Ukraine business & economy news

14/07/2008
In June, flour production in Ukraine totaled 219.500 tonnes, up 1% as compared to the previous month, according to the official statistics. Flour production decreased by 2% as compared to June 2007, reported the State Statistics Committee.
By the end of June stocks of flour at the enterprises have decreased by 11% as compared to the end of May and totaled 43.600 tonnes.
In total, following the results of 2007/08 MY, flour production in Ukraine totaled 2.7 mln tonnes, up 9% as compared to 2006/07.

29/05/2008
RNCOS new research report, “Ukraine Banking Sector Analysis (2007-2008)”, says that the bank loan segment of the Ukraine banking industry is consistently growing. It grew at a CAGR of 56.02% during 2001-2006 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 23.84% by 2011. The report also says that the growth during the forecasted period drive both short-term and long-term lending.
In addition, “Ukraine Banking Sector Analysis (2007-2008)” also covers and comprehensively discusses other important factors, including growth potential, employment growth, disposable income per head, net interest income, current account deposits and time & saving deposits.

21/05/2008
Ukraine's central bank will act this week to narrow the gap between the official exchange rate of the hryvnia and interbank market levels after the currency surged against the dollar in trade, a top official said.
Petro Poroshenko, head of the bank's policy-making council, did not say to what extent the currency's official rate of 5.05 to the dollar would be altered. He suggested that current levels of 4.6 on the interbank market were distorted and "speculative".
"The official rate is set on the basis of figures on the interbank market. We have no intention, of course, of maintaining for any length of time the gap between the interbank and official rates," Poroshenko told reporters.
"I think that by the end of this week we will see a narrowing of the figures for the official and interbank rates."
The central bank has kept the official rate at 5.05, within a broader target band of 4.95-5.25, since August 2005.

9/05/2008
The government of Ukraine wants to sign 15-year gas supply contracts with Russia’s Gazprom and would work to ensure a five-year transition period from the current gas price to the European level.
Naftogaz Ukrainy CEO Oleg Dubina told reporters on Wednesday the government instructed his company to conclude 15-year contracts with Gazprom.
“We would like to have the European price for natural gas in five years, and during the transition period we want to agree on a fixed indexation of the existing price of 179.5 dollars per thousand cubic meters,” he said.

17/04/2008
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Wednesday her country is ready to shoulder the blame if Europe's supplies of Russian natural gas falls short.
Ukraine pipes about 80 percent of the natural gas Russia sends to Europe. While Kiev threatened to interrupt the shipments this year during a dispute over Ukraine's debt and supply arrangements, European consumers didn't report any shortages, unlike in 2006 when a row over prices led Moscow to cut off deliveries.
However, in her speech to the assembly, Tymoshenko said if shortages arise her country "is prepared to take on that responsibility, with all that it implies".
Russia and Ukraine settled their latest gas dispute last month, though some issues remain.

11/04/2008
The Ukrainian parliament ratified on Thursday a protocol on the country’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The decision was voted in by 411 deputies.
Ukraine was to ratify the protocol by July 4, 2008. However, this period can be extended, if need be, on a decision of the WTO general council. Ukraine will be a full-fledged WTO member on the 30th day after the ratification.
Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko said at a news conference on Wednesday that Ukraine would participate in agreeing protocols while Russia enters the WTO. Earlier, Timoshenko claimed that Ukraine’s membership of the WTO would not be an instrument of pressure on other countries, including Russia.

17/03/2008
A UKRAINIAN steel group has taken a significant step towards what is likely to be one of the biggest floats in London this year.
Interpipe, which is owned by Viktor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian businessman, is among the world’s top 10 producers of seamless steel pipes, and the world’s third-largest maker of train wheels. The company is investing £300m in an electric arc furnace to allow it to expand production.
Gennady Gazin, the chairman of the board of directors, said: “Interpipe is committed to maintaining and enhancing its corporate governance and our intention is to operate in line with the best-practice standards adopted by leading international companies.”

11/03/2008
ArcelorMittal (MT) might be forced to spend more than it had planned on the development of its Ukraine assets, said executive vice president Narendra Chaudhary Monday.
Speaking at the Adam Smith conference, Chaudhary said that due to difficult global financial conditions, the company will spend more than $3 billion to achieve its aim of producing 12 million metric tons a year by 2012.
He said the company is satisfied with its Kryvyi Rih steel mill, but cited lack of infrastructure, human resources and cumbersome bureaucratic procedures, notably when it comes to buying land and its future usage, as the main challenges to the company in Ukraine.
He said he doesn't see Ukraine joining the World Trade Organization as a risk to greater competition in steel production but urged the country's government to abandon indicative export prices, which make Ukraine's production less competitive.

