The Dutch company Bontrup plans at the first stage to invest EUR 50 million in energy projects in the Chornobyl exclusion zone as part of the implementation of the concept of Ukraine’s “green” energy transition, the Economy Ministry reported.
According to the report, Bontrup representatives discussed this proposal during a meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister-Minister of Economy Oleksiy Liubchenko, Deputy Minister Iryna Novikova, as well as with Acting Head of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving Kostiantyn Hura and Head of the State Agency on Exclusion Zone Management Serhiy Kostiuk.
“The parties discussed the proposal of the Bontrup representatives on the implementation of an investment energy project on the territory of the Chornobyl exclusion zone as part of the implementation of the concept of a “green” energy transition in Ukraine,” the ministry said.
Bontrup also estimates the prospect of increasing the volume of investments at EUR 1.5 billion. According to the initiators, the implementation of the project will provide jobs for about 10,000 households, the ministry said.
KSG Agro agricultural holding expects grain harvest in Ukraine to grow by an average of 10-15% compared to 2020, and one of the best harvests for the agricultural holding, owner of the agricultural company Serhiy Kasyanov has said in a press release from the company.
“Now we are primarily talking about winter crops, but I do not see any problems with spring crops either. Perhaps we will move somewhere in time and harvest the sunflower not in September, but in October. But this will not significantly affect the results. We, for example, predict that in our agricultural holding it will be one of the best harvests in recent years,” he said.
According to the farmer, the harvest forecast is very optimistic throughout the country, even in traditionally arid regions.
As reported, KSG Agro is a vertically integrated holding engaged in pig breeding, production, storage, processing and sale of grain and oilseeds. The land bank of the agricultural holding is 23,900 hectares in Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson regions.
KSG Agro in 2020 reduced its net profit by 3.2 times compared to 2019, to $1.27 million, increased EBITDA by 3.1 times, to $6.532 million, its revenue over the past year decreased by 11%, to $21.34 million.
Revenue from the livestock segment in 2020 decreased by 8%, to $10.3 million, while the food processing segment brought in 22% less and amounted to $8.4 million.
The authorized banks issued 512 loans under the Affordable Loans 5-7-9% program for UAH 1.6 billion over the past week, and in general, from the start of the program, the number of loans exceeded 18,100 for a total of UAH 47.5 billion.
As reported on the website of the Ministry of Finance, out of 31 banks participating in the program, the leaders in issuing loans are PrivatBank (agreements for UAH 4.4 billion), Oschadbank (for UAH 4.9 billion) and Raiffeisen Bank Aval (UAH 8.95 billion).
The Department of Foreign Trade of Thailand has announced the final decision to extend for another five years antidumping duties on the import of certain types of hot-rolled steel from 14 countries, including Ukraine with a slight decrease.
According to Steel Orbis, this decision was made following the revision of antidumping restrictions on imports of these products from Japan, South Africa, Russia, Kazakhstan, India, South Korea, Venezuela, Argentina, Ukraine, Algeria, Indonesia, Slovakia, Romania and Taiwan.
The size of the duties is from 0% to 128.11%. At the same time, duties on deliveries from Ukraine will amount to 30.45%-67.69%, from the Russian Federation – 24.2%-35.17%, Kazakhstan – 68.11%-109.25%.
The duty revision procedure was launched in May 2020 following a complaint from local manufacturers.
According to the information of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, at present there are duties on the supply of hot-rolled products in coils and not in coils to Thailand produced by Illich steel mill (Metinvest Group) – 32.17%, other manufacturers – 71.52%.
Mykolaiv Locomotive Repair Plant has entered into a cooperation agreement with the official representative of the Egyptian National Railways for the modernization of 55 locomotives of the AD Tranz series, the enterprise’s press service said on Facebook.
“The modernization will be carried out both at the facilities of our plant and at the facilities of Egyptian colleagues and partners who own locomotive repair plants in Egypt,” the report said, citing Director of Mykolaiv Locomotive Repair Plant Serhiy Roi.
According to him, a deep modernization of locomotives will be carried out with the installation of new diesel engines, new power and support equipment and microprocessor control systems, which will significantly improve the performance of locomotives and reduce the cost of their service.
“The partnership is planned for a long-term, since the declared number of locomotives in the future can be increased to 200 units,” Roi said.
The agreement, the value of which has not been disclosed, also provides for further maintenance of locomotives, in particular, the creation of a service department in Egypt, where representatives of Mykolaiv Locomotive Repair Plant will carry out engineering work for servicing locomotives.
The report notes that Egyptian locomotives are “younger” than those operated in the post-Soviet space and those the plant previously dealt with – they were produced in 1996-2010.
Mykolaiv Locomotive Repair Plant, established in 2010, specializes in maintenance, minor repairs and overhaul of locomotives, as well as other locomotive parts and assemblies.
The initial registrations of electric vehicles in Ukraine (new and used) in May 2021 decreased by almost 36% compared to May last year, to 622 units, including registrations of cars decreased by almost 36%, to 590 units, and commercial grew by 14%, to 32 units, according to the Ukrautoprom association.
According to a post on its website, the share of new electric cars in total registrations accounted for 11% (67 units).
The total number of registered passenger cars is 66 new and 524 used, and there is only one new commercial vehicle.
Compared to April this year, registrations in May decreased by 11%.
The most popular electric car in May was once again the Nissan Leaf with 186 cars of this model that received Ukrainian registration (in April – 198).
As reported, Nissan Motor Ukraine, the official distributor of Nissan in Ukraine, announced the start of official sales in Ukraine in the summer of the updated Nissan Leaf (before that, only used ones were imported to Ukraine), and in May announced that in the offered rich configuration N-Connecta the price starts from UAH 976,490.
The second result in May 2021 was shown by Tesla Model 3 with 66 registrations, and the third was AUDI E-Tron (33 registrations). The fourth most popular was Tesla Model S with 32 registrations, and Chevrolet Bolt closes the top five of the May electric car market with 29 cars.
The most popular commercial electric vehicle remains the Renault Kangoo Z.E. with 24 registrations.
According to the association, in January-May, a little more than 3,000 electric vehicles passed the first registration in Ukraine, which is 12% more than in the same period in 2020, with 90% of them being used.
In particular, registrations of new cars increased by 36.5% versus January-May 2020, to 299 units, used ones – by almost 10%, to 2,716 units.
