Transport companies in Ukraine in January 2018 decreased transportation of goods by 13.4% compared to January 2017, to 45.2 million tonnes.
According to the State Statistics Service, freight turnover for this period decreased by 9.3%, to 25.7 billion tonne-kilometers.
According to statistical data, in January 2018 railways transported 21.4 million tonnes of cargo within the country and for exports, which is 5.2% less than in January 2017. Transportation of coal decreased by 30.7%, oil and petroleum products by 26.4%, chemical and mineral fertilizers by 20.5%, coke by 18.3%, grain and flour by 12.5%, ferrous metal by 7.7% and timber by 5.6%. Iron and manganese ore transportation grew by 8.5%, cement – by 12.2%, scrap ferrous metals by 21.3% and construction materials by 47.5%.
In the total volume of cargo transportation by water transport, foreign traffic accounted for 88.3%. Compared to January 2017, the volume of foreign cargo shipments increased by 54.1%.
In January 2018, the volume of cargo transportation through pipelines fell. Thus, gas pumping fell by 24.2%, oil by 15.5%. Transit of oil decreased 21.2%, gas 32%.
Transportation of goods by air in January 2018 grew by 25.1%, to 100,000 tonnes.
The Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine is disappointed by a decision of the European Commission (EC) to reject price commitments proposed by Metinvest Group and other hot-rolled steel exporters in exchange for non-applying the previously introduced anti-dumping duties to them.
“We are very disappointed by this decision of Europe, especially in the context of the provisions of Article 50 of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, which, in particular, prefers price obligations. Ukraine has repeatedly stressed the importance of these provisions in the context of preserving and developing free trade between Ukraine and the EU,” Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Ukraine’s Trade Representative Natalia Mykolska told Interfax-Ukraine.
She also said that Ukrainian producers are the historical suppliers of hot-rolled steel to the EU market. “And they were ready to fall back on self-limitation to maintain the current trade regime. The government, for its part, is ready to provide various mechanisms for monitoring the fulfillment of these obligations and to be in constant dialogue with the European Commission,” the trade representative said.
Earlier it was reported that the European Commission rejected price commitments proposed by Metinvest Group and other hot-rolled steel exporters from Ukraine, Russia, Iran and Brazil in exchange for non-applying the previously introduced anti-dumping duties to them. The verdict came into force on March 10. “Currently, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade jointly with the national industry is analyzing the decision in detail, while at the same time we will continue the dialogue with the European Commission and work with the national industry to ensure access of Ukrainian products to the EU market and the implementation of the Association Agreement,” Mykolska said.
Mriya agroholding has created a research and development (R&D) center for increasing effectiveness of production thanks to innovative solutions, introduction and testing of IT technologies in companies and implementation of new production fields. According to a press release of the agroholding, the R&D center will work in five fields: tests, quality of soil, Agriculturist’s Map, mixing plants and UAV.
“The center is created in response to the unbiased need to continuously improve the efficiency of the company’s own production. We will independently evaluate advanced technologies, new practices and the best world innovative solutions in plant growing, test them in our conditions for the purpose of further implementation in production processes,” Project Manager and Head of the center Oleksandr Khmeliuk.
The company said that at the first stage of agronomic expertise, theoretical assumptions, justifications, and calculations are carried out. If the need for innovations is confirmed, they are tested in production at the next stage. At the final stage, after confirmation of the effectiveness is the implementation.
One of the main innovations for Mriya is its own soil analysis laboratory. “Taking into account that the minimum annual need for a qualitative analysis of soils for the company is 30,000 hectares, an economically viable solution was the acquisition of its own laboratory. This will enable to optimize the cost of mineral fertilizers, which share is up to 30% of the production cost, and manage the quality of soils” the company said.
