Business news from Ukraine

A Japanese and Austrian company are interested in capital investment in Kryvy Rih oxidized ore mill, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine said on its Twitter page posting photos of a meeting of Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv with a delegation headed by Hiroshi Ishikawa responsible for the Iron Unit Division at Kobe Steel.
“The group of companies has designed a new technology for processing oxidized ores and it is interested in building a complex on the basis of Kryvy Rih oxidized ore mill,” the ministry said.
The press service of the ministry told Interfax-Ukraine that along with Kobe Steel, Austria’s Hares Engineering GmbH also showed its interest in the mill.
“These are Kobe Steel and Austria’s Hares Engineering GmbH. We have decided to shape an action plan. The ministry is interested in cooperation with them. The ministry is interested in leasing the property of Kryvy Rih oxidized ore mill. We will report later on concrete results of negotiations,” the press service of the ministry said.
According to a report of the ministry on Twitter, Kubiv pointed out the importance of attracting Ukrainian construction and engineering companies to construction of the complex on the basis of the Kryvy Rih mill.
Kobe Steel’s interest in the Kryvy Rih oxidized ore mill was reported back in the second half of last decade. In particular, in March 2009, during a visit of the then-Minister of Industrial Policy of Ukraine Volodymyr Novitsky to Japan, a memorandum of cooperation was signed between the Ministry of Industrial Policy, Kobe Steel and Hares Engineering to consider the introduction of ITMk3 technology (Ironmaking Technology Mark Three) at the mill. It was planned to create a working group to draft concrete proposals.
The construction of the mill started in 1985. The assessed total investment required to complete the construction and launch the Kryvy Rih oxidized ore mil, according to preliminary data, was about $800 million.

The government of Norway and other Scandinavian countries will additionally issue almost EUR3.8 million in 2018 to finance new projects aimed at increasing the energy efficiency of social facilities located in the conflict-affected eastern regions of Ukraine.
“The project of the Nordic Energy Efficiency and Humanitarian Support Initiative for Ukraine (NIU) provides for the reconstruction of public buildings to reduce energy costs for their heating, lighting and hot water supply, as well as the introduction of LED street lighting,” the press service of the Ministry for Temporary Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons said.
It is noted that the NIU fund, created in 2014, finances energy saving measures in schools, children’s and medical institutions, street lighting in the southeast of Ukraine in the cities affected by the military conflict. Since the start of its activities, the fund has financed 25 projects in 21 cities in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as in the neighboring regions for EUR12 million.

Nova Poshta, a leader in express delivery in Ukraine, has opened a first phase of the new parcel sorting center – Kyiv Innovative Terminal (KIT) in Zhuliany district of Kyiv City.
Co-founder of Nova Poshta Volodymyr Popereshniuk said on Friday, March 2, that the terminal can service over 350,000 parcels a day.
The first phase of the center can process only parcels and small parcels (envelops).
The center services the right bank area of Kyiv City and Kyiv region.
Vanderlande supplied sorting equipment. The capacity of the equipment is 8,500 bar-codes per hour (over 200,000 bar-codes a day).
Five faces of parcels are scanned with the speed of 2.3 parcels per second.
Popereshniuk said that in the future it is required to scan all six faces of the parcels for cutting the scanning time.
Another co-founder of Nova Poshta Viacheslav Klymov said that investment in construction of the first phase of the KIT terminal amounted to EUR 15 million. The half of the money is own funds from reinvested profit and the rest are borrowed funds.
“Ukrainian banks helped us a lot. This is a first large loan, as we have been developing for 17 years using own funds,” he said.
Popereshniuk said that the first phase is 80% of the readiness of the entire center, and it is likely that $5-10 million will be required to finish the project.
The KIT terminal was built in 2015-2017. Art Bud Service LLC acted as general contractor. The total area for construction is 23,900 square meters. The area of the first phase is 14,800 square meters.
The center processes over 400 trucks a day. A total of 750 employees will work there in four shifts.

State-owned enterprise (SOE) Pivdenne (Yuzhnoye) Design Bureau (Dnipro) increased the volume of completed work by 43.3% in 2017, reaching UAH 2.417 billion.
According to a report posted on the bureau’s website, sales grew by 21.8% in 2017, to UAH 1.096 billion.
The share of export of total sales was 82%. Exports grew by 19.6% in 2017, to UAH 1.612 billion.
The enterprise said that last year the financing of the bureau under contracts signed grew by 4.9%, to UAH 1.933 billion, and the financing under contracts signed with foreign companies rose by 5.3%, to UAH 1.663 billion.
In 2017, the volume of works ordered by the bureau from component industries under cooperation inside Ukraine totaled UAH 939.8 million, which is 13.6% less than in 2016.
Pivdenne Design Bureau is a leading enterprise of the Ukrainian aerospace industry with advanced space technologies. A major part of its products and services is supplied abroad, including the EU countries and the United States.