UkraineInvest issues The Business Week for 29 January, 2018, a free on-line publication containing a weekly summary of important business news in Ukraine.
Business
- German investment in Ukraine increased by $213 million through September, Ukraine’s Economic Development and Trade Ministry reported Wednesday at the start of the Ukraine-Bavaria Economic Forum. Minister StepanKubiv led Ukraine’s delegation to Bavaria, a southern German state with an economy larger than 21 EU states. Strong in auto parts for such Bavarian companies as BMW, 61% of Germany’s $1.8 billion investment in Ukraine is for industry. With an eye to future car markets, Kubiv said it is four times more profitable to make electric cars in Ukraine than in Germany. Through September, Germany-Ukraine trade increased by 27% compared to the same period in 2016, hitting $6.6 billion.
- H & M, the world’s second-largest clothing retailer, has started advertising for personnel in advance of the opening later this year of their first Ukraine story, in Lavinia Mall, on Kyiv’s Ring Road, west of Podol. Second only to Spain’s Inditex, parent of Zara, H & M is based in Sweden and has about 4,500 stores in 62 countries.
- Trade between Germany and Ukraine rose by 21.5% in 2017, Ukraine’s government reported after Prime Minister Groysman met with executives of leading Germany companies operating here. “Trade focus shifted towards goods of light industries and food industries,» reported the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers.
Energy
- France’s Powernext will work with Ukrtransgaz, the state gas pipeline and storage company, to create spot and futures exchange markets for gas trading in Ukraine, Ukrtransgaz reports. Based in Paris, Powernext is the maintrading platform for natural gas in Europe. PEGAS, its pan-European gas trading platform, allows market participants to sell natural gas at 12 hubs in nine countries. Ukrtransgaz, with 12 underground gas storage facilities, the largest in Eastern Europe, wants to create a gas trading and storage hub in Ukraine.
- Ukraine probably has natural gas reserves of 5.5 trillion cubic meters, enough for almost 200 years of consumption at last year’s level of 28.4 billion cubic meters. The estimate comes from a UNIAN interview with Andrei Tolkunov, geology head of Ukrgeofizika, the state geological and mineral exploration company. After years of marginal production growth, the government cut drilling and production royalties in half this month and invited more foreign companies to explore here.
Transportation
- Turkish Airlines increased traffic of its Ukrainian flights by 18% last year, double the airline’s worldwide growth of 9.3%. Carrying about 600,000 passengers, the airline made about 50 flights a week from six cities of Ukraine - Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Zaporizhya, Kherson and Kharkiv. Ukrainian competitors succeeded in forcing Turkish to drop flights from Dnipro in 2014 and Ivano-Frankivsk in 2016. Turkish Airlines also operates three weekly cargo flights from Kyiv.
- Kyiv’s Metro subway is holding a tender for a 7km, 3-station extension of the Green Line, northwest from Syrets station to the Vynohradarneighborhood. Participants should register by Feb. 19 for a tender that will be held March 7. The estimated cost is $225 million.
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