Department of Tourism and Promotions at Kyiv State City Administration plans to increase the flow of foreign tourists in the capital by 25% compared to 2017, to 2 million people, head of the department Anton Taranenko has said.
“Our plan for this year is 2 million foreign tourists, this year we almost got closer to the level of 2013. This summer has become record in the past four years. Over half a year later, in 2018, more than 850,000 foreign tourists visited Kyiv, whereas in the similar the period of 2013 there were 660,000,” he said at a press briefing on Monday.
According to Taranenko, the “profile” of tourists visiting Kyiv in recent years has changed: if in 2013-2014 more than 50% of them were from Russia and post-Soviet countries, then the top five in the past year are Belarus, Israel, the United States, Germany and Turkey.
“Belarus is in the lead due to the fact that a large number of Belarusians come to Kyiv, get accommodated here for a day or two, and then go to the Black Sea coast, that is, it is short-term tourism. Israel is growing every year, and representatives of the tourist cluster of the United States and Germany are going to Kyiv due to the return of cruises to Kyiv. Turkey is always in the top five, and there is also a flow from Italy, France and the UK,” he said.
According to him, the segment of foreign leisure tourists has been growing recently.
Taranenko told Interfax-Ukraine in a comment that the ratio of “conventional” tourists to those who travel to attend an event or on business trip in the first half of 2018 was 40% to 60%, while in 2017 business tourism accounted for 70% of the entire flow. According to him, this equalizes the occupancy of hotels in the leisure season (from May to October) and in the traditional business travel season (September-May).
“In general, hotels feel much better than in previous years. The average occupancy rate from May to September is 45-50%,” he said.
Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP) intends by the end of 2018 to launch the first stage of a 10 MW biogas complex at Vinnytsia poultry farm.
“Investments in the first stage of the biogas complex will amount to about $20-22 million. The second phase is still under development,” financial director of the company Viktoria Kapeliushna told Interfax-Ukraine.
In addition, this year the agroholding continues to invest in the purchase of grain wagons.
“In 2018 we purchased 150 grain wagons and 50 cars last year for a total of about $8 million,” she said.
Myronivsky Hliboproduct is the largest poultry producer in Ukraine. It is also engaged in production of grain, sunflower oil, and meat.
MHP supplies cooled chicken half-carcasses to the European market, which are processed, in particular, at its enterprises in the Netherlands and Slovakia.
The land bank of the company at the end of 2017 was about 370,000 hectares.
The founder and majority shareholder of MHP is Ukrainian businessman Yuriy Kosiuk.
Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises intend to increase steel production by 5.6% in September 2018 in comparison with the planned figures for August, to 1.9 million tonnes from 1.8 million tonnes.
According to information from the Ukrmetalurgprom association, the plan for September also envisages the increase in total rolled steel production by 6.3%, to 1.7 million tonnes from 1.6 million tonnes, pig iron by 5.6%, to 1.9 million tonnes from 1.8 million tonnes.
According to the union, in July cast iron production stood at 1.77 million tonnes (108% from June 2018), that of steel some 1.82 million tonnes (106%), and rolled goods some 1.5 million tonnes (99%).
Ukraine in January-July 2018 produced iron ore concentrate in the amount of 35.28 million tonnes (99.7% against the same period in 2017), sinter some 18.13 million tonnes (106%), pellets some 12.55 million tonnes (110%), gross coke (6% moisture) some 6.31 million tonnes (106%), pig iron some 11.9 million tonnes (109% taking into account the work of enterprises in the uncontrolled area in January-February 2017, 114% excluding them), steel some 12.2 million tonnes (103% and 106% respectively), rolled products some 10.75 million tonnes (105% and 110% respectively), and pipes some 647,000 tonnes (108%).
The report says despite the loss of part of the capacity in the uncontrolled territory, in 2018 compared to the same period in 2017 there was an increase in production of the main types of goods.
“This became possible due to the stabilization of providing the enterprises with iron ore and coke, as well as the commissioning of blast furnace No. 3 at Zaporizhstal after reconstruction,” the report reads.
The State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) has put up for sale 210 lots of small-scale privatization worth over UAH 113 million, Acting Chairman of the SPF Vitaliy Trubarov said on Facebook. The majority of the companies subject to privatization are situated in Vinnytsia, Poltava, and Lviv regions, while the most expensive lots are in Zaporizhia regions, according to Trubarov’s post. “A potential buyer has 30 to 35 days since the date of the offer for sale to submit documents, make a guarantee deposit, check the facility, its technical and financial reports,” he said.
Some 200 small-scale privatization auctions are scheduled for September. As reported, small-scale privatization involves the sale of state-owned or municipal property, the value of which does not exceed UAH 250 million. The SPF has fully completed including 716 facilities subject to small-scale privatization in 2018 in the ProZorro.Sale base.
Ukrainian coke chemical plants in January-July 2018 increased production of 6% moisture metallurgical coke by 6.1% compared to the same period last year, to 6.311 million tonnes.
The Ukrkoks association (Dnipro) told Interfax-Ukraine some 944,000 tonnes of coke were produced in July.
Ukrkoks Director General Anatoliy Starovoit said coke chemical plants continue to work as normal, providing metallurgical enterprises with coke according to the existing production plans.
“However, in recent days the demand on the part of metallurgists for the supply of coke has decreased: for example, in the last 10-15 days the daily production of gross coke was on average 25,000-26,000 tonnes, while earlier the figure stood at 28,000-29,000 tonnes. Probably, blast furnace operators are repairing the aggregates or for another reason. Coke has not been imported in recent months,” the association said.
At the same time, it is noted that imports of coking coal increased and coking plants are provided with coal in sufficient quantities.
According to preliminary data, in 2018 it is planned to increase pig iron smelting by 12.1% compared to the previous year, to 22.5 million tonnes. This volume of cast iron production requires 11.250 million tonnes of coke (an increase of 8.2% compared to 2017), which, in turn, requires 17.8-17.9 million tonnes of coking coal (an increase of 24.6%).
In 2018, the volume of supplies of coking coals of Ukrainian extraction is expected to be about 3.3 million tonnes, while 14.6 million tonnes is to be imported.
Previously, the plan for 2018 foresaw the volume of pig iron smelting in the amount of 22 million tonnes.
The volume of sales of services by service enterprises in Ukraine in Q2 2018 amounted to UAH 181.7 billion, which in comparable prices is higher than the level of Q2 2017 by 5.8%, according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine.
According to its data, the volume of services provided to the population amounted to 22.5% of the total volume of services sold.
As reported, the volume of sales of services by service enterprises in Ukraine increased by 3% in Q1 2018, by 0.6% in Q4 2017, by 3.1% in Q3 2017, by 7.7% in Q2 2017, and by 14.8% in Q1 2017.
