Coal mining enterprises of Ukraine in January-October 2018 reduced extraction of coal by 4.1% (by 1.189 million tonnes) compared to the same period in 2017, to 27.688 million tonnes.
The Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry told Interfax-Ukraine production of coking coal decreased by 11.7% (by 652,500 tonnes), to 4.908 million tonnes, steam coal by 2.3% % (536,800 tonnes), to 22.779 million tonnes.
In October 2018, production of run-of-mine (ROM) coal grew by 5% compared to the same month in 2017, to 2.839 million tonnes.
Coal mining companies managed by the ministry for the ten months ending October 2018 reduced production by 13.3%, to 3.454 million tonnes, in particular production of coking coal was down by 42.8%, to 436,000 tonnes, steam coal decreased by 6.3%, to 3.018 million tonnes.
The mines of Donetsk region for the ten months of this year provided production of 9.253 million tonnes of coal (2.6% less compared to January-October 2017), Luhansk region some 427,300 tonnes (down by 73.3%), Dnipropetrovsk region some 16.594 million tonnes (1.1% more), Lviv region some 1.324 million tonnes (3.8% up), and Volyn region some 89,400 tonnes (1.9% up).
Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers in 2018 has transferred 1.46 million hectares (ha) of agricultural farmland to more than 659 amalgamated territorial communities (ATC), also known as merged/unified territorial communities, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said.
“We began transferring the land in February 2018. Over the year we gave 659 communities around 1.46 million hectares. Next year we will continue the process, so every newly formed, merged territorial community receives agricultural farmland,” Groysman said on Facebook. He added that on December 22 the government transferred more than 500,000 hectares to municipal ownership of 174 ATCs from 20 regions, completing the process for the communities created before 2018.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food said the transfer of agricultural farmland to ATCs would continue in 2018 for the 185 communities which were formed in 2018.
As earlier reported, the government on January 31, 2018, adopted resolution No. 60-r on transferring ownership of state-owned agricultural land parcels to newly merged communities. The policy facilitated decentralization of land ownership without changing the current legislation.
Ukraine’s State Service for Geodesy, Cartography & Cadastre began the transfer of land from February 1, 2018.
During the first week, 99% of ATCs signed agreements with the service as the first step for receiving the land parcels.
According to the government, some 485 newly merged communities received 958,900 ha of state-owned farmland in the 11 months of 2018.
Norwegian-based Scatec Solar and partners have closed financing for the 30 MW Kamianka project in Cherkasy region in central Ukraine with a total investment of EUR 35 million, the company’s press service said. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and FMO, the Dutch development bank have signed credit agreements for the non-recourse debt financing of the project. The credit facilities amount to EUR 24.5 million and cover 70% of the total project costs.
Scatec Solar says it is in the process of securing additional equity partners for the project.
Scatec Solar will be the lead equity investor in the project; it will also be the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) provider and provide Operation & Maintenance as well as Asset Management services to the power plant. Construction is starting early 2019 with commercial operation in the fourth quarter 2019.
The company says the project will be implemented under the country’s 10-year feed-in-tariff scheme and is expected to produce about 39 GWh per year. Public land will be leased for an extended time period and the solar power plant is expected to deliver power also beyond the feed-in-tariff period.
Scatec Solar is an integrated independent solar power producer, delivering rapidly deployable and sustainable clean energy worldwide. Scatec Solar develops, builds, owns, operates and maintains solar power plants and has an installation track record of more than 1 GW. The company has a total of 1.5 GW in operation and under construction in Argentina, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Honduras, Jordan, Malaysia, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, and Ukraine.
As reported, Ukraine’s parliament on November 20, 2018, passed draft law No. 8449-d in the first reading to introduce “green” auctions from 2020. The legislative initiative envisages, among other things, a reduction in the feed-in tariff for solar power plants by 25% in 2020, to be followed by a 2.5% decrease each year.