7/03/2008
Ukraine has promulgated new guidelines of President Viktor Yushchenko for the gas negotiations with Gazprom. If necessary, Ukraine will create two ventures of Gazprom and Naftogaz – the first firm will be importing the gas to Ukraine and the second will be selling it there.
At the same time, Gazprom will have to transfer from Rosukrenergo (RUE) to Naftogaz (or to the importing venture) the contract for the Middle Asia’s gas, including its purchase, supplies and the sale of the excess gas in Europe.
Gazprom will have 50 percent in the first venture with Naftogaz. The 50/50 importer will supply to Naftogaz at least 50 billion cu meters in 2008 at $179.5 per a thousand cu meters and at least 55 billion cu meters in the following years at contracted prices.
Gazprom will own from 25 percent to 50 percent in the venture dealing with the gas sales in Ukraine. Kiev predictably presses for giving no more than 25 percent to the gas monopoly of Russia. The sales won’t exceed the sales of Ukrgazenergo, reaching 30 billion cu meters at the maximum.

3/03/2008
Ukraine accused Russia's state-controlled gas giant Gazprom of failing to pay for the transit of gas to Europe through Ukrainian territory, a claim Gazprom denied.
"Since December Russia's Gazprom has not paid (Ukraine's state energy firm) Naftogaz a kopeck for the transit of Russian gas," Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Turchinov told local television.
A Gazprom spokesman said the firm had no debts for transit through Ukraine.

1/02/2008
1 February 2008 - Ukrainian PET packaging and caps specialist Uniplast Closed Joint Stock Company (JSC) is to buy a plastics closure moulding plant in Bryansk, Russia.
JSC will buy the facility from Moscow-based PET resin and preform producer Retal Industries. The acquisition is being made by the Ukrainian group's Russian subsidiary JSC Pet-Rus which launched a preforms and LDPE closures plant two years ago in Noginsk near Moscow.
Retal's Bryansk facility, acquired by Retal in 2004, has a closure capacity of 1.8 billion units per year and annual sales of €14m in 2006. That same year, Retal consolidated all its closure manufacture in Bryansk when the company moved moulding equipment from other sites. Today, it sells its production in Belorussia and Ukraine as well as in Russia.
Retal is disposing of the plastic closures business because it aims to focus on its three core areas of production: PET preforms, PET resin and PET film. The deal was due to be concluded by the start of 2008.

14/11/2007
he government of Ukraine has adopted a resolution to allocate 138 million hryvnias (nearly 27 million dollars) of humanitarian aid to Kirghizia.
On November 13, President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko signed a decree on allocating a humanitarian aid to Kirghizia due to the earthquake in this country. The President ordered the Cabinet of Ministers to provide giving the aid to Kirghizia. 16/11/2007

6/11/2007
Ukraine's inflation rate reached a 25- month high in October, almost doubled the government's inflation target for this year.
Inflation accelerated to an annual 14.8 percent in October from 14.4 percent the month before, the state statistics office reported today on its Web site. Prices rose 2.9 percent in the month. The result exceeded the median forecast of 13 percent.
The government had aimed to slow inflation to 7.5 percent this year to raise living standards in the former Soviet republic, where 7.9 percent of the 47 million people live in poverty, according to the World Bank.

7/10/2007
Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych will visit Russia on Tuesday for talks on gas debts.
Yanukovych will meet his Russian counterpart Viktor Zubkov with the aim 'of developing bilateral economic cooperation,' Sergiy Levochkin, a Ukrainian government official.
Earlier this week, Yanukovych said he was ready to fly to Moscow to resolve a dispute over a debt of 1.3 bln usd (920 mln euros) claimed by Russian gas giant Gazprom for exports to Ukraine.
The European Union depends on Russian gas transiting through Ukraine for around a quarter of its imports and there have been fears that a row with Russia similar to one in 2006 could affect supplies to Europe. 9/10/2007

3/10/2007
Russia threatened yesterday to cut gas supplies to Ukraine again in a move that appears to reflect its displeasure at the prospect of a new orange government in Kiev.
Gazprom, the state-controlled monopoly, said it would reduce supplies to Ukraine next month unless it settled a bill of more than Ј6.6bn.
The threat raised the spectre of a renewed dispute between Russia and Ukraine that could affect supplies to western Europe. Russia cut off gas to Ukraine in early 2006. 5/10/2007

9/09/2007
President Victor Yushchenko has said in an interview with the Financial Times Ukraine will not give Russia a stake in its gas transportation system, insisting that it must be used rationally and in the nation’s interests.
“I am not saying no politician will start this speculation but I guarantee that nobody will be able to continue this polemics,” he said. “Even if there are people in the government who dream of this, this policy has no legal consequences and prospects.”
Yushchenko said Ukraine’s relationship with the Russian Federation would always be based on the “concept of national independence.” 11/09/2007

4/07/2007
China is ready to cooperate with Ukraine in the construction of a new highway running from Luhansk to Donetsk, under a project for the construction of the Lviv-Luhansk highway on concession terms.
The proposal for the construction of the Lviv-Luhansk highway was supported by Chinese experts who are ready to participate in building the Luhansk-Donetsk section, Volodymyr Demishkan, the deputy transport and communications minister and head of State Road Service Ukravtodor. 6/07/2007

23/06/2007
Turkey's Garanti Bank, part-owned by a unit of General Electric, has started talks with several corporations in Ukraine as part of its regional expansion plans. Garanti, Turkey's third biggest listed bank by market capitalisation, had said before it was looking to grow in the region and in April said its board had authorised head office to assess opportunities for regional expansion.

