National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom increased power generation by 11.7% year-on-year in January 2019, to 8.111 billion kWh, the company has said.
The electricity generation target was met by 100%.
Electricity sales totaled 7.661 billion kWh compared to 6.842 billion kWh in January 2018. Energoatom’s share of total electricity sold to Energomarket state enterprise was 53%, and the share of total electricity generation in the country was 52%.
The company sold electricity worth UAH 5.279 billion (including VAT) on the wholesale power market, which is 17.7% more than in January 2018.
Capital investment totaled UAH 363.8 million compared with UAH 514.7 million in January 2018.
The company sent UAH 557.2 million to the budgets of all levels and insurance payments came to UAH 141.7 million.
Capacity use was 78.6%, which was 8.3 p.p. more than a year previously.
Two malfunctions were recorded at Ukrainian nuclear power plants in the reporting period, two less than a year ago. Radiation levels at Ukrainian NPPs were normal over the period.
Energoatom is the operator of all four Ukrainian-based operating nuclear power plants, which have 15 VVER reactors with an overall generating capacity of 13.835 gigawatts.
The company also operates the Tashlyk hydroelectric pumped storage power plant with a 302 MW capacity in a turbine mode and Oleksandrivka hydropower plant with an 11.5 MW capacity.
Ukrainian airlines in January 2019 serviced 77.1% of flights of the total number of flights serviced at Ukrainian airports within the 15 minute deviation from the timetable, while in November 2018 the figure was 79.4%, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry has reported. According to the ministry, in January Ukrainian airlines serviced 3,687 flights.
The Infrastructure Ministry said that the punctuality of foreign airlines in January compared with November decreased to 75.1%, while the number of flights totaled 2,659.
Of the Ukrainian airlines that made more than 50 flights a month in January, Motor Sich remains the most punctual, although last month its figure dropped to 87.3% from 95.6% a month earlier, with the number of flights 236.
Windrose is second with 83.2% and with the number of 274.
Punctuality of Ukraine’s largest airline in the market – Ukraine International Airlines – was only 71.4%, while the number of flights serviced was 2,708.
The indicators in January for SkyUp, Bravo, Yanair and Azur Air Ukraine were 63% and 61.2%.
Jordan Aviation, Air Malta, Aegean Airlines, Iraqi Airlines and Alitalia were ranked the top of the January punctuality rating among foreign airlines with the 100% punctuality, although the number of their flights is small – from four to 19 per month.
Pegasus Airlines had the best performance among low cost airlines – 77.6% with 107 flights, while Irish Ryanair and the Italian airline Ernest turned out to be next in the rating – 71.2% with 226 flights and 70.6% with 126 flights respectively. The figure of Hungarian Wizzair was 68.1% with 457 flights.
Among other foreign airlines that serviced more than 100 flights from Ukraine in January, Belavia had the best result – 87.3% with 237 flights. Polish LOT had 83.7% with 349 flights, and Austrian Airlines – 72.1% with 122 flights.
Private joint-stock company Weidmann Malyn paper factory (MPF, Zhytomyr region), the only producer of electrical insulating board for power engineering machines in Ukraine, increased production by 11.5% in January 2019 compared with January 2018, to UAH 58.24 million. Paper output in kind rose by 18.6%, to 542 tonnes, while cardboard production increased by 9%, to 424 tonnes.
MPF Weidmann is a member of the WICOR international group, the only company in Eastern Europe that can supply almost all kinds of electrical insulating paper and cardboard meeting regional and international standards.
In 2018, the factory increased production of commodity goods by 7.7%, to almost UAH 636.46 million.
Ukrainian seaports in January 2019 handled 11.195 million tonnes of cargo, which is 3.35% more than a year ago. “The main growth drivers are traditional: grain, ore and containerized cargo,” the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority said on its website.
The greatest pace in the context of cargo compared with January 2018 showed containers: an increase of 34% or almost 20,000 TEU. The volumes of transshipment of grain and ore increased more than 21% (by 665,000 tonnes and by 406,000 tonnes, respectively).
At the same time, the increase in transshipment took place mainly thanks to growth of exports by almost 1 million tonnes (or 12%). At the same time, imports and transit of goods, by contrast, declined by 23.3% (or almost 500,000 tonnes) and 12.5% (more than 100,000 tonnes), respectively.
The most noticeable increase in cargo handling indicators was at Kherson port – by more than 27% and the Yuzhny port – by more than 10%. Also handling increased in the ports of Berdiansk, Chornomorsk, Odesa and Reni.
