Daily monitor

Mariupol Illich ISW [MMKI UK], the third largest steelmaker in Ukraine, is going to shift from buying coke on the open market to obtaining its coke supplies from Avdiivka Coke [AVDK UK], Metall Courier reported. Supplies from Bagliycoke and Dneprodzerzhinsk Coke, not integrated with Mariupol Illich ISW, will be fully substituted by an additional volume of coke from Avdiivka Coke starting in August.

According to Ukranews, “Rossia” airlines has transferred a test An-148 plane to the Voronezh Air Plant, to test the possibility of upgrading the originally specified engines produced by Motorsich (MSICH) with French SaM146 engines.

Ukrnafta reported its 1H2010 net sales of USD 931 mln (up 88% yoy), net profit of USD 193 mln, which greatly exceeds FY2009 results.

Yesterday Ukraine’s energy regulator more than doubled Ukrnafta’s natural gas price – raising it from the previous $32 per thousand cm to $70 per thousand cm.

According to the preliminary data on balance of payments published by the National Bank of Ukraine, the current account surplus in 1H 2010 is USD 472 mln and the financial account surplus is USD 3.96 bln.

According to Interfax, a member of the DTEK group, Komsomolets Donbassa [SHKD UK] has launched a new longwall with a daily capacity of 1.3 thsd tons of coal.

The bank’s net income in the first half of 2010 reduced significantly compared to 2009 yoy because of the necessity to increase provisions. Nevertheless, actual data is in line with our expectations. We confirm our recommendation to HOLD the stock, implying that it is traded at fair levels.

According to Landcome’s [LKI LN] press release, the Company plans to emerge from the red in terms of EBITDA in FY2010 (November to October). This should happen due to cost control and generally improved market conditions. For example, the Company managed to decrease costs per hectare by 35%, while price for rape increased by 17% on average as compared to 2009.

Astarta [AST PW, BUY], a major Ukrainian agro holding with an emphasis on sugar production, has opened a grain elevator with a total non-recurring storage capacity of 50 thsd tonnes. The total CapEx the company put into the construction was UAH 45 mln (USD 5.6 mln). This elevator increases the holding’s combined storage capacity by 22%, to 270 thsd tonnes.

Kryukiv Railcar [KVBZ UZ, BUY], one of the leading Ukrainian railcar producers, has reported the production of 4329 freight railcars in 1H 2010, which is 25% higher than the 1H 2009 figure of 3456 cars.