The harvest and quality of sugar beets in 2019 will be lower than expected due to extra moisture of upper layers of soil and high air humidity caused by heavy rains, the press service of the Ukrtsukor national association of sugar producers has said.
According to the association, rains washed out part of the sugar beet crops, and high humidity contributes to the development of plant diseases. In addition, heavy rains are washing out nitrogen from the soil, as a result of which the growth and development of sugar beet deteriorates.
“Taking into account all the factors, we can predict that the sugar content and yield will be lower than the expected level, which, in turn, will affect the production of sugar. According to our forecasts, this year we will be able to get within 1.1-1.2 million tonnes of sugar. This volume can create a certain shortage in the market,” the association said.
As reported, according to the previous forecast of Ukrtsukor, the production of sugar was projected at the level of 1.3-1.4 million tonnes (a fall of 23-29% compared with 2018).
According to the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food of Ukraine, as of May 13, 2019, 217,400 hectares of sugar beet were sown (88.9% of the forecast).
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has started the second stage of the resilience assessment of banks – the asset quality review (AQR) confirmed by an external auditor and started stress testing of 29 banks, according to a survey of the banking sector posted on the website of the NBU.
According to preliminary estimates, the number of banks requiring capital injections in the baseline and negative stress test scenario will decrease compared to the previous year, the central bank said in the survey.
As the regulator recalled, by the end of 2019, banks need to form a capital conservation buffer in the amount of 0.625%. It will become mandatory for each bank from the beginning of 2020, when the first stage of the introduction of the capital conservation buffer will begin. In the future, the size of the buffer will increase gradually every year and will reach 2.5% from January 1, 2023. The formation of the corresponding buffer will ensure that banks create a stock of capital in excess of the minimum requirements. In the future, this will provide an opportunity of absorbing the possible losses that may arise in a general economic recession, without violating the capital adequacy ratio.
The NBU also announced that during the second quarter the method for determining systemically important banks will be changed and an updated list of such banks will be made public. In the future, the NBU will require them to form a buffer of system importance.
As reported, in 2019, 29 banks that account for 93% of the banking system will undergo stress testing in addition to the AQR. These 29 banks were rated as the largest ones as of November 1, 2018 by three indicators: risk-weighted assets, retail deposits, and retail loans.
The following banks will be tested: state-owned PrivatBank, Oschadbank, Ukreximbank and Ukrgasbank, private Alfa-Bank, Raiffeisen Bank Aval, FUIB, UkrSibbank, OTP Bank, Credit Agricole Bank, Pivdenny Bank, TAScombank and Kredobank. The list also includes Sberbank, ProCredit Bank, Ukrsotsbank (the results of stress testing for the bank will be assessed taking into account the dynamics of its joining Alfa-Bank), Megabank, Credit Dnipro Bank, Universal Bank, A-Bank, Prominvestbank, Idea Bank, Bank Vostok, MTB Bank, Bank of Investments and Savings, Industrial Bank, Bank Globus, International Investment Bank and Bank Forward.
According to the resilience assessment findings, the regulator will determine the required levels for the regulatory capital adequacy ratio (N2) and the common equity adequacy ratio (N3). The required level of the capital adequacy ratios will be estimated in order to ensure banks’ compliance with the minimum requirements of N2 and N3 according to the baseline scenario (10% and 7%, respectively) and less strict requirements to the said ratios under the adverse scenario (5% and 3.5%, respectively) throughout the entire forecast period.
In 2018, the NBU has launched resilience assessment of banks that includes stress testing a list of banks defined by the NBU.
National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom increased power generation by 9.9% year-on-year in January-April 2019, to 30.365 billion kWh, the company has said.
The electricity generation target was met by 100.3%.
Electricity sales totaled 22.294 billion kWh compared to 28.643 billion kWh in January-April 2018. Energoatom’s share of total electricity sold to Energomarket state enterprise was 56%, and the share of total electricity generation in the country was 54%.
