UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 22, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) shipped 1,269,000,000 kg of zinc-coated rolled metal goods to customers in 208; this is, so far, the largest output in the company’s history. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, last year’s figure was 11.9% greater than that for the year 2017 (1,134,000,000 kg). MMK has been raising its zinc-coated products output steadily for the last fifteen years. Two highly productive continuous hot-dip galvanizing units got launched in 2002 and 2008 to achieve the goal; in 2012, an extension to the new

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 21, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) selected the winners of the company’s Director-General’s Prize in Safety, Environment, and Healthcare. The awarding ceremony took place at the plant’s S.Ordzhonikidze Culture Palace on January 17, 2019; this was part of the monthly meeting on industrial injuries, fire safety, and industrial safety at MMK and MMK Group’s member enterprises. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, the awards were given out by MMK Director-General Pavel Shilyayev, Job Safety, Industrial Safety & the Environment

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 21, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) set up yet another SME-oriented branch in Moscow in late December. The new branch can be found in Zubarevsky Center at 15 Zubarev Lane (Bldg 1), which is a five-minute walk from Alekseyevskaya Underground Station. This is the fifteenth branch the bank opened in 2018 and the fiftieth SME-oriented one, the URBD’s press service reports. ‘The strategy of setting up a network of offices aimed at businesses proved quite fruitful. We can see our business customers are mostly interested in settlement

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 21, 2019. Members of the rescue teams who helped find and evacuate the victims of an explosion at an apartment building on December 31, 2018 got awarded in Magnitogorsk, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Information & PR Department reports. Thank-you letters from Head of Russia’s Department of Emergencies’ Chelyabinsk Region division were presented to 111 employees of MMK and MMK Group’s other member enterprises; all of them helped to deal with the emergency. These are people working at MMK Group’s member enterprises’ Drop-Hammer Department, Gas Rescue

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 21, 2019. The overall amount of MegaFon Ural’s business customers’ international traffic rose by 10% in January 2019 compared with one year earlier, the company’s press service reports. Since the start of the year, local business people have visited 125 different countries, including such popular exotic locations as Tanzania, Jamaica, Oman, Kenia, Madagascar, Guadeloupe, and Honduras (the top seven destinations for MegaFon’s subscriber this year so far). Thailand was the country where MegaFon registered the greatest amount of Internet traffic (roughly the

UrBC, Moscow, January 21, 2019. Rustam Korelin, a worker from Sukhoi Log, Sverdlovsk Region, got detained in Moscow’s Red Square on January 18, 2019 for a one-person protest march, Novaya Gazeta reports. ‘I am in hazardous employment as a furnace boxman at a Sukhoi Log plant. I only make RUB 25,000 a month. Muscovites, this isn’t fair!’ Korelin’s banner read. According to the newspaper, Rustam Korelin and other members of a workers’ group at Fores Plant want a wage increase, an independent trade union, earlier retirement options for those working in hazardous conditions, and compensation for

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 18, 2019. Chair of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Board of Directors Viktor Rashnikov made a public announcement relating to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to re-house all the home owners in the apartment building in Magnitogorsk that got devastated by a an explosion. ‘Within hours of the tragedy in Magnitogorsk on December 31, MMK joined the rescue forces and emergency teams. Over a hundred employees and special-purpose vehicles operated on the site 24/7. The company has also allocated some RUB 100 million to support the victims directly

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 18, 2019. According to MegaFon’s retail statistics, their Urals-based customers bought a 4G smartphone every three minutes last year. Every one in five smartphones got insured against theft, mechanical damage, and getting wet, which is 33% more than in 2017, the company’s press service reports. Nine out of ten devices people bought in 2018 support high-speed LTE options. The service grew so popular due to extended product range and keen demand for the fastest Internet connection available. MegaFon Ural’s customers tended to buy Samsung produce more often than that

UrBC, Moscow, January 18, 2019. The U.S. Department of Treasure chose to take more time processing En+ and UC RUSAL deals; both companies belong to the Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, and U.S. companies are allowed to do business with them through January 28 as of now, Kommersant reports. The original deadline has already been shifted from January 7 to January 21 once. Now the U.S. Senate recently failed to advance a measure to block the delisting of Deripaska’s assets, which, in turn, boosted aluminum prices at LME by as much as 1.9%. United Company RUSAL and Deripaska’s other assets got

