Sales of new commercial vehicles in Ukraine (including heavy trucks) in May this year increased by 58% compared to the same month last year, to 1,071 vehicles, and in January-May the demand for them increased by 55%, to 5,175 vehicles, according to the Ukrautoprom association. According to the association’s website, at the same time, sales of these vehicles in May decreased by 15% compared with April 2021. The greatest demand last month, as well as a year ago, was for Renault vehicles, which covered 28% of the new commercial vehicle market – 298 vehicles were registered, which is twice as much as in May last year.
The second place is taken by Belarusian MAZ – 104 registrations and an increase of 76% (in May 2020, the fourth place in the rating), the third place belongs to Fiat, which has 103 vehicles (less by 2%) and a decrease by one line in the rating.
According to the association’s statistics, Peugeot commercial vehicles, which occupied the third place in May 2020, moved to the fifth place in May this year with a drop in sales by 10%, to 63 vehicles.
Compared to last year’s May, sales of Iveco increased significantly from 19 to 42 vehicles, Volkswagen – from 13 to 34 vehicles, Opel – from five to 30 vehicles, and registrations of Russian GAZ increased from nine to 23 vehicles.
The association also provides statistics on bus sales (including minibuses) in May, according to which the initial registrations of these vehicles increased by 2.2% compared to May 2020, and compared to April this year – by 2.1 times, to 190 vehicles.
At the same time, Citroen consolidated its leadership, increasing registrations in May to 90 buses compared to the absence of brand registrations in May 2020 and 27 vehicles in April 2021.
Volkswagen is on the second place with 26 buses sold versus two in April this year and no sales in May last year.
The third place is taken by Renault minibuses (17 vehicles versus four in May last year).
In May last year, the top three included Ford, Peugeot, and MAZ (in May 2021 it was not included in the top ten).
Ukrainian brands in May 2021 took: the fifth place – Ataman buses with ten buses, the seventh place – Etalon with eight buses, and the tenth place – ZAZ with three registered buses.
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of June 3
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
The attendance of shopping centers is recovering, and although it has not yet reached the pre-quarantine level of 2019, it is higher than 2020 in the periods that are relevant to compare, CEO of the development company Arricano Anna Chubotina said at the Current Real Estate Trends forum on Wednesday.
“There are objects in our portfolio that showed an increase in attendance last year. We are talking about district centers. At the same time, the conversion is growing, which indicates that our visitors come for a targeted purchase,” Chubotina said.
The expert also noted the growth trend of certain categories. “It is about sports goods, household goods and clothing brands,” she said.
Talking about the situation during the first and subsequent lockdowns, the expert noted that the market quickly developed new rules for interaction between players, consumers and authorities. “As a result, all stakeholders of the shopping centers were able to come to an agreement, taking into account the interests of different parties. During this period, the primary task for our company was to ensure financial stability,” the expert said.
According to her, thanks to the measures taken to optimize costs, Arricano has reduced this figure by 17% year-over-year. The drop in revenues was 13% in U.S. dollars. At the same time, the expert noted that the result was mainly influenced by the discounts provided to tenants during the periods of restricting the operation of the shopping and entertainment centers.
The CEO added that the company was looking for an individual approach to each tenant. “We discussed its market stability, model and drivers, long-term cooperation and the dynamics of category development in retail,” Chubotina said.
Arricano Real Estate Plc specializes in the construction of shopping and entertainment centers. It is one of the leading developers on the Ukrainian real estate market.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz discussed the issues of vaccination, European integration of Ukraine, as well as joint investment projects.
“Discussed the Ukrainian-Austrian cooperation with Sebastian Kurz by phone, in particular joint investment projects. Informed him about the security situation in Donbas. Exchanged views on the course of vaccination and support for Ukraine’s European integration aspirations,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
According to the head of the Ukrainian state, he invited Kurz to visit Ukraine.
A group of MPs from the Servant of the People faction have proposed to raise the retirement age of Ukrainians to 61 years. The text of bill No. 5566 was published on the website of the Verkhovna Rada.
Among the authors of the bill are Head of the committee on social policy and protection of the veterans’s rights Halyna Tretiakova, as well as MPs Iryna Vereschuk, Mariana Bezuhla, Olha Vasylevska-Smahliuk and others.
The authors of the legislative initiative propose to increase the retirement age by one month annually, starting from January 1, 2023. This increase will raise the retirement age in Ukraine by one year and will reach 61 years until 2035.
At the same time, the bill provides that women who have given birth to a child and raised him or her to the age of six have a right to reduce the retirement age by six months.
The bill proposes to amend Articles 26 and 115 of the law on compulsory state pension insurance.
If adopted, the bill will enter into force on January 1, 2022.
From December 31, 2023, Ukraine will limit to a minimum the content of phosphates and other phosphorus compounds in household detergents (up to 0.1-0.2 gram), and from December 31 of the same year to December 31, 2026 will gradually limit the content of phosphates in industrial detergents (up to 0.05-0.1%). The relevant resolution on amendments to the technical regulations for detergents was adopted by the government at a session on Wednesday.
According to it, the document suggests limiting the content of phosphates in laundry detergents for household washing machines to 0.2 gram at the recommended wash dose for the main washing machine cycle, and in household dishwashers – up to 0.1 gram at a standard dose for loading a dishwasher with a table set for 12 persons.
In addition, from the same date, the mass fraction of total phosphorus in detergents for hand washing, laundry and cleaning, as well as in other detergents, is limited to 0.05% phosphorus.
At the same time, the previous technical regulation included only a washing powder (with a limitation of the phosphorus content to 0.5 gram in the dose recommended for washing in a washing machine) and a detergent for household dishwashers (0.3 gram), but the new edition suggests replacing a washing powder into a detergent for laundry and detailing into products for household and industrial use.
Limits on the content of total phosphorus in detergents used for industrial laundry, washing and cleaning are introduced in stages: in detergents for industrial washing machines it should be reduced from 0.1% from December 31, 2023 to 0.05% as of December 31, 2026, and for industrial dishwashers – from 0.25% to 0.1%.
At the same time, the voluntary application of the established restrictions is possible before the specified dates.
According to the document, the Cabinet of Ministers ordered the Ministry of Economy to update the List of National Standards for determining methods of testing detergents for compliance with the technical regulations within six months from the date of entry into force of the resolution.
In addition, the ministry, together with the Ministry of Natural Resources, the State Customs Service and the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, must develop and submit for approval to the Cabinet of Ministers a draft plan of measures for state market supervision and control of products for compliance with the technical regulations.
The regulation is effective six months from the date of publication (excluding the established dates for the reduction of phosphate content).
The explanatory note to the document notes that, according to official statistics, in recent years, there has been a tendency for a significant amount of phosphate-containing pollutants to enter the water bodies of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the introduction of restrictions on the content of phosphates in detergents allows expecting a significant improvement of the ecological state of Ukrainian water bodies, primarily large rivers – the main sources of drinking water supply, in particular, reducing their eutrophication (bio-mass generation in a water-body).
