UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 28, 2019. EVRAZ Holding selected the finalists of its grant contest in Mezhdurechensk. The winners got announced in the course of a solemn ceremony and can now implement their projects, EVRAZ Raspadskaya Coal Company’s PR Department reports. EVRAZ Holding’s grant contest has been coordinated in Mezhdurechensk since 2017. So far, nearly two hundred applications have been submitted by the contestants, and 24 best projects (total funding: RUB 6 million) got implemented in 2017 and 2018. Thanks to EVRAZ’s grants, a number of children’s sports playgrounds got set up in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 28, 2019. EVRAZ Holding’s 5th sports festival and charity race took place next to Sovremennik Concert Hall in Nizhniy Tagil on May 26, with some 4,000 people taking part, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Communications Center reports. 1,200+ people joined in the race, including (for the first time) children with disabilities from Nizhniy Tagil Elementary School/Kindergarten 105 and a special-needs school in Kachkanar. The race gathered together adults and children from Nizhniy Tagil, Kachkanar, Yekaterinburg, Lesnoy, Kushva, Ivdel, Verkhnyaya Salda, Petrokamenskoye,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 27, 2019. Mezhdurechensk school students presented their projects at Children’s Foresight, a program coordinated by EVRAZ Holding, the Social Initiatives Fund, Mezhdurechensk Council, and the One-Employer Town Development Fund. According to EVRAZ Raspadskaya Coal Company’s PR Department, Children’s Foresight took off in March 2019. The students had to work in teams to develop and then present their projects and ideas at a foresight session. The program also covered workshops and master classes by the authors of successful social initiatives Alexander Shcheryakov and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 27, 2019. EVRAZ Holding keeps supporting Uralets, a martial arts school in Nizhniy Tagil, this year as always. The company supplies the funds for the sports players to take part in out-of-town championships and get new equipment and uniforms when necessary. According to EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Communications Center, the young sports players get coached by EVRAZ Nizhny Tagil Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ NTMK) Converter Shop’s Senior Repairs Engineer Vladimir A. Morozov, who used to be a successful fighter and Russia and the CIS champion himself. ‘Vladimir

UrBC, Moscow, May 27, 2019. 147,000 new automobiles got manufactured in Russia in April 2019, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 5%, Autostat reports. Also, 4% more cars got made in January-April 2019 than in January-April 2018 (531,000 units). At the same time, the Russian market’s truck output went down by 3% in January-April 2019 compared with January-April 2018 and only came to 29,400 units. However, 14,300 trucks were made in April 2019 alone, which exactly as many units as were made in April 2018.

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, May 27, 2019. First Freight Company’s Chelyabinsk branch handled 65,000,000 kg of piggyback consignments in January-April 2019, which was nearly twice as much as one year earlier, the company’s press service reports. The piggyback freight forwarding turnover rose by 55%, up to 158 ton-kilometers. The share of First Freight Company’s freight forwarding operations handled by South Ural Railways rose from 11% to 13%. ‘The increase has to do with the growing amount of consignments from our key customers: ZhBI 74, Kurganstalmost, and ChZSMK. Besides, we also resumed handling the

UrBC, Moscow, May 27, 2019. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects Russia’s gross domestic product to increase by 1.4% in 2019, TASS refers to the IMF as stating. The country’s GDP growth has remained at around 1.4% for the last three years, so a similar dynamics is expected to keep up throughout the year 2019, the IMF says. It is also reported that the state investments in national-scale projects and the changes in the pension/retirement regulations are expected to bring Russia’s potential GDP growth by 0.1% to 0.5%. Any GDP-supporting factors from outside will probably be highly

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 24, 2019. Ural Airlines now operate direct flights from Samara to Tivat, Yerevan, Baku, Tbilisi, Tel Aviv, Sochi, and Osh. According to the air carrier’s press service, Ural Airlines are offering their passengers very good prices with all the fees included. The prices are subject to change depending on the currency exchange rates, however; besides, there’s a limited number of available seats per flight. ‘The airline is trying to make you happy with flights to warmer destinations. All Samara locals have to do is select their specific country for the unforgettable

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 24, 2019. Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy will take part in the all-Russian Double Happiness event for the first time this year, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. ‘We expect several dozen families living both in the district and other parts of Yekaterinburg to take part in the event. The idea is to provide a platform where parents of twins and triplets can meet offline and share their experience, and where the children can meet and play,’ says Akademicheskiy local and mother of multiple children Inga Shchukova, who originally suggested joining in.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 24, 2019. The Ural Bank for the Construction & Development’s analysts report their business customers grow increasingly more interested in mobile banking options. According to the bank’s press service, their small business UBRD Light mobile app has been downloaded 20,000 times since it got launched in the summer of 2018 (and as many times in the forty-five days of Q2’19 as in the entire first quarter of the year). ‘The app is getting ever more popular with the arrival of the vacation season. Business owners and managers definitely deserve a break, but they still

