UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 18, 2019. Russian hockey player, Kontinental Hockey League HC CSKA goalkeeper, Russia’s Honored Master of Sports Ilya Sorokin and his father Igor Sorokin paid a visit to EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Mine. The sports player took the KHL Gagarin Cup with him on this trip, and went down into the mine with it, Raspadskaya Coal Company’s press service reports. ‘It is a custom with the KHL players that the Gagarin Cup winners take their trophy with them to their native towns. Ilya Sorokin was born in Novokuznetsk and raised in Mezhdurechensk, where he first started playing

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 18, 2019. SKB online users can now pay their bills electronically with a QR code: this option is now available for housing bills, taxes, fines, and tuition fees, SKB-Bank’s press service reports. ‘You can now make a payment to the account of any company that can make an invoice with a QR code on it. The payment procedure itself is very simple: within your SKB Online app, you go to Payments and Transfers, select QR Code, and scan the code on the invoice with your smartphone camera. Everything will get uploaded into the system automatically, you’ll only need to confirm

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 18, 2019. ChelPipe Group’s warehouse is going to supply some 5,000,000 kg of pipes for heating infrastructure repairs in time for the next heating season, the company’s press service reports. Pipes made at the Group’s member enterprises Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe) and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) will be used in the summer repair campaigns of Russia’s largest energy companies, including Siberian Generating Company (SibGenCo), TeploEnergo, T-Plus, Bashkir Generation Company, and Moscow United Energy Company (MOEK). ChelPipe Group’s warehouse started

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 17, 2019. A new automated boiler settings adjustment system has been introduced at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) power stations recently; the savings are estimated to come to more than RUB 85m a year. According to the company’s press service, the new system will ensure a more efficient use of energy resources and will also reduce harmful air emissions greatly. The system has been designed and launched by experts from MMK Senior Energy Engineer’s Department in cooperation with MMK United Service Company (USC) and South Ural State University as part of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 17, 2019. ChelPipe Group presented the first results stemming from a series of new private-public partnership solutions implemented in the Group-supported vocational schools at Innoprom 2019 International Industrial Exhibition in Yekaterinburg, the company’s press service reports. Since 2001, the Group has been involved in the PPP project the Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program in Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk Region, and Tatarstan. The program relies on a dual education model, with 40% of the study time dedicated to learning the theory and

UrBC, Moscow, July 17, 2019. Rosatom Corporation is launching a new social welfare project called Right to Health. The Basics of Efficient Patient-Doctor Interaction for Nuclear Industry Towns. The project aims to improve the quality of healthcare and enhance both patients’ and doctors’ legal literacy. Between July 2019 and March 2020, the project will get implemented in Sverdlovsk Region and Chelyabinsk Region towns where Rosatom runs its member enterprises: Novouralsk, Lesnoy, Ozersk, Snezhinsk, Trekhgorny, and Zarechny, the company’s press service reports. ‘When people are not fully aware

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 17, 2019. Raspadskaya. GunterCup 2019, a family basketball event, took place at Sports Palace in Novokuznetsk. Some 3,000 people came to see the game, Raspadskaya Coal Company’s press service reports. Siberia’s twelve strongest teams competed in the street ball contest. Russia’s basketball stars, European and world champions gave master classes to hundreds of children from local basketball schools and children from Novokuznetsk. The band Quest Pistols Show also performed at the event. The family event gathered together EVRAZ Holding and Raspadskaya Coal Company

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 17, 2019. The concentration of chrysotile fibers in the soil next to FORES’s Tekhnokeramika in Shadrinsk, Sverdlovsk Region, stays well below the existing normative requirements, NIIProyektAsbest Asbestos Environmental Problems Center’s authorized lab’s test findings indicate. According to FORES’s press service, the testing of the samples was part of the extended environmental monitoring procedure that Tekhnokeramika is doing this year. The lab took the necessary samples on the outer end of the sanitary protection area next to the apartment building at 68

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 16, 2019. Experts from Rosatom’s R&D division and Ural Federal University (UFU) met in Yekaterinburg on July 12 to look into a clean energy technology proposal presented by Roman Yagovitin, who is now in his fourth year at UFU, Rosatom’s press service reports. Yagovitin suggested a technology for producing complex oxides for nuclear fuel cells that will result in environmentally safe energy and eliminate the need for hydrocarbons as a fuel source. ‘The idea is to develop new, active materials that get used to make stoneware. The stoneware, in its turn, is the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 16, 2019. Starting July 12, all of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s customers will be able to apply for a credit card with the longest grace period currently available in Russia (up to 240 days), the bank’s press service reports. According to the UBRD Marketing Director Alexei Merzlyakov, this is the first time a Russian bank has introduced such a long interest-free period on credit cards. ‘Two years ago, we proved the country’s first bank to introduce a 120-day grace period. The market is changing fast however, with something new happening every

