Kernel, a large Ukrainian agrarian group, cut grain sales by 21.8% in the third quarter of FY2018 (July 2017-June 2018), to 1.088 million tonnes. According to a company report posted on its website, bulk sunflower oil sales in January-March 2018 fell by 14%, to 252,740 tonnes, and bottled oil sales decreased 24.4%, to 26.16 million liters. Over the period the holding crushed 848,860 tonnes of sunflower seeds, which is s1.4% less than in Q3 FY2017.
According to the document, the throughput volumes at the company’s export terminals fell by 6.1%, to 1.515 million tonnes.
In 9M FY2018 Kernel cut grain sales by 25.1%, to 3.074 million tonnes, bottled oil sales by 6.9%, to 85.8 million liters and boosted bulk oil sales by 14%, to 914,680 tonnes.
Grain sales stemmed from a countrywide harvest decline, delayed harvesting campaign, and low willingness of farmers to sell crops waiting for better prices.
According to the document, In Q3 FY2018 Kernel completed the disposal of corporate rights in subsidiaries leasing in total 34,000 hectares of farmland in Ukraine, which were suboptimal for company’s operations. Combined proceeds are expected to be $19 million. Kernel is the world’s largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil, the leading producer and supplier of agricultural products from the Black Sea region to the world markets.
Nibulon plans to start building cargo sea vessels in summer 2018, Director General of Nibulon Olekskiy Vadatursky has said in an interview with the Ports of Ukraine publication. “In March this year, for the first time at our shipyard, building of a dry cargo ship with a length of 100 meters was launched. And in the summer, after the reconstruction of the shipyard facilities, we will be able to build full-sized cargo ships of 140 meter length. We plan to build a specialized marine vessel with deadweight of 10,000 tonnes as a transshipment raid station,” he said.
According to Vadatursky, the vessel will be equipped with two cranes, which can handle up to 20,000 tonnes of grain per day. The deadline for its delivery is July 1, 2019.
“As we build our own marine fleet, we will extend the transport chain from the agricultural producer to the final consumer on the Nile,” he said.
The general director of Nibulon said that for the 12 years since the beginning of the implementation of infrastructure projects, to date, $1.76 billion has been invested, in particular about $100 million over the past year.
Nibulon LLC was established in 1991. It is one of the largest operators in the grain market of the country. It has elevators with a total capacity of about 2 million tonnes, as well as its own transshipment terminal with a capacity of 5 million tonnes in Mykolaiv. Infrastructure ministry mulling three options for financing construction of big orbital road around Kyiv
Ukraine as of April 17, 2018 fully used six quotas for duty free exports of goods under the agreement on the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with the EU (DCFTA), in particular for honey, malt and wheat gluten, preserved tomatoes, grape and apple juices, as well as wheat and corn. According to a report on the website of the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB), Ukraine also used the second quarterly quota for export of poultry and the six month quota for butter. The quotas for cereals and flour have been used by 95%.
“This year there was a revival in the pace of using the quotas: as of the same date in 2017, the volume of wheat had not yet been used, and the quota for malt and wheat gluten had not been used in the past year. The fact that along with six key quotas four more are closed indicates the intensification of trade relations with the EU,” an analyst of the foreign trade in agricultural products of the UCAB, Daria Hrytsenko, said.
According to the results in January-February of this year, agri-food exports from Ukraine to the EU increased 28.1%, or $224.7 million compared to the same period last year, and reached $1.025 billion, according to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food.
Pharmaceutical companies at the global level will increase investment in innovation and support for a high level of quality of medicines, international expert in GMP Wolfgang Schumacher has said. “In the early 1990s there was rather a broad understanding of what quality is. Over the years, this understanding has become more formulated and detailed, supported by more stringent rules and regulatory government policies,” he told Interfax-Ukraine as part of a master class “Integrity of Data for Laboratories and Production” for employees of Farmak Pharmaceutical Company (Kyiv) involved in the pharmaceutical quality system.
According to the expert, now, due to the presence of an increasing number of regulatory requirements, the concept of “quality of medicines” is also becoming increasingly regulated. “Back in the 1990s, we could produce a quality product without having a large number of regulatory requirements, but in recent years the requirements have become more detailed. New regulatory documents are issued. New regulatory documents are about ten times larger than the previous ones,” he said.
At the same time, Schumacher stressed that increasing the number of regulatory requirements obliges pharmaceutical companies that comply with GMP standards to strengthen the training of new personnel in GMP, including those related to legislative requirements that are not specified in the documents. According to him, European pharmaceutical companies pay more attention to quality than, in particular, American companies, despite the fact that the U.S. market has more regulatory requirements.
“European pharmaceutical companies are most focused on quality products. The American market is more documented, with lower quality in its products. In the U.S. market the documentation and the process of documenting are better than in Europe, but in practice there is not everything as good as in Europe,” he said.
At the same time, the expert noted Farmak’s responsible approach to the issues of quality and innovation. “It is very noticeable that the Farmak team is dedicated to its work and very motivated, which is very good. The life of each company lies in its team,” the expert said. The expert also noted that small and medium-sized pharmaceutical companies are “more pragmatic in their approach to quality, while large companies very often follow the rules.”
According to the expert, priority investments in quality are “investments that help develop people, and “it is necessary to invest in the motivation of the team.” “I think that Ukraine will face the same problems that other countries faced as well. Attracting personnel will be more expensive than buying equipment,” he said. At the same time, the expert noted the high expenses for innovation that pharmaceutical companies have to bear.
The Interpipe international vertically integrated pipe and wheel company and the leading manufacturer of seamless pipe in Europe Vallourec (France) have announced its plans to start joint production of steel pipes for the European market. According to a press release of Interpipe issued on Wednesday, cooperation would not apply to oil and gas pipes. Mainly linear pipes, pipe for general use and products for engineering.
“Interpipe-made pipes will undergo finishing and quality control at the finish line, which will be built on the basis of Interpipe Niko Tube and will be managed by Vallourec. The line will be created within the joint venture of Interpipe and Vallourec,” press release.
According to the press release, the beginning of production is planned for the autumn of 2018. The pipes will be sold under the Vallourec brand in the European market.
Works to complete a parking area near Terminal D of the Boryspil International Airport (Kyiv) will be finished by the contractor – NAN LLC (Kharkiv) – in the approved term – summer 2018, Boryspil Airport Commercial Director Heorhiy Zubko has said. “The contractor had a lot of difficulties with the audit of the works carried out earlier, as the facility was accepted in poor conditions. In addition, long winter upset the schedule, but these are their commitments. We did not lift them,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on the earlier announced possibility of filing a claim to court against the contractor.
Zubko said that Boryspil Airport Director General Pavlo Riabikin presented an option of terminating the contract, as the contractor is behind the schedule.
“We held many working meetings. One of the basic conditions was payment of all financial liabilities under bank guarantees, and the contractor met these conditions. We signed the new schedule with the contractors, describing details, and it is obliged to carry out works. We see this now. This does not lift the commitments of the contractor to commission the parking area in line with the contract terms, and this is summer 2018,” he said. Zubko also said that according to the financial plan of the airport for 2018, UAH 200 million is allocated for construction of the parking area this year.
