The Ukrainian Chemists Union considers it necessary to introduce quotas for imports of fertilizers, which will make it impossible for Russian manufacturers to bypass trade restrictions and load Ukrainian plants at full capacity.
“We propose the introduction of quotas for complex and nitrogen fertilizers for all countries in order to preserve the historical balance of imports. Each country will supply its products to the extent it has historically supplied, this will make impossible for Russian manufacturers to bypass trade restrictions and load the plants at full capacity,” Ihor Holchenko, the vice president of the union and the director for regulatory policy of Group DF, told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, this protective mechanism is applied in the countries where there is a threat of damage from growing imports. The introduction of quotas will be preceded by an investigation by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. According to Holchenko, quoting will give a clear picture of how much to produce, while regulators will monitor abuse.
The expert said there is no shortage of nitrogen and complex fertilizers in the Ukrainian market: the country provides itself with nitrogen fertilizers, and it can cover 800,000 tonnes that were supplied from the Russian Federation by increasing domestic production.
As for nitrogen fertilizers, Ukrainian enterprises are not loaded at full capacity, as well as for complex ones, where the load is up to 12%. Complex fertilizers in Ukraine are produced by Sumykhimprom and Dniprovsky Plant of Mineral Fertilizers. Ukraine can produce 700,000 tonnes of complex fertilizers, but in 2018 it produced only about 40,000 tonnes.
Ukraine is utilizing 100% of its existing capacity for importing natural gas, Serhiy Makohon, the head of Gas Transportation System Operator of Ukraine, has said.
“The day has come! Imports of gas reached 66.3 million cubic meters, which represents 100% of our technical capacity. A landmark event,” Makohon wrote on Facebook.
The GTS’ throughput capacity on Ukraine’s border is 42.5 mcm/day from Slovakia, 19.5 mcm/day from Hungary, and 4.3 mcm/day from Poland.
Ukraine is planning to start the 2019/2020 heating season with 20 billion cubic meters of gas in its underground storage facilities, as it fears that Russia’s Gazprom will stop transporting gas through its territory after this year.
As of the morning of July 20, some 15.018 bcm was in underground storage, CEO of Naftogaz Ukrainy Andriy Kobolev said on Facebook earlier on Monday.
Between July 1 and July 20, some 1.473 bcm was pumped in, or 73.7 mcm per day. In June, 71.9 mcm/day was pumped in, and 62.9 mcm/day in May.
Commodity pattern of foreign trade of ukraine (import), jan–apr, 2019
DTEK intends to begin importing electricity from Europe within the Burshtyn Energy Island in July 2019, according to the Facebook page of D.TRADING.
“Our company also plans to start importing electricity as early as July with the further active development of this direction of business in the coming months,” Dmytro Maliar, the director for the D.TRADING energy portfolio management, said.
According to him, imports in the new market will allow increasing the level of competition.
Earlier, on July 1, ERU Trading LLC announced the implementation of test imports of electricity from Slovakia and Hungary within the Burshtyn Energy Island.
D.TRADING conducts wholesale trade in electricity, natural gas and coal in the domestic and foreign energy markets.
Commodity pattern of foreign trade of ukraine (import), jan–march, 2019
Structure of foreign trade by types of services (import) in i q, 2019
