October 25, 2012. The regional budget deficit will be gradually going down in the future, Sverdlovsk Region’s Finance Minister Galina Kulichenko said at a press meeting recently. The Minister stressed that, while this year’s budget deficit comes to 16.9bn RUR, it is only expected to come to 9.4bn RUR in 2015. When asked about the draft law on the regional budget for 2013 and the plans for 2014 and 2015, Kulachenko said that the regional finance analysts prefer to sustain the increase in Sverdlovsk Region’s public debt and suggest that it should be reduced by 2.2bn RUR as soon as 2013. As for

October 25, 2012. Sverdlovsk Region’s agricultural companies completed their potato harvesting for this year, the regional Government’s Press & Information Administration reports. ‘The harvesting of potatoes fit within the best agronomical terms, despite the rainy weather this fall. Our farmers managed to harvest everything before cold weather has set in. Enough potatoes have been harvested to fully meet the local population’s needs, provide plenty of those to socially important facilities, and keep the price within reasonable limits, which suits both the customers and the producers,’

October 24, 2012. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation took part in the international Anti-Counterfeit Forum 2012 in Moscow on October 22-24. Russia’s largest railway vehicles manufacturer presented its newest counterfeit protection technology there, the corporation’s press service reports. The counterfeit protection technology consists in applying a 2D barcode onto the main components of the vehicles: pedestals, beams, and sets of wheels. This method, elaborated by the Russian company OOO Flurintech, is unique in that it uses fluorescent dyes. ‘This technology allows for

October 24, 2012. The sale of a 34.56% shareholding in Koltsovo Airport (currently the property of Sverdlovsk Region Government), Sverdlovsk Poultry Factory, and Pervouralsk Poultry Factory in 2013 is expected to yield 4bn RUR, the region’s Finance Minister Galina Kulachenko said at a briefing today. 4bn RUR is the opening bid for the auction, so the final sum might actually be greater, the Minister explained. These assets will be put up to auction under the program for Sverdlovsk Region Public Property Management.

October 24, 2012. In the nine months of 2012, TMK (Pipe Metallurgical Company) raised the volume of its weldless pipe shipments by 3.8%, so that the figure came to 1,860,000 tons. The volume of welded pipe shipments dropped by 8.3% so that the figure came to 1,286,000 tons: this had to do with a decreased demand from the Russian customers for large-diameter pipes in the nine months of 2012. At the same time, the shipments volume in the third quarter of the year increased by 3.6% on the previous quarter, TMK’s press service reports. The volume of OCTG shipments was 11% greater than a year

October 24, 2012. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant is to deliver a set of pipes to the construction site of Spartak stadium in Moscow: this will be one of the key venues for the World Cup 2018. Over 600 tons of hot-rolled weldless pipes made of 09G2S steel with the diameters ranging from 89mm to 377mm and wall width ranging from 7mm to 16mm will be manufactured by Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant. The first shipments will be made in late October, the company’s press office reports. Spartak Stadium is currently being put up in Moscow. This will be a sports facility

October 24, 2012. The share of Ural Federal District in Russia’s accumulated gross regional product will be going down soon, INFOline claims. The agency’s analysts report that, over the next two years, the top ten GDP producers will retain their current positions; these are: the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Republic of Tatarstan, Krasnodar Territory, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Moscow Region, Sverdlovsk Region, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region, and Samara Region. Moscow, with its 22% of the accumulated regional GDP, will remain at the top of the list. Just like in the

October 23, 2012. The first organizations meeting on the preparations for the International Arms Exhibition 2013 was held in Nizhniy Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press & Information Administration informed UrBC. ‘The exhibition has been scheduled for the second half of September 2013; however, to make sure everything is flawless, we have already started preparing for the big event. Next year’s exhibition will be very different in that it will be primarily coordinated by Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation. Nizhniy Tagil Institute of Metal Testing, which used to

October 23, 2012. The 6th Interregional Conference coordinated by the Railway Vehicle Manufacturers, a non-profit partnership, will take place in Yekaterinburg on November 1-2. The conference will be dedicated to Transport Machine-Building: Quality as the Guarantee of Russian Railway Vehicles’ Safety and Reliability, says Sinara Group’s PR Center. The conference will be chaired by the partnership’s President Valentin Gapanovitch. The event is supposed to be attended by the representatives of the federal authorities, Sverdlovsk Region Government, and Russian Railways and by heads of the

October 23, 2012. In the nine months of 2012, the amount of debt that is accounted for by Sverdlovsk Region tax inspectorates (including tax payments, fines, and tax penalties) went down by 2,241.1m RUR, or 7%, and came to 30,356.5m RUR on October 1, 2012. This figure includes 19,780.2m RUR (65%) of overdue tax payments (this is 480.9m RUR, or 2% lower than a year earlier) and 10,576.3m RUR (35%) of unpaid fines and tax penalties (this is 1,760.2m RUR, or 14%, lower than a year earlier), the press office of Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service reports. Since the