The company sold electricity worth UAH 19.771 billion (including VAT) on the wholesale power market, which is 15.6% more than in January-April 2018.
Capital investment totaled UAH 2.112 billion compared with UAH 2.739 billion in January-April 2018.
The company sent UAH 5.637 billion to the budgets of all levels and insurance payments came to UAH 880 million.
Capacity use was 76%, which was 6.9 p.p. more than a year previously.
Five malfunctions were recorded at Ukrainian nuclear power plants in the reporting period, two less than a year ago. Radiation levels at Ukrainian NPPs were normal over the period.
Energoatom is the operator of all four Ukrainian-based operating nuclear power plants, which have 15 VVER reactors with an overall generating capacity of 13.835 gigawatts.
The company also operates the Tashlyk hydroelectric pumped storage power plant with a 302 MW capacity in a turbine mode and Oleksandrivka hydropower plant with an 11.5 MW capacity.
UTG consulting company (Kyiv) has signed an exclusive brokerage contract for the second line of the Appolo shopping mall in Dnipro. “Currently, UTG is looking for tenants for the second line of Appolo. The second line of the mall, located on the 36, Titova Street includes three levels with a total area of 40,000 square meters, 30,000 square meters of which are for leasing. The launch is planned in Q3 2019,” UTG said.
According to the concept developed by the company’s specialists, the facility will store a food supermarket with an area of 4,400 square meters, a cinema of 3,000 square meters, operators of goods for children, a fashion gallery, a large area of restaurants and food courts.
“After the launch of the second line, it is planned that the daily attendance of the shopping mall will be 20,000 people per day. Thus, it will become one of the most visited and popular commercial properties in Dnipro,” Director at UTG Yevhenia Loktionova said.
UTG (Kyiv) was founded in 2011. Its core business is accompanying of development projects.
More than 100 real estate projects were launched with the participation of UTG. Among them are Lavina Mall, New Way, Ocean Plaza, Gulliver, Piramida and Komod shopping centers (all based in Kyiv), Megamall (Vinnytsia), Most City Center (Dnipro), French Boulevard (Kharkiv) and Global.UA shopping centers (Zhytomyr).
According to the unified public register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, as of April 1, 2019, the share of 30% in the share capital of UTG LLC (Kyiv) belongs to Melnyk, 65% to Vadym Neposedov, and 5% to Artem Neposedov.
Ukraine at the Ukraine Reform Conference in Canada (Toronto) in July 2019 plans to present a government investment project on construction of an ice arena in Kyiv for UAH 1.68 billion, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine has reported. The proposal was announced by First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv at the meeting of the interdepartmental commission on the issues of the investment projects headed by him held at the end of April.
The commission supported his initiative to provide the first budget financing of the project now, rather than in July, as planned, in order to begin developing project documentation and have time to prepare a project presentation for the conference in Toronto.
According to the minutes of the meeting of the commission, the funding for this project from the national budget has not yet been provided.
The executor of the project is the state-owned enterprise central training sport base Ice Stadium. Its implementation is scheduled for 2019-2021, and in 2019, it is planned to allocate UAH 5 million.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) predicts that export of vegetable oil from Ukraine in the 2019/20 agricultural year (September-August) will be 6.12 million tonnes, which is 90,000 tonnes less than in 2018/19 agri-year (6.21 million tonnes).
According to the May report, forecast for oilseed crushing for 2019/20 agri-year were improved by 150,000 tonnes, to 16.8 million tonnes.
USDA said that next agri-year sunflower seed production in Ukraine could decrease by 200,000 tonnes year-over-year, to 14.8 million tonnes, meal – by 123,000 tonnes, to 5.99 million tonnes and oil – by 129,000 tonnes, to 6.24 million tonnes.
Export of sunflower seeds in 2019/20 agri-year should grow by 50%, to 150,000 tonnes, meal – by 6%, to 4.7 million tonnes and oil – by 3.4%, to 5.6 million tonnes.