9/06/2007
Ukraine - Russia: Train from Thessaloniki to Kiev and Moscow.
Hellenic Railways Organization, Greece's state-run railway operator, has started direct services to Kiev and Moscow to attract tourists, the Athens-based company said in a statement Thursday. The weekly summer services, which will start from the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki and offer sleeper cabins, started Thursday and will operate until Sept. 2, the company said. 11/06/2007

1/06/2007
The Skorzonera company (Ivano-Frankivsk region) intends to construct a cableway connecting resort town Yaremche and Bukovel tourist complex by 2010. The cableway will stretch for 15 km.
Skorzonera was founded by the Maveks Ltd. (Lutsk) and the Halych Tsukor Ltd.

20/04/2007
Black Sea ring road to be built. 12 countries have agreed to create a 7,500 km ring road around the Black Sea. Economic cooperation is the main objective, but the road could bring much needed tourists - and their money - to new areas of Eurasia. The foreign ministers of Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova and Serbia all agreed to the project at a conference of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) organisation.

10/04/2007
President of Turkmenistan awards Galkynysh medal to head of Ukrainian company. Addressing participants at the inauguration of two new gas compressor stations in the north of Turkmenistan - Deryalyk and Yylanly, Gurbanbuly Berdimuhammedov praised the work of the specialists of the joint-stock company "Sumskoy machine manufacturing scientific and production association named after M.V.Frunze". It should be noted that the Ukrainian partners built compressor stations worth US $ 180 million on order of Turkmengas state concern. The president emphasized that Turkmenistan is interested in continuing long-term cooperation with Ukraine, particularly in the oil and gas sector. The head of state called two new gas compressors "symbols of Turkmen-Ukrainian friendship, fraternity and reliable partnership."

28/03/2007
The European Union is offering to negotiate a free trade pact with Ukraine, as it seeks to build closer political and economic ties with the country without offering it the prospect of full membership in the bloc. The president of the EU's executive office, Jose Manuel Barroso, met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych to discuss a possible trade deal and closer energy and political ties. The political rivalry has caused concern in the EU over the stability of a neighbor that is becoming increasingly important as a transit route for western Europe's oil and gas supplies from Russia and the Caspian region.

16/03/2007
Ukraine should raise its domestic energy prices to help maintain its infrastructure, primarily the crucial pipeline that links Russia with western Europe, the International Energy Agency (IEA) according to AFX Europe. Ukraine plays a major role in securing Europe`s energy needs, taking more than 80 pct of cheap Russian gas supplies to Europe via pipeline. It also hosts major oil transit routes.

2/03/2007
Ukrsotsbank, Ukraine’s No. 6 bank by assets, plans to attract around $2 billion on the foreign markets in 2007, Ukrsotsbank Board Chairman Borys Timonkin said.
"This year, foreign borrowing will be carried out through two issues of eurobonds, at least two syndicated credits and in other forms of borrowing," he said. As reported, bids for the second issue of three-year eurobonds of Kiev-based Ukrsotsbank exceeded $750 million, which allowed the bank to attract $400 million in February. 4/03/2007

22/02/2007
Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko signed a law prohibiting the privatization of the country's natural gas transportation system. The new law, which was approved by the Ukrainian parliament on February 6, bans the restructuring of companies running major pipelines, except to establish enterprises that are 100% owned by the state. It will be prohibited to transfer the property of pipeline operators and of national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy, its subsidiaries and gas storages, or to transfer their property from one balance to another, rent, lease or grant it in concession.

12/02/2007
Viktor Yushchenko said at the Munich Conference on Security Policy on February 10 that Europe needs to take into account the interests of the countries that serve as transit routes for Europe-bound energy supplies. Yushchenko recalled that Ukraine transported 45 million tons of oil and 129 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe in 2006. He added that these volumes could and should be increased, but only if Ukraine's partners in Europe show their interest in new projects, including the transportation of oil from the Caspian region and Central Asian countries.

8/02/2007
Swiss-based food giant Nestle, already a leading player on the Ukrainian market, has unveiled plans to invest about $50 million into the launching of a new ketchup and sauce production facility in western Ukraine, securing its position in a largely saturated market. Nestle currently employs about 3,000 people in Ukraine.

21/01/2007
By end January Ukraine and Russia will create a working group to develop "Kyiv-Moscow" and "Moscow - Simferopol" highway, such an agreement was reached at a meeting between top officials of the ukrainian and russian transport ministries.

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