The outflow of population from Ukraine is a real threat to the development of e-commerce market, the founder of In Time Serhiy Hrachev said at a press conference. “In February this year, browsing of Ukrainian online shops fell. Within my remembrance, this is the first time in five years. Of course, there are seasonal fluctuations, but in February usually there is growth… This year the profile was different,” he said, adding that in the future the quantitative indicator of browsing online stores has leveled off, but these trends force one to think.
“A real outflow of the population today is a threat to e-commerce that can slow down the growth of e-commerce in Ukraine. We feel it on ourselves. All blue-collar workers left the country, if earlier we took “one-day workers” only in the season, now it is the usual daily practice: a person can leave in the morning, work out a day and never come back at all. The labor force is leaving [the country] actively, and this is a disaster,” the founder of In Time said. In turn, according to Hrachev, the players of the logistics market are affected by the outflow of drivers and loaders.
“There are no them on the market at all. We already have contractors with vehicles, but there are no drivers, and trucks are idle, I consider this a key threat,” he said.
At the same time, Hrachev believes that in general the e-commerce market in Ukraine is developing very actively and this year it will continue to grow.
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Public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia plans to create a separate rail car company, which in 2018 and 2019 would buy 3,500 cars each year using a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), acting Board Chairman of Ukrzaliznytsia Yevhen Kravtsov said at the UZ: Investor Day 2018 conference in Odesa on Wednesday.
“This project will be implemented via the creation of a specialized rail car company, which would receive gondola cars bought for borrowed funds to its balance sheet.
According to a posting on the EBRD’s website, the project was pending approval of the bank’s board on May 23. The bank told Interfax-Ukraine that the consideration of the issue was postponed, and the new date will be announced later.
It is planned that the EBRD would provide a $150 million loan. The total cost of the project is $240.7 million. Some of the sum would be financed by Ukrzaliznytsia and thanks to grants under technical cooperation programs.
The bank said that it is planned to acquire around 6,500 gondola cars with the total need of the company of around 24,000 gondola cars.
Kravtsov said that if a separate company is created, the cars could be used on the market as a private fleet and earn more than the rolling stock of Ukrzaliznytsia.
“For us, these will be unprecedented conditions of work, when we are able to set real tariffs for transportation, which will allow us to talk about the payback of rolling stock and profit for investors. This project gives a signal to other potential investors to invest in Ukrzaliznytsia’s projects and show, how one can earn on them,” Kravtsov said.
He also added that to implement these projects, Ukrzaliznytsia is already negotiating with international companies that operate in the U.S. and European markets.
Exports of grain from Ukraine since the beginning of the 2017/2018 agricultural year (July-June) and as of May 30 amounted to 36.552 million tonnes, which is 4.2 million tonnes less than on the same date a year earlier, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food has said.
According to the report, in particular, wheat exports amounted to 16.18 million tonnes (485,000 tonnes less from the previous agri-year, exports of maize to 15.98 million tonnes (2.59 million tonnes less), barley to 4.19 million tonnes (1,070 tonnes less).
Rye exports totaled 35,000 tonnes (29,600 tonnes more) and exports of flour amounted to 392,800 tonnes (54,800 tonnes more).
As reported with reference to the ministry, Ukraine in the 2016/2017 agri-year exported 44.441 million tonnes of grain.
PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia estimates the cost of implementing high-speed rail service of up to 250 km/h between Kyiv, Odesa and Lviv via Vinnytsia at $16 billion, the director for strategic development and investment policy at Ukrzaliznytsia, Anton Sabolevsky, has told Interfax-Ukraine. “Within the framework of the working group on the introduction of high-speed rail traffic, we estimated how much the construction of infrastructure for organization of high-speed communication between Kyiv, Odesa and Lviv via Vinnytsia could cost in principle. To build this infrastructure, about $16 billion is needed, taking into account the acquisition of appropriate rolling stock, its service centers and management,” he said.
At the same time, he noted Ukrzaliznytsia has not calculated the cost of high-speed communication between all the regional centers of Ukraine, since the implementation of such a project goes beyond the long-term planning and can be carried out exclusively in stages.
According to him, the work on implementing the infrastructure project for organization of high-speed rail service along the Kyiv-Kharkiv route could take at least ten years.
