KYIV. July 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Bunge Ukraine, one of the largest traders and producers of sunflower oil in Ukraine, exported 3.9 million tonnes of grain, soybeans and rapeseeds in the 2014/15 agricultural year.
“In the 2014/15 agri-year our turnover in Ukraine was $1.1 billion. We exported almost 3.9 million tonnes of grain, soybeans and rapeseeds, and our Dnipropetrovsk crushing plant produced around 150,000 tonnes of unrefined oil, 50% of which was exported, and refined oil was made from the rest of the oil,” Bunge Ukraine Director General Dmytro Horshunov said in an interview with the Forbes publication.
He said that the share of grain exports of the company’s turnover in Ukraine is around 75%. The rest of revenue is generated thanks to sale of oil.
With the commissioning of Mykolaiv crushing plant, the ratio will become 60% (exports of crops) to 40% (sales of oil).
“If we speak about the share of sales of bottled oil in Ukraine, according to Nielsen’s report for May 2015, it is 23%. According to our internal assessments, it is around 27%,” he said.
He said that the share of unrefined oil sales for exports is 3-4%. With the launch of Mykolaiv crushing plant, oil sales could grow by at least three or four times.
Horshunov confirmed plans to launch a crushing plant at Mykolaiv seaport with a capacity of 2,400 tonnes of sunflower seeds or 1,700 tonnes of soybeans a day. Its launch would boost crushing by 2.6 times and reach the total production capacity of 570,000 tonnes of crude oil a year, which would boost exports by at least 350,000 tonnes a year, to 450,000-470,000 tonnes.
Bunge operates in the agricultural products and food market.
The key assets of Bunge in Ukraine are Dnipropetrovsk oil extraction plant and subsidiary Suntrade (Kyiv). The company also has a grain terminal at Mykolaiv port.
KYIV. July 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – KSG Agro agroholding saw a 24% rise in sales of live weight pork year-over-year, to UAH 62 million (VAT included), the company said on its website.
The company said that its revenue from pork sales totaled UAH 112 million in H1 2015 (VAT included).
Most of the produce was sold under long-term contracts and 67% of sales were secured by meat-packing plant Yuvileiny and Fozzy-Food LLC. About 20% of the products were sold to Dnipro meat processing plant.
“Production growth in a difficult economic situation has been achieved thanks to the professionalism of the employees and their responsible attitude to work,” the company said.
KSG Аgro is a vertically integrated agricultural group, working in almost all the segments of the agricultural market, including the production, storage, processing, and sale of agricultural products. The total arable land leased by the company is around 65,000 hectares.
KYIV. July 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine and Iran will on September 15 hold talks on economic cooperation at the level of an intergovernmental commission for the first time in ten years, Mykhailo Bno-Airiian, head of the Ukrainian ministry’s Department for European Integration, said at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.
“On September 15, if everything is good, we will hold a meeting of the Ukrainian-Iranian intergovernmental commission in Teheran. The energy minister [of Ukraine Volodymyr Demchyshyn] and the agriculture minister of Iran [Mahmoud Hojjati] will co-chair the commission. I think that it would be the first meeting in ten years, so you can understand the importance of the event,” he said.
He added that the first meeting of the Ukrainian-Norwegian intergovernmental commission on trade development is scheduled for H2 2015.
In addition, Ukraine plans to hold a meeting of the working group for energy with the Czech Republic and Sweden in H2 2015.
KYIV. July 28 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Energy and Coal Industry Ministry of Ukraine has signed a memorandum of cooperation in Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) with Linc Energy Ltd. and Bond Bros Contracting Pty Limited (both based in Australia), the ministry’s press service has reported.
“This project is one of the most promising projects of trade and investment cooperation between Australia and Ukraine, and I hope sincerely that it would develop,” Australia’s Ambassador to Ukraine Douglas Trappett said.
First Deputy Energy and Coal Industry Minister Ihor Martynenkov said that Ukraine also plans to expand cooperation in other energy segments with Australia.
As reported, DTEK announced plans to cooperate with Linc Energy in production of synthesis gas using UCG in December 2012.
Linc Energy uses UCG for 15 years in Australia.
KYIV. July 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Azovstal Metallurgical Plant (Mariupol, Donetsk region), part of Metinvest Group, in January-June 2015 saw net profit rise by 4.2 times compared to the same period in 2014, to UAH 351.748 million.
As reported in a company quarterly report, published in the information disclosure system of the National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market, its pretax positive financial result for the period increased by 4.3 times, to UAH 434.257 million.
The company for the six months increased net income by 33%, to UAH 14.267 billion.
As of June 30, 2015 retained earnings amounted to UAH 4.16 billion.
As reported, Azovstal in the first quarter posted a net profit of UAH 952.776 million, while in the first quarter of 2014 its net loss was UAH 317.703 million. Its pretax positive financial result amounted to UAH 1.176 billion. The company increased its net income by 77.3%, to UAH 7.410 billion.
The company is part of Metinvest Group, the major shareholders of which are Donetsk-based PJSC System Capital Management (71.24%) and Smart-holding (23.76%).
Metinvest Holding is the managing company of Metinvest Group.
DNIPROPETROVSK. July 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Japanese government under the UN project provides $800,000 for providing persons displaced from Donetsk and Luhansk regions with new jobs and allowing them to develop own business who are living in Dnipropetrovsk region now.
The press service of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Administration reported that the project foresees that displaced persons who are living in Dnipropetrovsk region will be able to change profession, taking into account professions that are of demand now. There is demand on IT specialist, and the top-priority will be given to this sector.
UN will co-finance wages with the purpose of getting the interest of employers.
“The creation of opportunities for earning money would allow settling many issues. Employment of people is our top-priority,” Project Head Ruslan Fiodorov said at a meeting with an advisor to Head of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Administration Vitaliy Lytvyn.
In addition, UN would help the displaced persons who decided to start own business. Grants and consultations on opening own business would be presented.
“We would continue any business plans. The main condition is that they must be competitive,” Fiodorov said.
The press service said that up to $10,000 would be provided for the realization of one business plan.