In addition, in 2017, the agroholding developed and implemented the Agriculturist’s Map project, which provides access to an interactive map of fields even without an Internet connection and almost completely abandons paper reporting. At the same time, as expected, in the near future the analysis of monitoring of each field will be optimized up to 2-3 minutes, and inspection acts on the state of crops will be drawn up automatically based on the embedded correspondence algorithm.
In the current season, it is planned to test the acquired mixing plant, which will improve the quality of working solutions for spraying crops, control the entry of the required amount of preparations onto the field, and introduce the practice of manufacturing so-called “working solutions.” The plant can be either mobile or stationary.
Ukraine in January and February 2018 supplied 979 tonnes of cheese to foreign markets, which is 12% more than in the same period of 2017. According to customs statistics, released by the State Fiscal Service, in monetary terms shipments of these products increased 28.4%, to $3.55 million.
Cheese imports in January and February 2018 amounted to 1,790 tonnes, increasing 44.4% compared to the same period last year. The country imported products worth $9.13 million (in January and February 2017 some $5.48 million).
Exports of butter from Ukraine in January and February 2018 increased 3.5-fold, reaching 6,200 tonnes. In monetary terms, the figure amounted to $26.62 million against $6.71 million in January and February 2017. Imports of this product grew 4.5-fold in January and February 2018, to 275 tonnes ($1.66 million).
Exports of milk and cream (condensed) in January and February 2018 decreased 19.3%, to 5,310 tonnes. Ukraine supplied condensed milk and cream for a total of $8.74 million, which is 25.4% less than in January and February 2017.
Japan’s Ocean Network Express (ONE) container line, starting from April 2018, launches a service in Ukraine via subsidiary Container Terminal Odesa at the Odesa seaport. The press service of Container Terminal Odesa reported, referring to Executive Commercial Director Ihor Yarovenko, the contract has been signed. In January and February 2018, cargo flow of subsidiary Container Terminal Odesa was 52,499 TEU. Last year the company attracted new clients like Yang Ming and Cosco Shipping Lines. In addition, ZIM company continues boosting its cargo flow via Container Terminal Odesa thanks to the increase of the size of container vessels from Asia.
Thus, the company said that despite the announced transfer of the service of Maersk company to the Yuzhny port from April 2018, which amounts to about 10% of all containers handled by Container Terminal Odesa, the subsidiary will not lose in freight traffic and will increase volumes in 2018.
General Director of Container Terminal Odesa Anastas Kokkin believes that the company and the port of Odesa will remain the leader in the container market of Ukraine.
The Epicenter K Group, which was developing agricultural business under the Epicenter Agro brand in the past two years, plans to invest UAH 1.4 billion in construction and reconstruction of grain silos and UAH 665 million in the upgrade of agricultural machinery fleet in 2018. “Today, $150 million in hryvnia equivalent has been invested in what we already have [agricultural assets]. This year the investment component is UAH 2 billion, of which UAH 1.4 billion is the construction of new and reconstruction and expansion of operating silos and UAH 665 million for the renewal of equipment. The main sources of funding are idle funds of Epicenter,” General Director of Epicenter K Petro Mykhailishyn said at a press conference devoted to the development strategy of Epicenter K in the Ukrainian agrarian market.
He said that the turnover of Epicenter and Nova Linia hypermarket chains managed by the group amounted to UAH 42 billion in 2017.
As it was said at the press conference, the new agroholding has been operating on the Ukrainian market since 2015. During this time the group actively expanded its land bank, which is focused in Cherkasy, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil and Kyiv regions. The company plants four main crops: winter wheat, sunflower, corn and winter rapeseed.
“We started in 2016, having a land bank of 445 hectares. Today, we have 110,000 hectares of land officially registered with contracts with the land owners… When we realized that companies that have imported components in their activities are trying to become exporters, we chose the path of agribusiness… The plan for this year on the purchase of imported goods is $170 million, and we exported agricultural products for $50 million last year. There is a gap. We need to increase exports three times to hedge our financial risks,” Mykhailishyn said.
