Ukrainian High-Speed Railway Company, a branch of PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia, in July increased its passenger traffic by 5.3%, to 540,000 passengers, the occupancy of trains rose by 4 percentage points, to 100%, the company said.
“High-speed trains are traditionally in a high demand among passengers, their average occupancy was usually more than 90%, which is a high figure for such rolling stock. Today we state a 100% occupancy of high-speed trains,” Acting Chairman of the Board of Ukrzaliznytsia Yevhen Kravtsov said.
According to him, the demand for high-speed trains will be taken into account when approving the strategy for the development of passenger transportation in future.
According to Ukrainian High-Speed Railway Company, 847 trips were carried out in July, the occupancy rate of trains was 100%.
In the seven months of 2018, almost 3.3 million passengers were transported by Intercity+ and Intercity high-speed trains.
The rolling stock of Ukrainian High-Speed Railway Company consists of ten HRCS-2 electric trains manufactured by Hyundai Rotem, two EKS-1 Tarpan electric trains and two trains on locomotive traction produced by Kriukov Car Building Works, as well as two double-deck Czech trains produced by Skoda.
Enterprise with foreign investments McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd. (Kyiv), which develops the American chain of McDonald’s fast food restaurants in Ukraine, has introduced the option of full table service in a restaurant at Pivdenny Railway Station in Kyiv, which became the fifth establishment of the new format.
According to the company, McDonald’s intends by the end of the year to open seven more McDonald’s establishments of the new format.
According to the press service, the restaurant of the network at Pivdenny Railway Station started work at the end of 2016. After reconstruction, self-service terminals were installed in it, table service was introduced, the cash zone was divided into two parts – for ordering and receiving dishes. A hospitality expert will work in the updated McDonald’s, who should notice and respond to customers’ needs.
“In the second half of 2018, another element of the format of future experience will be introduced – a new principle of the kitchen “Cooked for you.” This will allow visitors to add or remove ingredients in burgers to their liking,” McDonald’s said.
According to the press service, the new formats in 2018 were also introduced in four restaurants of the network: two in Kyiv, one in Cherkasy and Boryspil (Kyiv region).
The first McDonald’s restaurant in the country opened in Kyiv on May 24, 1997.
Ostchem’s chemical plants will have to stop work in a week if state-run railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia continues to refuse to send railcars for the shipment of their products, Ostchem’s press service has told Interfax-Ukraine. “Ukrzaliznytsya stopped sending railway cars a week ago. As a result, the products are not being shipped and the plants are forced to stock their warehouses. If the wagons are not sent, in a week the warehouses of the enterprises will be completely filled and the plants will shut down,” the press service said.
Ostchem said the most critical situation was at its Cherkasy Azot plant and at Rivneazot, adding that the situation at its Severodonetsk Azot plant is also precarious.
“If the supply of wagons does not resume, the autumn sowing campaign will be under threat. The chemical producers will stop and bear losses. Farmers are in danger of not receiving the fertilizers they need,” the press service added.
Each plant needs about 20 gondola cars every day. Executives from Cherkasy Azot, Rivneazot and Severodonetsk Azot have written to Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and Ukrzaliznytsia officials requesting immediate resolution of the problem.
The Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank FMO (Nederladse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelinglanden N.V.) and Cyprus-based Abbeydrift Limited through a specially established company (SPV) can jointly with Cypriot Badoix Investments Ltd. indirectly gain control over Allseeds S.A. (Luxembourg), the holding company of Allseeds Group, a large Ukrainian producer and exporter of vegetable oils. According to the website of the AMC, it provided the relevant permit to FMO and Abbeydrift Limited.
Earlier mass media called Badoix Investments Ltd. one of the founders of Allseeds S.A.. At present, the ultimate beneficiary of the Luxembourg company in the state register are CEO of Allseeds Viacheslav Petrysche and Trade Director Cornelis Vrins (a citizen of Switzerland).
The Cypriot company Abbeydrift Limited was established in late 2014. There is no additional information about it.
The Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank FMO in mid-July this year disseminated information on preparing a project for the issuance of $15 million loan to Allseeds to increase the company’s capacity and achieve maximum efficiency without buying new equipment. However, now information about this project is not available on the FMO’s website.
Allseeds Group was founded in 2010. In July 2015, the group commissioned an oil extraction plant at Yuzhny port with a capacity of processing 2,400 tonnes of sunflower seeds per day (or 1,800 tonnes of rapeseeds, or 1,500 tonnes of soybeans).
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will consider a loan worth up to EUR 150 million for LLC SyvashEnergoProm, a subsidiary of Norway’s NBT, for the construction of a 250 MW wind farm in Kherson region, the lender said on its website. “This is a long-term senior loan of up to EUR 150 million in an A/B structure, of which up to EUR 75 million would be funded from the EBRD resources and the remainder would be syndicated in a B-loan structure to eligible institutions. The remaining project financing is expected to be provided via parallel loans from IFIs, DFIs, and other investors,” the Bank said.
The total cost of the project is EUR 369 million.
The project will help support the development of renewable energy in Ukraine and the overall decarbonisation of the energy sector. As was reported, NBT SA, which is a Norwegian wind farm developer with operating wind farms in China, in April 2018 bought LLC SyvashEnergoProm (operates a wind farm whose capacity is about 3 MW). It plans to build a wind farm with a capacity of 250-330 MW in neighboring areas.
Metinvest Group has officially announced it has bought up to 24.99% stake in Donetsksteel’s coking coal producers for about $190 million. “The Group has secured additional long-term supply of high-grade coking coal by investing in production cooperation and acquiring up to 24.99% of some coking coal assets in Ukraine,” it said in a statement on the Irish Stock Exchange on August 16. “The assets include several extraction, enrichment and sale entities, the most significant of which is Pokrovske Colliery and Svyato-Varvarinskaya Enrichment Plant, which together form the largest coking coal extraction and production business in Ukraine [until recently, they were part of the industrial and financial group Donetskstal, also known as Donetsksteel],” the statement said.
They are located on the border of Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions, close to Metinvest enterprises. The assets are registered in accordance with Ukrainian law and none is located in the non-controlled territories of Ukraine.
According to Metinvest, the acquisition is in line with the Group’s strategic priority of improving its self-sufficiency in coking coal to strengthen its vertical integration.
As of December 31, 2017, the long-life proven and probable coal reserves amounted to 81 million tonnes, as calculated according to JORC methodology as at January 1, 2013, and adjusted for production in 2013-17. In 2017, raw coal extraction was 4.3 million tonnes, while coking coal concentrate production was 2.6 million tonnes.
Metinvest says sale products mostly consist of high-quality K-grade coal (hard coking coal, most of whose quality characteristics are in line with the Platts requirements for the Premium Low Vol HCC benchmark), which is used in coke production.
The Metinvest Group is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Dnipropetrovsk region. Its major stockholders are SCM with 71.24% and Smart-Holding with 23.76%, which jointly manage the group.
