China is planning investment projects for the creation of multimodal cargo terminals in the Ukrainian territory on the border with the EU as part of the development of transit with the European Union. Deputy Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine for European Integration Viktor Dovhan met with Chinese Vice Prime Minister Liu He, the leadership of the National Development and Reform Commission of China, and the Ministries of Transport and Commerce of China within the transport initiative “One Belt, One Road” in Beijing on November 8-9, 2018.
The parties noted the need to develop transit from China to the EU.
“The Chinese side noted that this year 6,500 containers have been transported to Austria, and cargo traffic along the Trans-Caspian international transport route is growing. Investment projects are planned for the creation of multimodal terminals on the border with the EU (Lviv, Kovel, and Uzhgorod),” the Ministry of Infrastructure said.
In addition, the ministry stated that agreements have been achieved on signing an agreement on road transport between Ukraine and China with Deputy Minister of Transport of the People’s Republic of China Liu Xiaoming until May 2019. This agreement will allow companies in both countries to transport goods in the territory of the other state regardless of the established routes, based on the needs of logistics and trade.
First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv has proposed to Vice-Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Liu He to commence joint consultations about the possible creation of a free trade area (FTA). “I have offered Vice-Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Liu He to start joint Ukrainian-Chinese consultations on the prerequisites for creating a Ukraine-China free trade area,” he wrote on his Facebook page, following a meeting with Liu He during his working visit to Beijing (China) on Thursday.
According to a posting on the website of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, after a long interruption in the work of the intergovernmental commission on cooperation between Ukraine and China, its activities were resumed, which favored increased trade and cooperation between enterprises of the two countries. “However, this volume of trade does not correspond to the existing potential. In the next five years, we can increase trade turnover to $20 billion a year,” the ministry said, citing Kubiv as saying.
As reported, trade turnover between Ukraine and China in January-August 2018, compared with the same period last year, grew by 21%, to $5.8 billion.
The opportunities for cooperation in agriculture, construction and energy sectors have been discussed by Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman with Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Du Wei. “Ukraine and China plan to double mutual goods flow to $10 billion and are mulling new opportunities or cooperation in agriculture, construction, first of all infrastructure facilities, energy and other areas,” the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers reported after a meeting of the prime minister with the ambassador.
Groysman said that the potential of relations between Ukraine and China is deepening every year, and more and more spheres of mutual interest appear.
At the meeting the Ukrainian prime minster thanked the Chinese diplomat for the successful completion of a project providing ambulances for Ukraine. He expressed hope that China International Import Expo 2018 will be successful. A Ukrainian delegation will take part in the exhibition.
Exports of grain crops in the 2017/2018 marketing year (July 2017 through June 2018) totaled 39.4 million tonnes and amounted to $6.4 billion, according to the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine. The largest buyers of Ukrainian grain in this period were Egypt ($ 724 million, with a share of 11.4%), China ($594 million, 9.3%), Spain ($459 million, 7.2%), Indonesia ($375 million, 5.9%) and the Netherlands ($348 million, 5.5%).
In particular, Ukraine exported 17.8 million tonnes of maize worth $2.86 billion (China’s share was 16.4%, Egypt accounted for 13.6%, and the Netherlands for 12.2%). Exports of wheat totaled 17.2 million tonnes worth $2.83 billion (Indonesia with 13.3%, Egypt with 11.8%, and Bangladesh with8.7%); while exports of barley stood at 4.3 million tonnes worth $0.64 billion (Saudi Arabia with 41.2%, China with 19.3%, and Libya with 6.6%).
As noted, 99% of all grain was shipped by sea (39 million tonnes). The ports of Chornomorsk (formerly Illichivsk) accounted for 22% of all grain shipments by sea, the port of Odesa accounted for 19%, Yuzhny for 19%, and Mykolaiv for 18%. At the same time, 306,000 tonnes (0.8%) was exported by rail and almost 80,000 tonnes (0.2%) by road.
Ukraine in the 2016/2017 marketing year exported 43.8 million tonnes of grain, the Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food earlier reported.
PJSC State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine in the 2017/2018 marketing year (MY, July-June) shipped more than one million tonnes of grain to China National Complete Engineering Corporation (CCEC), which is twofold more than for the previous MY.
According to a report on the website of the state corporation, the corporation through its main partner CCEC exports grain to Austria, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, Egypt, Algeria, Bangladesh, and Tunisia.
The government in August 2010 decided to create the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine. The corporation has a chain of branches, comprised of grain storage facilities, flourmills, fodder factories and a cereals factory. The 53 subdivisions of the corporation can store a total of 3.75 million tonnes of grain, which includes the grain handling capacities of Odesa and Mykolaiv ports of some 2.5 million tonnes of grain cargo per year.
China’s Jiangsu Seraphim Solar System has won a tender to supply solar cell arrays with a total capacity of 246 MW for construction of a solar power plant by DTEK in Dnipropetrovsk region, the press service of the Chinese company has reported.
The Engineering, Procurement, Construction (EPC) contractor under the project is China Machinery Engineering Corporation.
Earlier, DTEK CEO Maksym Tymchenko estimated the cost of the project at EUR 230 million. According to him, the construction of the plant is planned to be completed before the end of this year and from March 2019 the company seeks to start transmission of power in Ukraine’s power grid.
To ensure the connection of the solar power plant in Nikopol (Solar-1 LLC), national energy company Ukrenergo plans to reconstruct the open-type 150 kV switchgear of 330 kV Nikopol substation, with an expected tender price of up to UAH 20.833 million.
As reported, in 2017, DTEK launched its first Tryfonivka solar power plant with a capacity of 10 MW in Kherson region.