October 23, 2012. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (a member of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation/UVZ) that won the auction to supply a new firefighting vehicle managed to manufacture and ship the product to customer over a limited time period, UVZ’s press service reports. The vehicle, fitted with all the devices, has been tested at the plant: it was used to clear up a strip of land with dense vegetation. Both the shrubs and the 40 cm-wide poplars were defeated by the B-10M bulldozer and its wedge-shaped shovel. The bulldozer is primarily meant for laying paths to the fire

October 23, 2012. Starting today, a money order via the Golden Crown system can be made at any of SKB-Bank’s offices. This is a money order system that does not require the user to set up a bank account and that operates over 32,000 terminals around Russia and the CIS. The Golden Crown money orders are fast and affordable, the bank’s press service reports. The system’s other peculiarity is that there is no need for a specific mailing address: the sender only needs to indicate the country and the city where the money is going, and the person who is to get the money can choose the most

October 22 Pellet boilers that have already been installed at the filtering facilities in Neivo-Rudyanka will soon be introduced in other Sverdlovsk Region towns where the heating is provided by Oblkommunenergo State Unitary Enterprise, the company’s PR Department informed UrBC. The new 0.15 megawatt pellet boiler was launched at the start of this year’s heating season to supply heat to the filtering facilities in the Village of Neivo-Rydyanka, Kirovgrad Municipality. According to experts, its first performance results made it obvious that the new equipment is very efficient, trouble-free in

October 22 The head office of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation is about to complete its project on the launch of GLONASS solutions. The plant’s entire railway and automobile fleet of vehicles has been fitted with this navigation and positioning equipment. The project was designed and developed by M2M Telematika Group, and Asteros acted as the general contractor for the launch of this complex IT system. The system was designed in accordance with this machine-building company’s needs and in accordance with the specific vehicle operation here. Given that most of the haulage

October 22 Sinara Pipe Plant (a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company, TMK) is about to complete the installation of shot-blasting and sandblasting machines. These jobs are implemented within the framework of the company’s investment project targeted at the construction of an insulated lift pipe production unit at the company’s Pipe-Drawing Shop 3, TMK’s press service reports. These insulated lift pipes have enhanced heat-insulating characteristics and are peculiar in that they are actually assembled from two pipes, with the smaller one inserted in the larger one. The space between the two

October 22 Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court declared OOO VYSO-Interservice insolvent (bankrupt), the court’s website states. The company’s debt to creditors comes to 297,811,199.39 RUR. A member of Strategiya Interregional Self-Regulatory Organization of Trustees in Bankruptcy, a non-profit partnership, Ekaterina Yurkovskaya, was appointed the company’s trustee in bankruptcy.

October 22 The 6th Interregional Scientific/Practical Conference on Innovational Technologies, Defense Systems, Science, & Education was held in Omsk. All in all, over 450 Russian and foreign companies and scientific and educational establishments took part in the event. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation was represented by Deputy DG for Special Vehicles Vyachelsav Khalitov, Director-General of Ural Transport Machine-Building Design Office Andrei Terlikov from Nizhniy Tagil, and Director-General of Transport Machine-Building Design Office from Omsk Igor Lobov. The

October 19 The Federal Housing Construction Facilitation Fund is coordinating an auction aimed at letting a land allotment in Sysert District, Sverdlovsk Region, with the total area of 43.3 hectares. The land allotment is meant for multi-faceted area development. The opening bid has been set at 5.54m RUR, every other bid has to be at least 200,000 RUR greater, the fund’s website states. The rental contract will be signed for seven years. The allotment allows for the construction of 41,000 sq m worth of housing, and 75% of the allotment is to be used for putting up low-rise economy class

October 19 The industrial production index for all the enterprises operating in Sverdlovsk Region in January-September 2012 exceeded the figures for January-September 2011 by 8.7%, the regional Economics Ministry reports. Compared with a year earlier, the actual industrial production volumes rose most in the machine-building and equipment manufacturing industry (+44.8%), in the chemicals industry (+42.3%), in the rubber and plastic goods industry (+22.6%), in the electronic and optical equipment industry (+18.7%), in the food manufacturing industry (including drinks and tobacco) (+15.1%), and

October 19 The current exchange rate of the national currency against the foreign ones influences the population’s trust in the ruble greatly, OOO Bank Koltso Urala’s press service refers to the bank’s experts as saying. ‘It’s obvious that, when the ruble is getting a bit stronger, the USD quotations are either dropping or remain the same, and the level of trust increases. When the ruble is getting weaker and the dollar is rising, the level of trust goes down. On the whole, the ruble looks not bad at all in the long term when compared with the dollar/euro combination – given especially the