December 14, 2012. The employees of Seversky Pipe Plant (STZ), a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK), took part in a charity event and donated their blood to children who are currently undergoing treatment in Yekaterinburg Children’s Oncologic Center, the company’s press service reports. The event was coordinated by the plant’s Youth Council. STZ workers – both long-time donors and first-timers – donated their blood at the Center’s blood transfusion unit. This blood is literally vital for the seriously ill kids. In fact, blood donation is already a tradition at STZ. In

December 14, 2012. There are quite enough Class A business centers in Yekaterinburg at the moment, as their share of the market is only expected to come to 7% to 10%, RED Management Company Deputy DG Andrei Braude says. ‘We are running out of the suitable construction sites downtown, and no new ones will appear unless something extraordinary happens, as is the case in Moscow, for example, when one quarter gets pulled down completely and a new one is put up in its place,’ Braude said. ‘We’ve got enough Class A office buildings in the city. They should only constitute no more than 7% to 10% of

December 13, 2012. The new Industry & Natural Resources Minister of Chelyabinsk Region Yegor Kovalchuk visited Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. Acting Director-General Sergey Golygin presented the plant’s produce to his guest and showed him the production sites where the reconstruction and technical upgrades take place. Speaking of the plant’s developmental priorities, the enterprise’s top manager mentioned the federal special purpose program that is coordinated through the head plant Uralvagonzavod; this program offers a total of 17.5bn RUR

December 13, 2012. Uralvagonzavod Armored Vehicles Museum is now one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Urals, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service refers to the museum affairs, culture studies, and tourism experts as saying. Uralvagonzavod’s Armored Vehicles Museum housed at the corporation’s head plant was recently visited by the representatives of national and local industrial magazines, some specially invitied experts from the Russian Tourist Industry Union, tour operator representatives, and potential investors from Moscow, Perm, Yekaterinburg, Riga, and other cities

December 13, 2012. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation launched a special high-performance computing center in Nizhniy Novgorod, the company’s press service reports. The center was set up within the framework of the federal special-purpose program aimed at the development of the Russian defense industry sector. The launch of the HPC technologies will mean that Burevestnik, the scientific research institute that houses it and is a member of Uralvagonzavod, will take analytical engineering to a new level by cutting down on the new product development and mastering times and

December 13, 2012. A ‘health check’ carried out by TNK-BP was complete at the member enterprises of Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK), one of the world’s leading OCTG manufacturer, the company reports. Throughout this fall, Moody’s auditor and TNK-BP Chief Quality Management Expert, accompanied by the representatives of TMK Trading House, paid visits to Volzhsky, Seversky, and Sinara Pipe Plants and to TAGMET. The inspectors looked at the enterprises’ production facilities, at the way the equipment works, at the commissioning trials process, at the quality management system, and at the methods

December 13, 2012. The Russian Expo Arms Exhibition in Nizhniy Tagil will reach self-repayment levels, the city Mayor Sergey Nosov said after negotiating with a representative of the French arms exhibition Eurosatory, the Nizhniy Tagil Administration’s press service reports. The exhibition’s Director-General Major General Patrick Colas des Francs confirmed at the end of the talks that the French experts were willing to cooperate with their Nizhniy Tagil counterparts in terms of the exhibition industry development. He pointed out that Eurosatory’s management team were particularly interested

December 12, 2012. 5 workers from Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation were awarded as laureates of Sverdlovsk Region contest for the best young workers employed in the Russian defense industry sector, the corporation’s press service reports. The diploma-awarding ceremony was coordinated by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev. In addition to workers employed at the corporation’s head plant, the employees from the corporation’s other member enterprises (Plant 9, Kamensk-Uralsky Foundry, and Uralcryomash) received their awards as well. The contest was initiated by

December 12, 2012. The introduction of new generation railway carriages with improved technical and operation characteristics will help relieve the railway infrastructure workload; this announcement was made at the international conference on the transportation services market in Moscow, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press service reports. The representatives of Russian Railways as well as those of freight forwarders and leasing companies presented their expert opinion on the carriages. Uralvagonzavod’s Deputy DG for Railway Vehicles Andrei Shlensky spoke on behalf

December 12, 2012. Ural Airlines came up with a performance report for November 2012. The company transferred 266,681 passengers last month, which is 34% more than in November 2011. All in all, 3,272,534 passengers have flown with this air carrier since the beginning of the year. On November 16, Ural Airlines checked in their 3,000,000th passenger of the year for the first time in the airline’s history. In November 2012, Ural Airlines operated 2,241 flights (this is 32% more compared with November 2011). This figure included 675 international flights, 999 domestic flights, and 567 flights

