Daily monitor

On August 20, the Kyiv Municipal Commission on Transport and Communications began a review of its subway development program for 2008-2011.

On August 20, Kryukiv Railcar [KVBZ UZ, BUY] agreed to supply 1,000 gondola railcars to the company Arcelor Mittal Krivoi Rog (Dnepropetrovsk Region). The contract intends to be accomplished by April 2009.

On August 12, the Economic Court of the Lviv Region declared the bankruptcy of the Zhidachev Pulp and Paper Mill [ZCPK, N/R], a major producer of newsprint and cardboard, and set out the terms for the liquidation procedure.

The new sugar season will begin on September 2008. Only 64 sugar plants will be able to process sugar beet this season. That is the lowest rate witnessed in the last ten years. The shrinking sugar offer will drive sugar prices up.

Ukrnafta [UNAF UZ, Strong BUY] reported, in an official press release, the launch of an oil and gas well that is currently the most productive in Ukraine. The well’s parameters: oil, 170-250 tpd (60-90 thsd tpa); gas, 140-250 thsd cbm per day (50-90 mln cbm per annum).

Ukrnafta [UNAF UZ, Strong BUY] plans to sell 208.1 thsd mt of oil and 4.5 thsd mt of gas condensate at the Ukrainian Energy resources Auction 120 on August 21. In comparison with the previous auction, the initial UAH price for Ukrnafta’s oil is the same, at UAH 2,600 per mt (USD 64.3 per bbl net of VAT using USD/UAH 4.6005).

The Ukrainian cement plants Volyn-Cement [VOLC UZ, BUY] and Ugcement [N/R], which are controlled by German Dyckerhoff Zement, increased cement production by 7.7% YoY in 2008H1.

A leading structured steelwork producer, Dnipropetrovsk Steelworks n.a. Babushkin [DZMK UZ, BUY], is supplying framed steelwork for construction of the Hilton Hotel in Kyiv.

Slavutych [SLAV UZ, BUY], which is affiliated with the Carlsberg Group, is opening a representative office in Belarus, a branch office in Moldova, and a daughter enterprise in Russia.

The Malyn Paper Mill (MPM), the only Ukrainian producer of electrical insulating cardboard for power devices, increased its output of paper by 23.9% in January-July YoY, up to 7.52 thsd tons. Also, during the same period the company increased the output of cardboard by 11% YoY, up to 3.45 thsd tons.