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 18, 2019. Last year, 26% of Sverdlovsk Region-based professionals in gainful employment had a pay rise, whereas 30% started making less. According to HeadHunter’s press service, their survey findings revealed that more than 50% of job-seekers who faced a pay cut say their income shrank by at least 15%. As for respondents with a pay rise, the increase stayed within the 10% limit, even though the actual percentage increased with the seniority of position. In 76% of cases, people’s wages and salaries dropped due to reduced bonus payments; among those with a pay rise,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 18, 2019. The rental prices for a studio apartment on Sverdlovsk Region’s housing market rose by 2.5% in the last quarter of 2018 compared with the last quarter of 2017, domofond.ru refers to its own research findings as indicating. The prices went up from RUB 14,992 to RUB 15,365 a month on average. According to domofond.ru, the rental price of studio apartments increased in sixty-nine Russian constituencies in the course of one year. For Chelyabinsk Region, for example, prices rose from RUB 10,382 to RUB 10,545 (+1.6%) a month on average.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 17, 2019. Ural Airlines’ punctuality parameter rose by 4% in 2018, the air carrier’s press service reports. The parameter in question thus amounted to 90% last year (96.5% for tourist-filled, chartered flights). The airline operated 61,634 flights in 2018, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 11%.

UrBC, Moscow, January 17, 2019. The U.S. Senate is going to advance a measure to stop the Trump administration’s plans to drop Oleg Deripaska’s En+, United Company RUSAL, and EuroSibEnergo from the sanctions list. The measure got approved by a 57-42 vote, Kommersant reports. The next step is to take the resolution through a ratification stage via a procedural vote, for which it needs to get supported by at least 60 senators. Once the paper has been supported by the majority, the final vote and the support of the House could bring the resolution directly to President Trump’s desk. Now Oleg

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 17, 2019. A non-profit organization Zhivoy Shemur is now active in Sverdlovsk Region: Denezhkin Kamen National Park’s press secretary Robert Karapetyan announces via a Facebook post that the organization will be dealing with the environmental problems in Sverdlovsk Region’s north. The group unites a number of public organizations, communities, and experts from Severouralsk and Ivdel. The organization’s website provides information on the lab tests of water from the local rivers, photographs, details on conferences and meet-ups, and legislative changes in the

UrBC, Moscow, January 17, 2019. Russia’s inflation rate was estimated at 0.2% on January 1-14, 2019 and at 0.7% compared with the start of the year, Rosstat reports. Between January 10 and January 14, the price of wheat rose by 0.6%, that of flour by 0.5%, and that of chicken and buckwheat by 0.3%. At the same time, the price of sausages, margarine, and chocolates dropped by 0.2%, 0.1%, and 0.1%, respectively. Prices increased most noticeably in the vegetable and fruit segment, with the increase at 1.1% on average. Tomatoes and cabbage are now 2.6% more expensive, carrots are 1.9% more

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 17, 2019. The negative balance of UralTransBank’s assets and liabilities reached RUB 909 million on December 20, 2018 (compared with RUB 560 million on the day the bank’s license got annulled), a bankruptcy proceedings report on the Bank of Russia’s website states. It is reported that the fund deficit increased after the bank had paid out a portion of its outstanding loans and set up additional reserves for it. Now Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court pronounced UralTransBank insolvent on December 20, 2018, and instituted bankruptcy proceedings for the business.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 16, 2019. Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems (FGC UES) upgraded the appliances at six power substations in Western Siberia. Last year, twenty air break and oil break switches got replaced with the most advances SF6 ones, FGC UES’s PR & Media Group for Western Siberia reports. The company invested RUB 511 million into the modernization project to make the power supply to end users in Tyumen Region, Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region, and Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region (where 3.6 million people live and major oil and gas companies operate) even more

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 16, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) came first in the rating of Russian ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgical enterprises in the second half of 2018 as the best national manufacturer of flat rolled products and paint-coated and galvanized rolled goods. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, the bi-annual rating was made public in the latest issue of the Metallosnabzheniye I Sbyt magazine. MMK proved No.1 among all the Russian rolled sheet manufacturers once again, thanks to up-to-date, highly productive facilities that got put up in the

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 16, 2019. MMK Group’s MMK METIZ won one of the prizes at Chelyabinsk Region round of the nationwide Russia’s Most Socially Responsible Business Contest. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, the contest got coordinated by Chelyabinsk Region Labor & Employment Department. The goal is to make employers more socially responsible towards their employees, ensure the development of collective agreements as a tool for managing work relations, make prevention of accidents at work and occupational illnesses more efficient, create incentives for the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 16, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) launches its new Savings 540 Days Deposit on January 15, 2019. This deposit type differs from its counterparts in that the savings period is longer (eighteen months) and the interest rate comes to up to 7.85% a year, the bank’s press service reports. ‘This is a perfect offer for those who’ve already saved a certain amount and are now considering various long-term investment options. A bank deposit is still one of the clearest, affordable, and secure mechanism, so over 95% of private customers’