Wood industry of Ukraine from January 2019 switched to new national wood standards harmonized with the European ones, the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine has reported.
According to the report, from 2019, commercial (round) timber will be distributed into four quality classes (A-D) without mentioning the purpose of using it. A type timber is the highest class timber, B – medium class timber, C – below medium with minor defects and D – timber that does not meet the requirements of A-C types, but could be used for lumber. The rest of round timber is divided into industrial (length of 2-4 meters, could be used for production of chips or fuel) and nonindustrial (up to 2 meters of length, could be used for fuel). The agency said that earlier timber was divided into three types and types depending on the purpose of using it.
The agency said that in Ukraine there are additional technical conditions for classification of those types of timber that are not regulated in Europe due to the fact that their volume is rather small in Europe (birch, alder, hornbeam, acacia, aspen, linden, cherry and other trees.)
In addition, from January 1, 2019, internal consumption of Ukrainian round logs is restricted to 25 million cubic meters a year. The law amending some Ukrainian laws regarding preservation of Ukrainian forests and preventing illegal imports of logs contains this requirement.
According to the law, punishment for illegal logging and destruction of forest and young trees is toughened from January 1, 2019.
Ukrainian airlines carried around 12.5 million passengers in 2018, which is 18% more compared with 2017, according to tentative data from the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine posted on its website. According to the report, passenger flow via the country’s airports first in the history exceeded 20 million passengers, growing by 25%, to 20.55 million people.
Transportation of cargos and mail grew by 21%, to 100,000 tonnes.
The share of low cost airlines of the total services provided increased to a record hitting 30%.
Growth in passenger flow at the Lviv international airport was 48%, and 1.598 million passengers used airline’s services. The passenger flow of the Boryspil international airport was 12.6 million passengers in 2018, which is almost 20% more than in 2017.
As reported, in January-September 2018, Ukrainian airlines boosted passenger transportation by 18.1% year-over-year, to 9.671 million people.
Eight Ukrainians startups are representing Ukraine at one of the world’s largest consumer electronics exhibition Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2019, which is taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada, the press service of the Ukrainian embassy in the United States has said.
“Ukraine is represented by its own technology stage Ukraine Tech Pavilion at one of the world’s largest consumer electronics exhibition Consumer Electronics Show 2019, which is taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada, from January 8 to 11,” the embassy said in a statement.
The startups are presenting various ideas and developments from modular lighting of photo studios to a food 3D printer, according to the statement.
“The participation of the Ukrainian companies in such a large-scale event as CES 2019 demonstrates the importance of developing the innovative vector in Ukraine’s cooperation with the United States and the interest of potential investors in Ukrainian ideas,” the embassy said.
Ukraine in 2018 increased imports of coal and anthracite by 8.1% (by 1.610 million tonnes) compared to 2017, to 21.388 million tonnes. According to the State Fiscal Service, coal was imported for $3.035 billion, which is 10.6% more than in 2017.
At the same time, coal imports from the Russian Federation amounted to $1.822 billion (its share in imports was 60.02%), the United States to $907.173 million (29.89%), Canada to $162.546 million (5.36%), other countries to $143.937 million (4.74%). In addition, Ukraine last year exported 63,798 tonnes of coal and anthracite for $8.649 million, in particular to the Russian Federation for $4.597 million, Slovakia for $3.201 million, Moldova for $724,000, and other countries for $127,000.
Ukraine in 2018 exported electricity worth $331.942 million, including $34.323 million in December alone. Hungary bought electricity worth $189.958 million, Poland $78.763 million, Moldova $53.144 million, and other countries $10.078 million, Ukraine’s State Fiscal Service said.
Exports of Ukrainian electricity in monetary terms in 2018 increased by 40.9% compared to 2017 ($235.541 million).
Over the period under review, Ukraine imported electricity worth $1.402 million, in particular, electricity imports from the Russian Federation were estimated at $1.327 million, from Belarus at $0.067 million, from Moldova at $0.008 million.
As reported, Ukraine planned in 2018 to increase exports of electricity to the EU and Moldova by 13.3% from 2017 to 5.855 billion kWh. According to the forecast for 2018, deliveries from the Burshtyn TPP energy island to Hungary, Slovakia, Romania will be 3.6 billion kWh, to Poland 1.2 billion kWh, and to Moldova 1.055 billion kWh.
Ukraine in 2011 exported 6.4 billion kWh of electricity worth $399.963 million, 2012 – 9.7 billion kWh for $574.819 million, 2013 – 9.9 billion kWh for $580.195 million, 2014 – 8.1 billion kWh for $487.185 million, in 2015 – 3.6 billion kWh for $150.056 million, in 2016 – 4 billion kWh for $152.063 million, and in 2017 – 5.2 billion kWh for $235.541 million.
The seaports of Ukraine in 2018 handled over 135 million tonnes of cargo, which is 2.4 million tonnes or 1.8% more than in 2017. According to live information from the Ministry of Infrastructure, posted on its website, exports in ports amounted to 98.9 million tonnes, which is 383,000 tonnes more than last year, imports to 23.78 million tonnes.
In 2018, transshipment of containers in Ukrainian seaports amounted to 10.93 million tonnes (container handling grew by 11%).
Domestic shipments between the seaports of Ukraine amounted to 2.1 million tonnes, which is 14% (260,000 tonnes) more than last year. Dredging works are continuing at nine sites in the seaports, two projects in the ports of Olvia and Kherson have been prepared for concession. The number of ship journeys along the Dnipro River was 16,390, which is 11% more compared to last year. In general, in 2018 about 10 million tonnes of cargo were transported by river.
