Cattle livestock in Ukraine (excluding the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, Sevastopol, parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions) as of September 1, 2019 amounted to 3.67 million animals, which is 4.6% down on the same date in 2018, the State Statistics Service has reported. The number of cows by this date also decreased 4.6%, to 1.91 million head.
According to the State Statistics Service, the number of pigs as of September 1, 2019, fell by 2.6%, to 6.29 million animals, the number of sheep and goats declined by 3.1%, to 1.52 million animals compared to the same period of 2018.
The number of poultry in the country compared with September 1, 2018, increased 3.8%, to 254.79 million birds.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reviewed upwards its forecast for export of barley from Ukraine in the 2019/20 agricultural year (July-June) by 0.4 million tonnes compared with the August forecast, to 4.8 million tonnes, and barley harvest forecast – by 0.55 million tonnes, to 9.2 million tonnes.
According to the September report, published on the USDA website, the forecast for the production of Ukrainian wheat was revised downwards by 0.5 million tonnes, to 28.7 million tonnes, the forecast of export of wheat remained at 19.5 million.
USDA in September reviewed downwards the forecast for production of corn in Ukraine by 0.5 million tonnes, to 36 million tonnes, and the export forecast remained unchanged, being 30 million tonnes.
In general, the forecast for grain harvest in 2019/20 agri-year in Ukraine is reviewed downwards to 74.9 million tonnes (0.45 million tonnes less than in the August forecast), the export forecast was increased to 54.44 million tonnes (0.4 million tonnes more).
Metallurgical companies of Ukraine in January-August 2019 increased natural gas consumption by 2% year-over-year, to 1.26 billion cubic meters.
The Ukrmetallurgprom association said last week that in August, gas consumption was 150 million cubic meters, which is 32% less than in July (220 million cubic meters).
Electricity consumption by metal enterprises in January-August of this year amounted to about 7.73 billion kWh (98% compared to January-August last year). At the same time, about 980 million kWh was consumed in August, which is 3% more than in July 2019.
The investment forum in Mariupol (Donetsk region) will be held on October 29, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk has said.
“We expect that on October 29 we will hold a large investment forum in Mariupol,” he said, speaking at the 16th Annual Meeting of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in Kyiv on Saturday.
Honcharuk added that it is planned to present areas in the forum that are worth investing in.
According to him, the task of the government is to minimize risks for investors who are not afraid to go to Ukraine.
“In the 21st century, those who are not afraid to take risks will be successful,” the prime minister said.
VR Capital Group (the United States), an alternative asset manager specializing in global emerging markets, has acquired the remaining stake in alternative energy projects jointly developed with ICU independent asset management, ICU reported on its website.
According to the report, deal covers green energy facilities in Kamyanets-Podilska solar plant (64 MW) in Khmelnytsky region, Solar Capital energy company (35 MW) in Kherson region and a number of small stations in Mykolaiv region (with a total capacity of 127 MW).
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The ICU only said the transaction has been approved by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine on July 4, 2019.
“I am still confident that these assets are in good hands and that the key alternative energy sector in Ukraine is positioned to attract further large foreign investments. We see a great potential in our economy and we continue our work with international investors,” said ICU managing partner Makar Paseniuk.
He said that VR Capital has been a visionary among western investors in understanding the enormous potential of Ukraine and being ready to support the country even during difficult times.
VR Capital Group Ltd., through its principal subsidiaries including VR Advisory Services Ltd (together, VR Capital Group) is an alternative asset manager with assets under management in excess of $4.5 billion. VR Capital Group’s external client base is primarily composed of institutional investors from the United States and Western Europe, including university endowments, charitable foundations, family offices and institutional asset allocators.
Founded in 2006, ICU is Ukraine’s leading asset manager with over $500 million in assets under management. Managing Partners Makar Paseniuk and Konstantin Stetsenko are majority shareholders of ICU.
ALTERNATIVE, DEVELOPED, ENERGY PROJECTS, ICU'S, SHARE, US VR CAPITAL
Ukrainian enterprises increased imports of copper and copper products in terms of money by 24.1% in January-August 2019 compared with similar period of 2018, to $75.131 million.
Exports of copper and copper products decreased 47.6% over the year to $58.229 million, according to customs statistics released by the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine.
In August, copper and copper products were imported to the tune of $11.752 million, and copper exports were estimated at $6.065 million.
In addition, in January-August 2019, Ukraine decreased imports of nickel and products made of it by 12.2%, to $58.301 million (imports in August were estimated at $5.468 million), while imports of aluminum and products made of it increased 5.7%, to $261.639 million ($33.214 million). Imports of lead and products made of it increased by 1.5%, to $8.906 million ($1.426 million) and imports of tin and products made of it decreased 27.7%, to $2.354 million ($0.316 million). Imports of zinc and zinc goods decreased 18.3%, to $48.884 million ($7.016 million).
Exports of aluminum and products made of it decreased 26.1% in January-August 2019, to $69.697 million ($9.157 million in August alone), while shipments of lead abroad decreased 32.7%, to $16.843 million ($1.929 million). Exports of nickel fell by 40.2%, to $3.48 million ($0.213 million in August).
Zinc exports in January-August 2019 amounted to $0.416 million ($0.031 million in August) compared to $0.18 in January-August 2018.
Exports of tin and products made of it in January-August 2019 were estimated at $0.03 million (no tin was exported in August) compared to $0.288 million in January-August 2018.
