The surplus of Ukraine’s foreign trade in services in January-June 2019 increased by 13.3% compared with January-June 2018, to $2.937 billion ($2.593 billion in H1 2018), the State Statistics Service has reported. Exports of services in January-June 2019 grew by 7.6%, to $5.897 billion, while imports of services rose by 2.5%, to $2.96 billion.
The ratio of coverage of imports by exports was 1.99 in January-June 2019 (1.9 in H1 2018).
Foreign trade operations in the service sector were carried out with partners from 226 countries.
Production of vehicles in Ukraine through January-July 2019 decreased by 12.6% compared with the same period of 2018, to 3,562 vehicles, assembly of Skoda passenger cars by Eurocar Plant saw 12.4% slowdown, to 3,066 cars.
According to statistics of Ukrautoprom association posted on its website, thus decline rate of vehicle production slightly slowed down compared to the similar period of 2018 and was 23.5%.
The production of commercial vehicles was 2.5 times less: only 46 vehicles were manufactured for the seven month (excluding AvtoKrAZ, which has stopped disclosing production information since August 2016), including 39 by Cherkasy Bus (29 in 2018), and seven by Zaporizhia Automobile Plant (ZAZ, 85 vehicles)
The production of buses saw light negative trend by 2.4%: 450 buses were produced, against 461 a year earlier. The Cherkasy Bus with 220 buses for the mentioned period remained the leader of their production, the Chernihiv Automobile Plant increased production by five buses and produced 99 units, the ZAZ produced 40 buses against 24 a year ago, Bogdan Corporation manufactured 44 buses against 4 items a year ago, and the Chasiv Yar Bus Plant saw 47% fall in bus production, to 47 units.
The association reported that in July the national enterprises assembled 613 vehicles that 2.8 times more that in July 2018 and 10% more that in June 2019.
This growth pace is linked to the increase of assembly of Skoda passenger cars by Eurocar Plant up to 534 units against 150 in July 2018.
The producers of commercial cars increased output up to 25 units in July (five units in 2018), while bus production shrank from 66 to 54 units. The biggest number of buses was produced by the Cherkasy Bus.
As reported, in 2018, the Ukrainian automakers produced only 6,616 vehicles. This was 23% less than a year earlier, and production capacity was loaded less than 1.5%.
Top-20 countries with which ukraine has most positive trade balance in goods in jan-may 2019
Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises intend to increase steel production by 2.8% in September 2019 in comparison with the planned figures for August, to 1.85 million tonnes from 1.8 million tonnes.
According to information from the Ukrmetalurgprom association, the plan for September also envisages decrease in pig iron production by 2.8%, down to 1.75 million tonnes from 1.8 million tonnes and an increase of total rolled steel production by 3.1% compared to the previous forecast for August, to 1.65 million tonnes from 1.6 million tonnes.
Ukraine in January-July 2019 produced iron ore concentrate in the amount of 36.92 million tonnes (105% against the same period in 2018), sinter some 18.42 million tonnes (101%), pellets some 12.77 million tonnes (102%), gross coke (6% moisture) some 5.99 million tonnes (95%), pig iron some 11.89 million tonnes (99.8%), steel some 11 million tonnes (104%), rolled products some 11 million tonnes (102%), and pipes some 0.67 million tonnes (103%), according to the updated data.
In July pig iron production stood at 1.65 million tonnes (108% from June 2019), that of steel some 1.78 million tonnes (108%), and rolled goods some 1.51 million tonnes (101%).
As of August 13 this year, 17 out of 21 blast furnaces, eight out of nine open-hearth furnaces, 14 out of 16 converters, five out of 15 electric furnaces and 15 out of 15 continuous casting machines were in operation.
In July 2019, the metallurgical enterprises received nearly 2.4 million of iron ore concentrate (118% if to compare with June 2019), thus none of iron ore concentrate imported last months.
In July 2019, scrap collectors stored 192,000 of scrap iron (59% to June 2019), the total volume was supplied to the domestic enterprises. None of scrap iron was exported last month.
The French speed-test company nPerf has published a study of three largest mobile communications operators in Ukraine, where Kyivstar ranks first, according to a presentation on nPerf’s website. The study was conducted from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019. nPerf specialists in total analyzed more than 23,100 tests in 2G, 3G, 4G networks.
The number of conventional network speed tests was 10,200, the number of tests while browsing the web was 3,800, and the number of tests during streaming was almost 3,000.
At the same time, 54.9% of tests were carried out in the Kyivstar network, 28.3% in the Vodafone Ukraine network, and only 16.8% in lifecell. The success rate of tests in operator networks was 91.95%, 91.11%, and 88.05%, respectively.
According to the nPerf report, the average data transfer rate in the Kyivstar network reached 22.76 Mb/s download and 13.12 Mb/s upload, while at Vodafone Ukraine these figures were 15.09 Mb/sand 7.64 Mb/s, respectively, while lifecell has 14.94 Mb/s and 6.36 Mb/s.
Kyivstar also achieved the best result in terms of video streaming quality – 84.65% (versus 82.5 for lifecell and 73.97% for Vodafone Ukraine).
At the same time, the third largest mobile operator in Ukraine, lifecell, has the average largest delay in signal transmission – 61.65 ms. Kyivstar with 62.92 ms is second, Vodafone Ukraine is third, with an indicator of 83.92 ms.
According to the results of all tests, the Kyivstar mobile network scored 56,570 points, beating Vodafone Ukraine by almost 9,000 points.
Founder and head of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce (New York) Duvi Honig has called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to take measures to clean up corruption among local officials in Uman, Cherkasy region and in so doing resurrect the city as one of the largest Jewish spiritual centers. Honig said during a press conference at the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Friday that for more than 10 years the Jewish religious community of the Bratslav Hasidim has been fighting for the right to build a Jewish memorial complex in Uman. He said a synagogue with a capacity of 30,000 is also planned.
He said in 2008, a one-hectare land plot was leased for 49 years to the community for the construction of the facility. A detailed plan of the territory allocated for the construction of the center was then developed. However, he said local authorities began to demand a bribe for approving the construction plan of the complex.
Honig said after the refusal to give a bribe, the purpose of the land on which the construction was supposed to be was changed.
“I would like to thank President Volodymyr Zelensky for saying that he wants to build little Jerusalem out of Uman, that he wants to stop corruption in Ukraine. I came to Uman and looked at what was happening there, sorted out the mayor, deputy mayor, created a committee or commission if necessary to monitor the situation […] how the purpose of the site was changed, because now the construction site has been stolen,” Honig said.
According to him, currently there are no opportunities for the construction of the memorial complex.
“In fact, there may be a good wave of investments that can help Uman and Ukraine prosper. […] But this may not happen precisely because of corruption,” he said.
As reported, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Kyiv on August 18-20. He is expected to meet with Zelensky during his trip.
