Primary registrations of new passenger cars in August 2018 grew by 11% year-over-year and by 10% on July 2018, to 7,300 units, the Ukrautoprom association has reported. The leader of the market in August was France’s with a rise of 39% in sales year-over-year, to 986 cars. Toyota was second again with 983 cars (13% up).
Nissan climbed from fourth to third position in Aug (Skoda was third in July) with 498 cars (32% up).
KIA cars sales grew by 10%, to 477 cars. Hyundai, as in July, was fifth with 452 cars registered (45% more).
The top ten in August also included Skoda with 404 cars (1% up), Mazda with 315 cars (30% more), Volkswagen with 313 cars (40% down), Ford with 294 cars (20% up) and Suzuki with 277 cars (54% up).
Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises boosted total rolled steel production by 4% in January-August 2018 year-over-year, to 12.265 million tonnes.
Steel output increased by 2%, to 14 million tonnes, that of pig iron by 7%, to 13.645 million tonnes, the Ukrmetprom Association said on Tuesday.
At the same time, relative indicators of output in January-August 2018 compared to January-August 2017 excluding two months’ work of enterprises in uncontrolled territories in eastern Ukraine were higher: the output of rolled steel increased by 8%, that of steel by 5%, and pig iron by 11%.
In August 2018, Ukraine’s metallurgy produced 1.733 million tonnes of pig iron (98% as compared to July 2018), 1.806 million tonnes of steel (99.5%), 1.515 million tonnes of rolled steel (101%).
In 2017, Ukraine reduced steel production by 12% from 2016, to 21.284 million tonnes, while production of rolled steel was 18.439 million tonnes (a 14% decline) and that of pig iron was 20.035 million tonnes (a 15% decline).
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has drawn up recommendations for submission of document with the purpose of agreeing on conditions and the rules of operation of an international payment system, the payment organization of which is nonresident, in the country, the central bank has reported on its website.
“This document is intended to support partnership relations with payment market players and simplify the process of preparing documents that, in accordance with the law, are sent to the National Bank of Ukraine for registration of an international nonresident payment system,” the NBU said.
The recommendations include the procedure for issuing and submitting documents to the NBU, a description of the provisions that should contain the documents, as well as a list of Ukrainian legislative acts and documents of international organizations that should be used to submit documents to agree on the terms and conditions of the international payment system.
Payment organizations of international payment systems have the right to carry out activities in Ukraine only after their registration by entering information about them into the register of payment systems, settlement systems, participants in these systems and payment infrastructure service operators, which is kept by the NBU.
The NBU enters information into the register on the international payment system, the payment organization of which is a nonresident, after agreeing the conditions and the order of the activity of this payment system in Ukraine.
Currently, the register contains information on 10 international nonresident payment systems, of which three are international card payment systems and seven are international money transfer systems.
Ukraine and Norway are negotiating about investments in renewable energy projects for EUR300-400 million, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said. “We are starting work with a number of Norwegian companies that come to build relations in renewable energy. The matter concerns serious investment of EUR 300-400 million,” the minister said at a joint press conference with the Norwegian foreign minister in Kyiv.
According to Klimkin, the matter concerns projects, in particular, related to solar energy.
Ukrainian producers of construction materials are concerned about a rise in Ukrzaliznytsia tariffs on freight transportation, the Association of Construction Materials Producers of Ukraine has said.
“In an internal instruction the Infrastructure Ministry has made public its intention to double the tariff for empty freight cars. While tariffs are rising it is impossible to transport construction materials via Lviv Railways… Freights are overcoming a distance of 150 kilometers for six to seven days,” reads the association’s statement.
In turn, Director General of Kovalska Group (based in Kyiv) Serhiy Pylypenko said that failures in Ukrzaliznytsia’s work lead to delays in construction
“Kovalska has to receive over 200 cars of raw materials per day… Due to Ukrzaliznytsia’s awkward management we are forced to delay the supply of construction materials which consequently impacts timely completion of construction activities,” he said.
Pylypenko added that overall costs of services provided by freight transportation companies grew by 60% over eight months in 2018. In particular, Ukrzaliznytsia increased tariffs on freight transportation by its own cars in July.
“In addition, Ukrzaliznytsia virtually does not have multipurpose rolling stock for the transportation of inert materials. Thus producers [of construction materials] have to use other types of cars (for cement, grain, and minerals) and pay extra fees for them in the form of a 20% tariff increase. Moreover, Ukrzaliznytsia’s shortage in locomotives is 130-150 units per day, while freight delivery time is longer by 2-10 days,” Pylypenko complained.
Ukraine officially opened a new sugar refining season on August 31 with the launch of Green Valley LLC agri-complex in Vinnytsia region, the National Association of Sugar Producers Ukrtsukor has said. From September 1 to 3, four more sugar refineries were launched, it said.
As reported, the production of sugar in the 2017/2018 marketing year increased by 6.5%, to 2.14 million tonnes. Some 46 sugar refineries were in operation during that season.
This year, areas under sugar beet crops is 280,000 hectares, which is 13% less than last year.
