her access to the computer programs relating to issuing all kinds of loan agreements to deceive the customers who wanted to purchase something at the shop (Triline). She asked them to fill in a loan application form

February 28, 2013. Atomstroycomplex Corporation started the capital repairs of the main building of Yekaterinburg’s Children’s Theater. The company’s press officer informed UrBC that all the jobs should be finished in the last quarter of 2014. Within the next two months, the old interior and obsolete engineering infrastructure will be dismantled; then, in accordance with the schedule set out in the government contract, the building and assembly jobs and finishing jobs will start. The project on the overhaul of the theater was designed by Atomstroycomplex in cooperation with UralNIIProyekt

February 28, 2013. It was detected that UMC violates the existing labor protection legislation, Sverdlovsk Region division of State Labor Inspectorate reports. For one, the drilling machine was not fitted with any spindle-retracting mechanism, and the rough grinding machine had a clearing of more than 3 mm between the arm rest and the disc, while the eye-protecting screens and the block system were missing. ‘Due to the above facts, after the violations had been detected by the state labor inspector, a temporary ban was imposed on the operation of the said machines. No electric power is

February 28, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region’s Economic Development Ministry came up with a performance report on the local industrial segment in January 2013. According to their statistical data, the region’s industrial production index increased by 0.5% in January 2013 compared with January 2012, which is better than the country’s average (-0.8%). This included a 5.5% increase in the mineral resources output and a 0.6% increase in the processing industries’ production. At the same time, the index declined by 3.4% in terms of production and distribution of electric power, natural gas, and water. The

February 28, 2013. According to Sverdlovskstat, the building jobs output went down in January 2013 compared with a year earlier. The money value of construction jobs reached 4.9bn RUR in January, which is actually 11.9% less than in January 2012. At the same time, this figure increased by 1.4% for the country as a whole. Still, 28,500 sq m worth of housing was commissioned in the region in January 2013, with financing supplied from all the available sources. This figure is 26.8% higher than that for January 2012. For Russia on the whole, the increase amounted to 14.7%.

February 28, 2013. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev was given the 9th position in the All-Russian rating of the country’s Governors in January 2013. He also topped the rating of Ural Federal District-based Governors (the latter was prepared by Medialogia). The list comprised the current heads of Russian federal constituencies and is valid for January 2013. This January, the number of instances when the Governor was mentioned in the media came to 2,391, so Kuivashev’s media index is now 1,122.04. In the previous media rating for 2012 Evgeny Kuivashev was given the 13th position

February 27, 2013. The assembly of the modern 500-ton-strong double-point press manufactured by the German company ERFURT PKZZ began at the press department of Uralvagonzavod, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant. The new machinery costs 26m RUR, the corporation’s press service reports. According to the press service, the technology that is used at these double-point presses makes it possible to stamp 3D parts with the help of deep drawing from the metal sheets. The launch of the ERFURT PKZZ equipment will improve considerably on the quality of goods that are needed for the corporation’s

February 27, 2013. The employees of Sinara Pipe Plant (SinTZ, a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company) coordinated its traditional special event called Smile, Soldier! This was done on the eve of the Defender of the Motherland’s Day. During a charity marathon, the plant workers and the students from the plant-sponsored schools collected over 700 parcels with the useful things for the soldiers in the army, the company’s press service reports. It is reported that the event coordinators visited Elansky District Training Center and presented their gifts to the regular soldiers around February 23.

February 27, 2013. Banki.ru, an information & analytics service, did an express research on the changes on the bank cards market since the beginning of 2013. The analysts behind this research observe that lending through credit cards is one of the most interesting and fastest-developing retail banking market segments at the moment, SKB-Bank reports. The total lending portfolio (for private individuals and via credit cards) rose by 4.5% up to 674bn RUR for the largest thirty banks. On average, the lending portfolio growth rate for the banks that were featured in this ranking amounted to

February 27, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region Government came up with report on the performance of its municipalities in terms of urban improvements and developments in 2012. Yekaterinburg only came third in this rating, preceded by Nizhniy Tagil and Kamensk-Uralsky, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press Service & Information Administration told UrBC. The above data apply to the big cities rating; as for the medium-sized towns, Kachkanar came first, and as for the small and very small towns, the first prize went to Refta and Svobodny, respectively. In addition to an honorary certificate issued by

February 27, 2013. The Bank of Russia extended its freeze on Svyaznoy Bank’s deposit transactions for three more months. The bank reports this was caused by the fact that the company exceeded the deposit growth rates approved of by the Central Bank, RBC daily reports. The bank owner Maxim Nogotkov told the newspaper that the bank was not forbidden by the Central Bank to accept private individuals’ savings on its deposits; nor were any other limitations imposed on the asset growth. ‘Svyaznoy is quite allowed to accept private individuals’ funds, it’s just that this has to be done under certain

February 26, 2013. An arts exhibition called the Flower Extravaganza was opened at Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant’s exhibition center. The exhibition was launched on the 80th anniversary of women’s movement at Uralvagonzavod and the International Women’s Day. The exhibition comprises about 80 works by 15 well-known Nizhniy Tagil-based artists and some craft work, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press service reports. It is reported that the show organizers tried to shape a collection of fine arts completed by the Nizhniy Tagil artists in various techniques,

February 26, 2013. Office rent is expected to go up by 10% to 15% in 2013, Deputy Director-General of Severnaya Kazna Real Estate Center Pavel Maslikhin announced in the course of a press reception today. ‘Office rent will rise primarily in the locations that can boast good infrastructure, namely, in the second most expensive area of the city. The parking and driveway situation is better there than in the downtown. Prices vary between 350 and 200 RUR per sq m in this particular segment, ‘the expert said. He pointed out that there was no shortage of office space to speak of, as there were

February 26, 2013. 97% of Chelyabinsk buildings that were damaged by a meteorite on February 15 got restored, Chelyabinsk Council’s press service refers to the officials at the regional cabinet’s meeting as saying. According to Mayor Sergey Davydov, the restoration work is still under way, and all the essential establishments resumed business as usual. ‘Nearly all the window panes have been replaced at schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and apartment buildings. It is true, however, that not all the window frames are ready just yet. Replacing the windows at sports clubs or other buildings with

February 26, 2013. A work team will be set up to make sure that the agreements reached in the course of Sverdlovsk Region’s officials’ recent visit to Japan get implemented. The work team will be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Orlov. An order to this extent was issued by Governor Evgeny Kuivashev, the Governor’s Information Policies Department reports. The work team will comprise representatives of Sverdlovsk Region’s Ministries for Industry, Economics, and International & Foreign Economic Relations as well as members of the Mid-Urals Development Corporation. It is announced that

February 26, 2013. On February 26, Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court will hear a case relating to damage done to the soil as an object of ecological interest, Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rosprirodnadzor’s press service reports. According to the claim submitted by Rosprirodnadzor’s Ural Federal District’s Department with the court, the unauthorized production waste dumping, unauthorized covering-up of the soil surface, and chemical contamination of the soil by the defendant, ZAO Fankom, resulted in 314,714,400 RUR worth of damage. However, the defendant expressed its disagreement with

February 13, 2013. Magnitogorsk Metal Goods Plant (MMK-METIZ, a part of MMK Group) started selling its rolled metal products via an online store. The new service means that customers can now order the metal goods from the range of products available in stock at MMK-METIZ warehouse and don’t have to wait for the goods to be produced first. MMK-METIZ e-shop is mainly targeted at households and SMEs. MMK reports this offer brings obvious benefits to consumers, as they can now buy metal goods directly from the manufacturer. This naturally brings the price down, as intermediaries always charge for