November 12, 2012. The construction of the bridge across the River Nadym is proceeding faster than planned: at the moment, the builders are 20% ahead of schedule. This construction project is part of the infrastructure program called Northern Latitudinal Railway that is now being implemented by Development Corporation. The bridge will combine a railway and a highway, with the same supports for both. According to the Director-General of the contractor company Mostostroy-12 Vitaly Dmitriyev, this bridge will be the largest transport infrastructure facility in the Nadym area. The length of the

November 12, 2012. On Monday, November 12, public hearings dedicated to the estimates of Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Plant’s power generating unit 4 and its BN-800 reactor’s environmental impact will be held in Zarechny; such an announcement was made by Sverdlovsk Region Press & Information Administration. The hearings are aimed at informing the public of the activity planned at the plant as well as of the ways in which it affects the environment, and of the decisions taken to reduce this impact as much as possible. This procedure is obligatory for companies that hold a state license

November 12, 2012. In the nine months of 2012, about 600m RUR worth of damage was done to Ural Federal District by illegal lumbermen, the district’s Forestry Department’s press officer reports. 1,320 cases of illegal lumbering (amounting to 68,391 m3) were registered in Ural Federal District over the same period. The damage was estimated at 593.3m RUR. In fact, the number of cases of illegal lumbering went down by 5% (or 66 instances) against the nine months of 2011, while the volume of illegal logging decreased by 27% (or 25,641 m3) and the damage done to the district declined by 25% (the

November 12, 2012. A worker from ChTPZ’s Vysota 239 department elaborated the concept of ChTPZ stand for the Metal-Expo Exhibition, the company’s press service reports. The 33-year-old Kirill Osadchiy was chosen as the author of the best stand. All in all, a few scores of company workers from various departments and services (including the electric steel-smelting facility Iron Ozone 32, the finishing center, and Vysota 239) took part in the Best Stand contest. ‘Our company is above all our people, who can handle any workload and cope with even the most challenging tasks. The program of the

November 12, 2012. Yandex sued a Yekaterinburg-based entrepreneur Evgeny Balabanov for 1m RUR. The company insists that the defendant be forbidden to use the Punto Switcher software product, as Yandex has exclusive ownership rights over the program. This news was posted on Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court website. Yandex requires that the use of this software by the defendant be declared illegal since the program can only be used free of charge for non-profit purposes. However, in the case of the website Scan.ru, which is administered by Balabanov, the use of the said software product

November 9, 2012. Uralvagonzavod, the head office of UVZ Corporation, came up with a staff performance report for October. All the plans for this month were fulfilled in full, UVZ Corporation’s press service reports. The company produced 11.5bn RUR worth of goods in October and 77.8bn RUR worth of goods since the beginning of the year. These figures are actually 16.1% higher than a year earlier. The sales revenues reached 5.5bn RUR in October and 72.8bn RUR in the ten months of 2012; the expected ROS for October is 19%. The company manufactured 2,381 vehicles last month and 23,308 vehicles

November 9, 2012. Experts from the Germany-based TUV NORD CERT completed their witness audit of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) environmental management system aimed at checking the system’s compliance with the international ISO 14001:2004 standard. MMK PR Department reports the audit program was completed in full; no discrepancies were found in the course of the audit. TUV NORD CERT auditors offered some improvement recommendations at the end of the tests and announced that MMK environmental management system kept on developing and fully complied with the international ISO

November 9, 2012. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development completed the secondary public offering of its bonds at MICEX on November 7. The bonds were sold on the secondary market in full; Promsvyazbank, which was in charge of the first issue in April 2011, acted as the underwriter for this issue as well. All in all, seven deals were made in the course of trading, and 553,936 bonds worth a total of 555,509,178.24 RUR were sold: this was the entire volume offered on November 2. Remarkably, the secondary demand was twice as big as the supply and came to 1.134 million bonds. ‘The

November 9, 2012. Ural Airlines added one more Airbus 320 to its fleet vehicles, so the total number now comes to 25 aircraft (16 A320 ones and 9 A321 ones). The airplane arrived from Japan, where it had been used by a local air carrier for five years. The plane is fitted with 144 economy class seats and 12 business class ones. Ural Airlines managed to upgrade its fleet of vehicles over a short period of time: the renovation program was launched as recently as 2006. The European concern’s planes proved their efficiency and suitability for medium-haul flights. In 2013, the airline intends to

November 9, 2012. Sverdlovsk Region Agro-Industry & Food Minister Mikhail Kopytov says 43,600 tons of carrots have been harvested this year, which will fully cover the locals’ demand for this vegetable. Also, 12,500 tons of onions, 17,000 tons of beetroot, and 50,000 tons of cabbages were gathered this fall. As was reported earlier, the potato harvest amounted to 625,000 tons. ‘The vegetable yield is a little lower this year than last year due to the summer’s draught, but we did meet the public establishments’ needs in full. The vegetables are now being stored for winter,’ Minister

