February 1, 2013. The share of Ural Federal District on Russia’s new foreign cars market is now 10.49%. All in all, 234,700 cars were sold, which was 18.9% more than a year earlier, AutoStat Analytical Agency reports. Central Federal District, with its 937,200 new automobiles sold last year, was the market leader. Its share of sales came to 41.9% of all the car sales in Russia. Central Federal District was followed by Volga District, where 414,100 cars were sold (this comes to an 18.5% share of the market). North-Western District, with its 264,100 cars (an 11.8% share of the market), was in

February 1, 2013. Just like very year, Ural Airlines is about to expand its international destinations network for the summer season of 2013. New scheduled flights will be operated from Moscow, Nizhniy Novgorod, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, and Yekaterinburg, the airline’s press service reports. Moscow-Pula and Moscow-Podgorice flights will depart from Domodedovo Airport every Saturday starting June 1; the cheapest tickets are available for ?390. The flight from Nizhniy Novgorod to Burgas will be operated every Tuesday starting May 28; the cheapest tickets can be booked for ?380. Also, Nizhniy

February 1, 2013. Sinara Pipe Plant/SinTZ (a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK)), purchased a modern mobile lab in order to test the quality of air samples. The machinery was supplied within the framework of SinTZ and Sinara TransAuto’s joint investment project, and its purpose is to reduce the company’s environmental impact, the enterprise’s press officer reports. This mobile environmental lab is a portable analytical facility comprising a gas-analyzing and meteorological units as well as a system for collecting, processing, and transferring data and the facilities for getting air

February 1, 2013. The end user rates of The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals Corporation (UP-UP) set for the electric power sales remained the same as in the year 2012 and came to 5.39 RUR per kilowatt-hour; this price will be valid through June 30, 2013. Under Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region’s Prices & Rates Department’s decree, the price of the electric power produced by Harp-12 Power Plant will amount to 5.39 RUR per kilowatt-hour until June 30, 2013. It is reported that electric power rates had actually been reduced twice before: from 7.3 RUR down to 6.24 RUR per kilowatt-hour and

March 31, 2013. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) won a tender for supplying a mulcher-fitted bulldozer to MRSK Center & Volga Region, an energy supplier, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. The vehicle is meant for clearing up the fire-breaks where the mains are located. Treating the wood lots with mulchers will prevent new vegetation from growing around the electric mains support. The machine’s powerful cutter processes the remainder of the lumber, tree stumps that are under 25mm in diameter, bush, and brushwood into some fine powder that does not even need disposing of –

March 31, 2013. Pipe Metallurgical Company shipped 4,218,000 tons of steel pipes to consumers in 2012. The share of weldless pipes rose by 5.3% on the year 2011 and reached 2,497,000 tons. Thus the company’s share of the domestic market came to 24.7%, which allowed the enterprise to remain the market leader, TMK press service reports. In fact, the company’s pipe production output went down by 0.3% in comparison with 2011: the production of welded pipes dropped by 7.5% down to 1,722,000 tons; the output of the company’s key produce, OCTG, actually rose by 9.5% and amounted to 40.6% in the

March 31, 2013. The construction of the high-speed links connecting Moscow with Saint Petersburg and with Yekaterinburg might start in 2013-2028, depending on the state of the Russian economy, a report on Russia’s long-term socioeconomic development uploaded on the Ministry for Economic Development’s website states. The long-term forecast on the transportation sector development in 2013-2030 was presented in three versions: the innovations-focused one, the conservative one, and the accelerated one. Under the innovations-focused option, the industry will receive 4.3 trillion RUR worth of

March 31, 2013. Yekaterinburg proved Russia’s third best-paying city in terms of IT Directors’ salaries. The senior managers involved in the IT field make 125,000 RUR a month on average in Yekaterinburg, with about 17.2 job applications submitted for every vacancy, Superjob’s research indicates. On average, IT Directors based in large Russian cities make 80,000 RUR a month (in Volgograd) to 185,000 RUR a month (in Moscow). The most experienced senior managers might make up to 200,000 RUR a month in places like Kazan and Omsk, up to 320,000 RUR in Saint Petersburg, and up to 400,000 RUR in

March 31, 2013. Ural Airlines launched a new version of its website at www.uralairlines.com. The website design has been changed, the navigation got even easier and more practical, and the structure is now more easily accessible and user-friendly. The new version of the website was devised in close cooperation with the airline’s passengers, some valuable feedback was obtained and taken into consideration (including the one on the desired new functions). For one, all the site users will be able to enjoy the new online store selling Ural Airlines’ branded products in the nearest future, the air

January 30, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region authorities still cannot find a new investor for Russian Magnesium, an ambitious investment project that is now on the brink of bankruptcy, Governor Evgeny Kuivashev told reporters in the course of a briefing. Kuivashev reminded them that the project’s main weakness lay in the poor competitiveness of the production technology, as its cost was too high for the price at which magnesium is currently being sold at stock exchanges. ‘If the technology gets changed or an investor is found, the project will definitely be implemented,’ the Governor said. According

