Ukraine in January-November 2019 exported 6,470 tonnes of cheese, which is 15.8% less than in the same period in 2018.
According to customs statistics released by the State Fiscal Service, in monetary terms exports amounted to $23.89 million, which is 16.3% less than the figure for the eleven months of 2018.
At the same time, cheese imports in January-November 2019 amounted to 20,510 tonnes, which is 1.7 times more than the figure for the same period in 2018. In monetary terms, imports rose by 1.6 times, to $93.76 million.
Ukraine since the beginning of the agricultural year 2019/2020 (July-June) and as of December 6, 2019 had exported 26 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops, which is 35.3% more than on the same time in the past agri-year. According to the information and analytical portal of the agro-industrial complex of Ukraine, the country has currently exported 13.73 million tonnes of wheat, 8.44 million tonnes of corn, and 3.51 million tonnes of barley.
As of December 6 of this year, 160,600 tonnes of flour had been also exported.
As reported, Ukraine in the 2018/2019 agri-year exported a record 50.4 million tonnes of grain, legumes and flour, which is 23% more than in the previous agri-year.
Ukrainian population pyramid from 1919 to 2019 (age-sex pyramid)
Canada’s Black Iron, implementing the investment project to create a new iron ore production facility in Kryvy Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region), has said that it received expressions of interest from European banks and export credit agencies to provide $250 to $300 million of debt.
The company said in a press release that Black Iron management continue to make sound progress arranging the financing for Shymanivske project construction.
Construction of phase one to produce four million tonnes per year of 68% iron content pellet feed is estimated to cost $436 million, as further detailed in Black Iron’s most recent Preliminary Economic Assessment. As is typical for financing the development of mining projects, based on discussions with potential investors and financiers, the company estimates that some $175 million (40%) will be equity and the balance around $261 million (60%) financed as debt, not including financing charges and working capital.
Black Iron CEO Matt Simpson said that strong interest from well known, highly regarded, providers of debt financing for project construction is seen.
“The indicative interest rates, grace period prior to starting repayment and loan duration in the expressions of interest received by the Company are very competitive. The recent announcement of the MOU between the Company and Ukraine’s government to transfer a critical parcel of land to the Company is an important milestone that both anchor offtake and debt investors have been waiting to see. The Company is currently negotiating binding terms for the land transfer, including the compensation amount, and expect this to conclude following a binding product sale (i.e. offtake) agreement as a portion of the funds invested by the offtake company will be used to cover the land transfer costs. Now that an MOU on land transfer has been reached, we look forward to commercial negotiations for project construction financing being accelerated,” he said.
Majority of the required equity for project construction is anticipated to come from offtake by a large trading company and/or steel mill that is interested to purchase Black Iron’s pellet feed on a long-term contract at a slight discount to market price in exchange for making both a prepayment and acquiring ownership in the Shymanivske project. Several multi-billion companies, including Glencore, as previously announced, are currently conducting due diligence to consider such an investment.
Additionally, there are two Asia based construction companies that have conducted site visits and expressed serious interest to invest up to $50 million of equity in kind in exchange for being awarded the construction contract.
From a sequence standpoint, discussions are being held simultaneously with equity and debt investors as both are ultimately required to fund project construction. It is likely the anchor equity and offtake investor will be announced first followed by completion of an updated feasibility study and environmental impact assessment upon which the debt financing can be secured to allow for construction start around the end of next year, the company said.
Oil transit through Ukraine to European countries in January-November 2019 decreased by 1.1% (by 138,400 tonnes) compared to the same period in 2018, to 11.967 million tonnes, according to data from JSC Ukrtransnafta. The volume of oil transportation to oil refineries in the country for the 11 months amounted to 2.175 million tonnes, which is 13% (249,600 tonnes) more than in the same period in 2018.
Thus, in January-November 2019, the share of transit volume in total oil transportation (14.142 million tonnes) amounted to 84.6%, the share of pumping to the country’s refineries some 15.4%.
In November 2019, oil transit through Ukraine by pipeline increased by 33.6% (by 334,700 tonnes) compared to the same month of 2018, to 1.330 million tonnes, pumping to the country’s refineries by 10.5% (by 19,700 tonnes), to 206,800 tonnes.
Kyiv Zhuliany International Airport intends to serve 2.6 million passengers in 2019, which is more than 7% less than in 2018, Denys Kostrzhevsky, the head of the airport’s board of directors, has said. “I won’t say that we have a catastrophic decline in growth rates. Compared to last year, when we transported almost 2.8 million people, this year we expect to service 2.6 million passengers. That is, the decrease in passenger traffic will be about 8%. I even won’t call it a fall, it’s an adjustment. In 2018, Kyiv airport showed an explosive growth – we grew by 52% compared to 2017. This year there will be a drop in passenger traffic. This is not a catastrophic drop,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, he noted that in 2020 passenger traffic growth is expected.
“The airline’s plans for scheduled flights are quite conservative and long-term. At present, we already know the airline’s plans for spring-summer navigation, until October 2020,” he added.
According to forecasts announced at the international conference Global Airport Development in Dublin (Ireland), in the medium term the growth rate of passenger traffic in the world will be 5-8% per year.
“In Ukraine, the market is underestimated and underdeveloped due to low purchasing power … We have been slowing down for a long time and now we must catch up with the world figures for the number of flying citizens per capita. All this is closely connected with state policy. If the economic and political situation in the country allow saying that business and the economy are developing steadily, household incomes are growing, respectively, and aviation growth will be large,” he said.