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 24, 2019. Ural Airlines are re-introducing direct flights from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport to Bordeaux and Montpellier this spring. Reduced-price tickets are already on offer, the air carrier’s press service reports. Flight U6 793/794 (Moscow-Bordeaux-Moscow) will get operated every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday starting June 1. Prices start from €40 (Moscow-Bordeaux), €65 (Bordeaux-Moscow), and €105 (there and back). Flight U6 791/792 (Moscow-Montpellier-Moscow) will get operated every Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday starting June 2. Prices start from €40

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, May 24, 2019. Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Chair of the BOD Viktor Rashnikov Order of Alexander Nevsky for Work Achievements and Many Years of Conscientious Performance, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. ‘I see this award as the acknowledgment of the work efforts made by MMK’s entire team. The company will keep trying to remain Russia’s flagship metallurgical enterprise and will do its best to represent the country on the global metallurgical market,’ Rashnikov says. Viktor Rashnikov was born on October 13,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 23, 2019. 94,500 m2 worth of new housing got commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region in April 2019; this was 15% less than in April 2018, Sverdlovskstat reports. 428,400 m2 worth of housing got commissioned in January-April 2019, which was 22% less than one year previously. The share of privately put up houses came to 281,800 m2, which was 21% less than in January-April 2019.

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, May 23, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and Siemens AG’s daughter enterprise OOO Siemens signed a three-year contract for the supply of electric equipment to the former. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, the two companies will work together through OOO Siemens’s online store Industry Mall. MMK’s tech experts will be able to select the necessary equipment using a configuring tool and customize their order with extra options such as additional protection appliances, more engine sensors, and so on. All the order-placement routines will now

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 23, 2019. Ural Airlines are now offering their customers extra discounts on state-subsidized flights from Kaliningrad to Moscow and back. According to the air carrier’s press service, prices start from RUB 1,700 (one way) and RUB 3,400 (round trip) for Moscow-Kaliningrad and Kaliningrad-Moscow flights if you book before June 30; the offer holds for people under 23, women over 55, and men over 60. Children under 12 can travel for as little as RUB 1,275 (one way) and RUB 2,550 (round trip). ‘Eligible to apply for the state-subsidized plane tickets are Russian nationals

UrBC, Moscow, May 23, 2019. The Central Bank of Russia recently made its data protection policy for banks even stricter, the CBR’s press service reports. The CBR’s new regulations make it obligatory for the banks to ensure information security for the following transactions: — collecting money from natural persons and legal entities to put in bank deposits; — depositing the funds in question within the banking system; — opening and administration of natural persons’ and legal entities’ bank accounts. Russian banks only used to be obliged to ensure information security for money transfers. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 23, 2019. Ural Airlines are putting the tickets for their flights operated from Yekaterinburg on sale, the air carrier’s press service says. The special price offer applies to the following flights: Yekaterinburg-Prague-Yekaterinburg (prices start from RUB 18,000); Harbin-Yekaterinburg (prices start from RUB 18,000); Yekaterinburg-Harbin (prices start from RUB 18,000); Yekaterinburg-Harbin-Yekaterinburg (prices start from RUB 25,000); Harbin-Yekaterinburg-Moscow (prices start from RUB 18,000); Moscow-Yekaterinburg-Harbin (prices start from RUB 18,000);

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 22, 2019. Head of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Category Purchases Department Pavel Vasev is now Purchases Director of the Year 2019. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, the large-scale changes introduced in the company’s purchasing practices resulted in a much more efficient supply chain for MMK. ‘This isn’t the first time MMK’s purchasing practices get assessed so highly by the expert community. The plant won the annual all-Russian Competitive Purchases Leader contest several times before. For one, MMK got the Best Project on Business

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 22, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region-based employers owed their workers RUB 35.1m in delayed wages and salaries as of May 1, 2019; this is RUB 3.9m,or 10.2%, less than the figures for April 1, 2019 and does not include the data for small enterprises, Sverdlovskstat reports. All in all, six local organizations owe pay to 548 workers at the moment. The number of employees with delayed wages is at its highest in the motor engine production sector (353 people, total amount: RUB 21.792m), heating energy-producing boiler shops (97 people, total amount: RUB 2.56m), and the companies

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 22, 2019. The share of overdue debt (30+ days) on consumer loans issued to Sverdlovsk Region-based borrowers dropped by 0.8%, down to 20.8% of the overall amount owed in Q1’19, the National Credit History Bureau reports. In Russia on the whole, the share of bad debt declined by 1.7% in the first quarter of 2019 against one year earlier and came to 20.2%. ‘Even though the share of overdue payments kept going down throughout 2018, there is still quite a lot of bad debt in the consumer lending sector, despite the fact that creditors keep monitoring both the quality of