UBC Group, a trade and industrial holding in Kharkiv, working in the field of refrigeration and promotional products, intends in the beginning of September to launch the first stage of a Green Cool plant with an area of about 20,000 square meters to produce refrigerator equipment in the industrial park Vinnytsia Cluster of Refrigeration Engineering.
Vitaliy Pohosian, the director of the Vinnytsia City Council economy and investment department, told Interfax-Ukraine that on August 27 an agreement was signed on the creation and functioning of an industrial park between Vinnytsia Mayor Serhiy Morhunov, Ukrainian Brewery Company (UBC Group) and Industrial-Investment Company LLC, which became the managing company of the industrial park based on the results of an open tender.
As reported, Vinnytsia Cluster of Refrigeration Engineering was introduced by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine in the register of industrial parks in May 2017.
The expert said the necessary procedures for attracting the managing company were made, competitive conditions were developed, the business plan of the park development was considered.
“This work, which takes a lot of time, was actually completed by signing an agreement with the managing company,” he said.
Pohosian said today it is the only industrial park of a cluster type in Ukraine, initiated by Vinnytsia City Council and Ukrainian Brewery Company.
Gross office space take-up in Ukraine in H1 2018 grew by 36% year-over-year, reaching some 80,000 square meters, according to a study of CBRE Ukraine consulting company (Kyiv).
“Taking into account the growing pace of economic recovery, we can expect a corresponding increase in demand from tenants. The office segment remains the most attractive in the commercial real estate market, so new requests for large-scale office space and a shortage of high-quality office buildings should accelerate the growth of the new speculative offer in the near future. Large office projects that are in the early stages of construction, an increase in speculative supply can be expected already in the next two or three years, and the quality and rental rates differentiation will continue,” Managing Partner of CBRE Ukraine Serhiy Serhiyenko said.
According to the study, the upward dynamics of business activity in the first six months of 2018 contributed to the growth of tenants’ demand for transactions to expand the already leased and new office space.
According to the company, the total rental activity in the first half of 2018 was approximately 101,000 square meters. In the structure of new transactions for the rental of office premises, 61% of the total volume of demand was for relocation deals, 29% for expansion deals, mostly represented by IT and telecommunications tenants, 9% by “moving with extension” type transactions, and 3% – rent by companies that first entered the market.
As the company reported, in the first half of the year the offer on the office market in Kyiv increased by 2,200 square meters, so the total supply remained virtually unchanged at 1.72 million square meters, and the new offer was presented by the office building as part of Unit City’s first stage.
According to CBRE Ukraine, the total area of quality premises in Kyiv at the stage of development at the end of the first half of the year was about 120,000 square meters, of which about 65,000 square meters is planned to be put into operation before the end of 2018.
As a result of a limited new offer and suspended rental activity, the average vacancy decreased by 5 p.p. from the beginning of the year, to 12% from 17%. Declared rental rates increased by 10-20%, while the highest effective rental rate remained stable at $23 per square meter a month.
Public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia in January-June 2018 saw UAH 468.36 million of net profit, which is 3.82 times more than a year ago, the company has reported in its financial statements on its website.
Pretax profit was UAH 736.598 million, which is 21.35% more than a year ago.
Net sales revenue over the period came to UAH 39.969 billion, and the production cost reached UAH 38.545 billion.
Labor costs in H1 2018 grew by 43.3%, to UAH 16.535 billion.
As reported, referring to the audited consolidated financial statements of Ukrzaliznytsia for 2017, the company saw UAH 114.55 million of net profit compared with UAH 7.322 billion of loss in 2017, while total loss came to UAH 77.24 million compared with UAH 7.43 billion a year ago.
Oilseeds harvest in Ukraine could grow by 1.5 million tonnes this year compared with 2017, to 21.7 million, according to the UkrAgroConsult consulting agency.
“According to the results of this year, we forecast growth of the harvest to 21.7 million tonnes for three main oil crops – sunflower, rapeseeds and soybeans,” Director General of the UkrAgroConsult consulting agency Serhiy Feofilov said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, Ukrainian farmers continue expanding crop areas, increasing yield and general production of sunflower and other oilseeds, as these crops are currently the most profitable.
