U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Iran, Ukraine, Syria, and Venezuela at their talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka on Friday, the White House said in a report. “They also discussed the situations in Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and Ukraine,” the White House said.
The presidents also exchanged opinions on issues such as bilateral relations and arms control, it said.
The meeting between Trump and Putin continued for almost an hour and a half.
Revenue of Metinvest B.V. (the Netherlands), the parent company of the Metinvest mining and metallurgical group, fell by 7.5% or by $77 million in April compared with the previous month, to $954 million from $1.031 billion.
According to the preliminary unaudited consolidated monthly financial statements of the company, published on Thursday, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in April was $173 million, which is 6% ($11 million) more than in March of the current year ($184 million).
According to the report, the adjusted EBITDA of the metallurgical division of the group in April 2019 was $53 million ($46 million in March), including $1 million from participation in the joint venture (minus $2 million). The mining division’s EBITDA is $151 million ($148 million in March), including from the joint venture – $28 million ($19 million). The expenses of the management company were $2 million ($8 million).
Total revenue in April 2019 consisted of the sales of the metallurgical division in the amount of $791 million ($844 million in March), mining – $305 million ($340 million), and intra-group sales – $142 ($152 million).
The total debt of the company in April increased $72 million compared to March, to $2.754 billion from $2.828 billion. At the same time, cash and its equivalents increased by $113 million, to $331 million from $218 million.
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA, Kyiv) could increase frequency of flights to Tbilisi and the company is not planning flights to Batumi, UIA Communications Director Yevhenia Satska has said.
“We conduct two daily flights to Tbilisi and are considering possibility of increasing their frequency. We are not planning flights to Batumi,” she said on June 26.
Satska noted that Tbilisi is important to UIA as it has a transit network effect.
“For passengers from Europe and Baltic countries a trip to Tbilisi through Kyiv is a very good model,” she said.
At the same time, Satska mentioned high airports fees in some Georgian airports that were transferred to concession.
“There is a problem which does not leave us [UIA] a chance to develop in Georgia: airport fees are rather high in Tbilisi and Batumi as long as these airports are in concession of foreign companies. These fees are much higher than in many European cities. Their reduction could automatically let us cut the cost of flight by the same amount,” she said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has sent to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine a bill amending some laws of Ukraine on cutting electricity tariffs.
The document was registered in the parliament on June 26. The text of the bill has not been made public.
As reported, representative of the head of state in the Ukrainian government Andriy Gerus said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky initiated the legislative change of the Rotterdam+ formula by the Rotterdam- formula in order to reduce electricity tariffs. He said that according to the document, the cost of shipping coal from Rotterdam to Ukraine should be removed from the formula. In addition, it is proposed that discounts be introduced if the quality of coal is worse. The bill also provides for a delay in the introduction of the electricity market for one year.
Ukraine’s largest ferroalloy smelters Nikopol and Zaporizhia ferroalloy works reduced ferroalloy output by 3.2% in January-May 2019 to 433,170 tonnes as compared with the same period in 2018, the Ukrainian Ferroalloy Producers’ Association told Interfax-Ukraine.
During the review period, overall silicon manganese production dropped by 7% to 350,010 tonnes and ferromanganese output was 15% up to 35,280 tonnes. Output of 45%-ferrosilicon grew by 6.1% to 35,680 tonnes and manganese metal production fell by 4% to 3,160 tonnes.
Nikopol Ferroalloy Works raised production of other ferroalloys by 2.4 times to 9,040 tonnes.
The country’s two manganese concentrate producers, the Pokrovsky (formerly Ordzhonikidze) and Marhanets mining and beneficiation plants, produced 555,580 tonnes of manganese concentrate in January-May 2019, which is 4.4% less than in January-May 2018.
Marhanets mining and beneficiation plant produced 205,430 tonnes of concentrate (a fall of 6.2%) and Pokrovsky mining and beneficiation plant made 350,150 tonnes (a decline of 3.4%) in January-May 2019 as compared with the same period last year. In addition, the latter produced 63,740 tonnes of manganese sinter, which is 20.7% less than in January-May 2018.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has decided to approve the attraction of a loan in the amount of EUR 149 million by national energy company Ukrenergo for the project to modernize power lines from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Finance Ministry of Ukraine reported on Thursday. According to the report of the ministry, the project foresees the replacement of transformer equipment and reconstruction of 12 substations with the installation of automated process management systems.
The project would allow the company to increase effectiveness and reliability of electricity transmission in western, northern, southern and central regions of Ukraine, modernize the key power transmission facilities, which is the condition for harmonization of the Ukrainian power grid with the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), the ministry said.
