Ukrenergo plans at the end of 2018 to sign an operational agreement on simultaneous operation in the Ukraine-Moldova control block with Moldelectrica, the press service of the Ukrainian company has reported. “The operational agreement is a contractual basis for the parallel operation of the transmission system operators, which is being worked out in the framework of the action plan for the synchronization of the energy systems of Ukraine and Moldova with ENTSO-E … The final signing of the operation agreement is scheduled for the end of 2018,” the report says.
On September 14 Ukrenergo and Moldelectrica signed three new provisions from the future agreement, and in general 17 provisions are already ready.
“The operating agreement significantly simplifies our contractual base and brings it into full compliance with the European standards. After its final signing, we will be able to cooperate with Moldelectrica according to ENTSO-E rules. To date, the major part of the plan of measures for the development of this important document has already been completed,” Yuriy Kudrenko, the head of the department for ensuring the parallel operation of Ukrenergo’s power systems, said.
The Export-Credit Agency could start operating in the fourth quarter of 2018 only if the budget for 2018 is reviewed and the financing is expanded by UAH 80 million, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv has said.
“To take legal and organizational measures [to start the Export-Credit Agency], an additional amount of UAH 80 million is required… We insist in the past six months that the specified amount is provided for in the budget amendments for 2018,” he told the press conference on Tuesday, answering a question of Interfax-Ukraine.
He also recalled that the national budget for the current year provides funding of UAH 200 million to the Export-Credit Agency. Earlier, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade estimated the need for additional financing at UAH 146 million.
Former Ukraine’s trade representative Natalia Mykolska earlier said that she expects that first pilot products of the Export-Credit Agency will be seen at the end of 2018.
Ukraine’s Economic Development and Trade Ministry on Tuesday presented Ukraine’s export brand “Trade with Ukraine,” using which Ukrainian goods and services will be promoted to international markets. An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that the brand was designed under order of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry and the Export Promotion Office of Ukraine with support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The graphic part of the brand is a big letter “U” of blue color with a small circle in the upper part, in which the letters “ua” are inscribed, as well as the slogan “Trade with Ukraine”. At the same time, the first part of the slogan can be transformed depending on the industry, for example: for food industry – “Taste with Ukraine”, machine building – “Manufacture with Ukraine” and creative sphere – “Create with Ukraine”.
“For the first time, Ukrainian goods and services from different sectors will be united by a single visual and emotional context for the promotion of the Ukrainian economy and export development,” the brand’s developers said. During the presentation, the brand platform and the exhibition brand book of Ukraine were also presented.
“The mission of the export brand is to create a powerful brand of Ukraine as a reliable trading partner in the world. This is a platform for building and strengthening the positions of Ukrainian exporters at the global level,” First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv said at the press conference entitled “The launch of the export brand of Ukraine.” According to him, the rating and quality of export brands in the world are interdependent with the export positions of the countries.
“The better the country is known as an exporter, the higher is its rating as the country,” the deputy prime minister said.
The brand’s developers are convinced that the export brand is an important part of the brand of Ukraine, and forms 50% of the country’s brand, influencing on three of its six indicators: goods and services, business climate and tourism. The target groups of the export brand are Ukrainian manufacturers of goods and services, traders, business associations; foreign manufacturing companies, foreign business media; embassies and governments.
Some 66 enterprises have been selected to participate in the Energy Efficiency Project of GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH) and Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine. “A total of 66 enterprises have already been selected, which will receive technical support to identify and implement pilot energy efficiency projects,” First Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Maksym Nefyodov wrote.
According to him, among them 19 enterprises of the baking industry, 15 – from the dairy sector, 19 – machine building, as well as 11 enterprises for the production of nonmetallic building materials and two enterprises from other industries.
The list includes, among others, Kyivkhlib, Kyivsky BKK, Kupiansk Canned Milk Factory, Kaniv branch of the Cheese Club, Starokostiantynivsky Dairy Plant, Zhytomyr Butter Plant, EthnoProduct, JV Vitmark-Ukraine, Galca Ltd, Dnipropolymermash, Corum Druzhkivka Machine-Building Plant, Kharkiv Machine-Building Plant FED, IC Pozhmashina, Umanfermmash and OLIS.
In addition, the Kharkiv Tile Factory, Kerameya, the Kyiv Combine of the Construction Industry, the two branches of the SBK, the Tavriya Construction Company, the Temp Plant and the Zhytomyr Roofing and Insulating Materials Plant were selected.
