National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 10/01/22
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of January 10
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia in 2021 increased the rate of electrification of tracks by 23 times compared to the average annual electrification rate over the past eight years, to 70 km.
As reported on the company’s website, at the moment, work continues on the strategically important section of Kovel – Izov – State Border, railway workers have already electrified 43 km of the route.
“The implementation of the electrification project in this direction will have a huge positive result for the company and the country: from energy saving to reducing the cost of purchasing fuel and lubricants, from increasing the throughput of the site to simplifying the technology for organizing traffic,” Chairman of Ukrzaliznytsia management board Oleksandr Kamyshin said.
The company said that work on the Kovel – Izov – State Border section is taking place within the framework of the Big Construction program of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
It is expected that the electrification of the section will increase the capacity of the direction and, accordingly, reduce the time for transporting goods to the EU countries.
In addition, electrification will allow increasing the weight of freight trains from 4,600 tonnes to 5,500 tonnes, and to reduce the operating costs of the railway by UAH another 136.4 million per year and significantly reduce emissions into the atmosphere (up to 12,000 tonnes per year).
The Kovel – Izov – State Border section is located within Volyn region and is currently operated by diesel traction. The main freight traffic is export iron ore, which flows from enterprises in the Kryvy Rih area to metallurgical enterprises in Poland. The section is the most costly part of the route of this traffic flow.
The Ukrainian real estate investment fund Focus Estate Fund has acquired the Turawa Park shopping center in Opole (Poland) from the international investment management group abrdn for an undisclosed amount, the fund’s general partner Maksym Shkolnik has said.
“This is our fourth asset in Poland, and we plan to continue scaling our portfolio in the Polish market, where we have been present for more than five years,” he said.
BNP Real Estate, which operates the shopping center, brokered the deal. B2R Law, CSWP, Dentons, CMS and Gleeds advised on this transaction.
Turawa Park is a multi-format shopping center with a total area of over 35,000 square meters, which has more than 60 stores. It includes a gallery with an area of 18,000 square meters, a retail park of 8,000 square meters, and the area of DIY stores – 9,000 square meters. The parking area is designed for 1,320 cars.
Turawa Park’s anchor tenants are such well-known brands as Carrefour, Reserved, Sinsay, Media Expert, Action, Smyk. Other tenants are Rossmann, Big Star, C&A, Pepco, Levis, Sephora, Deichmann.
According to the press service of the fund, at the time of the acquisition, the total vacancy rate was 29%.
“We see good prospects in the value-added retail segment in which we operate. Custom retail parks and neighborhood malls have proven to be some of the most resilient classes during the pandemic. As for the deal itself, it was rather complicated, and I would like to thank the abrdn team for their professional and balanced approach,” Shkolnik said.
The fund’s portfolio includes three more shopping centers in Poland in the cities of Sandomierz, Zgorzelec and Bartoszyce.
At the end of 2021, Focus Estate Fund sold two of its retail properties in the Czech Republic to the DRFG investment group: Centro Ostrava Retail Park and Most Retail Park.
Focus Estate Fund is a real estate investment fund focusing on non-premium medium-sized retail properties in Central and Eastern Europe.
Farmers dug 10.6 million tonnes of sugar beet in Ukraine in 2021, which is 2.3 million tonnes (28.7%) more than in 2020 (8.2 million tonnes), according to the Ukrtsukor association.
The average sugar beet yield in Ukraine was 46.9 tonnes per ha, which is 6 tonnes per ha more than in 2020 (40.9 tonnes per ha).
The highest yield is in Lviv region – 55.6 tonnes per ha. The following regions are leading in gross production: Vinnytsia region with 2.4 million tonnes, Khmelnytsky region with 1.5 million tonnes and Poltava region with 1.07 million tonnes.