December 12, 2012. The experience of holding the arms exhibition EUROSATORY in France might come in handy when it comes to coordinating RUSSIAN EXPO АRMS in Nizhniy Tagil. EUROSATORY Director-General General Patrick Colas des Francs arrived in Sverdlovsk Region upon Governor Evgeny Kuivashev’s request, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s PR Department reports. ‘The Mid-Urals are actually a more suitable place than any other for demonstrating both the performance and the combat characteristics of military-purpose vehicles. The French experts’ opinion of the Nizhniy Tagil demonstration center is

December 12, 2012. The auction aimed at selling NORD cold storage facility that was coordinated by Sverdlovsk Region division of Rosimushchestvo fell through because no applications had been submitted by the bidders. The auction was held on December 4, and the opening bid was set at 49.32m RUR. Offered for sale was a 49% shareholding in the business. This is actually not the first time the authorities have tried selling the facility’s shares. Early in 2011, a similar auction was also declared invalid, and for the same reason. The opening bid for the shareholding was then set at a slightly

December 11, 2012. The solemn unveiling ceremony of a memorial dedicated to the prominent creator of tanks and Uralvagonzavod’s Chief Designer in the 50s and the 60s, Major-General Engineer Leonid Kartsev took place in Skomovo, Ivanovo Region. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation (UVZ) helped to build and install the memorial, which is a sample of the T-62 tank – one of Kartsev’s most important creations, UVZ press service reports. The solemn opening ceremony next to Kartsev’s home was attended by Governor of Ivanovo Region Mikhail Men, head of the Russian Defense Ministry

December 11, 2012. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant Palace of Culture’s stage was used as the main venue for ChTPZ Group’s 10th Children’s Festival Snezhnost on December 8-10, 2012. Moscow-based theater Satirikon was the first to present its story called ‘Once upon a time in a village’. The theater actually took its first night to the Urals to present the play at the festival. The event’s honorary guest and the theater’s head Konstantin Raikin said that he thought very highly of the company’s initiative to hold a charity New Year event for the children living in Pervouralsk, Chelyabinsk, and

December 11, 2012. Thanks to the joint efforts of Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) security staff and officers from the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry’s Saint Petersburg division, illegal sales of counterfeited items bearing ChTZ logo were detected and stopped, the press service of Uralvagonzavod Corporation reports. Criminal action was taken against the Chelyabinsk-based firms that dealt in the sales of these items. The accused sold some bulldozers that had gone through a garage overhaul as if they were new ChTZ ones and actually sold one and the same set of bulldozers to a number of

December 11, 2012. In January-December 2012, Ural Customs Administration collected 173m RUR worth of fines and imposed 161m RUR worth of fines. Following their 321 inspections, 192 administrative lawsuits and 3 criminal lawsuits were instituted, the Administration’s press service reports. According to the files transferred to the law-enforcement and surveillance authorities, 744,000 RUR more were assessed additionally, and 730 units of counterfeit items were confiscated.

December 11, 2012. Yekaterinburg proved No.1 city among those with population over 1m for doing business. This year, Yekaterinburg was ahead of 18 cities with population over 1m, including Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan, and Chelyabinsk. Sverdlovsk Region was in the middle of a similar rating for Russian Federation constituencies and ahead of both Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The index of how easy it is to do business in the Russian constituencies was compiled by Opora Rossiyi, the All-Russian SME organization. The rating was based on the findings of the annual research on the conditions and

December 10, 2012 Sinara Pipe Plant (a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK) held a professional skills contest among its pipe-cutters for the first time this year. This competition was part of the corporate youth program and involved eight contestants from the under-30 age group, TMK’s press service reports. The board of jurors comprised employees from Sinara Pipe Plant’s subdivisions and members of the company’s trade union committee; for a week, they evaluated the contestants’ theoretical expertise and practical skills. As for the theoretical part, the workers had to answer questions

December 10, 2012 Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation and Bombardier presented their joint vision of the public transport of the future at the international exhibition and forum Russia’s Transport 2012, the corporation’s press service reports. The forum, held under the auspices of the Russian Transport Ministry, gathered the representatives of all transport enterprises, government officials, expert and scientific communities, and members of transport NGOs. This year, delegates from 20 different companies visited the exhibition, and over 100 companies took part in the event.

December 10, 2012 Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court declared OOO Ural Trade & Industrial Enterprise insolvent (bankrupt), the court’s website states. Denis Kolchurin of the Regional Self-Regulatory Organization of Professional Trustees in Bankruptcy Non-Profit Partnership was appointed the company’s trustee in bankruptcy.