Business news from Ukraine

KYIV. March 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade has informed that Argentine Products company (Argentina) is interested in exports of Ukrainian unrefined sunflower oil.

According to a report on the ministry’s website, goods will be mainly supplied to the Middle East.

The contact data of the company are also posted on the website of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry.

As reported, Ukraine is the largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil in the world. The main consumer countries are India, China, the EU and the Middle East.

The Ukroliyaprom association expects that sunflower oil production in Ukraine in the 2015/2016 marketing year will stand at 4.2 million tonnes, exports will increase by 2.6%, to 3.9 million tonnes compared to the previous marketing season.

KYIV. March 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine and Iran have signed a Memorandum of Understanding during the 5th session of the Intergovernmental Ukrainian-Iranian Joint Commission for Economic and Trade Cooperation, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister, Regional Development, Construction, Housing, and Utilities Economy Minister, Chairman of Ukraine’s delegation in Iran Hennadiy Zubko has said.

The document defines specific terms and agents in charge for all the areas of economic cooperation of the countries, the press service of Zubko’s ministry said.

“It is very important that we have decided on the transition to the implementation of specific joint projects and cooperation,” Zubko commented on the signing, which took place on Monday in Tehran.

The minister said the two countries would increase trade in agricultural sector, while Iran was ready to set up joint enterprises, and develop processing of agricultural products in Ukraine.

Ukraine also offered Iran to invest in its forestry, cooperate in the fishing sector, and team up in the development of infrastructure and logistics needed to facilitate trade in agricultural products, Zubko said.

“Ukraine invited Iranian investors to participate in the privatization of Ukrainian enterprises. We have agreed to establish a joint committee on investments for the development of various forms of investment cooperation, including public-private partnership,” the minister added.

He also said Ukraine and Iran would continue to cooperate in the banking sector, and would launch the Joint Ukrainian-Iranian Business Council. Its first meeting is to take place in Tehran, Zubko said.

Besides, the minister stated that Kyiv and Tehran were interested in further cooperation in the coal production and metallurgical sectors.

Zubko said the countries would also expand cooperation in the production of passenger and cargo cars, subway carriages, while trade in the car production sector would also grow.

What is more, the parties would expand cooperation in the aviation sector, in particular they would modernize the An-140-100 aircraft and jointly start its serial production.

Zubko also said Ukraine and Iran would enlarge cooperation in rail transportation. Besides, he said Iran was ready to cooperate with Ukraine on combined transportation through the corridor Persian Gulf – Iran (Astara and the Caspian Sea) – Black Sea, European countries.

KYIV. March 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public joint-stock company SKF Ukraine (Lutsk, the former Lutsk Bearing Plant), one of the largest bearing producers in Ukraine, tentatively saw UAH 392.75 million in net profit in 2015, and it was 2.4 times up from a year ago.

According to the materials to the agenda of a general meeting of the company’s shareholders scheduled for April 14, undistributed profit as of January 1, 2016 reached UAH 602.097 million (UAH 272.63 million as of January 1, 2015).

As reported, in 2014, the company saw an almost four times rise in net profit in 2014, to UAH 165.5 million.

Last year the company halved its current liabilities to UAH 111 million and long-term liabilities fell by 15%, to UAH 25.8 million.

Total bills receivable slightly grew to UAH 148.68 million, and assets rose by 25.4%, to UAH 1.056 billion.

Equity capital rose by almost 56%, to UAH 919 million.

The number of employees slightly decreased – by 10, to 1,206.

SKF Ukraine produces bearings and components.

In the middle of 2014, the company started cooperating with SKF Turkey, shipping products to two official distributors – UNLU TEKNIK and OZIHLAS, and in a year exports to the Turkish market grew by several times.

As of Q4 2015, Sweden’s Aktiebolaget SKF held 99.8917% in SKF Ukraine.

KYIV. March 10 (Interfax) – Economic cooperation was highlighted at the negotiations held in Ankara on Wednesday, the Ukrainian presidential press service has said.

“We have agreed to boost negotiations on a free trade area agreement and a number of other bilateral documents, including an avoidance of double taxation agreement and an agreement on the mutual protection of investments,” the press service quoted Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as saying.

“We have invited Turkey to take active part in privatization processes,” Poroshenko said at a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held in Ankara on Wednesday after bilateral negotiations.

According to Poroshenko, Ukraine and Turkey will be expanding cooperation in international multimodal and container transit and will be searching for other efficient logistic solutions.

The sides pledged to step up their involvement in bilateral and multilateral energy projects and to promote cooperation in tourism, for instance, to provide Turkish resort discounts for Ukrainian nationals, the press service said.

Poroshenko thanked the Turkish president for the assistance to Ukraine and mentioned a $50 million loan agreement signed in February during a visit of the Turkish prime minister to Kyiv.

The Turkish president reiterated the promise of $10 million for Ukrainian humanitarian needs and urged the international community to bolster assistance to Ukraine.

KYIV. March 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Bosch as part of developing the Bosch Service chain plans to authorize 15 new servicing stations and up to 30 partners under the Bosch Module program in 2016 (15 new servicing stations and 27 partners under the Bosch Module program in 2015), the company said in a press release.

The company said that as of early 2016, the Bosch Service chain united 111 servicing stations (including 17 Bosch Diesel Service/Bosch Diesel Centers) and 103 Bosch Module partners.

“These are good results that were beyond our expectations and plans. Bosch auto parts sales via the Bosch Service chain in hryvnias grew by 44% compared to 2014,” the press service said, citing Oleksandr Lizun, Bosch Automotive Aftermarket Head in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Transcaucasus and Central Asia.

The company believes that the strategically important result for the development of the Bosch Diesel chain is the launch of the Bosch QualityScan project to control the quality of repair of diesel elements at Bosch authorized servicing stations. A total of 14 diesel stations out of 17 joined the project.

Now Common Rail injectors and fuel injection pump assemblies repaired at Bosch Diesel Service/Bosch Diesel Centers are labeled by a sticker with a matrix code that allows receiving repair information online.

Lizun said that popularity of the chain has grown thanks to high trust of car owners to the quality of Bosch products, the smart policy of the sales department and cooperation with distributors, as well as the incentive programs launched in 2015.

Along with a fall in demand on new cars, car dealers have focused on the automotive aftermarket services and some of them opened Bosch Service stations to provide automotive aftermarket services.

This year it is planned to boost sales of auto parts in the euro equivalent.

Bosch plans to introduce the online application for servicing at the service stations and online business training system for Bosch Service sellers and service specialists.

Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of solutions and services.