KYIV. March 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers has removed requirements regulating the expiration terms of construction licenses from bylaws.
The decision was made at a government meeting on Friday, March 10.
First Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Maskym Nefyodov said that current legislation envisages the perpetual term for construction licenses.
“However, we know that in some regions there were shameful cases when a person comes to re-register the license and hears that there are additional resolutions and bylaws mentioning that the license has a term. Unfortunately, this is sometimes linked to corruption… We asses that the effect from removing this corruption element could exceed $30 million in coming three years,” he said.
According to the website of the Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Ministry, as of February 13, 2017 the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate used the rules for licensing economic activities linked to creation of architectural facilities approved by government resolution No. 1396 issued on December 5, 2007.
The rules say that the term of the construction license is five years, and three years for companies that receive this license for the first time.
The law on licensing of types of economic activities says that the construction license has the perpetual term.
KYIV. March 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers on March 10 approved a feasibility study for construction of Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant (HPP) 2, the press service of the government has reported.
“The financing of the project will be thanks to the tariff for electricity generation by public join-stock company Ukrhydroenergo, own funds of the company and government secured loans provided on the conditions of co-financing by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank,” the government said.
The press service did not provide for any details of the feasibility study.
As reported, the approximate cost of the second phase of Kakhovka HPP is EUR 420 million. The installed capacity is 250 MW. The project would be implemented in 2019-2024.
KYIV. March 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public joint-stock company Ukrgazvydobuvannia intends to send some UAH 500 million to build 15 new gas dehydration units, the company’s press service reported on Thursday.
The press service said that this would allow meeting European gas transportation standards and cut non-production expenses.
“We have modernized one gas dehydration unit. We plan to build 15 new units by the end of 2017. The budget of the project is near UAH 500 million. A supplier of first seven new units was a Ukrainian company. Maybe, other units will be made in Ukraine,” Deputy CEO for gas preparation and transportation Oleksandr Hordiyenko said.
He said that Ukrgazvydobuvannia signed a turnkey contract with the suppliers. It envisages the full range of services – from designing blueprints to the final assembly of equipment and reaching the projected parameters.
In the middle of 2016, Teploenergocomplekt LLC and Techpromservice Ltd. won Ukrgazvydobuvannia’s reversed auction to buy equipment for eight facilities of the company with gas dehydration units.
KYIV. March 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – About 600 hectares have already been sown with spring crops in the southern regions of Ukraine, the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food has said.
According to a press release, about 500 ha are sown with peas, 60 ha with barley and 40 ha with oats. All the regions are feeding winter crops.
According to preliminary data from the ministry, all the areas under agricultural crops for the 2017 harvest are 26.8 million hectares, which corresponds to the figure of 2016.
Grain crops in all categories of farms are to be sown on 14.4 million hectares. Spring crops are to be sown on 7.2 million hectares, in particular early spring cereals on 2.4 million hectares.
The ministry reported agricultural enterprises had already purchased 800,000 tonnes of mineral fertilizers (83% of the demand), 298,000 tonnes of diesel fuel and 70,000 tonnes of petrol, which is 74% of the demand for the period of the spring field work. The technical park of agricultural machinery includes 309,000 tractors and more than 50,000 harvesters. In the first month of 2017 agrarians acquired 341 units of machinery worth about UAH 320.5 million.
According to the information of the agrarian agency, administrative barriers that arose in part of seed certification have been completely eliminated.
KYIV. March 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Carlsberg Ukraine’s plants were loaded by 70% in 2016, Director General Yevhen Shevchenko said at a press conference in Kyiv.
“The loading last year was around 70%. This means that 30% of facilities of our three breweries in Lviv, Kyiv and Zaporizhia are idle,” he said.
Shevchenko said that this is linked to the reduction of the beer market in Ukraine.
“Production is falling. Yes, our market share grew by 0.3 percentage points in 2016 compared to the previous year, while the market fell by 7%. Loading could have been worse. In 2015, it was around 65%. We improved it thanks to cider and kvass. We see that the beer market is narrowing. We are trying to load production facilities of other market segments,” he said.
In addition, he hopes that after the indexation of the beer excise duty by inflation in 2016 (12%) the market would stop falling.
“It [market] is being stabilized at the level of the previous year. Thanks to the expected growth of non-beer brands the situation with loading could even improve. With loading of 70% there are no plans to shut down production,” he said.
Carlsberg Ukraine said that the company has three clients in China. Ukrainian beer is shipped there. Negotiations are being held with two more clients.
“Last year we shipped 30% of all our exported goods to China. We hope to increase the share thanks to attraction of new partners. We have been supplying [beer] to China for two years. Last year the shipments stirred up: 95% of beer bought in China is Lvivske 1715,” Shevchenko said.
The key exports markets for Carlsberg Ukraine is Moldova, Vietnam, India, Brazil and Canada.
“I can say that Africa has not yet been studied well,” he said.
According to the company, investment of Carlsberg Ukraine in 2016 grew by 21.8%, to UAH 245.4 million. The money were mainly invested into environment-friendly technologies, energy saving and retail equipment for selling beer.
“In 2017, we are looking for a breakthrough. Investment will be significantly larger than in 2016,” he said.
He said that the company does not plan to expand the imported products line. However, the company announced the launch of several new products both on the beer and non-beer markets.
According to AC Nielsen, the share of Carlsberg Ukraine of the cider market in kind was 59%, the kvass market – 43.9% and the beer market – 29.9%.
Carlsberg Ukraine is part of Carlsberg Group, one of the leading brewing groups in the world, whose products are sold in more than 150 countries.
KYIV. March 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Poland’s LPP Group, a large retail operator the RESERVED, Cropp, House, MOHITO and SiNSAY clothing brands, intends to lease at least 8,000 square meters of new space for new own stores in Ukraine in 2017.
“After crisis on the Ukrainian market we have a careful approach to our development. We stake on the development of our chain on the market conditions and flexible rental conditions. We plan to lease around 8,000 square meters of new space in Ukraine. We are holding talks about our presence in the following projects: Lavina Mall in Kyiv and Victoria Gardens Lviv,” LPP Group Spokesperson Marta Chlewicka told Interfax-Ukraine.
She said that at present Ukraine is fourth in the number of stores of LPP brands in the world (72 stores).
The company said that it has decided to strengthen its positions in Ukraine via development of an online shop.
“Products will be delivered from our logistics center in Poland, Pruszcz Gdanski,” she said, adding that the company wants to launch the online shop in H2 2017.
The shop would have products of all LPP brands – RESERVED, Cropp, House, MOHITO and SiNSAY.
LPP Group said that its revenue from sales in Ukraine in 2016 totaled PLN 255.55 million (around $55.19 million under current exchange rate).
According to its financial report, in 2015 sales revenue in Ukraine was PLN 188.363 million. Thus, the company saw an almost 20% rise in revenue in 2016.
Chlewicka also said that the share of revenue in Ukraine was 3.7% of total revenue in 2016.
According to a financial report of the company for Q4 2016, LPP Group wants to lease 107,800 square meters of new space, boosting its store space by 11.7%.
Earlier LPP Group said that the company intends to launch online sales of all own brands in Ukraine in 2017.
Online sales revenue in 2016 grew by 118% compared to 2015, and sales per square meter increased by 8%.
Total revenue grew by 18% in 2016, to PLN 2 billion.
LPP S.A. was founded in 1995. Its first store (Reserved) was opened in 2000.
As of February 2017, the company has over 1,700 stores in 18 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
