Daily monitor

The National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has revised upwards the electricity tariffs for industrial consumers – by 4.7% MoM for large industrial consumers amounting USD 84 per kWh and 5.0% MoM for small industrial consumers amounting to USD 110 per kWh.

According to Kommersant-Ukraine, an obscure Russian company – Prospetsinvest LLC – is interested in the Ukrainian State Company Rovenki Anthracite. For starters, Prospetsinvest will contribute USD 120 mln in equipment and USD 60 mln in investments in return for 40% of profits, as agreed in a collaboration agreement. Kommersant-Ukraine also notes that in the future, should Rovenki Anthracite come up for privatization, Prospetsinvest will have priority as a past collaborator with the company.

According to an additional bonds issue prospect, Kovelmoloko [KMOL UZ, BUY] is going to further expand its market share on the Ukrainian dairy market to 5%. Moreover, the company plans to hold 4.8% of the Ukrainian production of sour milk “kefir”, 8.3% for sour cream, 5.7% for cheese, 5.4% for soft cheese, and 3.4% for butter.

According to various news sources, which cited the press service of Concern Stirol [STIR UZ, U/R], the company redeemed USD 125 mln of Eurobonds.

Nikopol Ferroalloys [NFER UZ, N/R] will conduct an AGM on October 08. Among the topics on the agenda are: profit distribution for 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, and tentatively for 2008; management board reports for these years; and technical matters, such as the new edition of its statute.

Dniprovsky Iron & Steel Works named after Dzerzhinsky, or simply Dzerzhynka [DMKD UZ, BUY], is reportedly conducting trial production tests on a brand new concaster No. 1. According to UGMK.info, the 1.5-1.7 mln mt concaster will be tuned up after the trial tests and subsequently commissioned for production.

The electricity generation company Dniproenergo [DNEN UZ, BUY], will hold an AGM on October 10. The AGM’s agenda includes approving financial results for FY2007 and the main financial and operational plans for 2008. The shareholders will also vote on changing the registrar of the company from “Ukrnaftogas”, which hindered DNEN from holding its AGM earlier this year.

The Economic Court of the Lviv Region, in reference to information provided by the state enterprise “Information Court Systems” has denied the existence of a declaration of bankruptcy for the Zhidachiv Pulp and Paper Mill [ZCPK, N/R].

According to an official press release made by the Minister of Agriculture Yuriy Melnik, the Ministry upgraded its forecast for the year’s harvested grain crops by 5.7 mln to 48.7 mln. Moreover, Ukraine is going to export 22.6 mln mt of grain in the 2008/2009 marketing period.

Astarta [AST PW, BUY] harvested 262 thsd mt of early grains on an area of 59.5 thsd ha. The average yield of winter wheat is 5.2 mt per ha (+ 51% YoY), the average yield of winter barley is 4.0 mt per ha (+39% YoY) and 3.9 mt per ha for spring barley (+ 68% YoY).