KYIV. Oct 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The capacity utilization of enterprises operating in the Ukrainian rocket and space industry in the first half of 2017 amounted to 30.9%, or 3.2% less than in the same period in 2016, the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) has told Interfax-Ukraine.
SSAU said in an official response to the agency that the biggest difficulties with capacity utilization in the first half of the year were faced by the Makarov Pivdenny Machine Building Plant (Dnipro), which was only 12.4% loaded, and also the state-run Arsenal Plant – 15.2%.
At the same time, the volume of production (in comparative prices) of enterprises operating in the sector in January-June 2017 grew by 35.1% year-over-year, and sales rose by 37.9%. Production and sales in the first half of the year amounted to about UAH 1.87 billion, and gross output reached about UAH 2.23 billion, SSAU said.
In the total volume of sales, the share of exports was 60.5%, or 39.7% than in January-June 2016. Export growth was provided by export-oriented enterprises of the industry. It was 177.6% at the Makarov Pivdenny Machine Building Plant, 83.6% at the Arsenal Special Device Production State Enterprise (Kyiv), 33.4% at Pavlohrad Chemical Plant (Dnipropetrovsk region), 25.1% at Pivdenne Design Bureau (Dnipro), and 18.7% at PJSC Hartron (Kharkiv).
In the structure of exports, 92.2% of products were supplied to the EU countries, the United States, and other countries. The share of exports to Russia shrank by 17.2%, to 7.6%.
SSAU currently manages 26 enterprises and organizations of the space industry. The state budget for 2017 envisages UAH 2.91 billion for financing the space industry, or 14.2% less than in 2016. In the total amount of financing, 61.5% of the funds from the state budget’s general fund are envisaged for the fulfillment of debt obligations on previously attracted loans for the implementation of international industry projects.