“Now the prices for wheat and barley are very close to each other, it is about $230 per tonne FOB, but even six months ago wheat was at around $180-190 per tonne FOB. The prices for corn are about $185 per tonne FOB, which is due to expectations of a high harvest, but even these prices are $30 higher than a year ago,” the UkrAgroConsult director general said.
At the same time, he said that even now grain crops will not be able to compete significantly with oilseeds, although the prices for grain have grown by 15-20%.
“Presumably, the main reason for the increase in grain prices will be the current unfavorable weather conditions in the three major grain-producing regions of the planet, but probably in 12-18 months the prices for grain will return to the previous level,” Feofilov said.
In his opinion, despite the increase in oilseed crushing capacities, the demand for raw materials and the supply of oil, the growth of exports is not accompanied by an increase in foreign exchange earnings, which is the fundamental reason for the trend towards a decrease in the profitability of the oilseed complex of Ukraine.
“Currently, the prices of vegetable oils, including sunflower, are at the lowest level over the past decade – about $700 per tonne FOB. It should be emphasized that the export of oilseed products – oil, meal, soy and rape is about 40% of all agrarian and food exports of Ukraine,” Feofilov said.
According to the forecasts of UkrAgroConsult, in Ukraine the production and stocks of both sunflower and sunflower oil will be significant by the end of the next season, and this will put pressure on prices both domestic and export.
“It is likely that sunflower areas (6.5 million hectares in 2018) will be stable in the structure of crops in Ukraine in the future, which is due to the considerable demand and crushing capacities, which in Ukraine are 20 million tonnes,” Feofilov said.
The director general of the consulting agency said that the creation and promotion of a national brand of sunflower oil is an effective and proven tool for overcoming the tendency of falling profitability.
“Manufacturers now do not think about creating a national brand, most likely because they are getting enough margin, but the situation may change, moreover, it is already changing. Export in physical terms, in tonnes, is a trend towards growth, and exports in revenue at cost, in dollars – a downward trend. Branding is expensive, we are talking about hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars, but the results will be extremely positive,” he said.
Dynamo Kyiv Football Club could not defeat Amsterdam Ajax in the final round of the Champions League qualification. After the defeat in Amsterdam a week ago with a score of 1:3, the Ukrainian team played with Ajax in a draw at the home match.
Thus, the sum of two matches in the group stage of the Champions League is Ajax, and Dynamo will play in the group tournament of the Europe League.
The only representative of Ukraine in the Champions League will be Shakhtar. Vorskla will definitely play in the Europe League. Zaria competes for another ticket to the LE in the German Leipzig on Thursday.
Real wages in Ukraine in July 2018 compared to July 2017 increased by 14.7%, compared to June 2018 by 1%, the State Statistics Service has reported. It said the average nominal wage of full-time employees in July 2018 compared to June 2018 rose by 0.3%, in annual terms by 24.9%, amounting to UAH 9,170, while in June it was UAH 9,141, in May UAH 8,725, in April some UAH 8,480, in March some UAH 8,382, in February some UAH 7,828, and in January UAH 7,711.
According to statistics, the largest growth in the average wage of full-time employees in July 2018 compared with July 2017 was recorded in Lviv region (by 30.4%), Ternopil (28%), Poltava (27.9%), Ivano-Frankivsk (27.2%), Zhytomyr (27.1%), Kyiv (27%), Dnipropetrovsk (26.9%), Zakarpattia (26.5%), Volyn (26.4%), Vinnytsia (25.7%), Rivne (24.9%), Odesa (24.7%), Chernihiv (24.5%), Kirovohrad (24.4%), Khmelnytsky (23.9%), Zaporizhia (23.5%), Kharkiv (22.7%), Chernivtsi (22.6%), Cherkasy (22.5%), Mykolaiv (22.4%), Sumy (21.4%) and Kherson (20.7%) regions and Kyiv city (21.2%).
Wage growth in Donetsk and Luhansk regions (excluding part of the joint forces operation) was 23.8% and 31.7% respectively.
The highest level of wages in the past month was recorded in Kyiv at UAH 13,836, the lowest one in Chernihiv region at UAH 7,168.
