The transit of natural gas from the Russian Federation through Ukraine in January-September 2020 decreased by 38.6% (by 28.3 billion cubic meters) compared to the same period last year – up to 45 billion cubic meters, head of the Operator of the Gas Transmission System of Ukraine (GTSOU) Serhiy Makohon said on his Facebook page.
According to him, the forecast for transit from Russia through the Ukrainian gas transportation system by the end of the year is 55-56 billion cubic meters.
The first container train on the China-Kazakhstan-Russia-Belarus-Ukraine new route, which delivered 41 containers with refrigeration equipment, has arrived in Ukraine.
The press service of Ukrzaliznytsia said on Thursday morning that the train had been on the way for 19 days.
Work is underway on the frequency of the train running once a week. “If there is sufficient cargo, the frequency of running will be increased and the train will run according to a clear schedule,” the press service said.
Work on the route’s capacity filling continues, “especially in the direction of receiving subsidies from China for cargo, so that the conditions of cargo transportation are economically attractive for carriers.”
In addition, Ukrzaliznytsia is developing an online service to enable customers to order a container seat on a train and pay for the service online, similar to purchasing tickets for passenger trains.
Ukrzaliznytsia recalled that direct container trains from China to Ukraine began to run on the territory of four countries from June 8, 2020. During this time, 13 trains have already arrived.
Container traffic accounts for 2.3% of the total volume of cargo transportation by rail in Ukraine. Currently, 36 container trains organized by Ukrzaliznytsia run on a regular basis across Ukraine.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine decided to ban the import of wagons of residents and the railway administration of the Russian Federation into Ukraine at a meeting on Wednesday, Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleksiy Honcharenko (the European Solidarity faction) said on his Telegram channel. According to the document released by him, in particular, the import of wagons into the customs territory of Ukraine, among the railway administrations, in registration of which there is or was the railway administration of the Russian Federation from February 20, 2014, is forbidden until December 31, 2020 (inclusively).
The decision comes into force from the day of its publication.
“By the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine decision No. 1147 dated December 30, 2015 a ban on the import into the customs territory of Ukraine of railway wagons that were in use and which are imported in the customs regime of imports from the Russian Federation has already been introduced. However, since November 2019 Ukraine’s resident legal entities purchased 1,165 wagons, the country of origin of which was not Russia. Some 608 wagon of them were previously owned by resident enterprises of the Russian Federation, and 15 wagons were owned by resident enterprises of the Russian Federation since 2014. In order to ban such rolling stocks as well, we made the relevant amendments to the decision, which the government supported today,” Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Vladyslav Krykliy said.
The duty of 65% on coal imported from the Russian Federation to Ukraine with some exceptions is imposed from April 15, 2020, according to government resolution No. 261 dated March 18.
The exception is anthracite coal, bituminous coal and coking coal for metal industry, as well as lean coal for companies generating electricity and heat.
The imposition of the duty on imported electricity earlier announced at the government meeting is not envisaged in the document.
The Economy Secretariat (Secretaría de Economía) of Mexico has announced the launch of an administrative procedure for reviewing safeguard duties imposed on hot rolled sheets originated from Ukraine and Russia.
According to the announcement made on March 26, 2020 on official website of the Mexican government bulletin, the duties are being reviewed as the duties imposed earlier expired.
According to the document, safeguard duties on hot rolled sheets were imposed by Mexico on March 28, 2000 in the amount of 46.66% for Ukraine and 30.31% for Russia. On March 17, 2006, the duties were extended. After the new revision on September 8, 2011 it was decided to cut the duties for Ukraine to 25% and to 21% for Russia. On January 28, 2016 it was decided to extend the duties.
Ukraine would receive income of $15 billion in five years of transit of Russian natural gas, according to Minister of Energy and Environment Protection of Ukraine Oleksiy Orzhel. “The approximate income with which Ukraine left this meeting [the meeting in Minsk on December 20, following which Ukraine-Russia-EC signed an intergovernmental protocol], is more than $3 billion for arbitration and approximately $3 billion for transit each year during five years,” the minister wrote in his column for the Ekonomichna Pravda (Economic Truth) publication on Tuesday.
“Thus, in five-year outlook, we will receive about $18 billion, of which $3 billion is ‘natural’ money – before the New Year. And this is without any enslaving conditions regarding the purchase of Russian gas,” Orzhel said.
At the same time, he said that at the meeting in Minsk the parties made significant progress, however, at present, the risk of not signing the new contract still exists.
“The protocol is not an agreement yet. In the last week of December, our companies will draft the text. But until the agreement itself has been signed, there is no transit. Can the other side change its mind at the last moment? Yes. Are we ready for this? Yes. But if this happens, Gazprom will suffer all image losses,” the minister added.
