Business news from Ukraine

TOURIST FLOW TO TURKEY FROM UKRAINE 27.8% UP IN JAN-JUNE 2017

KYIV. Aug 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The tourist flow from Ukraine to Turkey for the six months of 2017 increased by 27.77% compared to the same period in 2016, to 530,258 people, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey has reported.
According to the agency, in the first half of 2017 the most popular regions among Ukrainians were Antalya, Istanbul and the resorts of the Mugla province – Fethiye, Dalaman, Bodrum and Marmaris.
During the first half of 2017, the tourist flow from Ukraine to Antalya increased by 44%, to 282,112 people, thus, Ukraine ranks third in terms of the number of tourists in Antalya.
According to the administration of Antalya airports, for the six months of 2017 some 421,263 Ukrainian tourists visited Antalya, which is 33% more than a year earlier. The tourist flow from Ukraine to Istanbul retained at the level of 2016: in January-June 2017 the city was visited by 147,885 Ukrainians. The province of Mugla for the six months of 2017 was visited by 46,762 Ukrainian tourists, which is 55% more than a year earlier.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey predicts the continuation of the growth trend of the Ukrainian tourist flow in the autumn season and by the end of the year.

SCANIA UKRAINE SELLS ANOTHER 15 VEHICLES TO NIBULON

KYIV. Aug 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Scania Ukraine LLC at the end of last week handed over 15 Scania G400 Euro 5 vehicles to Nibulon, the leading Ukrainian agricultural company, the press service of the auto distributor has said.
The trucks were purchased under the Scania SilverLine program, which includes the purchase of machinery under terms of leasing. The financing was provided by Scania Credit Ukraine, part of Scania Group. The cost of the trucks is not disclosed.
“Strategic partnership between Nibulon and Scania Ukraine began in 2010 with the delivery of the first batch of vehicles. At that time Scania was the only Western manufacturer to offer vehicles as an alternative to KAMAZ and MAZ trucks. The next batch of trucks is the confirmation of our long-term partnership,” head of regional and wholesale sales at Scania Ukraine Valeriy Ostrovsky said.
The press release notes since 2009 Nibulon has been implementing an investment project worth $500 million to revive the Dnipro and Southern Bug (Pivdenny Buh) Rivers as the shipping arteries of Ukraine, with the company’s logistics reorienting almost entirely to water transport.

GOVT APPROVES BILL INTRODUCING EUROPEAN STANDARDS FOR CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS IN UKRAINE

KYIV. Aug 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved a bill on the main requirements to structures and the conditions for the marketing of construction products.
The decision was made at a government meeting on Friday. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman read the document among those passed without discussion.
The bill is intended to implement the EU Regulation No. 305/2011 laying down harmonised conditions for the marketing of construction products.
The bill sets the key requirements to structures and the construction materials technical approbation rules for marketing them, as well as to the entities that take part in the technical approbation and declaration in the construction sphere. The bill introduces a rule for determining the essential characteristics.
The bill also describes obligations of manufacturers marketing

U.S. GESS INTERESTED IN KHERSON CHPP

KYIV. Aug 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Representatives of GESS Ukraine, the Ukrainian division of U.S. Green Energy Sustainable Solution – GESS International – have shown their interest in Kherson combined heat and power plant (CHPP), Deputy Head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) Yuriy Nikitin has said after a meeting with them.
The parties discussed the conditions of the sale, the prices and possibility of restructuring debts of the plant. The plant’s debt has reached almost $4 million.
“After three failures [to sell the plant] in the previous years we want to put the CHPP up to sale… The announcement of the tender is preliminarily scheduled for October 2017,” Nikitin said.
He said that the fund has drawn up the conditions of the sale. A government working group is to discuss them and then the Cabinet of Ministers is to approve them.
He said that the fund would do its best to conduct transparent privatization of the plant and the fund is ready to consider any acceptable offers, in particular, the involvement of Kherson CHPP in a project to develop alternative energy.
“The company wants to make a privatization project. No project participant, including the CHPP and consumers, should lose, on the contrary, they should earn,” the SPF said, citing a representative of GESS Ukraine Shaun Edward Lee.
He said that the company has three business projects in Kherson region.
Nikitin also told Interfax-Ukraine that there is an interest to Mykolaiv CHPP. The auction to sell the plant was failure this week, but there were two preliminary bids. However, the deposit guarantee was not confirmed.
He said that Kryvy Rih and Severodonetsk CHPPs are being prepared for sale.
“There is Odesa CHPP, but we have bankruptcy there,” Nikitin said.

ENERGY MINISTRY SEEKS TO REVIEW PLAN OF FIRST PHASE OF UKRAINE’S ENERGY STRATEGY UNTIL 2035 BY LATE 2017

KYIV. Aug 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Energy and Coal Industry Ministry will review the plan for the first phase of the implementation Ukraine’s Energy Strategy until 2035, for the period until 2020, by late 2017, Deputy Energy and Coal Industry Ministry Natalia Boiko has said.
“The road map for the first phase will be finalized by the end of this year. We have many proposals,” she told reporters after a government meeting on Friday.
Boiko said that the strategy will be implemented in three stages – until 2020, until 2025 and until 2035.
The document approved by the government does not require the approval of the Verkhovna Rada, she said.
“We had a discussion. There are strategies approved by the Verkhovna Rada… We made a political decision that the government takes responsibility, and today’s decision is enough,” Boiko said, adding that this is the first energy strategy of the country approved by the government after the Revolution of Dignity.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on Friday approved the Energy Strategy of Ukraine until 2035 with the condition of a three-day revision of this document.

SUMY NPO ACQUIRES PROJECTENERGOSERVICE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY IN KAZAKHSTAN

KYIV. Aug 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public joint-stock company Sumy Machine-Building Science and Production Association (Sumy NPO), a large manufacturer of gas pumps and compressor stations in Europe, has acquired 100% of ProjectEnergoService LLC (Karaganda, Kazakhstan), according to a report in the information disclosure system of the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market.
The company in Kazakhstan was bought for $50,000 (UAH 1.285 million).
ProjectEnergoService LLC was registered in 2011. Its core business is construction and assembly works, including special purpose works.
Sumy Machine-Building Science and Production Association is one of the biggest producers in Europe of gas re-pumping units and outfitted compressor stations for various uses: centrifugal, vacuum, and chemical pumps, and centrifuges and other equipment for the chemicals gas and oil-refining industries.