KYIV. July 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The introduction of European standards for cement production in Ukraine would help to restrict opportunities for producing and spreading counterfeit products on the market, CEO of Ukrcement cement producers’ association Roman Skilsky has said.
“We declare that from January 1, 2017 we, as the sector, could switch to production and testing of cement under new standards. We believe that the new standards would help to cut off, or at least narrow the opportunities for companies producing counterfeit products,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He said that the sector producing construction materials on the basis of cement are to switch to European standards.
“It is important to understand if the state has a strategy for this switch, in particular, for the revision of construction requirements, taking into account new standards,” he said.
Skilsky said that large construction materials retail chains in Ukraine permit sales of counterfeit cement in their stores. The most obvious sign of counterfeit products is wrong labeling of packages with cement.
“The wrong labeling is a first signal of counterfeit products in the package. First, buyers should be attentive when there is no information about the manufacturer on the package. There are such cases everywhere, even in large chains,” he said.
He said that after the recent monitoring of the packaged cement market finished late 2015, Epicenter and Nova Linia retail chains took measures to remove wrongly labeled products from their stores. Representatives of other retail chains did not contact the association to settle the issue.
“Today we do not name these companies. We plan to continue monitoring of retail channels, establish dialog and finally bring the packaged cement market to the legal environment… the results of the future monitoring, including violations, will be published in mass media,” he said.
Skilsky said that according to GfK research company, the share of counterfeit products on the Ukrainian packaged cement market is 50%.
KYIV. July 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ovostar Union, a leading producer of eggs and egg products in Ukraine, produced 670 million eggs in January-June 2016, and this was 16% up year-over-year, the company has said in a report.
Eggs sales in H1 2016 grew by 12%, to 474 million and exports – by 48%, to 145 million.
The exports share of total sales was 31%.
The group said that average egg selling price during the six months of 2016 increased by 6% to UAH 1.27 per egg compared to UAH 1.20 per egg in the same period previous year.
As at June 30, 2016 the company’s total flock has increased by 21% year-over-year to 7.2 million hens, while the laying hen flocks increased by 27% year-over-year to 5.9 million hens.
In H1 2016, the volume of eggs processed increased by 23% year-over-year to 199 million units.
With increasing demand on liquid egg products from the EU market during the first half of 2016, sales volume of liquid egg products increased by 64% year-over-year to 4,398 tonnes (the share of export in total volume of liquid egg products sold amounted to 30%).
The sales volume of dry egg products remained the same year-over-year and amounted to 925 tonnes, while the export share in total volume of dry egg products sold equaled to 58%. The average selling price of liquid egg products increased by 17% year-over-year to 28.99 UAH/kg; the average selling price of dry egg products increased by 24% year-over-year to 125.90 UAH/kg.
KYIV. July 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public joint-stock company Odesa Port-Side Chemical Plant (OPCP) saw a 2.8-fold rise in net profit in April-June 2016 year-over-year, amounting to UAH 174.712 million.
The company has said in a report, its net sales revenue decreased by 43.6% or UAH 1.122 billion, to UAH 1.454 billion, and gross profit – by 76.8% or UAH 318.485 million, to UAH 94.969 million.
In January-June 2016, the plant saw UAH 243.937 million in net loss compared to UAH 151.953 million of net profit year-over-year. Net revenue in H1 2016 fell by 45.3% or UAH 2.628 billion, to UAH 3.172 billion and gross profit – by 81.5% or UAH 869.117 million, to UAH 194.904 million.
State-owned OPCP produces chemical products and transships ammonia to vessels.
KYIV. July 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Profit of Raiffeisen Bank Aval (Kyiv) totaled UAH 1.456 billion in January-June 2016, while its loss stood at UAH 1.04 billion in H1 2015, the bank has said in a quarterly report.
The bank said that its profit in Q2 2016 amounted to UAH 772.9 million (a rise of 13.1% compared to Q1 2016).
Total assets grew by 4% in H1 2016, to UAH 53.289 billion, including a decline of almost 1.8% in credits and debts if clients, being UAH 24.825 billion.
Total liabilities grew by 1.3% compared to early 2016, to UAH 45.566 billion.
Charter capital did not change, being UAH 6.155 billion, while net worth grew by 23.2% compared to the beginning of 2016, amounting to UAH 7.723 billion.
Raiffeisen bank Aval was founded in 1992.
The bank ranked fifth among 109 operating banks as of April 1, 2016, in terms of assets worth UAH 52.583 billion, according to the National Bank of Ukraine.
KYIV. July 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Du Wei have discussed practical issues on fostering trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.
The government’s press service reported on Monday that Groysman called for strengthening trade and economic relations, cooperation in the industrial sector, as well as in the investment area.
“We are interested in attracting Chinese investment into Ukraine,” he said.
Groysman said that the Office for Accompanying Investment under auspice of the Prime Minister will be created soon.
“Discussing the issue of full restoration of existing institutional mechanisms of bilateral cooperation, the sides agreed to hold a meeting of the Intergovernmental Trade and Economic Commission by the end of 2016 in Kyiv. Under the proposal of Groysman, a Ukrainian-Chinese business forum will be organized in the framework of this Commission,” the press service said.
Groysman said that “a well prepared session of the Intergovernmental Commission and the business forum could provide the necessary results aimed at enhancing economic cooperation.”
The Ukrainian Prime Minister and the Chinese Ambassador also expressed their support for approving a Ukraine-China Action Plan (the road map) on the joint implementation of the idea to launch the economic belt of the Silk Road as soon as possible.
The prime minister stressed the need to find solutions to the problems in cooperation between the two countries.
Du Wei assured of the willingness of China to develop and deepen cooperation with Ukraine as the strategic character of relations between the two countries requires.
KYIV. July 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public joint-stock company Ukrtelecom saw a 1.1% rise in revenue in January-June 2016 year-over-year, to UAH 3.35 billion, the operator said in a report published at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.
The company’s net profit in H1 2016 totaled UAH 178 million and this was 26% up year-over-year.
Capital investment grew by 72%, to UAH 113.2 billion, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) – by 2.4%, to UAH 969.6 million. EBITDA margin was up by 0.3 percentage points, to 28.9%.
Total revenue in Q2 2016 slightly fell year-over-year – by 0.5%, to UAH 1.637 billion.
EBITDA in Q2 2016 decreased by 6.3% year-over-year, to UAH 469 million. EBITDA margin decreased by 1.8 percentage points, to 29%.
Ukrtelecom Director Yuriy Kurmiz said at a press conference that in 2016 the company’s revenue from telecom services continue growing. Services worth UAH 950 million were provided to private users and worth UAH 311 million to business consumers, which is 4% and 5% up year-over-year.
Revenue from services provided to operators decreased by 21%, to UAH 234 million. This is linked to the market trends and the reduction of the voice traffic volumes.
Revenue from fixed communications grew by 1.6%, to UAH 805.4 million. Revenue from Internet access and data transfer grew by 11%, to UAH 404 million.
In Q2 2016, the operator paid almost UAH 440 million of taxes and duties to the budgets of all levels.
Ukrtelecom is the largest fixed communications operator in the country. Ultimate owner of Ukrtelecom is SCM Group of businessman Rinat Akhmetov.
