Mriya agroholding plans to boost its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) by 33.3%in 2018, to $32 million, Mriya Chief Operating Officer (COO) Andriy Hryhorov has said. “We plan to reach $32 million for EBITDA this year,” he told reporters at a press conference.
Hryhorov said that in the past three years Mriya has invested over $25 million in agricultural machinery fleet.
“This spring we purchased 22 units of agricultural machinery. We continue to expand the machinery fleet after our default. We are also writing off the old equipment and replacing it with new equipment. In the next three or five years we plan to invest over $30 million in the machinery fleet. The new equipment is bought, taking into account the requirements of precision agriculture. Some 50% of our fleet is ready to work with this technology,” Hryhorov said.
According to him, now the Ukrainian market of agricultural machinery has enough harvesters for leasing, so the agroholding decided to consistently reduce the number of its own combines in operation.
“It is economically unprofitable to invest $15,000-20,000 per combine every year. We plan to reduce their number in our machinery fleet to 50 units and lease the rest,” the COO said.
Mriya is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding founded by Ivan Huta in 1992. Today, its land bank is 165,000 ha in Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Lviv and Rivne regions. The capacity of its grain storage facilities is estimated at 380,000 tonnes.
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA, Kyiv) has expanded its fleet with one more new Boeing 737-800 Next Generation plane, which was delivered to the Boryspil airport from the plant of Boeing Concern in Seattle. The press service of the UIA reported that the aircraft has been registered UR-UID and became the 30th medium-haul B737 NG in the UIA fleet.
The aircraft accommodates 186 passengers in two-class cabin configuration, i.e. Business Class and Economy Class. It is planned to operate across UIA’s medium-haul route network. The aircraft is scheduled to start operating commercial flights in the second half of May
“UIA continues its rapid fleet renewal program. Currently, our fleet contains 30 Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft. This year, UIA plans to phase out the last three of its Boeing 737 Classic models from the fleet. All our passengers will now be provided with quality service and comfort on more modern aircraft,” UIA Communications Director Yevhenia Satska said.
Over the past five months, UIA has already taken delivery of six aircraft: two wide-body long-haul Boeing-777s and four medium-haul Boeing 737-800 NGs, three of which arrived directly from Boeing facilities in Seattle. During Q2 – Q3 2018, UIA expects to receive two more wide-body long-haul Boeing 777-200ER aircraft and another two Embraer 195 medium-haul aircraft.
Ukraine International Airlines was founded in 1992. It connects Ukraine with more than 50 cities and key points in Europe, Asia, America, Africa, the Middle East and the CIS countries and provides connection with the routes of partner airlines in more than 3,000 cities of the world. UIA performs more than 1,100 regular flights a week. The fleet consists of 43 airplanes of different modifications, including 30 medium range Boeing-737 NG aircraft. One of the ultimate beneficiaries of the company is businessman Ihor Kolomoisky.
Almost all groups of Ukrainian-made commodities demonstrated the growth of exports in the first quarter of 2018 year-over-year, however, exports of timber and paper grew most (by 39%, or $140 million), the Economic Development and Trade Ministry said on its website. “The EU remains the largest trading partner of Ukraine. Exports of goods to the EU during the first quarter of 2018 amounted to $5.07 billion, its share was 44.4% in the total exports of goods from the country,” the ministry said.
Exports of chemicals and related products for the period increased by 29%, or $134 million, those of light industry products grew by 23% ($58 million), metal by 23% ($558 million).
Farm produce and processed food accounted for the largest share of Ukrainian exports (38%), while the share of metallurgy was 26%, that of machine building was 11%, and mineral products 9%, the ministry said.
As reported, in January-March 2018, exports of goods from Ukraine increased by 10.3% year-over-year, to $11.435 billion, while imports grew by 13.2%, to $ 12.636 billion.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Exports of Ukrainian rapeseeds in the 2018/19 agricultural year would reach some 2.5 million tonnes, which is 19% more than a year ago, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has said.
According to an annual report for oilseeds and food of the USDA, in 2016/17 agri-year Ukraine exported around 1 million tonnes of rapeseeds, which is 28% less than a year ago. Over 92% of it was exported to the European Union (EU).
According to the report, from July 2017 through January 2018, the trend has changed, and exports reached 2 million tonnes, which is almost 21% more year-over-year. The EU remained the key consumer and bought almost 1.7 million tonnes (92% of total exports). The EU would remain the main buyer of the new season.
According to the report, EXW prices of rapeseeds in 2018/19 agri-year exceeded FOB prices in the ports of the Black Sea.