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 16, 2019. The average retail price of potatoes rose by 41.2% between early June and early July 2019, Sverdlovsk Region Agriculture Ministry’s report indicates. According to Sverdlovskstat, potato prices averaged at RUB 26.97 per kg on June 3, 2019 and at RUB 38.09 per kg by July 1, 2019. The day potatoes could be bought the cheapest was April 29, 2019 (RUB 20.48 per kg on average). ‘The price dynamics of field vegetables gets affected by seasonal factors more than ever during the year, as farmers are switching from selling their harvested potatoes directly from the

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 16, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) introduced sixteen different robotic software applications at the plant that can all perform the functions of actual employees. By the end of the year, the robotic process automation (RPA) will cover thirty-two production processes all in all, the company’s press service reports. Head of MMK InformService Project Office Valeriy Rybolovlev gave a talk on the results of the plant’s RPA efforts at the Digital Transformation in Metallurgy Conference during Innoprom 2019 Exhibition in Yekaterinburg. It is reported that

UrBC, Moscow, July 16, 2019. 611,800 new foreign cars (including LCVs) got sold in Russia in the first half of 2019, which was 4% less than in January-June 2018, Autostat reports. This means the share of new foreign cars now comes to 73.8% of the Russian market, compared with 74.7% one year earlier (January-June 2018). It is also reported that, as far as the ten best-selling foreign makes are concerned, the sales of Ford and Nissan dropped substantially (-18% and -15%, respectively).

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 15, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) coordinated a conference on digital transformation in metallurgy during Innoprom 2019 Forum in Yekaterinburg, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. The company representatives gave a talk on their experience with introducing IT solutions into production and spoke about the prospects of further digitizing their business processes. Magnitogorsk-based Ausferr Tech & Research Center and the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Ural branch acted as MMK’s partners and conference co-organizers. With Ausferr’s support,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 15, 2019. OOO FORES’s quality management system got re-certified for compliance with the international standard ISO 9001:2015, the company’s press service reports. ‘The second round of the audit took place in early June 2019 and involved FORES’s Administration, Asbest branch, Kuryi branch, and Shadrinsk-based OOO Tekhnokeramika,’ the press service says. TUV NORD CERT GmbH auditors confirmed at the end of the checks that all of the inspected divisions and branches fully complied with the ISO 9001:2015 requirements; the company’s certificate got renewed for one more

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 15, 2019. MegaFon and Nizhnyaya Tura Council started working on digitizing the town’s urban transit infrastructure together: there are now sixteen ‘smart bus/tram stops’ in Nizhnyaya Tura, the telecom company’s press service reports. ‘The old bus stops have been replaced with modern ones, complete with security appliances and telecom services. While waiting for your bus to arrive, you can now use the free wireless connection or charge your mobile device using one of the USB chargers provided. MegaFon’s SmartStops can be found in Govorov St, Novaya St, Malyshev St,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 15, 2019. Three workers of EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Iron and Steel Works (EVRAZ NTMK) won the Cherepanov Award this year, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Communications Center’s PR Department reports. EVRAZ NTMK’s Blast Furnace Upgrade Project Manager Pavel Kolpakov, Head of EVRAZ NTMK’s Blast Furnace Department Konstantin Mironov, and Director at EVRAZ NTMK Inventors’ & Patent Work Office Vladimir Balyan were among the sixteen awardees. The awards were given out by First Vice Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexei Orlov during the Innoprom Exhibition. Pavel

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 15, 2019. Mayor of Yekaterinburg Alexander Vysokinsky took part in a meeting of the work group for the World Summer Universiade that Yekaterinburg will be hosting in 2023, the town council’s website indicates. The preparation team talked about the effects of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to Yekaterinburg, when the President got acquainted with the project for the Universiade-hosting site. Vladimir Putin also looked into the proposals for the preparations necessary to host the games, and approved of the initiatives. The work group believes the next

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 12, 2019. Lack of workers with digital skills is one of the key obstacles to the speedier digitization of Russia’s industry, ChelPipe Group’s shareholder Andrei Komarov said at Innoprom 2019 International Industrial Exhibition’s plenary session (The Industry of the Future: Growth Potential in New Digital Technologies & Organizational Models), the Group’s press service reports. Russia’s Deputy Minister for Industry & Trade Oleg Bocharov chaired the session. Government officials and members of the expert and business communities talked about the prospects of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 12, 2019. A discussion on AI solutions for ‘smart cities’ took place within the 10th Innoprom International Industrial Exhibition’s business program in Yekaterinburg. Maxim Isayev contributed to the talks, Rusatom Infrastructure Solutions/Rusatom Smart Utilities’ press service reports. ‘321 projects have been registered with Russia’s Construction & Utilities Ministry’s Smart City National Project’s database so far. The existing variety of Smart City solutions covers different parts of urban infrastructure: energy efficiency, control over communal housing