Ukraine in June 2018 increased steel production by 1.5% compared to the same period in 2017, to 1.711 million tonnes, climbing from 12th to 14th in the rating of 64 countries, the world’s major producers of this product, compiled by the World Steel Association (Worldsteel). In June the growth of steel smelting was recorded in the majority of the first ten countries from June 2017, except for Brazil.
The top ten countries producing steel in June are as follows: China (80.196 million tonnes, a rise of 7.5%), Japan (8.76 million tonnes, an increase of 4.2%), India (8.739 million tonnes, an increase of 7.4%), the United States (6.847 million tonnes, a rise of 0.8%), South Korea (6.122 million tonnes, an increase of 3.2%), Russia (6.12 million tonnes, a rise of 8.9%), Germany (3.77 million tonnes, an increase of 2.6%), Turkey (3.043 million tonnes, an increase of 0.7%), Brazil (2.59 million tonnes, a fall of 2.2%), and Italy (2.135 million tonnes, a rise of 1.5%).
They are followed by Iran (2.08 million tonnes, an increase of 16.5% and, Ukraine (1.711 million tonnes, a rise of 1.5%). Overall, 64 countries produced 151.379 million tonnes of steel in June 2018, which is 5.8% more than in June 2017.
In January-June 2018, 64 countries produced 881.455 million tonnes of steel, which is 4.6% more than in January-June 2017.
Ukraine and Serbia are holding talks to launch the Belgrade-Kyiv regular flight, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said.
“We have started the negotiations… on the launch of a new regular flight between Belgrade and Kyiv,” Vucic said after the talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Belgrade on Tuesday.
He said that the launch of the flight would help to establish business and cultural ties between Ukraine and Serbia.
Vucic said that last year over 10,000 tourists from Ukraine visited Serbia.
“We believe that this tourist flow would grow more,” he said.
The Serbian president showed the interest that citizens of Serbia travel to Ukraine.
Minister of Social Policy Andriy Reva has said that more than 3.2 million Ukrainian citizens are employed abroad on a permanent basis. “More than 3.2 million Ukrainian citizens work abroad on a regular basis,” Reva said at the launch of the project to improve the management of the labor market dubbed “Inclusive labor market for jobs in Ukraine” in Kyiv. He also noted that labor migration is currently seasonal. “According to our estimates, up to nine million Ukrainian citizens take part in this process,” the minister added.
According to Reva, at the moment one of the actual problems of the labor market is the unemployment rate among young people and the inability to find a large number of internally displaced persons. In addition, a large shadow employment and a disproportion between the supply and demand for skilled labor are the current problems.
Trilateral negotiations of the European Union, Russia, and Ukraine on Russian gas transit via Ukraine after 2019 may begin in early July, according to European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic. “Time is a precious commodity. I hope to start working with Russia and Ukraine on the trilateral gas agenda in early July,” he wrote on Twitter. “Complex negotiations ahead,” Sefcovic wrote. He said in late May that the objective of these negotiations will be to determine details of gas transit via Ukraine after 2019 and guarantees of such transit.
Ukraine today has used slightly over one third of funds from the financing, which the group of the European Investment Bank (EIB) obliged to provide, EIB Resident Representation for Ukraine Jean-Erik de Zagon said at a press conference in Raiffeisen Bank Aval in Kyiv. In 2014-2016, the EIB group successfully met its commitments to support projects in Ukraine and obliged to provide the financing of $3 billion, he said. Now over one third of the funds have been used, de Zagon said.
He added that the group’s commitments are in effect.
Some of the financing is provided under the framework agreement, and some conditions are to be met for using these funds, while the $3 billion commitments are remain in force, and the financing must be provided, he said.
As reported, the EU Summit early March 2014 approved the assistance package for Ukraine worth EUR 11 billion. The EIB obliged to provide EUR 3 billion under this package.
Norway’s Scatec Solar seeks to build a solar power plant with the installed capacity of 25 MW in Kamianka (Cherkasy region), the press service of the Cherkasy Regional Administration has reported. Scatec Solar has built solar power plants with a total capacity of 322 MW in different countries. The company is in the process of building plants with the capacity of 434 MW. Scatec Solar operates in the Czech Republic, South Africa, Ruanda, Honduras and Jordan.
BUILD, CHERKASY REGION, SCATEC SOLAR, SOLAR POWER PLANT, UKRAINE
