The Big Construction program and plans to increase the share of cement concrete roads in Ukraine give reason to hope for the growth of the cement industry, Director of the Ukrcement cement producers association Roman Skilsky has said.
“The main reason for optimism is the Big Construction program… This will mean a noticeable increase in demand for cement, which will allow domestic companies to increase the number of idle reserve capacities,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Skilsky said that early August, the Shulgin State Road Research Institute, together with Ukrainian Automobile Roads Agency of Ukraine (Ukravtodor), presented a concept and program for the construction of cement concrete roads in Ukraine, which envisage an increase in the number of such roads from 1% to 5% in the next five years. According to him, the process of approval of these documents by the relevant central executive authorities is underway.
At the same time, he said that in the Czech Republic the share of such roads is 22%, and in Germany – 42%.
The head of Ukrcement also counts on the positive impact of the law on the supply of construction products in the market on the industry. The document was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on September 2 within the framework of European integration, which implements the provisions of Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 of the Council of Europe regarding construction products. Skilsky said that the industry harmonized national and European standards three years ago, but was forced to wait for this law. The document also introduces new rules in the field of public market supervision, which will significantly complicate the falsification of cement products.
In addition, the head of the association pins hopes on the investigation of the import of Portland cement and clinker cement from Turkey to Ukraine, launched early September by the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade. According to him, this import increased 9-fold in 2019 and 13-fold in January-August 2020 versus January-August 2019, and by the end of the year it may exceed 1 million tonnes.
The head of Ukrcement explained such an increase in imports by a sharp reduction in Turkey’s domestic market, a strong weakening of the lira against the backdrop of a strong hryvnia and simple maritime logistics, and added that the Turkish cement industry is ten times larger than the Ukrainian one.
“The market in Ukraine is not growing, it has been fluctuating between 9.2-9.5 million tonnes for the third year in a row, so this deformation means worsening conditions for Ukrainian producers, and these are four large industrial groups, two of which are international,” Skilsky said.
He said that Ukrainian producers will be able to easily replace this volume of imports, and the replacement of Portland cement and clinker imported from Russia, Belarus and Moldova after the introduction of anti-dumping duties on the import of Portland cement and clinker from these countries last year is evidence of this.
“The cement industry can increase production further, the capacity reserve is sufficient for at least 20% growth. The question is whether there is a market for such growth,” the head of Ukrcement said.
He said that at the beginning of 2020 there was hope for a 20% growth that the construction market showed in 2019. However, the pandemic has made negative adjustments, and in the first seven months of this year, the decline in construction was already 4.6%, including in the housing construction sector – by 22%, and there is only a slight increase in infrastructure construction, Skilsky said.
According to the State Statistics Service, the production of Portland cement in January-July 2020 in Ukraine increased 3.7%, to 5.04 million tonnes, and clinker grew by 1.5%, to 3.9 million tonnes, including in July 2020 compared with July 2019, the growth was 5.9% and 12.2%, respectively.
Ukraine in January-August 2020 increased import of crude oil (according to foreign trade activity code 2709) 1.9 times (by 419,371 tonnes) compared to the same period in 2019, to 901,526 tonnes.
According to the State Fiscal Service, in January-August, crude oil was imported for $293.75 million, which is 17.7% more than in the same period a year earlier ($249.578 million).
Some crude oil for $199.827 million came from Azerbaijan (the share is 68.03%), the United States for $48.338 million (16.46%) and Libya for $45.555 million (15.51%) and other countries for $0.03 million (0.01%).
In January-August 2019 and January-August 2020, Ukraine did not export oil.
The actual selling price of crude oil and gas condensate used in determining royalty for subsoil use in August 2020 amounted to UAH 8,887 per tonne, which is 0.5% more than in July.
The relevant data are published on the website of the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine.
In January 2020, the actual selling price of oil and gas condensate amounted to UAH 11,114 per tonne, in February UAH 9,648 per tonne, in March UAH 5,913 per tonne, in April UAH 3,960 per tonne, in May UAH 6,199 per tonne, in June some UAH 8,115 per tonne and in July it was UAH 8,847 per tonne.
SkyUp (Kyiv) airline in August 2020 carried 211,900 passengers, of which 166,800 by charter flight and 45,000 by regular flights.
The press service of the airline reported on Friday that in total, in August, 1,231 flights were performed under the domestic and international flight programs (926 charter flights and 305 regular flights). At the same time, 91.5% of flights were serviced in line with the schedule.
Some 214 domestic flights for the specified period were carried out. They were used by 31,100 passengers. The most popular destinations were: Odesa-Kyiv-Odesa, Zaporizhia-Kyiv-Zaporizhia and Odesa-Kharkiv.
In addition, SkyUp transported about 7 tonnes of cargo in August. All cargo was carried out by passenger flights in the baggage compartments.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) downgraded the forecast for export of major oilseeds from Ukraine for the 2020/2021 marketing year (MY, September- August) by 250,000 tonnes compared to the August forecast, to 4.35 million tonnes.
According to a report on the website of the USDA, the forecast for sunflower oil exports for the 2020/2021 MY remained unchanged at the level of 6.96 million tonnes.
The U.S. department anticipates that oilseed processing will amount to 18.23 million tonnes in Ukraine, estimates being lowered by 200,000 tonnes compared to the forecast in August.
In September, the USDA downgraded the forecast for Ukraine’s sunflower harvest in 2020/2021 agri-year by 500,000 tonnes, to 17 million tonnes, sunflower meal production by 83,000 tonnes, to 6.94 million tonnes, and for sunflower oil by 86,000 tonnes, to 7.22 million tonnes.
In addition, the USDA in September maintained the forecast for Ukraine’s export of sunflower oil in the 2020/2021 MY at the level of 6.6 million tonnes, at the level of 5.2 million tonnes for sunflower meal, but lowered the forecast for sunflower export by 50,000 tonnes, to 150,000 tonnes.
European Travel Insurance (ERV, Kyiv) in three summer months of 2020 insured 63% fewer tourists than a year ago, when over 612,000 tourists were insured, the insurance company has said in a press release.
The number of tourists insured by the company who traveled in Ukraine fell by 58% and those traveling abroad – by 64%. In June-August 2020, ERV insured more than 191,000 tourists who traveled abroad, and more than 35,000 tourists who traveled across the country.
“For the company, as well as for the entire tourism industry, the summer was difficult. It was unrealistic to make any plans in the ever-changing situation on the travel market. Although the borders opened and air traffic resumed early June, tourists are seriously scared by the sad experience of quarantine, they were not in a hurry to plunge into the world of travel again. During the summer, the tourism business learned to work in a pandemic, and tourists got used to traveling in new realities,” ERV said.
According to the company, in general, over the summer period, 1,873 insurance accidents were registered with tourists abroad for the amount of UAH 10,602 and 45 – with those traveling across the territory of Ukraine for a total of UAH 122,000.
If in June only 86 insurance accidents with tourists abroad were recorded, then in August their number increased to 1,417 for the amount of UAH 7.326 million. Of these, 908 cases occurred in Turkey (for comparison: in July, 360 insurance accidents were recorded abroad, 243 of them occurred with vacationers in Turkey, 215 cases occurred in Egypt, 121 accidents occurred with tourists in Bulgaria. Other insured accidents in August were reported with tourists in Croatia (51), Montenegro (31) and Albania (14).
