Initial registration of electric vehicles (new and used) in Ukraine in January-November 2018 almost doubled compared to the same period of 2017, to 4,812 units, the Ukrautoprom association has reported. At the same time, the share of imported used cars, as in the previous year, was 84%. As reported, in the first half of this year, the growth in the electric vehicle market was 50% compared to the same period last year, and in January-October already 89% (the share of used cars on it is 85%).
According to the association, 598 electric vehicles passed primary registration in Ukraine in November, which is 2.4 times more than in the same month of 2017, but 80% of them were imported cars with mileage.
The most popular electric car in the Ukrainian market (344 units) remains Nissan Leaf, BMW i3 cars rank second with the registration of 41 cars, and Tesla Model S ranked third with 34 cars.
Renault Zoe ranked fourth position with 28 vehicles, while the fifth position belonged to Fiat 500e, which was chosen by 24 customers.
The Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) assesses growth of the e-commerce market in Ukraine at over 30% every year, IT Telecom Sector Head at BRDO Oleksandr Kurbakov said at a roundtable devoted to e-commerce and smart regulation for the progressive market held in Kyiv. “The e-commerce market in the world is growing at a rate of 23-25% per year. In Ukraine, these rates are much higher – about 30% per year,” he said, citing statistics.
At the same time, Kubrakov said that Ukraine is in the second lowest position in Europe in terms of GDP per capita, the lowest in terms of Internet penetration, and the country is lagging behind the neighboring countries in terms of penetration of bank cards by 10-20%. According to BRDO, the volume of the e-commerce market in Ukraine in 2017 exceeded $50 billion, or 3.2% of the total retail sales. At the same time, the growth rate of e-commerce in Ukraine amounted to about 31%, which is the second highest growth rate in Europe.
“A significant problem for the market is the obligation of the seller to print a fiscal receipt in hard copy at the moment when the money paid for the goods arrive. This practically makes Internet acquiring impossible with payments of more than UAH 7.5 billion per year and cash on delivery in the amount of more than UAH 12 billion,” Kubrakov said. He said that the solution to this problem could be permission to submit receipts in electronic form.
The Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) estimates the volume of the illegal taxi market in Ukraine at 93-98% with the market volume being UAH 40 billion a year, head of the Infrastructure sector at BRDO Vladyslav Prytomanov has said during the round table “The taxi services market” in Kyiv. “According to experts, the total volume of the taxi market in Ukraine is UAH 40 billion a year, which are distributed between carriers (UAH 36 billion) and information and dispatch services (UAH 4 billion). At the same time, the level of market shadowing ranges from 93% to 98%, about 95% on average,” he said.
According to BRDO, there are about 220,000 taxi drivers in Ukraine, serving 280 million passengers annually. The average cost of a taxi ride in Ukraine is relatively low compared to other countries and amounts to UAH 60-90 for a trip within the city.
The expert noted that the budget revenues from the taxi market work are 1-3% of the minimum projected.
Speaker of the Association of Responsible Carriers public organization Oleksandr Diachenko, in turn, said that according to a study conducted by GfK, 42.7% of drivers are willing to work with an illegal taxi service if they need to pay 15-20% of taxes for legal work.
Primary registrations of electric cars (new and used) in Ukraine in January-October 2018 grew by 89% year-over-year, to 4,214 cars, the Ukrautoprom association has reported.
The share of used cars was 85% – the same as last year.
The Nissan Leaf remained the most popular make in Ukraine: 403 cars of this model were registered in Ukraine in October 2018. The BMW i3 with 38 cars ranked second in terms of the number of registrations and Tesla Model S was third with 27 cars. Renault Zoe (24 cars) was fourth, and FIAT 500е with 23 cars was fifth.
The top ten on the primary market of electric cars in October 2018 also included: Volkswagen e-Golf (19 cars), KIA Soul EV (18 cars), Hyundai Ioniq Electric (15 cars), Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive (14 cars), and SMART Fortwo ED (13 cars).
In 2017, the primary market of electric passenger cars in Ukraine grew 2.3-fold, to 2,697 units, and the share of used cars was 85%, while in 2016 – 51%.
Ukraine in January-September 2018 exported fruits and berries in the amount of $157 million, which is 40% more compared to the same period last year. According to the Ukrsadprom association, the main products in this group were walnuts, which were delivered for $69 million, frozen fruits and berries worth $61 million, apples and pears for $10 million.
“The growth in exports of walnuts (from 13,000 tonnes in the first nine months of 2017 to 20,000 tonnes in the same period of the current year), apples and pears (from 9,000 tonnes to 29,000 tonnes respectively) was the most notable in natural terms,” according to the website of the association.
The main sales market remained the European Union, supplies to which bring about two-thirds of all foreign exchange earnings. In January-September 2018 the largest purchases of fruits were made by Poland ($32.3 million), France ($11.7 million), Belarus ($10.9 million), Turkey ($10.6 million), the Netherlands ($8.8 million), Germany ($7.4 million), and Italy ($7.2 million).
“If not to take into account imports of exotic fruits to Ukraine (mainly citrus fruits and bananas), for the three quarters of 2018 the surplus of foreign trade in fruits and berries reached $75 million,” the association said.
Ukrainian apples are exported to more than 50 countries, while they are mainly purchased by Belarus (43%), Moldova (20%), and Sweden (10%).
Ukrainian enterprises increased the consumption of rolled metal by 4.64% in January-August 2018 compared to the same period of 2017, to 3.138 million tonnes.
According to statistics released by the Ukrmetallurgprom association, in January-August 2018, 948,500 tonnes were imported.
“In January-August 2018, the growth of metal consumption in the domestic market amounted to 4.64% compared to January-August 2017, with the outpacing growth of the import component (14.62%),” the association said in a press release.
According to the Ukrmetallurgprom, over the eight months ending August 2018, Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises produced 12.27 million tonnes of rolled metal products (104% compared to the same period in 2017, taking into account the activities in non-government controlled areas, or 108%, without taking them into account in January-February 2017) of which, according to the state-owned enterprise Derzhanalitinform, about 10.1 million tonnes or 82.2% was exported. This is slightly higher than in the same period in 2017, the share of exports in which amounted to 81.6% (9.62 million tonnes, with a total metal production of 11.79 million tonnes).
The share of semi-finished products in exports for the eight months amounted to 43.94%, which exceeds the figure for the period January-August last year (39.83%).
The main export markets of Ukrainian metal products in January-August 2018, according to Derzhanalitinform, are the countries of the European Union (33.4%), Africa (16.9%), other European countries, including Turkey (13.5%) and countries of the Middle East (11%).
Among metallurgical importers in January-August 2018, the first place is occupied by the CIS (56.6%), the second is shared by Asian countries (18.7%) and the European Union (18.3%).