November 8, 2012. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (a member of ChTPZ Group) was listed as one Attractive Employers 2012 as a result of research conducted by Superjob.ru. The research involved surveying over 600,000 Russian officials, the plant’s press officer reports. The winners were selected on the basis of the companies’ reputation, assessment of the vacancies they offer (mostly salary), the number of hits per page (a minimum of 300 was required), and the so-called direct response (the number of people who submitted their CVs). At the moment, the plant is offering about 200 positions, most of

November 8, 2012. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation is now taking part in the 30th International Exhibition FIНAV-2012 which opened in Havana on November 4 and will last throughout this week. Housed in the country’s largest exhibition center EXPOCUBA’s 25 pavilions, FIHAV-2012 is one of the top three most prestigious events in Latin America, the corporation’s press service reports. The corporation mainly features the produce of its ChTZ-Uraltrac, with some life-size samples displayed at the stand, including the B-10M, B-12, and B-14 bulldozers, the TP-20 pipe layer,

November 8, 2012. Consumer price index went up by 0.7% in Sverdlovsk Region in October 2012 against September 2012, SverdlovskStat reports. At the same time, prices rose by 6.4% against last October. The increase was most prominent in food items, including strong drinks: this came to 3% this month and to 6.2% against October 2011. The second most prominent increase has to do with the service sector: prices rose by 0.9% in October 2012 and by 8.8% against October 2011. As for non-food items, prices increased by 0.9% in September and by 4.9% against October 2011.

November 8, 2012. According to the data available as of November 5, the average price of one square meter of housing available on the existing homes market in Yekaterinburg comes to 69,211 RUR. The growth rate has remained the same since August and it now stays within about 0.2% a week. All in all, housing has grown 8.4% more expensive since the beginning of the year, Ural Real Estate Chamber’s Analytical Department reports. Following the summertime stability, the supply has been going up for the last two months as well. The number of apartments offered for sale has increased by 4% over this

November 8, 2012. The football team of Seversky Pipe Plant (STZ, a part of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK) came second in Sverdlovsk Region football championship this fall, the company’s press service reports. In its final game, the Seversky Trubnik team played against Metallurg from Verkhnyaya Pyshma. Throughout the game, STZ footballers showed good team spirit and technical skills, which made it possible for forward Alexei Filin to score triumphantly. The players from Verkhnyaya Pyshma had no chance to make it all up, as they were unable to break through Seversky Trubnik’s line of defense

November 7, 2012. The new 15–558S–03 cisterns of UralCryoMash (a member of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) underwent certification testing, the Corporation’s press service reports. The 15–558S–03 cisterns are meant for transporting liquid oxygen and are a new generation model in the Nizhniy Tagil-based company’s cryogenic cisterns range. UralCryoMash is currently Russia’s only manufacturer of this kind of produce. Two pilot samples have been made so far, tested successfully, and presented to the customer. In November, UralCryoMash experts are expected to get compliance certificates for the new

November 7, 2012. Omsk Region’s Minister for Industrial Policies, Communications & Innovational Technologies Alexei A. Gladenko visited Transport Machine-Building Design Bureau. This was on the agenda of his business trip around Omsk’s most promising and dynamically developing enterprises, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press service reports. The trip was targeted at looking at the enterprise’s potential and discussing issues related to technical conversion and attracting investment. Alexei Gladenko was given a tour of all the departments at the design bureau and

November 7, 2012. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev announced Yekaterinburg had plans to win the right to host the World Cup 2018 Last 8. ‘We are expected to host the Last 16, and we mean to compete for this as well. This will attract the teams who will make it to the Last 16, and we’ll try to compete for the quarter-finals, too. This is a very challenging objective, as other cities are working on this as well,’ Kuivashev said in a TV show called This week’s Highlights.

November 7, 2012. The Special Economic Zone Titanium Valley and Sberbank of Russia signed a long-term cooperation agreement. This agreement covers for the issuance of loans to put up infrastructure facilities, the Titanium Valley Management Company’s press officer reports. It was observed that using borrowed funds from Sberbank will mean less financing from the budget sources. The financing will cover the construction of the most promising projects, whose rent revenues will help to pay off the loans later. ‘This means that, on the one hand, we are speeding up the construction jobs related to

November 7, 2012. The international rating agency Standard & Poor's affirmed Sverdlovsk Region’s long-term credit rating at BB+, with Stable rating outlook. Experts stress that this estimate of the region’s financial performance stems from low level of debt, good administration of the budget for this year, and high liquidity, the agency’s press release states. In addition, S&P Credit Rating Service observes that the volatility of budget revenues and the region’s considerable current and capital spending needs will be balanced off through the region’s new management’s level-headed