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cars have overtaken new car sales.
If signed into law by President Poroshenko, a bill cutting excise taxes on used cars imports will result in a doubling or tripling of used car imports from the EU , and a 20-40% cut in the new car sales, Sergey Borovik, AIS Group Marketing Director, predicts to Interfax-Ukraine. So far this year, 226,000 cars were brought in Ukraine in ‘transit’ or ‘temporary admission’ mode, reports the State Fiscal Service. About half of these have violated their terms of stay. The bill passed Thursday by the Rada cuts import excise duties in an effort to encourage owners to legalize their cars.
9.1.3 Transport sector news
Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, plans to invest $1.5bn in Ukraine
through 2023, increasing passenger traffic to 5mn and its all-Boeing fleet here to 15, David O’Brien, the airline’s Chief Commercial Director, said Tuesday at a meeting with President Poroshenko. The main obstacle to expansion is protectionism from Germany, France, Italy and Belgium, O’Brien said. Later, Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan predicted that Ukraine’s “Open Skies” agreement with the EU “will be finally signed in the first half of next year.”
Work is starting on a $55mn China-Ukraine public private investment to increase grain and vegetable oil handling facilities at Mykolaiv , now Ukraine’s second busiest Black Sea Port, after Odesa. Raivis Veckagans, head of the Sea Port Authority, reports from Mykolaiv that the port’s grain handling capacity will be increased by 2.5mn tons a year and oil handling by 1mn tons. The state agency is to spend $12mn, largely for dredging. Kyiv’s Orum Group is building the grain and vegetable transshipment complexes. In addition, an Orum unit, Seaside Terminal, plans to invest $4mn to rebuild the Mykolaiv-Vantazh rail station, increasing its capacity. Separately, the Infrastructure Ministry reports that COFCO -- China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation -- will invest up to $30mn in berth capacity and river logistics.
Mykolaiv is overtaking Odesa, the iconic Black Sea port, to become Ukraine’s second busiest port . Through October, Mykolaiv handled 22.5mn tons of cargo, up 17% over the same period last year. Through October, Odessa port handled 17.3mn tons, down 13%. Odesa port, now Ukraine’s third ranking port, has been hurt by corruption reports and by the departure last spring of Maersk, the world’s container ship company. Maersk moved operations 40 km to the east, from Odesa to Yuzhne, Ukraine’s largest port.
Hungary's low cost airline Wizz Air is going to invest $2.5bn to increase the Ukrainian fleet to 20 new Airbus A320 and Airbus A321 planes, according to Wizz Air CEO József Váradi, who met Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko this week. These aircraft will be delivered to the base of the airline in Kyiv and other regions of Ukraine. As a result, the planned volume of transported passengers will be 6mn per year by 2025. The company also intends to resume operations of its Ukrainian subsidiary, Wizz Air Ukraine, in 2019. The local unit seeks to obtain the license of the Ukrainian operator next year. The statement followed an announcement made by Wizz Air's rival, Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair, that the latter plans to invest $1.5bn in Ukraine in three or five years. Earlier, Ryanair started its first Ukraine flights, with four
59 UKRAINE Country Report December 2018 www.intellinews.com