Chairman of the State Agency for Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving Serhiy Savchuk said, commenting on the project on the agency’s website, that as part of the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU, one of the articles of which foreseen energy efficiency audit for large enterprises once in four years or the switch to the energy efficiency management, a bill on energy efficiency has been drawn up.
According to a posting on the website of GIZ, the project to advice enterprises in the energy efficiency sphere was started in 2017 and will last until 2021. GIZ said that the energy efficiency potential, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises, is 30-50%.
Ukraine in January-August 2018 increased steel pipe exports by 7.3% compared to the same period in 2017, to 434,600 tonnes, of which 70.2% accounted for seamless, 29.8% for welded pipes, according to a Monday press release of the state-owned Enterprise Derzhzovnishinform. At the same time, foreign exchange earnings from pipe exports increased by 39.6% to $484.6 million (82.2% – seamless and 17.8% – welded pipes).
According to the results of the eight months ending August 2018, the export of semi-finished products was 4.512 million tonnes, which is 16.5% more compared to the same period last year. In monetary terms, the growth in exports of semi-finished products amounted to 47.3%, to $2.167 billion.
The volume of export of finished rolled products decreased by 2.8% to 5.498 million tonnes, however, due to the general increase in prices in the global market in the segment of finished rolled products, revenues from its exports increased by 18.6%, to $3.248 billion.
The volume of exports of raw materials for metallurgy (goods from group 72) increased by 31%, to 3.04 million tonnes in January-August 2018, while foreign exchange earnings increased by 25.2%, to $ 1.534 billion.
A significant upward dynamics is demonstrated by the export of pig iron, which increased by 45.8%, to 2.113 million tonnes. The main sales markets for Ukrainian iron are the United States, Italy and Turkey.
Exports of ferroalloys in January-August increased by 2.5% to 622,700 tonnes, scrap metal exports increased by 17% to 300,300 tonnes. Proceeds from the export of ferroalloys for the period fell 2.9%, to $696.9 million, but increased from scrap exports by 69.8%, to $98.2 million.
Import of rolled metal to Ukraine in the first eight months of this year in kind increased 11.7%, to 883,500 tonnes, and in monetary terms – by 22.2%, to $711.7 million.
Imports of flat steel increased 0.6% to 192,500 0 tonnes, but imports of flat rolled products with coating decreased by 7.8%, to 311,100 tonnes. At the same time, the foreign exchange costs for the import of rolled products amounted to $711.7 million.
The Ukrainian insurance market in the volume of insurance premiums collected in 2017 in foreign currency equivalent was 61st in the world, and in the pace of growth it was among the top ten most dynamic global markets, member of the National Commission for Financial Service Markets Regulation Oleksandr Zaletov has said, speaking at the 18th International Financial Forum in Odesa last week. He said that over the past 10 years the insurance companies of Ukraine have made insurance payments in claims to the population and enterprises in the amount of more than UAH 67 billion, of which UAH 5.5 billion was recovered through cooperation with leading foreign reinsurers and reinsurance brokers from Switzerland, the U.K., Germany, Poland, Austria, the United States, France and other countries.
This year, as in previous years, in all segments of the insurance market, there has been a trend towards an increase in the volume of services provided.
In January-June 2018, net insurance premiums increased by 24% and amounted to UAH 16.7 billion, net insurance payments – by 27%, to UAH 5.9 billion.
The size of insurance reserves accumulated by insurers amounted to about UAH 24 billion (an increase of 15.4%). Against a 14.5% decrease in the volume of reinsurance, the amount of reinsurers’ compensation in insurance payments increased by 58.6%.
In H1 2018, over 36.6 million insurance contracts were concluded with individuals (an increase of 8.2%), apart from compulsory personal transport accidents insurance, the number of contracts increased by 12.8%, to 65.5 million.
Endowment life insurance covers over 738,000 citizens, which insurance premiums reach some UAH 8.1 billion. Investment income in the amount of UAH 334 million was received from these premiums.
The total amount of funds insurers placed in banks exceeded UAH 15.4 billion, or 65% of the funds of nonbank financial institutions deposited in banks.
Over UAH 6.5 billion, or 28% of the funds invested in this financial instrument by domestic enterprises (apart from banks) were invested by insurers in government domestic loan bonds.
Households of Ukraine in January-June 2018 concluded insurance contracts for a total amount of UAH 8.6 billion, which is 22.7% more than for the same period in 2017.
