KYIV. Dec 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region) has pointed out benefits for the enterprise in the area of scrap metal supplies after increasing export duty on scrap metal from EUR 10 per tonne to EUR 30 per tonne.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih CEO Paramjit Kahlon said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on December 9 that at present the company does not import scrap metal.
“The decision to increase the duty to EUR 30 per tonne helps us a lot,” he said, adding that supplies have not sharply improved, but not worsened.
The top manager also said that the situation with VAT refunds for exported products has improved, although VAT is still refunded not in the due time.
“I received a promise for VAT that these issues will be settler more quickly,” he said.
KYIV. Dec 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian company Polyteda Cloud designing innovative solutions and services in microchip design automation has raised EUR 1.2 million from the European Union (EU) under the Horizon 2020 programme.
Polyteda Cloud said in a press release that the company has become the first Ukrainian company that won in the program competing with 259 innovative projects from all over Europe.
“Polyteda Cloud is receiving EUR1.221 million financing for a 2-year project “Innovative Cloud-Based PV Workflow for Semiconductor Foundries” that will contribute to restoring the competitiveness of European microelectronics industry,” the company said.
The company will enter the European market with the innovative business model.
Borsch Ventures provides business development expertise and fundraising assistance to Polyteda Cloud.
Borsch Ventures manages a portfolio of high tech companies in industries such as smart agriculture, defense & security, microelectronics and electronics, nanotechnologies and IT.
Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme with nearly EUR 80 billion of funding available over seven years (2014 to 2020). Horizon 2020’s SME Instrument with EUR 3 billion budget is dedicated to funding innovative businesses to create a European Champions League for innovative companies and startups.
KYIV. Dec 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) seeks to ensure the practical implementation of the project on the creation of the Cyclone 4 launch vehicle complex with a new foreign partner to replace Brazil that left the project in 2015 at the final stage of the project.
The press service of the SSAU reported that the situation with the Cyclone 4 project was discussed at a recent meeting of the SSAU.
Ukraine has spent $592 million on the project.
“Today this is investment of the state in a possibility of having independent access to space. If the project is not finished, the spending would turn into losses,” the press service said, citing acting SSAU Head Yuriy Radchenko.
Today the SSAU has intensified the search for a new foreign partner in the project to finish it and start operating the Cyclone 4 launch vehicle complex.
Radchenko also pointed out one of the top priority tasks for the further promotion of the project.
“At this stage it is important to conduct complete audit of the project and determine the reasons and circumstances that hindered its implementation jointly with Brazil,” he said.
An interagency working group, including representatives of Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, is being created to conduct the audit.
KYIV. Dec 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) expressed hope that the first Ukrainian communications satellite Lybid built in international cooperation with Canada and Russia could be launched in 2017.
The press service of the agency reported that the situation with the implementation of the project was discussed at a recent meeting of the SSAU.
Today the Ukrainian satellite Lybid has been assembled, tested and stored waiting for its shipment to the launch site.
“Due to annexation of Crimea force majeure for the land segment appeared. This resulted in a delay in the project schedule and the increase of the project cost. Force majeure has been reined in and SSAU jointly with the Ukrainian government are doing their best to prepare for the launch of the satellite Lybid in 2017,” the agency said.
The state has already invested $335.4 million in the project, the press service said.
As reported, a contract for the construction of a national telecommunications satellite Lybid was signed by the SSAU and Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) in December 2009. The MDA is the head contractor under this project. The Lybid is based on the Express-1000NT platform, developed by Russia’s Reshetnev ISS.
The Canadian export agency EDS provided a $254.6 million loan under the Ukrainian government guarantees to finance the project in the summer of 2009. Initially it was planned to put the Ukrainian satellite into orbit in 2012, later it was postponed to 2013 and then to April 2014.
Since 2014 the satellite is stored at Reshetnev ISS in Krasnoyarsk (Russia) and the uncompleted launch vehicle Zenit is stored at Pivdenne Machine Building Plant named after Makarov (Pivdenmash, Dnipro).
Today the Canadian partner is holding talks with Russia to get guarantees to launch the satellite.
KYIV. Dec 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry has said that around 30% of the cost of Ukrainian-made agricultural machinery with the localization level of 50% could be refunded from the budget.
“We want to provide UAH 500 million to support purchase of Ukrainian-made machinery with the localization level of 50%. This would be implemented via the cost refund program. Around 30% of the cost of Ukrainian machinery will be compensated by the state,” Minister Taras Kutoviy said at the Doing Agribusiness in Ukraine 2016 international conference.
He said that the key Ukrainian plants manufacturing agricultural machinery have reached localization of up to 50%.
“We want the localization grow. We tell manufacturers in public, that along with the economic potential they should boost the localization level,” he said.
KYIV. Dec 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Head of national energy company Ukrenergo Vsevolod Kovalchuk at a meeting with representatives of international financial institutions (IFIs) in Kyiv on Tuesday discussed the creation of an independent supervisory board in the company and corporate management reform.
The press service of the state-run enterprise said that representatives of the World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank, Germany’s bank KfW, top managers of the Secretariat of the Energy Community and representatives of U.S. and British embassies in Ukraine.
The sides also discussed the possibility of creating the strategic advisors group in Ukrenergo consisting of competent experts in the energy sector of the European Union (EU) and other developed countries. A new investment policy concept was also presented. The group is intended to have an independent professional assessment of the processes, first of all in the technical sphere of the company.
The company said that the creation of an independent supervisory board would help to quickly conduct required reforms and the company will meet European requirements to the systemic operators.
“After a recent approval of the procedure for creating supervisory boards by Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers we can start creating this body. I would like that Ukrenergo was the leader in the process among all state-owned enterprises. We would like to have an independent, transparent and effective supervisory board consisting of competent foreign managers with impeccable experience of work in foreign systemic operators and of course, representatives of the state,” Kovalchuk said.
The Ukrenergo head also said that the company will switch to the long-term development planning, in particular, for capital investment.
“European systemic operators are working under the ten-year plan, which is the legal and economic ground for drawing up two and three-year investment plans. They know for sure what and how to invest and which year. This is a positive and clear signal both for financial partners, investors and other market players. Everyone knows where the systemic operators are moving,” he said.
Kovalchuk announced a new portfolio of investment projects worth some EUR 1.5 billion. They aim at the complete automation of the power grid and modernization of existing substations. It would help to significantly reduce (up to five-seven years) the terms for the complete synchronization of the Ukrainian power grid with the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E).