More than 60% of Ukrainians are not satisfied with how democracy has developed in Ukraine and more than 54% think they would be unable to resist a government decision limiting their lawful rights and interests, a poll conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine with the support of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation has shown. According to the results of the opinion poll announced at a press conference in Kyiv on December 21, 26,3% of those polled are not happy at all with how democracy has developed in Ukraine, 35,1% are rather not happy, 16.1% are rather happy, 1.4% are entirely happy, and 21.1% were unable to answer.
When asked about their feelings about the future of Ukraine, 20,1% of the people said that feel optimistic, 18.2% said they felt desperate, 23.4% said they felt confused, 14.1% said they felt pessimistic, 43.3% said they felt hopeful, 37.6% said they felt anxious, 15.2% said they felt interested, 21.1% said they felt scared, 11.5% said they felt confident, 3.7% said they felt nonchalant, 5.1% said they felt happy, and 4.2% said they felt joyful.
Also, 47.9% of those polled said the chances for mass rallies in their towns against declining living standards and for the protection of their rights are unlikely, and 29.1% said such chances are rather high.
In addition, 54.1% of the respondents said if the government of Ukraine made a decision that would limit their lawful rights and interests, they would not be able to do anything with it, 15.4% said they would be able to undertake something, and 30.5% could not provide an answer.
The poll was conducted from September 13 to 29, 2018 in all the regions of Ukraine for the exception of Crimea and the occupied territories in Donbas. A total of 1,800 people were polled.
The ongoing strengthening of the hryvnia is a consequence of the high value of the national currency due to a tight monetary and weighted fiscal policy, as well as growing earnings from exports, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Oleh Churiy has said.
“There are several factors that are conducive to the stronger hryvnia: these are, first of all, a tight monetary policy, a balanced fiscal policy, and the third important factor is that this year Ukraine has gathered a harvest that was a record over the years of independence. All this means export earnings which have reinforced what is happening today,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Saturday.
As reported, the hryvnia forex rate has been strengthening since the end of October. After the introduction of martial law on November 26 until December 26, the national currency dropped sharply to UAH 28.315 per U.S. dollar. However, after a couple of days, the hryvnia resumed its positive momentum, which has accelerated sharply since December 17. The hryvnia forex rate on the interbank forex market on Friday strengthened to UAH 27.385 per U.S. dollar from UAH 27.515 at the end of the previous working day. Quotes of the hryvnia at the end of trading stood at UAH 27.37-27.40 per U.S. dollar.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) under the Ukraine Public Transport Framework project to improve public transport infrastructure signed four loan agreements worth EUR 38 million in total with trolleybus utilities of Mariupol, Kryvy Rih, Kharkiv, and Zhytomyr in January-November 2018 against municipal guarantees.
In particular, it signed a EUR 13 million agreement with municipally owned Mariupol Tram and Trolleybus Administration in July, while agreements worth at EUR 8 million each was signed in September with municipally owned Urban Trolleybus (Kryvy Rih) and municipally owned Trolleybus Depot No. 2 (Kharkiv). Late in November, the EBRD signed an agreement with municipally owned Zhytomyr Tram and Trolleybus Administration to the tune of EUR 9 million.
Under the project, the loans are additionally backed by EBRD loans from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and grants from the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P).
According to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, in the case of Kryvy Rih, the city provided a guarantee for EUR 10 million, as the bank gives its municipal enterprise an additional EUR 2 million loan from the Clean Technology Fund. CTF loans for Mariupol and Kharkiv also accounted to EUR 2 million.
The loans are issued for 12 years with repayment in equal parts every six months after a two-year grace period.
Kryvy Rih’s interest rate on principal debt is set at 5.75% and is pegged to the rate of 6-month Euribor rate with the possibility of lowering. It depends on the city’s rating and the borrower’s compliance with the required financial ratios. At the same time, the rate for a CTF loan is only 0.75%.
