National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 28/02/20
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of February 28
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
The RDS road construction group invested almost UAH 170 million in the upgrade of its machinery fleet in 2019 and ready to enter the road construction markets of Poland and Romania, the co-owner of the group, Yuriy Shumakher, has said.
“The acquisition of modern machines, mechanisms and vehicles cost the company UAH 167.16 million. For several years now, we have been investing annually about $8 million in the renewal of our fleet of road machines,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, in 2019 the company’s fleet was expanded with 114 units of road machines and equipment.
Shumakher said that RDS uses its own funds, funds borrowed from Ukrainian banks and leasing companies to upgrade its fleet. Also, part of the equipment is bought through financing of manufacturing companies such as Wirtgen and Zeppelin.
The co-owner of the group said that RDS purchases mainly foreign equipment from leaders in modern engineering.
“We have ambitions to participate in tenders abroad,” Shumakher said.
According to him, unlike Ukraine, tenders in Europe have very strict criteria and a mandatory requirement, in particular, is experience in the European Union for at least three to five years.
“We participated in tenders in Moldova several times, but having no experience, we lost. Now, we are trying to analyze the market and participate in tenders in Moldova and Romania. We also plan to try to enter the Polish market as a subcontractor,” the RDS representative said.
According to him, one of the options for entering a Ukrainian company working in the field of road construction a foreign market is to buy a company abroad.
Shumakher said that RDS has been participating in international tenders for five years, working at facilities in Ukraine, which are funded by international institutions.
“We are already taking part in tenders in Ukraine for the money of international institutions. Today, a contract has been signed for the construction of the M-03 road for $12 million provided by the World Bank,” he added.
The Ukrainian group of companies RDS includes Kyivshliakhbud and Rostdorstroy. The core business is construction, reconstruction and maintenance of roads and bridges, construction of airfield complexes.
The company is building concrete road H-14 Kropyvnytsky-Mykolaiv. As part of the reconstruction of the H-31 Dnipro-Reshetylivka highway in Poltava region, RDS is building an overpass over the railway and the section of the first concrete road in Ukraine. In 2019, the company won a World Bank tender for work on the first category highway M-03 Kyiv-Kharkiv-Dovzhansky.
As of January 2020, the company operates in seven regions of Ukraine and has ten production bases.
The ultimate beneficial owners of RDS are Ukrainian citizens Yuriy Shumakher and Yevhen Konovalov. The charter capital of the company is UAH 5.13 million.
First Ukrainian International Bank (FUIB, Kyiv) from March 2 reduces the rates on deposits of individuals in hryvnias by 0.5-1.5 percentage points (p.p.), to 8-12% per annum, depending on the type and term of the deposit.
According to the report on the bank’s website, FUIB will also reduce rates on deposits of individuals in U.S. dollars by 0.2-0.5 p.p. (to 0.3-1.1% per annum) and in euros by 0.1-0.5 p.p. (to 0.2-0.3% per annum).
“The revision of deposit rates is mainly related to the planned reduction in the refinancing rate of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), which is now 11% per annum, and should be reduced to 7% by the end of the year,” the bank explains.
It is specified that interest rates on deposits signed before March 2 will remain unchanged.
FUIB was founded in 1991. The owner of a substantial stake in the bank is Rinat Akhmetov (indirect participation of 100%).
As of January 1, 2020 FUIB ranked seventh in terms of total assets (UAH 63.16 billion) among 75 banks operating in the country, according to the National Bank of Ukraine.
Sales of spirit by state-owned enterprise (SOE) Ukrspyrt in January 2020 grew by 62% compared with the same period in 2019, to 412,000 decaliters.
“This is the result of the preparation of SOE Ukrspyrt for privatization and our common struggle with the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, the State Tax Service and law enforcement authorities against the illegal spirit,” acting Director of Ukrspyrt Serhiy Bleskun said.
Last month, 11 Ukrspyrt distilleries were operating. “Last year, seven distilleries were operating at the same period, and sales amounted to 255,000 decaliters of ethyl spirit,” the enterprise said.
According to the company, in January 2019, the loss-making performance of Ukrspyrt amounted to UAH 5.5 million. In turn, the net profit of SOE in January 2020 reached UAH 2.6 million.
The Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade (ICIT) has decided to introduce anti-dumping duties on the import into Ukraine of aerated concrete blocks originating from Belarus.
“The final anti-dumping measures are applied for a period of five years by introducing the charging of the final anti-dumping duty at a rate of 34.19%,” the commission said in the Uriadovy Kurier newspaper on February 25, 2020, which the agency received yesterday.
The decision concerns building blocks from porous structural and heat-insulating concrete according to tariff heading 6810 11 originating from Belarus.
The final anti-dumping duty is charged as a percentage of the customs value of goods.
The Commission’s decision shall enter into force in 30 days from the date of its publication.
According to the State Statistics Service, in 2019, imports of building blocks for the specified tariff heading from Belarus amounted to 338,400 tonnes for $13.9 million, while exports to the country amounted to 858 tonnes for $273,000.
In general, Ukraine imported of such goods for $14.6 million and exported for $2.3 million in 2019.
