The fare on the roads of Bulgaria is not charged for any car with a Ukrainian registration number (electronic vignette for cars weighing up to 3.5 tons and a tariff for trucks and buses over 3.5 tons) when using the national road network, according to the Motorny website ( Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (MTSBU).
The corresponding decision adopted by the Council of Ministers of Bulgaria came into force on February 24, 2022 and will be valid until the need for humanitarian and medical assistance is eliminated.
All violations in the electronic system of vehicles generated for cars with Ukrainian registration after February 24, 2022 are closed. Thus, cars with Ukrainian registration can freely leave the territory of Bulgaria even if they violate traffic rules.
The National Service (BGTOLL) has a customer service hotline that operates daily from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm. By calling 0700 10 876 or by e-mail info@bgtoll.bg all persons, including Ukrainians, can receive the necessary information.
The report also notes that in Poland, travel on toll roads for cars with Ukrainian numbers is also now free. In Slovakia, cars from Ukraine can move without purchasing an online vignette. In Germany, the autobahns are free for all cars.
The Ukrcement Association has asked Ukrzaliznytsia to take into account the specifics of the cement industry when distributing wagons at auctions, as well as to reduce the use of specialized cement wagons for the transportation of other goods in high season, Chairman of the association, Pavlo Kachur said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, among the urgent problems with the distribution of wagons, in particular, the lack of cement cars for transporting cement due to their use for the transportation of crushed stone and other bulk materials, and inappropriate offers at auctions in terms of the number of wagons.
“Cement producers lose to grain producers, power companies, crushed stone producers in routing. They are profitable clients for Ukrzaliznytsia. They load 40 wagons in one place, bring them to the port, a power plant or an open area, unload and this is the end of the work. And they tell us: bargain, there are wagons. But cement consumers have their own specifics, which we ask to also take into account. We have only a few consumers for 20-30 wagons. Basically three or five wagons are ordered, but such offers at auctions are not enough,” Kachur said.
In addition, until September 2021, Ukrzaliznytsia put up 170 cement carriages for sale per day exclusively for the shipment of cement, but in September-October this restriction was canceled and 80 cars were put up for the transport of bulk cargo.
“On October 21, 2021, Ukrzaliznytsia also canceled this division of cement cars by type of cargo, which caused a speculative jump in the railway tariff due to increased demand from shippers of bulk materials, while leaving cement producers without wagons for transporting cement. After all, cement, in contrast to other bulk materials can only be transported by cement wagons,” the chairman of Ukrcement said.
Primary registrations of new passenger cars in Ukraine in January-July this year increased by 28% compared to the same period in 2020, to 58,100 units, the Ukrautoprom association reports.
According to the information on its website, in particular registrations in July increased by 16% compared to July 2020, to 9,768 units.
The best result was again demonstrated by Japanese-based Toyota with an increase in registrations by 34%, up to 1,535, followed by French-based Renault, whose registrations decreased by almost 10%, to 1,301 units.
The third line of the rating with an 87% increase (up to 800 cars) was confidently taken by Kia, the fourth was Skoda with the registration of 618 cars (35% more), and the top five monthly leaders with a 5% increase in sales were closed by Hyundai with 465 units.
The ten most popular brands in July also included: Volkswagen with 452 units (more by 25%), Nissan – 439 units (more by 32%), Chery – 412 units (more by 91%), Mitsubishi – 411 units (more by 70%), Suzuki – 384 units (more by 9%).
The bestseller of the month was the compact crossover Toyota RAV4 with 659 registrations.
According to the information and analytical group AUTO-Consulting, published on its website, July sales have traditionally become peak since the beginning of the year and in fact the Ukrainian car market has set a post-crisis sales record – according to the group, sales increased by 10% from July 2020, to 9,800.
“We have not sold so much since February 2014,” the experts say.
According to them, the three leaders in July coincide with the data of Ukrautoprom, but Renault, which took the second position, added 33% in sales, to 1,317 units, and the leader of the rating, Toyota, increased sales by 19%, to 1,552units.
Kia sales in July increased by 9.16%, to 810 units, Skoda raised them by 3%, to 632 cars, Hyundai – by 4%, to 469 units.
JSC Zaporizhia Automobile Building Plant (ZAZ) in January-May of this year produced 1,742 passenger cars, while in the same period of 2020 – none, according to the statistics of the Ukrautoprom association.
At the same time, the plant produced 417 passenger cars in May, compared to 472 passenger cars in April this year.
The plant also produced 39 buses over the five months versus 13 buses a year earlier.
According to the statistics of the association, the second Ukrainian manufacturer of passenger cars, the Eurocar plant (Zakarpattia region), in January-May produced 1,796 Skoda passenger cars using the SKD assembly method, which is 35.5% more than in the same period last year, including 527 cars produced in May (6 times more than in May 2020).
As reported, taking into account these production indicators of the two plants, the production of passenger cars in Ukraine in January-May increased 2.7-fold, to 3,538 cars.
ZAZ is a leading automobile manufacturing plant with the capacity for full-scale production of automobiles. The plant is part of the Ukrainian Automobile Corporation (UkrAVTO), owned by Tariel Vasadze.
The corporation’s brand portfolio includes passenger cars Chery, Lada, Chevrolet, Kia, Renault, as well as Mercedes, Jeep, Maserati, and buses of several classes.
JSC Zaporizhia Automobile Building Plant (ZAZ) intends to produce 10,000 cars in 2021 after resuming their production last year, said head of Zaporizhia Regional State Administration Oleksandr Starukh.
“The enterprise suspended its production, now it has been resumed, and everything is started small … We signed an agreement with Renault – this year we will have 10,000 cars,” Starukh said during the UkraineInvest Talks: Dnipro forum on Thursday.
According to him, in the first quarter of this year, ZAZ also sold 50 buses to Poland.
As reported, in 2018, ZAZ, due to economic inexpediency and in the absence of state programs to stimulate the automotive industry, stopped the production of passenger cars, the production of which was the leader in the country for many years. But in September 2020, Groupe Renault officially announced the start of production of passenger cars for the local market.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Kyiv Metropoliten have signed a loan agreement in the amount of EUR 50 million for the purchase of 50 new metro cars.
According to the website of Kyiv City State Administration, Kyiv City Council and the EBRD signed the necessary guarantee agreement.
“Today we are signing a loan agreement between the EBRD and Kyiv Metropoliten and a guarantee agreement between Kyiv City Council and the EBRD. And I hope that by the end of this year we will conclude a contract for the purchase of new cars for Kyiv Metropoliten. Under the terms of the loan, the city will receive an installment payment plan from the EBRD for 12 years,” Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko said.
He also said that now Kyiv is building two new metro stations in Vynohradar residential area – Mostytska and Prospekt Pravdy.
“We plan to open them by the end of the year. Today, more than 700 meters of 1.3 km of tunnel underground have been developed in the direction of the Syretska metro station. A tunnel is being built between the future stations Mostytska and Prospekt Pravdy. Therefore, these cars will serve the Syretsko-Pecherska line of the metro,” Klitschko said.
According to the EBRD, improving communication with the Vynohradar residential area by opening two new metro stations will help reduce the use of private cars and improve air quality.
