KYIV. July 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry tentatively assesses grain exports from Ukraine in 2015/16 agricultural year (July-June) at 39.415 million tonnes, which is 13% more than during the previous season.
The ministry said in a press release on Saturday that wheat exports reached 17.354 million tonnes, corn – 17.396 million tonnes, barley – 4.409 million tonnes and other grain crops – 256,000 tonnes.
The ministry said that grain exports in the 2014/15 farm year totaled 34.805 million tonnes.
According to the State Statistics Service, grain harvest in Ukraine in 2015 totaled 59.96 million tonnes, which is 6.1% down year-over-year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) expects grain harvest in Ukraine in 2016 to reach 59 million tonnes, exports at around 32 million tonnes.
KYIV. July 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – United Mining-Chemical Company managing Vilnohirsk state mining and metallurgical plant (Dnipropetrovsk region) and Irshansk state mining and processing plant (Zhytomyr region) in January-March 2016 saw a 3.2-fold rise in net profit year-over-year, to almost UAH 144 million.
The enterprise said in a press release on Friday that in Q1 2016 pretax profit of UAH 177.3 million was recorded, while in Q1 2015 it was UAH 44.866 million.
Net sales revenue over the period exceeded UAH 400 million and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) totaled UAH 168.9 million.
“The positive results were achieved thanks to boosting production and sales compared to the first quarter of last year. Nevertheless, the fact that the company launched production only in February 2015 should be taken into account. The last year period is the base for comparing financial indicators,” First Deputy Director General Oleksandr Hladushko said.
Net revenue in Q1 2015 was UAH 215 million, net profit – UAH 44.9 million and EBITDA – UAH 65.7 million.
Hladushko said that the company is far from reaching the potentially possible production and sales volumes. Products worth around UAH 413 million are still at the company’s warehouses.
“Unfortunately, we do not see the increase in demand and the improvement of the price situation on the global titanium market. The situation with sales remains difficult,” he said.
Despite difficulties with sales, the company does not intend to leave production facilities idle.
“Our company is a state-run company. For now we manage to create a financial ‘cushion’ softening the crisis. We would not violate our liabilities to employees,” he said.
The company in January-March 2016 increased tax payments to the budgets of all levels to UAH 64 million, while in Q1 2015 the sum was UAH 47.9 million, not taking into account the cost of production licenses and permits.
KYIV. July 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian metal companies tentatively increased steel production by 11% in January through June 2016 year-over-year, to 12.459 million tonnes, the Metallurgprom association of metal companies of Ukraine (Dnipro) has told Interfax-Ukraine.
Rolled steel output grew by 12% in January-June 2016, to 10.909 million tonnes and cast iron output was up by 17%, to 11.949 million tonnes.
Pipe production fell by 7%, to 398,000 tonnes, and coke output increased by 24%, to 6.489 million tonnes.
In June 2016, 1.87 million tonnes of steel, 1.59 million tonnes of rolled steel and 1.79 million tonnes of cast iron were made, as well as 70,000 tonnes of pipes and 910,000 tonnes of coke. In May 2.269 million tonnes of steel, 2.014 million tonnes of rolled steel and 2.2 million tonnes of cast iron, 70,500 tonnes of pipes and 1.125 million tonnes of coke was made.
Late May and early June some enterprises sharply decreased production due to problems with delivery of raw materials and shipment in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) zone.
KYIV. July 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Representatives of the Union of Ukrainian Businessmen (SUP) have discussed problematic issues hindering development of business with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
The SUP said in a press release that at a meeting on Friday taxation, currency restrictions, old regulatory requirements, corruption of official and the shadow economy were discussed.
SUP members proposed to introduce the requirement to obligatorily register payment transactions with imported goods in the whole trade chain, adopt a full electronic document turnover between customs agencies and businessmen, open customs statistics to meet international requirements. This would help to hinder the shadow imports.
The simplified taxation system for small business should be improved. The SUP representatives proposed setting tax rates for these companies, taking into account the spheres where they work.
The founder of 3 Bears company and a board member of SUP Dmytro Ushmayev proposed to increase the term to return currency income from 90 to 180 days and eliminate the requirement to obligatory sell 65% of currency income for producers and exporters.
The SUP said in a press release that business representatives said that it is important to create the national export-credit agency. The state would be able to guarantee exports credits and insure them from political and other risks. Groysman said that the government is mulling the possible format of the agency’s operation.
The problems of construction sector were also discussed at the meeting. The co-owner of Midland Development Ukraine and board member of SUP Olena Shuliak said that the main problems of the sector are the absence of town-planning documents, the long land allocation procedure, complicacy of connecting to utility networks, old design requirements, corruption in issuing permits and the necessity of paying fees to towns.
“An agreement to hold a separate meeting of the prime minister with constructors and joint work of the SUP and the government to find mechanisms to re-launch the sector has been reached,” the association said.
According to a posting on the government’s website, this work will include improvement of national construction requirements.
At the meeting Groysman announced the soon reloading of the council of businessmen under auspices of Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers. The council should become a real tool for analyzing initiatives, opportunities to reach the government and make proposals. The prime minister announced that the office for accompanying investment would be soon created.
“It is planned to create these offices all over the country. This would help to understand problems of business and quickly react to them,” Groysman said.
He said that the government would not cover up tracks of corruption and seeks to remove pressure of supervision agencies on business.
The Union of Ukrainian Businessmen (SUP) was registered on January 29, 2016. Its board consists of top managers of 18 Ukrainian companies: Nova Poshta, UBC Group, Stekloplast, Softserve, Pharmplanet, IMC Group, Horizon Capital, Baker Tilly Ukraine, Spizhenko Cyberclinic, А7 Group, 3 Bears, Fedoriv, MTI, Rozetka.ua, Midland Development Ukraine, TM Cosmo, Arzinger and TMM. Around 50 companies are official SUP members.
KYIV. July 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine as of July 2 had threshed grain and leguminous crops on 412,000 hectares, harvesting 1.5 million tonnes of grain.
The press service of the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry reported on Saturday, the yield is 35.6 centners per ha (30 centners per ha in 2015).
Some 178,000 tonnes of wheat was threshed on 47,000 ha or 1% of the target with the yield of 38.1 centners per ha (31.8 centners per ha in 2015).
Some 1.2 million tonnes of wheat was threshed on 354,000 ha or 13% of the target with the yield of 35.4 centners per ha (30.8 centners per ha in 2015).
Around 35,000 tonnes of peas were harvested from 12,000 ha (5%) with the yield of 29.3 centners per ha (18.5 centners per ha in 2015).
Some 42,000 tonnes of winter rapeseeds were threshed on 19,000 ha (3%) with the yield of 22.2 centners per ha (17.2 centners per ha in 2015).
Source: State Statistics Services
