Prices in the industry of Ukraine in March 2018 increased by 0.3%, while in February their growth was 1.2%, in January 4.4%, the State Statistics Service has reported.
In annual terms, in March this year the growth of producers’ prices slowed to 15.9% from 19.6% in February and 22% in January.
The main reason is the sharp decline in prices of metal ores (10.7% down).
Since early 2018, industrial prices in Ukraine grew by 5.9%.
Prices in mining and quarrying in March fell by 4.8%, in particular in mining of metal ores by 10.7%, crude oil and natural gas by 1.1%.
In processing industry prices went up by 0.2%, in particular, in production of rubber and plastic goods, other non-metal mineral goods – by 1.8%, bread production and beverages by 1.6%, vehicle, trailers and semitrailers, other vehicles production, production of PCs, electronic and optic goods – by 1.6%, production of key pharmaceutical products and medications – by 1.5%.
Prices in production of sugar fell by 7.5%, coke and petroleum products output – by 3.7% and in intra-branch consumption by 1.5%.
Tariffs in the supply of electricity, gas and air conditioning increased 3.1%.
Cygnet agricultural company plans to invest $700,000 in reconstruction and modernization of its sugar refinery in Zhytomyr region in 2018.
According to a posting on the company’s website, the works are intended to increase efficiency of the sugar refinery to 2,750 tonnes a day, reduce gas, limestone, coal, raw materials consumption and boost the quality of finished products.
Overhauls and current repair would start in the first half of April.
The company also said that Cygnet sowed 59% of areas with corn, 14% with soybeans, 14% with sugar beets and 10% with winter wheat.
As reported, Cygnet in 2017 invested $2.7 million in the modernization of a sugar factory in Zhytomyr region.
The company cultivates 25,000 hectares in Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia regions, where it grows corn, soybeans, wheat, and sugar beets.
Cygnet also has a dairy business line (about 700 cows), its products are sold to local processors, and the elevator capacity is 60,000 tonnes.
Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP) agroholding after a tender offer to buy notes due on April 2, 2020 received applications for the securities worth $416.183 million, the company reported on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on Monday.
According to the report, currently the company has outstanding 2020 notes in aggregate principal amount of $495.6 million.
MHP said that following the early tender deadline the notes in aggregate principal amount of $409.783 million were tendered. On or before the expiration deadline the notes in aggregate principal amount of $6.4 million were tendered.
On or about 10 April 2018, on the terms and subject to the conditions in the tender offer memorandum, noteholders who validly tendered following the early tender deadline and on or before the expiration deadline will be paid the tender offer consideration of $1,065 per U.S.$1,000 principal amount plus the accrued interest amount.
The aggregate principal amount of Notes outstanding following completion of the tender offer is $79.417 million.
Ukraine and Turkey have made progress in negotiations on a free trade zone (FTA), agreeing to include agricultural products in the agreement along with the industrial ones, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Trade Representative of Ukraine Natalia Mykolska has said.
“Negotiations are ongoing. That is why, since everything has not been agreed yet, I cannot disclose anything. The next round of negotiations is scheduled for May. It is quite progressive that we have agreed with Turkey to include industrial and agricultural goods in the Agreement,” she said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Mykolska, at the beginning of the negotiation process, it was exclusively about industrial goods in the context of the FTA.
“This is a good progress,” she said.
At the same time, she noted that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will benefit from the FTA of Ukraine and Israel, negotiations on which have recently completed.
“Even the fact of the completion of the negotiation process will stimulate the business to take a closer look at the Israeli market, especially the small and medium ones, since this market is more inclined to work with SMEs. In addition, Ukrainian products are well-known in this country due to fairly large Ukrainian Diaspora,” she said.
The grain harvest in Ukraine may grow from 61.3 million tonnes in 2017 to 62 million tonnes in 2018, according to the UkrAgroConsult consulting agency. “This year the gross harvest will reach the level of 62 million tonnes. Exports will amount to 41 million tonnes for the 2017/2018 marketing year. In the next marketing year we forecast growth of exports by at least one million tonnes,” grain market analyst at UkrAgroConsult Maryna Sych said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.
According to her, this year there is a competition between crops due to the fact that the timing of sowing early and late spring crops has almost coincided.
“Now we have virtually a week to fulfill the barley sowing plan, as further it will be necessary to start sowing maize and sunflower. The question of implementing the plan for sowing spring barley remains open,” she said. UkrAgroConsult expects in the current conditions that the area under barley this year will be reduced, the yield will be about 7.7-7.8 million tonnes. If the farmers manage to fulfill the barley sowing plan, the crop can reach eight million tonnes against 8.3 million tonnes in 2017.
The area under maize, according to the agency, will remain at last year’s level. There may be a slight increase in the area if it is necessary to compensate for the reduction of barley crops. The maize harvest is projected at 26 million tonnes, or at 28 million tonnes if the sowing area is increased, compared to 24.1 million tonnes in 2017.
Headquartered in Kyiv has acquired the Galeria Eden shopping center in Zgorzelec (Poland) with a gross area of 8,500 square meters from Poland’s DNB Assets Holdco, the press service of the Ukrainian fund reported on Wednesday. “During the year, Focus Estate Fund together with the Polish development partner Młyn Retail Park will carry out work to expand the retail area to 10,000 square meters and change the format of the shopping center to a retail park,” the fund said.
According to the fund, investments in the re-concept will amount to more than EUR 1.5 million. It will take about a year to complete the project.
According to the fund, the international company JLL became the managing company of the facility.
“Due to the successful location of the retail park directly on the border with Germany, we expect a significant increase in the flow of buyers from Germany. For this we invest in modern architectural solutions that will give a new life cycle to the facility, and through the increase in the retail area attract more tenants,” the fund said, quoting its managing partner Andriy Kozin.
According to the Focus Estate Fund, the facility is located in a large shopping cluster in the village directly on the border with Germany, next to the German city of Görlitz, a major cultural and industrial center of the country.
The anchor tenants of the shopping center are Jysk, Komfort, Abra Meble, Pepco and Takko Fashion.
As reported in October 2017, the Focus Estate Fund acquired Most Retail Park in Most (the Czech Republic) with a total area of 6,500 square meters. In 2016, the fund acquired Centro Ostrava Retail Park in the Czech Republic and Galeria Sandomierz in Poland. The company plans to invest about EUR 50 million within two or three years in the development of commercial medium-sized commercial property projects in Eastern Europe.
