The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in March improved its forecast for wheat exports from Ukraine in the 2017/2018 marketing year (MY, July-June) by 200,000 tonnes compared to the forecast in February, to 17.2 million tonnes.
According to a report on the website of the U.S. agency, the forecast for corn exports for the 2017/2018 MY did not change and remained at the level of 20 million tonnes.
In general, USDA predicts grain crop in Ukraine in 2018 at the level of 61.05 million tonnes, including 26.98 million tonnes of wheat and 24.12 million tonnes of maize.
According to the forecasts of the U.S. department, grain exports in the 2017/2018 MY will amount to 42.31 million tonnes.
As reported, with reference to data from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, grain and flour exports in the 2016/2017 MY amounted to 44.44 million tonnes.
Exports of wheat amounted to 17.531 million tonnes (592,000 tonnes more from the previous MY), maize to 20.703 million tonnes (3.294 million tonnes more), barley to 5.354 million tonnes (941,000 tonnes more), rye to 11,400 tonnes (7,000 tonnes less), other grains to 304,000 tonnes (61,000 tonnes more), and flour to 402,900 tonnes (54,000 tonnes more).
China’s Xinjiang Beiken Energy Engineering has started drilling a first well for public joint-stock company Ukrgazvydobuvannia under a contract to drill 24 wells signed last autumn, the press service of the Ukrainian company has reported. The press service said that it will take 112 days to drill the well in the Yablunivske field (Poltava region) with a projected depth of 4,940 meters.
As reported, Ukrgazvydobuvannia late October 2016 announced a tender to attract external contractors for drilling operations in Kharkiv and Poltava regions. The contracts were signed with OOO Spetsmekhservis (lot No.1, May 29), Crosco (lots Nos. 8 and 10, June 7 and July 12) and Xinjiang Beiken (lots Nos. 4, 5, 7, 12, September 5). In addition, Ukrgazvydobuvannya in late December 2017 announced a tender for drilling 42 more wells (seven lots). As a result of the tenders held in early February, Xinjiang Beiken won lots Nos. 1-5, Zhongman Petroleum and Natural Gas Group – lot No. 7 and Energofinans LLC (Kyiv) – lot No. 6.
Ukraine and Saudi Arabia are working on plans to launch bulk production of Ukraine’s new light multipurpose An-132 aircraft with a capacity of 9.2 tonnes designed by Antonov State Enterprise (Kyiv) at the production facilities in Taif (Saudi Arabia).
The press service of Antonov State Enterprise said on its Facebook page that during a visit of a delegation from Antonov headed by Antonov President Oleksandr Kryvokon to Saudi Arabia Ukrainian specialists studied a project on building a technological cluster where bulk production of new An-132 aircraft would be launched.
The press service said that this project is to be a part of the scientific and technical development program of Taif city located in the western part of Saudi Arabia. King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia officially announced the start of the program in October 2017.
The program includes building of industrial and university campuses, a residential quarter with 10,000 apartments and an international airport. The technological cluster will be built in cooperation with King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), which is one of the key partners in the An-132 program. The technological cluster will include: an airplane factory with an airfield, an enterprise for manufacturing solar panels and a solar power plant.
“TAQNIA Aeronautics and Antonov State Enterprise are working on a feasibility study for the construction of an aircraft plant with the participation of Western experts. The construction of the plant is scheduled to begin in 2019. It will take nine months to build the plant. The bulk assembly of An-132 aircraft should be launched in 2021,” the press service said.
The An-132 multipurpose plane with a carrying capacity of 9.2 tonnes is modification of the An-32 light transport aircraft aimed to replace the An-32 and the An-26 planes on the market.
Antonov is implementing the program under a contract signed in April 2015 with Saudi Arabia’s KACST and TAQNIA Aeronautics Co. The plane is being built with participation of leading western manufacturers: Pratt & Whitney Canada, CMC Electronics (Canada), U.S. Honeywell, France’s Liebherr and Britain’s Dowty Propellers.
The assembly of the prototype showcased at the air show was finished at Antonov’s facilities in December 2016. In March 2017, the plane successfully carried out its maiden flight.
Ukraine since the beginning of the 2017-2018 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of March 12, 2018 had exported 27.661 million tonnes of grain.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, the country exported about 13.4 million tonnes of wheat, 4 million tonnes of barley, and 10.1 million tonnes of corn.
In addition, 320,800 tonnes of flour had been exported on the indicated date.
As reported, with reference to the ministry, Ukraine in the 2016/2017 MY exported 43.9 million tonnes of grain.
The structure of the egg market in Ukraine is close to oligopoly, however it is competitive, according to a report of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) for 2017 posted on its website. According to the report, the main participants in the egg production market are the agricultural holdings Avangard and Ovostar Union, Inter-Agrosystems Corporation with a total share of 46.61%.
The AMC notes the market is export-oriented with a trend towards increase in export volumes.
Taking into account the dynamics of production, sale of eggs in Ukraine and for exports, the AMC extended for 2018 a study of this market for compliance with the legislation on protection of economic competition in connection with price fluctuations.
As reported, Ukrlandfarming agricultural holding in 2017 reduced the land bank by 5.8%. Ukraine’s largest producer of eggs Avangard agricultural holding, controlled by Ukrlandfarming, whose shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange, in October 2015 completed the restructuring of eurobonds for $200 million. Previously American Cargill has withdrawn from among the shareholders of Ukrainian-based UkrLandFarming (ULF) agrarian holding, according to a ULF financial report for 2016. Cargill’s subsidiary, Cargill Financial Services International Inc. by the end of 2015, had held 1,668,749 ULF shares, or 5% of the total number. By the end of 2016, the number of shares owned by Avonex Limited had not changed, whereas the package held by Cargill was transferred to Cyprus-based Quickcom Limited’s ownership. The report says that the sole owner of Avonex Limited and Quickcom Limited is Oleh Bakhmatiuk. Cargill acquired a 5% stake in ULF early in 2014 for $200 million. Based on the sum of the deal, the total value of the holding was assessed at $4 billion.
The European Commission (EC) has rejected price commitments proposed by Metinvest Group and other hot-rolled steel exporters from Ukraine, Russia, Iran and Brazil in exchange for non-applying the previously introduced anti-dumping duties to them. According to the EC decision dated March 8, published in the Official Journal of the EU on March 9 of this year, the verdict came into force the day after the publication in the official bulletin, i.e. on March 10, 2018.
At the same time, it is specified that five exporters from Ukraine, Russia, Iran and Brazil sent their price obligations to the EC in exchange for non-application of anti-dumping duties to them. Since these proposals were made at the end of the investigation, the commission was unable to analyze them in accordance with the established deadline, before making decisions within the investigations, undertaking to exclusively do this later. After making final conclusions on the investigation and publication of restrictive measures, price commitment from one more sixth exporter was sent to the EC.
The European Commission on December 18, 2017 informed the applicants about the intention to reject all the obligations they proposed. The applicants, in turn, gave additional explanations and made amendments to their obligations, and their hearing was also conducted.
