KYIV. August 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Nibulon agricultural company in 2015/16 agricultural year (July-June) increased grain exports by 14%, to 4.66 million tonnes of grain compared to the previous season.
According to a company report on its website, key crops for exports were corn (over 1.8 million tonnes), wheat (over 1.9 million tonnes) and barley (around 560,000 tonnes).
Geography of exports covered 28 countries, among which the largest consumers were Egypt (the share of total imports is 18.1%), Saudi Arabia (10.7%) and Spain (9.9%).
In 2015/16 agri-year Nibulon opened the Indonesian market. The company shipped around 295,000 tonnes of wheat to this country (6.5% of total exports).
Some 122 ships with an average size of a batch of 35,000 tonnes were used to export grain.
Nibulon was created in 1991. It is one of the largest operators in the grain market of the country. The company has elevators with a total capacity of more than 2 million tonnes, as well as own transshipment terminal in Mykolaiv.
KYIV. August 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s State Property Fund (SPF) has submitted a new bill on privatization aimed at its optimization and unification of procedures to Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers, SPF Head Ihor Bilous said at a press conference in Kyiv last week.
He said that the document would increase the term for holding auctions from 45 to 180 days to give investors enough time to make decisions and avoid the preliminary appraisal. The appraisal will be formed during the sale of facilities based on trends on the market.
“There would not be privatization groups A, D, V, Zh, G and E – only large-scale and small-scale privatization,” Bilous said, adding that the only way to sell will be auction.
He said the procedures would be relaxed as much as possible for small-scale privatization to quickly sell non-liquid assets.
The bill annuls the pre-privatization preparation of enterprises by ministries. Heads of enterprises would be more responsible for safekeeping of the property when decisions to privatize enterprises are made, Bilous said.
KYIV. Aug 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia and Newag Group (Poland) signed a memorandum of cooperation to upgrade locomotives in Kyiv on August 17.
According to the press service of the Ukrainian company, the parties agreed to study the issue of creating locomotives and implementing solutions for their modernization. The realization of specific tasks will be carried out under separate contracts.
The next step in establishing cooperation will be consultations between technical experts.
“Ukrzaliznytsia intends to invest in rolling stock, therefore in recent years it has signed memorandums with the leading world producers. We are studying all proposals to objectively choose a partner who will provide the most attractive offer both economically and in terms of technology,” Ukrzaliznytsia Board Chairman Wojciech Balczun said.
In addition, according to him, one of the main requirements for the future partner is the willingness to use modern technology at the national production facilities.
Newag S.A. is a company based in Poland and specializing in manufacture, maintenance and modernization of rolling stock.
KYIV. Aug 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – De Novo IT company has launched a first in Ukraine protected cloud – G-Cloud designed for the use by Ukrainian state-run institutions and enterprises, the company reported on Wednesday.
“This cloud guarantees high availability of resources and protection of data. It is certified under public standards. We are ready to present a reliable and protected site for e-government and other state-run IT projects,” the press service reported, citing Director General Maksym Aheyev.
The company said that G-Cloud is a protected cloud with good fail-safe features and protection from external threats. It provides IaaS class services.
“New methods for certifying cloud infrastructures under public standards applied to sophisticated information protection systems have been created to certify G-Cloud,” the company said.
G-Cloud opens new prospects for growth of the cloud market in Ukraine and relaxes the certification for suppliers of cloud services.
The company recalled that in the past two years the State Agency for E-Government in Ukraine, Economic Development and Trade Ministry, Odesa Regional Administration, Lviv City Council, Kyiv Metropoliten, Ukrspyrt and other state-run enterprises used their cloud services in the past two years.
The investors in the company are KM Core holding, Intel Capital investment fund and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group.
KYIV. Aug 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Naftogaz Ukrainy will again hold a tender for procurement of legal services to represent’s the company’s interests abroad, the company’s press service has said.
“The previous bidding announced on June 16, 2016 was canceled due to mismatch between proposals from bidders and qualification criteria. Shearman & Sterling LLP and King & Wood Mallesons LLP filed an incomplete package of necessary documents, confirming the availability of branches and staff of the appropriate qualification,” the report reads.
The expected price of legal services purchase is UAH 30 million, the deadline for submitting proposals is until September 19, 2016. The term of providing services is up to December 31, 2017.
Bidders must meet the eligibility requirements, in particular, have offices in at least three European Union countries (including Britain), the Middle East, the United States and China. Qualified personnel should be also confirmed.
KYIV. Aug 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – AZAD group of companies (India), a large manufacturer of public transport, could begin production of electric buses in Kherson, according to the website of Kherson Regional State Administration.
According to the report, with reference to administration chairman Andriy Hordeyev, a relevant memorandum on the launch of production will be signed on August 18 following his meeting with AZAD representatives.
“We are ready for cooperation, therefore we intend to sign a five-sided memorandum and jointly with AZAD we will develop a project to obtain an eco-loan from the EBRD,” the press service said citing Hordeyev.
According to investors’ conclusions, today Kherson machine building plant is most suitable for production, therefore it will be one of the parties to the memorandum.
“Kherson region is attractive for the start of production due to the warm climate and production sites that meet the relevant requirements,” the report reads.
During the meeting AZAD Group presented information about the buses it produces (urban, intercity, tourist, school, etc.), technical indicators of production, the companies that cooperate with it.
The cost of electric buses made by the company ranges from $200,000 to $500,000.
