Ukraine’s honorary consulate in Croatia has opened in the Croatian city of Split. “The consulate’s office was opened by the wife of the Ukrainian president, Maryna Poroshenko, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, Croatian Defense Minister, Major General of the Croatian Army Damir Krsticevic, Croatian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Marija Pejcinovic Buric, Croatian Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, and Split Mayor Andro Krstulovic Opara,” Ukraine’s Honorary Consul in Croatia, President of FC Arsenal Kyiv Ivica Piric wrote on his Facebook page. He noted that he had been waiting for this event for two years.
Ukraine imported 4.179 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas in January-June 2018 to the tune of $1.150 billion, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine has said. In June alone, Ukraine imported 909.638 million cubic meters (mcm) to the tune of $243.205 million.
Thus, the average price of gas imported by the country in June 2018 was $267.4 per 1,000 cubic meters against $263.5 in May, $310.8 in April, $278.7 in March, $261.1 in February and $279.4 in January.
Counterparts in the six months were companies from Switzerland, which supplied 1.719 bcm worth $473.753 million, Germany (1.355 billion cubic meters, $368.69 million), Poland (333.983 mcm, $98.985 million), the United Kingdom (310.497 mcm, $83.879 million), the Czech Republic (134.362 mcm, $36.236 million), Hungary (117.564 mcm, $31.243 million), Slovakia (88.978 mcm, $23.759 million), Luxembourg (57.82 mcm, $16.155 million), the Netherlands (24.425 mcm, $6.506 million), Austria (21.281 mcm, $6.364 million), and Italy (16.284 mcm, $4.337 million).
Natural gas was not imported from the Russian Federation in January-June 2018.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Enterprises comprising Ukraine’s rocket and space industry boosted production by 12.7% in the first six months of 2018 compared to the same period last year, to UAH 1.58 billion.
Sales of the enterprises in the first six months of 2018 increased by 12.3%, to UAH 1.57 billion, while the total volume of gross output amounted to UAH 2.11 billion, the press service of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) has said.
The agency said exports to the EU, United States and other countries amounted to UAH 877.4 million, or 90.1% of all exports.
During the period, five Ukrainian space enterprises posted profits: open join-stock company Kharton had UAH 2.99 million in net profit, state-owned Yuzhny machine-building plant named after Oleksandr Makarov (Yuzhmash, or Pivdenmash) reported about UAH 130,000 in net profit, while the net profit of production association Kyivprylad was UAH 20,000. State-owned Scientific and Research Technological Institute of Instrument Making and state-run Ukrkosmos were also in the black, the press service said.
The average number of full-time employees of the industry as of the end of the second quarter of 2018 (July 1, 2018) was 16,745 people, 0.3% less than in the first quarter.
“The main reason for the reduction in the number of staff remains relatively low wages due to the underloaded capacity of enterprises and the transfer of some of them for a shorter workweek, or other forms of optimization of labor costs,” the report says. The nominal average monthly salary in the industry grew by 8.1% compared to the beginning of the year and amounted to UAH 8,223.1 in the first half of the year, the SSAU said.
As reported, at the present time there are 26 enterprises and organizations of the rocket and space industry in the management of the SSAU.
In 2018, the state budget for the rocket and space industry envisages UAH 2.03 billion in the state budget, which is 30% less than in 2017. Of the total financing of the sector through the general fund, some UAH 1.55 billion (79%) should be spent on servicing of debt obligations on earlier borrowed loans for the implementation of international projects, in particular, for servicing a loan raised under the project “Creation of the National Satellite Communication System.” In 2017, some 61.5% of the industry budget (UAH 1.5 billion) was allocated from the national budget for these purposes.
For the first time over the years, there is no provision for financing a national targeted research and engineering space program in the 2018 state budget.
Also, the country’s budget for 2018 envisaged no funding for defense state programs and projects implemented by space industry enterprises under the SSAU. The budget of the industry in 2017 allocated UAH 941.2 million (32.3% of the total sum) under such programs.
Exports of Ukrainian agrarian products in January-June 2018 amounted to $8.6 billion compared to $8.7 billion in the same period last year.
According to a press release of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, for the first half of the year the leaders of Ukrainian agrarian exports were grain crops with a share of 36.8%, vegetable oils with 26.2%, and oilseeds with 7.5%.
“Over the six months of this year, the following commodity groups showed the highest growth rates of exports: poultry eggs by 2.1 times (by $27.7 million), apples, pears and quince by 5.3 times ($6.7 million), legume vegetables by 58.3 times (by $11 million), butter and other fats made from milk by 65.2% ($29.2 million) and others,” Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food on the issues of European integration Olha Trofimtseva said.
According to her, the regional structure of Ukrainian agrarian exports has not changed: Asia countries rank first with a share of 43.2%, the European Union ranks second with 30.4%, and Africa ranks third with 14.6%.
“The top five of our largest customers in 2018 are headed by India, where agricultural and food products were exported for more than $1 billion. Egypt followed with $575.9 million, China with $526.6 million, the Netherlands with $525.3 million, Spain with $470.3 million,” the deputy minister noted.
