KYIV. Aug 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Investment Bank (EIB) is mulling the provision of a EUR 37 million loan to boost natural gas production in Ukraine.
“The project aims to increase natural gas production by installing new gas compressor units and gas treatment facilities in some Ukrainian gas fields,” the EIB said on its website.
The total cost of the project is estimated at EUR 98 million. Other sources of financing are not mentioned.
The document does not contain the name of the concrete borrower. It says that this is a project to be implemented in the public sector.
KYIV. Aug 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – British-based Ferrexpo Plc, which controls Poltava and Yerystove ore mining and processing enterprises in Ukraine, in January-June 2017 increased the share of sales of pellets to Central Europe and North-East Asia (NEA), retained to Europe, but reduced to China and South-East Asia.
According to the company’s semi-annual report on the website of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), the share of pellet sales to Central Europe is the largest and stands at 52% (in the first half of 2016 it was 46%).
The share of sales to Western Europe remained at 17%, to North-East Asia rose to 20% from 13%, shipments to Turkey, the Middle East and India increased to 7% from 6%.
At the same time, the share of sales to China and South-East Asia decreased to 3% from 18%.
Exports in monetary terms amounted to $289.714 million to Central Europe, $92.742 million to Western Europe, $120.162 million to North-East Asia, $37.016 million to Turkey, the Middle East and India, and $23.123 million to China and South-East Asia.
Sales and distribution costs in the first half of 2017 were $100.176 million, while in the first half of 2016 they amounted to $101.251 million, and in general for 2016 some $209.530 million.
KYIV. Aug 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – AVK Confectionery LLC (Kyiv), one of the largest confectionery manufacturers in Ukraine, has launched the production of cereal snacks under the Kresko trademark.
“AVK resumed the production of Kresko goods, launching a new line, in which UAH 6 million was invested,” the company said in a press release.
At present the new product with a chocolate or banana taste is presented in different weight packs: 170 g and 74 g, as well as in sticks weighing 30 g. The company plans to make the product in the form of crispy tubules weighing 40 g.
“This is not a simple product. Having lost the production line in Donetsk, we restored it in Dnipro. It is a great success for the company,” company founder Volodymyr Avramenko said.
According to him, only Ukrainian raw materials are used for manufacturing the product.
AVK with the new product plans to occupy 10% of the cereal goods market in Ukraine. It plans to supply Kresko goods to foreign markets, in particular, to Moldova. The company is also interested in the markets of Belarus, Romania, Poland, the Baltics, and the Middle East.
KYIV. Aug 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – State-owned enterprise Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) on August 1, 2017 started the first phase of extensive tests of spent nuclear fuel storage facility two, the press service of the State Agency for Managing the Exclusion Zone has reported.
The start of hot tests of the facility with spent nuclear fuel is scheduled for December 2017.
As reported, facility two is intended to accept, prepare and store spent nuclear fuel assemblies and additional absorbers, accumulated at the Chornobyl NPP, during next 100 years.
KYIV. Aug 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Vega launch vehicle (LV) with the Ukrainian engine has successfully put an Italian reconnaissance satellite OPTSAT-3000, as well as the French-Israeli satellite Venμs of the European Remote Sensing Satellite Copernicus to the sun-synchronous orbit.
According to a report on the website of the State Space Agency of Ukraine, the Vega rocket was launched at 04:58:33 Kyiv time from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, in what is the tenth launch under the Vega program and the second in 2017.
Both remote sensing satellites were manufactured by the Israeli defense concern Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The OPTSAT-3000 (368 kg) spacecraft was ordered by the Italian Defense Ministry, Venμs spacecraft weighing 264 kg was commissioned by the Israeli Space Agency (ISA) and the National Center for Space Studies of France (CNES).
The Vega was designed by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) for carrying satellites with a weight up to 1,200 kilos to a 1,200-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbit and satellites with a weight of 1,500 kilograms to a 700-kilometer polar orbit.
The RD-868P cruise engine for the fourth stage of the rocket was developed by the Yuzhnoye (Pivdenne) Design Bureau and built by the Yuzhmash (Pivdenmash) Plant (both situated in the city of Dnipro, Ukraine).
The Ukrainian government and the ESA signed an agreement on cooperation in peaceful uses of outer space in 2008. The ESA unites 17 European countries.
KYIV. Aug 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Commission (EC) has launched an anti-dumping investigation into imports of ferrosilicon from Ukraine and Egypt using codes 7202 21 00, 7202 29 10 and 7202 29 90.
According to the announcement of the investigation published in the official publication of the Official Journal, a complaint about dumping was filed on June 19, 2017 by Euroalliages on behalf of the producers of the relevant products in the EU, namely Ferropem, Ferroatlantica S.L., OFZ and Huta Laziska S.A., which produce more than 90% of ferrosilicon in the European Union.
The investigation period is from July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017. At the same time, the analysis of the trend of supplies for damage to the European industry will be carried out from January 1, 2014 until the end of the investigation period.
The document specifies that temporary anti-dumping measures could be introduced within nine months from the date of announcement of the anti-dumping investigation, but as a whole it must be completed within 15 months.
