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.
The Spanish retail operator Inditex Group will open seven new stores of the chain with a total area of 7,400 square meters in the River Mall trade center at 12 Dniprovska Embankment in Darnytsky district of Kyiv.
According to the press service of the shopping center, the new facilities include the country’s largest two-storey Zara store with an area of 3,500 square meters, Zara Home (529 sq m), Massimo Dutti (678 sq m), Pull & Bear (798 sq m), Oysho (408 sq m), Bershka (932 sq m), and Stradivarius (557 sq m).
In general, by the end of 2018, Inditex Group had 65 stores in Ukraine, in particular, such brands as Pull & Bear (14), Zara (9), Zara Home (2), Massimo Dutti (6), Bershka (14), Stradivarius (12), Oysho (7), and Uterque (1).
As reported, Inditex plans to launch online sales of the Zara brand in Ukraine in the fall and winter of 2019.
According to the company’s report, the pretax profit of Inditex in the country in 2018 amounted to EUR28 million.
Inditex Group was founded in 1963. It unites more than 7,000 stores in 91 countries under the brands Zara, Zara Home, Oysho, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull & Bear, Stradivarius, and Uterque.
In Ukraine, Inditex Group has been represented since 2008. At the end of 2016, Inditex presented its first Uterque brand store in the Ukrainian market in the Gulliver trade center.
Metro Cash & Carry Ukraine LLC (Metro C&C, Kyiv) will launch an online store for the clients of HoReCa food service industry, a company’s press service said.
“We believe that personalized work with the key clients is a pledge of the successful development of our business, and therefore we are pleased to announce the first stage of our own e-commerce solution for the HoReCa clients,” a company’s press release quotes its marketing director Anton Zhorin as saying.
According to the company, the range of commodity items of the online store includes Metro trademark, as well as products of its own import. The company also plans to expand the range by the end of the year by increasing supplies of non-food products.
According to a press release, a pilot delivery will cover Kyiv and Kyiv region, and by the end of 2019 will reach Odesa, Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipro and Ivano-Frankivsk.
Tino Zeiske, who previously held the position of Global Director for Talent Management and Recruitment at Metro AG (headquartered in Dusseldorf, Germany), has been appointed new CEO of METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine.
Olivier Langlet, who has held the post of CEO at METRO Cash and Carry Ukraine, since April 2019, has been appointed CEO of MAKRO Cash & Carry (the Czech Republic) within Metro AG, it said.
METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine was founded in 2003. It consists of 23 METRO shopping centers in the largest cities of Ukraine, namely Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Poltava, Lviv, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Kryvy Rih, Mariupol, Zaporizhia, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa and Mykolaiv, and also two wholesale outlets in Ternopil and Lutsk.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has started an investigation on the indices of possible anti-competitive coordinated actions when fixing price on the energy coal of state-run mines for the needs of thermal power plants (TPP) and combined heat and power supply plants (CHPP).
“The committee established that within 2017-2018 Energy and Coal Industry Ministry of Ukraine held meetings with state-owned enterprise Derzhvuhlepostach, PJSC Donbasenergo, LLC DTEK Energo, Ukrinterenergo State Foreign Trade Company, PJSC Cherkasy Khimvolokno, LLC TehNova company to reach the agreements over fixing prices for coal products of state-run enterprises for TPPs and CHPs that is confirmed by the protocols of these meetings,” reads by regulator-issued report.
According to the AMCU, these companies are potential competitors in the electricity and steam coal markets, respectively, the support of these companies to increase prices for coal products for TPPs and CHPs to a certain level could lead to distortion of competition.
In this regard, the committee began consideration of the case regarding anti-competitive actions of these companies, violation by the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry of law on the protection of economic competition in the form of inducing business entities to take anti-competitive concerted actions and promotion of such violations.
As reported, in recent years Ukraine’s Energy and Coal Industry Ministry during meetings recommended prices for coal sales of state mines for thermal power plants.
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of August 23
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
The Bolt taxi service (formerly Taxify) plans to launch a Bolt Food delivery service in Ukraine in 2020.
“The demand for food delivery in Ukraine is quite high. We see great potential and are working on launching a food delivery service in Ukraine in 2020,” a company’s press service quotes its regional manager in Ukraine Taras Potichny as saying.
According to him, the first Bolt Food service will start working in Tallinn. By the end of 2019, the service also may launch in Latvia, Lithuania, South Africa, and on other European and African markets in 2020.
As reported, Bolt plans to launch a scooter rental service in Ukraine and is mulling Kyiv, Lviv and Odesa as possible launch points.
In early March Taxify was renamed Bolt.
