The seaports of Ukraine in 2019 handled 160 million tonnes of cargo, which is 18.4% more than in 2018, the press service of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority has said.
“For the third year in a row, Ukraine’s seaports demonstrate an increase in transshipment. This year, our 13 ports, excluding those that remained in the territory of Crimea, have reached a record high in the entire history of their existence – 160 million tonnes. The maximum levels of grain and ore transshipment have been recorded. Container transportation overcame a ten-year maximum – one million TEU. Three ports at once, Pivdenny, Mykolaiv and Olvia, reached the maximum transshipment volume since their creation. And finally, the authority managed for the second time to provide dredging in the amount of more than 7 million cubic meters,” head of the agency Raivis Veckagans said.
According to the report, the agricultural sector carried out a record transshipment in 2019. Thus, according to the enterprise, grain cargo and oil accounted for more than a third (37.7%) of the total cargo flow in Ukrainian ports, while grain handling increased by 32%, to 54.6 million tonnes.
Transshipment of ore ranked second with 37.3 million tonnes per year (33% more). The top three cargo types in 2019 also included containers – more than 1 million TEU.
Exports rose by 22.2% compared with the same period of the previous year, to 121 million tonnes, imports by 8.7%, to 2.58 million tonnes, transit by 8%, to 11 million tonnes.
Among the Ukrainian ports, the leaders in terms of cargo transshipment in 2019 were Pivdenny with 53.9 million tonnes (26.1% more), Mykolaiv with 33.4 million tonnes (14.5% more), Chornomorsk with 26.2 million tonnes (21.4% more), and Odesa with 25.3 million tonnes (16.8% more).
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) has allowed the Cyprus company Dragon Capital Investments Limited to acquire a controlling stake in Idea Bank (Lviv) in the amount of 193,318 shares, which is 64.7106% of the total number of shares of the bank, the press service of the AMC has told Interfax-Ukraine.
As reported, Poland’s Getin Holding S.A. on December 20, 2019 signed an agreement on the sale of 100% of the shares of Ukraine’s Idea Bank and 100% of New Finance Service LLC (Kyiv) to a group consisting of Dragon Capital Investments Limited (Cyprus), Dragon Capital New Ukraine Fund L.P. and an individual.
According to a report by Getin Holding on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the purchase price in euros is equivalent to UAH 1.368 billion, or PLN224.76 million, excluding the amount of dividends before closing the transaction and the price of 100% participation in New Finance Service of about UAH 5 million. The price can also be reduced as a result of negotiations between the parties after an independent auditor prepares a report, the document says.
According to him, it is expected that the transaction could be completed before May 31, 2020.
Getin Holding in October 2019 put Idea Bank up for sale. On October 22 it announced the signing of a letter of intent with the Direct Investment Fund.
Idea Bank (formerly Plus Bank) was founded in 1989.
Idea Bank ranked 24th out of 76 operating banks as of October 1, 2019 in terms of total assets (UAH 7.510 billion), according to the National Bank of Ukraine.
Dnipro Airport in 2019 increased passenger traffic to 338,888 people, which is 13.2% more than in 2018 (299,250).
According to the airport’s website, passenger traffic on international flights last year amounted to 198,190 people, on domestic flights some 140,698 people.
In December 2019, the airport passenger flow was 2.8% more than the figure for the same month of 2018 and amounted to 20,253 people.
As reported, Head of Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration Oleksandr Bondarenko at the end of November 2019 said that the construction of a new airfield of the international airport in Dnipropetrovsk region will begin in the summer of 2020. The new international terminal and VIP terminal in a single complex will be built by the Ukrainian industrial and financial group DCH. It is planned that it will have a high throughput of up to 1,000 people/hour.
The total cost of the project is $180 million.
Electricity generation by all power plants of state-owned enterprise Energoatom in 2019 decreased by 1.6% (by 1.398 million kWh) compared to 2018, to 83.228 billion kWh.
According to the press service of the company, the plan for production of electricity in 2019 was exceeded by 1.8%. The share of Energoatom in the overall structure of electricity production in the country amounted to 54.1%, which is 1 percentage points more than in 2018.
The power plants of the state enterprise supplied 78.199 billion kWh of electricity to the market, which is 1.77% less than in 2018.
The volume of capital investments in 2019 amounted to UAH 14.083 billion. The financing of capital investments amounted to UAH 14.258 billion.
Energoatom transferred UAH 16.706 billion to the budgets of all levels, and insurance payments amounted to UAH 2.592 billion.
The installed capacity utilization factor of the company’s nuclear power plants amounted to 68.5%, which is 1.1 p.p. more than in 2018.
In 2019, 13 violations were recorded in the operation of Ukrainian nuclear power plants (nine less than in 2018).
Energoatom is the operator of all four operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine. It operates 15 power units equipped with water-cooled power reactors with a total installed electric capacity of 13.835 GW.
The Kovalska industrial and construction group has finalized a deal to acquire Rozvadov Construction Materials LLC (Rozvadov, Lviv region), which owns a production facility located on around 140 ha, for UAH 63 million, the press service of the group reported on Tuesday.
The facility includes sand and limestone quarries, shaft furnaces for calcining limestone and a sand-lime bricks plant.
Sand deposits in the sand pit are estimated at almost 10 million cubic meters, the planned production volumes are 400,000-500,000 tonnes per year. Sand will be used to make Siltek dry mortar.
In addition, Kovalska plans to build another Siltek plant in the next two years on the acquired site. In addition, sand mined at the site will be sold in Western Ukraine.
According to the group, the limestone deposit has deposits at the level of 6 million tonnes. “Annually, it is planned to extract 200,000 tonnes of limestone, which will be processed at our own facilities and sold at enterprises throughout the country,” the press service added.
At the same time, to improve the quality, the sand processing and limestone calcining lines will be modernized, modern equipment for its pollution-free processing will be installed.
The Kovalska industrial and construction group has been operating in the construction market of Ukraine since 1956. The company is a leading manufacturer of building materials, developer and builder of Ukraine. The group unites nine manufacturers of building materials, which are known in Ukraine under the brands Concrete by Kovalska, Avenu, Siltek, and Granite by Kovalska.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has signed the law on amending the Land Code of Ukraine and some other legislative acts to combat raiding adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on December 5, 2019.
According to information on the website of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, on January 13 the document was returned with the signature of the president.
As reported, bill No. 0858 establishes that if a party to the contract wishes to refuse to automatically renew the land lease, then no later than 30 calendar days before the expiration of the contract, it must submit an application to the state register of property rights. In the absence of such a statement after the relevant expiration date of the contract, it is extended for the same period and with the same conditions.
The lease payment for land plots of state and municipal property leased at land tenders cannot be reduced by agreement of the parties during the term of the lease, as well as upon its renewal, as indicated in the document.
The bill also provides for the establishment of a guarantee contribution amount per lot at the level of 5% of the starting price for the sale of a land plot and 50% of the starting amount of the annual fee for using a land plot, but not less than 500 tax-free minimum incomes of citizens and not more than 5,000 tax-free minimum incomes of citizens.
