One troy ounce=31.10 grams
The spending of funds under the program of providing public grants to buy agricultural machinery in 2018 grew to UAH 912.9 million from UAH 134.1 million a year ago, and the number of agricultural companies that participated in the program of partial compensation for purchase of Ukrainian-made agricultural machinery rose to 7,043 from 1,220.
Agricultural enterprises bought 17,182 units of agricultural machinery for UAH 4.4 billion in 2018, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv wrote on his Facebook page. In 2017, companies bought 2,906 units of agricultural machinery under the public grants program, he said. “This mechanism of support for Ukrainian agricultural machinery manufacturers allows us to simultaneously stimulate modernization in the agricultural and industrial sector, increase the localization of agricultural machinery production in Ukraine and develop Ukrainian industrial production,” Kubiv said.
As reported, the budget for 2018 provided for UAH 945 million to reduce the cost of agricultural equipment. The 2019 budget for government support of the agricultural and industrial complex is announced to be about UAH 6 billion. In particular, grants for the purchase of agricultural equipment amount to some UAH 0.9 billion.
Ukrainian metal companies saw a growth of 14.7% in foreign currency revenues from exports of ferrous metals in 2018 year-over-year, to $9.937 billion.
According to customs statistics published by the State Fiscal Service, the share of ferrous metals of total income from exports was 20.99% compared to 20.03% from a year ago.
In December 2018 alone, receipts from ferrous metal exports amounted to $760.141 million.
In 2018, Ukraine increased imports of similar products by 20.4%, to $1.367 billion including imports reaching $101.118 million in December.
In 2018, Ukraine increased metal products exports by 32.8%, to $1.11 billion including December deliveries being $85.976 million. In 2018, imports of metal products grew by 19.9%, to $967.674 million, including December imports worth $81.192 million.
As reported, in 2017, Ukraine saw its forex earnings from ferrous metal exports rise by 20%, to $8.666 billion. Ukraine saw imports of these products increase by 42%, to $1.135 billion.
Ukraine experienced a 30% rise in metal products exports in 2017, up to $896.7 million. Metal imports grew by 25% in 2017, to $806.8 million.
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.