Since the beginning of 2019, Ukrainian seaports handled 856 vessels, which are 57 units less than in January 2018. Berdiansk, Olvia and Kherson ports increased the number of vessels handled by more than 20%.
Principal of Kramatorsk-based Donetsk National Medical University (Ukraine) Petro Kondratenko has said he plans to scrap his university’s contract with an intermediary company called Ukrainian Education Services (Ukrayinski Osvytni Posluhy). “The company’s debt to the university amounts to UAH 37 million. These are debts starting from 2016, when the international medical university began to function. We appealed to an economic court to terminate the relationship with that firm, terminate the contract and recover the funds that the firm owes,” Kondratenko at a press conference at the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Tuesday.
He said that in the summer of 2018 he discovered an “organized group” at the university that included an intermediary firm and university staff. He said the group “was patronized by employees of Ukraine’s SBU State Security Service.”
Kondratenko said, “This group earned money for illegal migration.”
“In 10 months, we issued 1,563 invitations for foreign citizens to come to study, but 243 people came. We could not but be interested in what happened to the rest of the invitations,” he said, adding that 95 invitees “were allegedly credited to our university by fake order, and money was taken from them as the fee for education. They were not our students, but Ukraine’s State Migration Service issued certificates of temporary residence in Ukraine for a period of five to six years.”
Kondratenko said the difference between the tuition fees that the intermediary firm takes and the cost established by the university is $5,000 per year.
“Plus $500 in insurance, $500 for a medical certificate, $500 for food, $500 for registration, $1,000 for accommodation in a hostel. In total, it turns out $8,500 per person. Multiply it all by 1,100 [the number of foreign students] and it works out to around $9.5 million. Plus the discount that the company received, depending on the number of students sent to study… The total amount is almost or more than $10 million, which went into the pockets of certain individuals,” the principal said.
He said that since September last year he had notified various officials, including the SBU’s main directorate in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the police and the prosecutor’s office of Kramatorsk, and the Kropyvnytsky police. “Almost 20 criminal cases are opened for this company by a court decision, including, under Article 129 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code (threat of murder),” he said.
Kondratenko said he had received threats of physical violence and SMS messages, which said if he did not leave his job, he or someone from his family would be killed. The court granted him state protection. He said the medical university extended the deadline from January 8 to February 7 for foreign students who arrived by invitation to study and who did not pay tuition to pay it, offering them to sign a contract directly with the university. “Virtually no one has signed.… Out of 1,100 students, 850 did not sign the contract,” he said.
The reason for the refusal to sign contracts directly with the university, according to the principal, were threats to students from the dismissed teachers and other persons, who said Kondratenko would soon leave his post. “It is surprising to me that a Member of Parliament of Ukraine is also involved in this,” he said.
Kondratenko said students who had not signed contracts would be expelled from the university, and, according to Ukrainian legislation, would be forced to leave Ukraine. “We want the university to operate legally and don’t want anyone to interfere in personnel policy,” the university’s head said.
Donetsk National Medical University (dnmu.edu.ua) is based in the Ukrainian-controlled town of Kramatorsk and the Ukrainian-controlled city of Mariupol in Donetsk region, as well as in the city of Kropyvnytsky in Kirovohrad region.
CONTRACT, FOREIGN STUDENTS, KRAMATORSK-BASED, MEDICAL UNIVERSITY, PRINCIPAL, SCAMS
POSCO DAEWOO Corporation (South Korea) has announced that it signed an agreement with the Orexim Group from Ukraine on the acquisition of 75% of shares in the grain export terminal being built at the Mykolaiv maritime merchandise port, the company has reported on its website. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
It is expected that after the completion of construction in July 2019 the annual grain loading of the terminal will be 2.5 million tonnes, handling mostly corn, wheat and soybeans.
After acquiring the terminal, POSCO DAEWOO announced that it would be able to oversee the entire supply chain of grain produced in Ukraine and manage a more efficient inventory.
“With the latest deal, POSCO DAEWOO said it would be able to gradually oversee logistics through the purchase, inspection, storage and shipment of Ukrainian grain production, as well as reduce risk and ensure effective inventory management in accordance with individual demand,” the Korean company said.
The company plans to cover the infrastructure for the processing of agricultural products and logistics, in order to become the largest food resource production company in South Korea.
POSCO DAEWOO also said that the deal said the deal would also help contribute to Korea’s food security, since grain supplies to the country largely depend on exports, because the country’s self-sufficiency in corn and wheat is only 1%.
In March 2018, the Orexim Group launched the sixth stage of the Every terminal at Mykolaiv power, boosting the total loading to 1.6 million tonnes. Its core business is exports of agricultural products, port and logistic services.
