Production of vehicles in Ukraine in January 2019 grew by 56.7% compared with January 2018, to 893 vehicles, and the growth pace is linked to the assembly of Skoda passenger cars by Eurocar Plant, which grew by 73%, to 828 cars, the Ukrautoprom association has reported.
Eurocar improved its production 4.2-fold compared with December 2018.
The association said that today Eurocar is the only enterprise in Ukraine where the production of passenger cars continues.
At the same time, the production of commercial vehicles fell by more than 63%: only five vehicles were manufactured in a month (excluding AvtoKrAZ, which has stopped disclosing production information since August 2016), including four by Cherkasy Bus (two in January 2018), and one by Zaporizhia Automobile Plant (ZAZ, 30 vehicles)
The production of buses practically did not change: 60 buses were produced, against 59 vehicles a year earlier. The Cherkasy Bus (40 buses in January 2019 compared with 12 in January 2018) remained the leader of their production, the Chernihiv Automobile Plant (14 compared with 20 the previous year) was the second, the ZAZ and the Chasiv Yar Bus Plant made three buses each (compared with seven buses and 17 buses, respectively). Not a single bus was produced by Bogdan Corporation (three buses in January 2018).
Compared with December 2018, the output of buses in January decreased by 21%.
As reported, in 2018, the Ukrainian automakers produced only 6,616 vehicles. This was 23% less than a year earlier, and production capacity was loaded less than 1.5%.
At the same time, passenger car assembly decreased by 22%, to 5,660 cars (including Eurocar produced 5,659 cars, 7.9% less), commercial vehicles (excluding products of AvtoKrAZ) – by 73%, to 132 units. A slight positive trend was seen only in the production of buses – an increase of 2.5%, to 824 units.
Natural gas production in Ukraine in 2018 increased by 0.5% (by 106.3 million cubic meters) compared to 2017, to 20.898 billion cubic meters, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry has told Interfax-Ukraine. According to the ministry, the enterprises of Naftogaz Ukrainy increased gas production by 0.9% (by 152.9 million cubic meters), to 16.506 billion cubic meters during this period. In particular Ukrgazvydobuvannia increased gas production by 1.2% (by 176.2 million cubic meters), to 15.420 billion cubic meters, while Ukrnafta reduced it by 2.1% (by 23.3 million cubic meters), to 1.078 billion cubic meters. Chornomornaftogaz retained production at the level of the previous year at 8.7 million cubic meters.
Other oil and gas producing companies operating in the country in 2018 reduced gas production by 1% (by 46.5 million cubic meters) compared to 2017, to 4.391 billion cubic meters.
JKX Oil & Gas with assets in Ukraine and Russia in early 2019 reached the average daily production of 5,129 barrels (boepd), which is 27.8% more than the average figure for the fourth quarter of 2018, the company reported on the London Stock Exchange. According to the report, this result was achieved thanks to the successful testing of the IG103 wellbore, as a result of which the productivity of this well continues to exceed expectations and recently amounted to about 1,600 boepd, while the estimated production from it exceeds 30 million cubic meters.
In accordance with the presentation of JKX, last year it increased natural gas production by 4.6%, to 181 million cubic meters, oil extraction by 6.3%, to 34,000 tonnes.
The company said that in 2019 it intends to increase production in Ukraine thanks to new drilling and other measures, including research and 3D seismic exploration.
GAS, JKX, OIL, PRODUCTION
In 2018, Ukrainian coking plants increased the production of blast furnace coke with 6% moisture content by 4.1% compared to 2017—up to 10.826 million tonnes.
In December 2018, a total of 924,000 tonnes of coke was produced while in November the coke production stood at 917,000 tonnes, the Dnipro-based Ukrkoks association of coking plants told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Ukrkoks Director General Anatoliy Starovoit said coke chemical plants worked as normal, providing metallurgical enterprises with coke according to the existing production plans.
“In January, the production has decreased to some extent compared to December because of a smaller number of orders and due to some technical reasons. However, the manufacturing enterprises have been supplied with blast furnace coke in full, there are no problems,” he said.
When asked about the plans for the entire 2019, Starovoit said that there are two forecasting options for producing coke in the association: at the level of 2018 and with a 5% increase.
“We have not yet received plans from iron smelters, so we have planned two scenarios for the production of coke. In January, the contracting process is taking place; therefore, later there will be a clearer picture of our production plans,” the director general said.
As reported earlier, in 2017, 14,289 tonnes of enriched coke coal was supplied to coke-chemical enterprises, of which 3.458 million tonnes accounted for Ukrainian production and 10.831 million tonnes were imported. The ratio of imported and Ukrainian coal was 78.8% to 24.2%. In particular, the imports arrived from the Russian Federation—6.3 million tonnes, the United States and Canada—3.923 million tonnes, Kazakhstan—377,000 tonnes, and the Czech Republic—187,000 tonnes.
Large ferroalloy enterprises of Ukraine – Nikopol and Zaporizhia Ferroalloy plants – in 2018 totally increased production by 0.8% compared with 2017, to 1.035 million tonnes.
The Ukrainian Association of Ferroalloy Manufacturers told Interfax-Ukraine that over the period silicon-manganese production grew by 6%, to 859,640 tonnes, while ferromanganese output fell by 30.6%, to 79,480 tonnes.
In addition, production of ferrosilicon (45% concentrate) fell by 18.8%, to 75,440 tonnes, and manganese metal – by 2.4%, to 7,460 tonnes.
Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant also produced 13,150 tonnes of other ferroalloys, while in 2017 it was 1,410 tonnes (a 9.3-fold rise).
The country’s two manganese concentrate producers, the Pokrovsky (formerly Ordzhonikidze) and Marhanets mining and beneficiation plants, produced 1.522 million tonnes of manganese concentrate in 2018, which is 6.8% more than in2017.
Marhanets mining and beneficiation plant produced 570,440 tonnes of concentrate (a rise of 4.6%) and Pokrovsky mining and beneficiation plant made 951,460 tonnes (a rise of 8.2%). In addition, the latter produced 196,600 tonnes of manganese sinter(21.3% up year-over-year).
Kokhavynska paper factory (Lviv region), a tissue and toilet paper producer (the Kokhavynka trademark), in 2018 increased production by 27.8% compared with 2017, to UAH 538.78 million.
According to the Ukrpapir association, production of paper at the factory in kind increased 11%, to 37,050 tonnes. At the same time, production of toilet paper rose by 6.1%, to 111.07 million rolls (a total of 683.77 million rolls was made in Ukraine in 2018, a rise of 1%).
Kokhavynska paper factory has been operating since 1939. The factory producers base paper for hygienic goods, toilet paper and paper towels. The capacity of paper making machines is 19,000 tonnes per year, processing equipment 90 million rolls a year.
As reported, in 2017 the factory produced goods worth UAH 421.5 million, which is 23% more than a year earlier, paper production grew by 23.7%, to 33,350 tonnes.
In 2018 the factory planned to increase production to UAH 550 million.
The factory exports about 40% of the products. The main consumers abroad are the Czech Republic, Romania, as well as companies from Belarus, Moldova, Hungary, and the Netherlands.
