KYIV. March 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region) intends in 2017 to increase capital investments and financing for repairs, maintaining the equipment and buildings efficiency by 75% compared to 2016, to almost UAH 11 billion ($400 million) from UAH 6.3 billion of capital and operating investments in 2016.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih CEO Paramjit Kahlon said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine that in 2017 actual capital investments would amount to about $250 million, the rest would be repairs, maintenance of equipment and buildings.
“ArcelorMittal Group has started investing in production and is fulfilling its obligations. Most of the projects – about 70% – are aimed at renewing technologies or improving the environment: these are sewage treatment plants, etc.,” the top manager explained.
The director general stressed ArcelorMittal invests significant funds in Ukraine, in the enterprise, noting that investments in ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih until 2020will amount to about $1.2-1.5 billion.
“The main tasks of this stage of the investment program of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih are to increase production efficiency, replace obsolete equipment with new and environmentally safe, significantly improve the ecological situation both in Kryvy Rih and throughout the region,” the CEO said.
KYIV. March 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – AIS group of companies, a large player in the automotive market of Ukraine, will invest more than EUR200,000 in the reconstruction and restart of its trade and office complex in Dnipro to create a new Peugeot auto center on its basis for selling cars, spares and rendering services in one place (a 3S complex), AIS Marketing Director Serhiy Borovik has said.
“AIS starts cooperation with the Peugeot brand by signing a cooperation agreement with Peugeot Citroen Ukraine Ltd., which involves the construction of a new car center. For this purpose we will redesign our complex in Dnipro, in the construction of which AIS earlier invested over EUR4 million,” the expert told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, the work includes expanding the area of a showroom for the Peugeot brand, the complete redesign of the facade exterior and interior part according to the Peugeot brand book, the purchase of trade and service equipment, increasing the number of cars for test drives, expanding the staff, staff training on the programs of the manufacturer.
The start of work is planned for March of the current year.
KYIV. March 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Investment Bank (EIB) on March 10, 2017 approved the financing of a production line for processing tomatoes in Ukraine.
The bank said on its website that the proposed investment underpins the promoter’s strategy to increase the competitiveness of its business through expansion of capacity and resource efficiency.
The total cost of the project and the recipient of the funds are not disclosed.
As reported, in May 2016 the International Finance Corporation (IFC) from the World Bank Group said it would provide $10 million to Agrofusion Group to boost its working capital. Agrofusion is the largest Ukrainian vertically integrated industrial tomato paste producer created by former co-founder of Sandora juice producers businessman Serhiy Sypko. The funds were invested late October 2016, the IFC said on its website.
Early November 2016 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said that the bank could provide a $15 million loan to Agrofusion. The EBRD Board was to discuss the provision of funds on December 14, but now the information about the project was removed from the bank’s website.
Agrofusion Group was founded by Sypko in 2007. Agrofusion Group in 2014 reached its maximum production of 52,778 tonnes of tomato paste, in 2015 it expanded its capabilities through investment, reaching a figure of 61,500 tonnes.
The company’s operational assets include two tomato paste plants with total processing capacity of approximately 500,000 tonnes of tomatoes per season; two seedling green-houses; and 20,000 hectares of irrigated leased land in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions as well as modern farming equipment.
KYIV. March 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers has approved a project on construction of the second stage of Dnistrovska hydroelectric pumped storage power plant, consisting of unit four.
The decision was made at a government meeting on Thursday.
As reported, the hydroelectric generation development program until 2026 approved by government resolution No. 552-r dated July 13 envisages the start of construction of unit four in 2017 and its completion in 2020.
According to preliminary calculations it will cost UAH 2.796 billion. The capacity of the unit will be 324 MW in generating mode and 421 MW in pumping mode.
KYIV. March 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), an international audit company, will act as a partner of the Ukrainian government’s secretariat reform, Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Oleksandr Sayenko has said.
“International consulting company PwC Ukraine with support of the UK government will act as a partner of the Cabinet of Ministers’ secretariat reform. We start cooperating from the modernization of internal processes, the introduction of the common project management methods and the launch of the effective monitoring of the implementation of the public administration reform,” Sayenko wrote on his Facebook page last week.
“Our common goal is to make the Secretariat a powerful analytical center of the government, make it a flagship of the reform, work out the innovative methods on this platform and transfer experience of overcoming the institutional weakness to others. We will synchronously conduct intensive trainings for the staff and master the newest management methods,” the minister said.
Sayenko said that the success of the first cooperation phase will be assessed jointly with The Good Governance Fund.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said that the government’s secretariat reform is one of the preconditions for the effective work of the government in general. This work was started last year.
“Recently it was reported that international consulting company PwC Ukraine will be our partner in the process with support of the UK government,” the prime minister wrote on his Facebook page.
The Good Governance Fund of the Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK supports several initiatives in management and economic reforms aimed at strengthening stability, curbing poverty and improving the well-being in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
LVIV. March 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Lviv City Council and France’s Egis have signed a memorandum, according to which the company will design a project on reclamation of the Hrybovychi landfill for Lviv and the project on the new waste recycling complex.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy said at the signing ceremony that Egis has drawn up a project on reclamation of the Marseille landfill (France), being the largest in Europe. A grant of the French government of EUR 650,000 will be used to finance the works.
“The memorandum with Egis is signed for nine months. I am sure that we will see first results in May. This is a comprehensive work to be carried out. We are handing all our preliminary studies in the issue to the French colleagues,” he said.
He said that the reclamation would start in 2017.
