Commissioning of housing in Ukraine in January-March 2021 increased by 20.5% compared to the same period in 2020, to 2.306 million square meters, the State Statistics Service has reported.
At the same time, it is clarified that the data are given taking into account the housing introduced in accordance with the temporary procedure for the acceptance into operation of houses built without permission to perform construction work.
According to the report, since the beginning of the year, 1.609 million square meters have been commissioned in cities (70% of the total), 697,600 square meters in rural areas. At the same time, 43% of the total volume of housing was commissioned in single-family houses, 56.6% – in houses with two or more apartments, 0.4% – in dormitories.
In general, during the reporting period, 30,371 apartments were commissioned, while in cities – 24,100 apartments, in villages – 6,200 apartments.
The average apartment area was 75.6 square meter, while in single-family houses – 158 sq m, in multi-apartment buildings – 54.2 sq m.
In Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa and Ivano-Frankovsk regions, according to the results of the first quarter, 56% of the total housing volume was commissioned. Moreover, in Kyiv – 145,000 square meters (6.3%).
According to statistics, a decrease in the volume of housing commissioned was recorded in Sumy, Rivne, Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Volyn regions.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky at the Ukraine 30. Ecology forum signed a bill on limiting the circulation of plastic bags on the territory of Ukraine, which the Verkhovna Rada adopted on June 1, into law.
“Five hundred. This is how many packages every Ukrainian uses a year. Twenty minutes. This is how much we use this package on average. More than 100 years. This is how long one package decomposes and a few seconds – to sign a law,” the president said, according to the press service of the head of state.
The document regulates the circulation of plastic bags and should stimulate the development of the production of biodegradable bags.
In particular, the law prohibits the free distribution of plastic bags (except for biodegradable) in retail and catering. Plastic bags should be provided for money only. At the same time, retail prices for such packages cannot be lower than the minimum prices set by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
In addition, mandatory labeling of biodegradable bags is envisaged and fines are set for violating these norms.
The document comes into force on the next day after its publication and will be effective six months from the date of entry into force, with the exception of some of its provisions.
Kernel, one of the largest Ukrainian agrarian groups, intends to increase grain exports from Ukraine from 8.5 million to 10 million tonnes in the 2021/2022 fiscal year (July-June), Kernel CEO Andriy Verevsky said during a conference call with analysts.
“We plan to export more than 10 million tonnes of grain in the next fiscal year,” he said.
According to the company, in January-March 2021, Kernel reduced grain exports from Ukraine by 15% compared to January-March 2020, to 1.8 million tonnes.
Kernel said that in the first nine months of the current FY it has fulfilled 75% of its plan for the export of grain from Ukraine, which the company set for this year at 8.5 million tonnes.
In October 2020, the agricultural producer announced plans to increase grain exports from Ukraine in 2020/2021 FY by 20.3%, to 9.5 million tonnes, and sunflower crushing by 1.7%, to 3.5 million tonnes.
Kernel is a large producer and exporter of sunflower oil.
Interfax-Ukraine has prepared a list of the most profitable companies in Ukraine in 2020 based on the financial statements of the companies published by the Ministry of Finance and the State Tax Service in the form of open data at the end of May.
Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GSTOU) topped the list of companies that posted a net profit of over UAH 10 billion (the company’s profit was UAH 28.36 billion) and its parent company Mahistralni Gazoprovody Ukrainy (MGU, Trunk Gas Pipelines of Ukraine) with UAH 15.29 billion followed it, Pivdenny Mining and Poltava Mining had UAH 18.24 billion and UAH 11.08 billion in profit, respectively, as well as Kyivstar posted UAH 10.37 billion in net profit.
Then, the list of companies with a net profit of over UAH 5 billion, includes PJSC Naftogazvydobuvannia with UAH 6.13 billion, ATB-Market with UAH 5.77 billion and SCM with UAH 5.32 billion.
The top ten most profitable also include the state-owned Ukrgazvydobuvannia with UAH 4.95 billion and Pivnichny Mining with UAH 4.34 billion.
More than UAH 4 billion of net profit last year in Ukraine was received by two more companies: Ukrnafta with UAH 4.27 billion and Ukrhydroenergo with UAH 4.14 billion, and more than UAH 3 billion were also received by two companies: Roshen confectionery corporation with UAH 3.37 billion and Epicenter K with UAH 3.17 billion.
The list of 200 most profitable companies also included 29 corporate investment funds, among which are 24 venture capital funds.
The Kyiv Economic Court denied a private company a claim for the use of mineral resources – one of the largest deposits of lithium ores in Ukraine, the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) has reported.
“It has been established that a private company, despite the requirements of the legislation and in the absence of a subsoil use license, without holding an auction, filed a lawsuit against the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine seeking to recognize the right to use of the Shevchenko deposit of lithium ores in Donetsk region and remove obstacles to its use,” PGO said.
Justifying his position, the prosecutor insisted that the enterprise was illegally trying to get the Shevchenko deposit for the extraction of lithium ores.
Bus Motor LLC, which is part of the Bogdan Corporation, has signed a distribution agreement with the Chinese company Zonson Smart Auto Corporation, which is part of the large ZTE Corporation, the press service of Bogdan has reported.
According to a report with reference to Director General of Bus Motor Oleh Mischenko, the agreement at the first stage of cooperation provides for the supply of a demo bus for tests in Ukraine. The bus has a European certificate and meets all environmental and technical standards.
“Also, Zonson Smart Auto Corporation is considering the possibility of manufacturing electric buses from SKD/CKD [semi knocked down/сomplete knock down] kits at the facilities of Bus Motor LLC.
According to the report, Zonson Smart Auto Corporation recently entered the Hungarian market with its new electric bus.
Bus Motor LLC is an exclusive distributor of Bogdan buses, trolleybuses, electric buses manufactured at the subsidiary company Auto Assembly Plant No. 1 (Lutsk) of Bogdan Motors.
JSC Bogdan Motors Automobile Company unites a bus and trolleybus plant in Lutsk and a passenger car plant in Cherkasy.