January 30, 2013. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation came up with a report on the company’s improvements and innovations efforts in 2012 and looked at the prospects of this field in the year 2013. The second round table discussion on the improvements in inventor and innovator efforts at the corporation’s enterprises took place in Nizhniy Tagil, the corporation’s press service reports. The representatives of nine Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation employees took part in the discussion: Uralvagonzavod proper, Yekaterinburg-based Uraltransmash and Plant 9,

January 30, 2013. This year, Yekaterinburg is to witness a number of special events dedicated to promoting the city as a candidate for hosting the world exhibition EXPO 2020, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev said at a press conference on January 28. Kuivashev explained that inspectors were supposed to arrive in March to fact-check all the data presented in Yekaterinburg’s EXPO 2020 application portfolio. The regional authorities will have to answer the inspectors’ questions, show them the sites for the future EXPO Park, and talk on the future infrastructure and transportation

January 30, 2013. A meeting chaired by Sverdlovsk Region Prime Minister Denis Pasler was dedicated to the possibility of locating industrial parks in the towns of Beloyarsky, Revda, and Degtyarsk; it was also suggested that another site should be set up in the vicinity of Yekaterinburg next to Novosverdlovskaya Power Station, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press Service & Information Department reports. ‘It behooves us as the region’s government to create resident-friendly sites with good transport links and developed infrastructure,’ Denis Pasler said. Mayor of Beloyarsky Alexander

January 30, 2013. Yekaterinburg got on the list of Russia’s top ten cities where online booking is the most wide-spread way of making a hotel reservation. These data are available from the Russian online hotel booking service Oktogo.ru. Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Sochi, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Pskov, Nizhniy Novgorod, and Krasnodar were also on the list of the top ten, with 80% of all the e-bookings made from Moscow and Saint Petersburg, as far as last year was concerned. As for the federal constituencies, Moscow Region, Leningrad Region, Krasnodar Territory (Sochi, Anapa, Krasnodar),

January 29, 2013. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) shipped its first portion of their upgraded caterpillar belts to Surgutneftegaz; this shipment is part of a one-year contract for the delivery of spare parts for the road-building vehicles, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. The O&G company will have received 50 caterpillar belts for B-10 tractors and diesel-electric bulldozers (all of them produced by ChTZ) by the end of January. This order is worth about 8m RUR and will be followed by more shipments in the coming months. These upgraded caterpillar belts ordered by

January 29, 2013. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant’s (ChTPZ) educational project known as The Future of White Metallurgy that was aimed at training blue- and white-collar metallurgical workers might win the prestigious HR Brand 2012 Prize, the company’s press service reports. The Future of White Metallurgy is a unique educational program implemented within the framework of a public-private partnership involving ChTPZ, Sverdlovsk Region Government, and Pervouralsk Metallurgical School. The program is targeted at training highly skilled workers whose qualifications would meet today’s

January 29, 2013. In January through December 2012, 1,867,600 sq m worth of housing was built in Sverdlovsk Region, which exceeded the figures for 2011 by 2.5%. All in all, 24,228 apartments were built against 22,584 apartments a year earlier, SverdlovskStat reports. Private individuals had 682,700 sq m worth of housing built in 2012 using their own savings and borrowed funds. This was 3.5% less than in 2011. The share of private housing came to 36.6% of the total amount (compared with 38.8% in 2011).

January 29, 2013. SKB-Bank is going to take part in the 13th International Forum iFin-2013 on Electronic Financial Services & Technologies that will be held in Moscow on February 5-6, 2013. The forum is coordinated by the web portal iFin.ru, with some support from the Association of Russian Banks (ARB) and NAUFOR, the Russian National Association of Securities Market Participants, SKB-Bank’s press service reports. The iFin-2013 forum is Russia’s major event on electronic finance services and technologies. The agenda of the forum covers presentations on the most advanced technologies and

January 29, 2013. As of January 28, 2013, the communal housing services providers based in Sverdlovsk Region failed to pay a total of 4.606bn RUR worth of natural gas bills, Uralsevergaz’s press officer reports. ‘Not only do the companies fail to pay off their earlier debts, but they also haven’t been paying for their current natural gas consumption. For one, Uralsevergaz only received 367.8m RUR in terms of December payments; this only comes to 31.7% of the total sum. The December supply was to have been paid for by January 25,’ the company says. YekaterinburgEnergo, with its total of 560m

January 28, 2013. On January 24, 2013, a cooperation memorandum was signed by the Republic of Bashkortostan and the founders of Honghua Group CIS: Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation, VTB Leasing, and Sichuan-based Honghua Group. The signature took place within the framework of Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko’s business trip to Bashkortostan, the corporation’s press service reports. The two parties will work on setting up a drill-rigs manufacturing enterprise; the rigs will be meant for exploring and developing oil and natural gas deposits. What is