Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

EUROPEAN BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT TO INVEST IN RENEWABLE ENERGY IN UKRAINE

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is about to invest from $2 million to $4 million in the development of infrastructure of auctions stimulating renewable energy, EBRD Deputy Director in Ukraine Marina Petrov said during her interview to the Reform.Energy website. “This is the money that we are already asking for now from the donors in order to launch a high-quality auction,” she said. She explained that market players might not be able to perceive poorly organized auctions. “This is very important to keep up the balance of interests in order to receive the most outstanding result,” Petrov said. The auctions will have to be transparent, understandable and in line with legislation.
According to her, the EBRD during Ukraine’s transition to the auctions stimulating renewable energy is ready to share its experience from similar auctions in those countries which were the first ones to introduce such tools. Such or similar auctions are held in Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria, Jordan, Egypt, and Armenia, she said.
The amount is to be allocated within the EBRD’s USELF-III lending facility approved in July this year in the amount of EUR 250 million to support private renewable energy projects in Ukraine, she said.
Speaking at the Ukrainian Financial Forum organized by the ICU Invest Group in Odesa, the EBRD representative said that market operators had questions as for who would be a balancing player on this market. She said that the EBRD was working jointly with the U.S. Agency for International Development to create the market of balancing facilities and invest the funds in more mobile parts of the system, e.g. batteries, gas turbines. “This is next year’s agenda,” Petrov said.
In general, she described the situation on the renewables market as a “quick sprint” – the investment is to be made while the current feed-in tariffs are in effect.
“We’ve got many investors who are mulling over investment this and next year. We have fewer investors who are preparing projects for 2020-2021. We see there will be a steep decline,” she said.
In this connection, she called on the adoption of a law on renewable energy auctions by the end of the current year.
Ukraine has great potential for the development of other sectors of renewable energy, mainly biofuel and small hydro facilities, she said.

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CONSTRUCTION IN UKRAINE IN AUG 1.1% DOWN, HIGHEST INCREASE IS RECORDED IN ODESA (BY 43.7%)

The volume of completed construction works in Ukraine in August 2018 decreased by 1.1% compared to August 2017, whereas growth in July 2018 from July 2017 was 9.7%. The report does not include data from temporarily occupied territories, namely the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and partly Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine has said. The volume of completed construction works in August 2018 from July 2018 decreased by 6.4% (according to seasonally adjusted data, it decreased by 6.9%), whereas there was a 5.8% fall in July 2018 from June 2018.
Residential and nonresidential construction declined in August 2018 from August 2017, while the construction of engineering facilities was on the rise. According to unadjusted data, residential construction saw a 13.3% decline, while the decline of nonresidential construction was 5.4%. The construction of engineering facilities increased 6.4%.
The construction of residential buildings in August 2018 from July 2018 decreased by 9.9%, the construction of nonresidential buildings grew by 5.5%, engineering facilities fell by 10%.
In January-August 2018, a decrease in construction work compared to the same period of 2017 was recorded in 11 regions of Ukraine and Kyiv city, including in Luhansk (by 43.7%, to UAH 233.2 million), Sumy (by 20.9%, to UAH 635.7 million) and Zakarpattia (by 17.8%, to UAH 710.5 million) regions.
The highest increase in completed construction works in the eight months ending August 2018 was recorded in Odesa (by 43.7%, to UAH 9.597 billion) Khmelnytsky (by 32.5%, to UAH 1.663 billion) and Ivano-Frankivsk (by 31.4%, to UAH 1.7 billion) regions.
In Kyiv, the volume of construction work in the eight months ending August 2018 fell by 3.7%, to UAH 16.741 billion.

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UKRAINE EXPANDS GAS INVENTORIES TO 15.8 BCM

Ukraine has raised natural gas reserves in its underground storage facilities (UGS) by 8.374 billion cubic meters (bcm) after the end of the heating season, JSC Ukrtransgaz has said.
Thus, from April 8 to September 22, gas reserves in storage facilities more than doubled, to 15.81 bcm from 7.435 bcm
According to Interfax-Ukraine’s estimates, gas stocks on September 1 through September 22 increased by 1.17 bcm (53.19 million cubic meters [mcm] a day), in August by 1.793 bcm (57.85 mcm per day), in July they expanded by 1.655 bcm (53.38 mcm a day), in June by 1.622 bcm (54.09 mcm per day), in May by 1.632 bcm (52.65 mcm per day), on April 9 through April 30 by 500.84 mcm (22.77 mcm per day).
Ukraine had the smallest gas inventories after the 2017/18 heating season compared with the previous three seasons. Frosts in March and early April were recorded.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine expects that gas stocks as of November 1, 2018, would reach 17 bcm.
Ukrtransgaz, wholly owned by NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates the system of trunk gas pipelines and 12 underground gas storage facilities of the country with a total capacity of 31 bcm.

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INDIVIDUALS TO BE ABLE TO BUY GOVERNMENT BONDS VIA MOBILE APPLICATION EARLY 2019 – NBU

Several companies and banks are designing a mobile application for buying government domestic loan bonds, Head of the Depositary Operations Department of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Andriy Suprun has said.
“I think that next year, perhaps at the beginning of the year, the purchase of government domestic loan bonds by individuals can occur in several clicks in a mobile application. Several market players are currently working on the creation of this solution,” he said at the annual Ukrainian Financial Forum in Odesa, organized by the ICU investment group.
Suprun said that the NBU, for its part, provides them with the necessary support.
“We are writing an open API [application programming interface] and allow everyone to get involved in this competition, to provide the corresponding service to the market,” he said.
In addition, the representative of the NBU said there will be an opportunity to submit brokerage applications in the primary government domestic loan bonds market in the near term.
“In fact, the next auction can take place with a possibility for any investor to submit applications to the Finance Ministry through primary dealers. This should improve the indicators of attracting funds, primarily from the population,” Suprun said.
In general, he considers these initiatives to be mutually beneficial for the state and the population.
“The state receives a resource, natural persons – a good percentage, almost tax free, in contrast to deposits, as well as a 100% state guarantee for any amount,” he said.

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