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state air carrier,” he said. “Ukraine will receive an understandable state national air carrier that can solve not only tourism issues, but also state issues.”
● Trains
second private company has won permission to run freight trains on the tracks of Ukrzaliznytsia​, the state railroad. Promvagontrans LLC was won permission to run freight trains on four routes in central Ukraine. The owner of 400 grain hopper cars, Promvagontrans is a unit of Ukrainian Agrarian Holding. In December, the first agreement was signed with Ukrainian Locomotive Company, a Lviv company. It can haul freight on 10 routes largely in Western Ukraine. This pilot program is expected to run for two years.
China-Europe freight trains were up 66% y/y in January, to 1,165, ​reported China State Railway Corporation. The number of containers grew 75%, to 109,000 for the month. At this pace, one 94-container Chinese train passes into the EU every 40 minutes. With the overwhelming majority of this rail traffic passing through Belarus to Poland, Ukraine seeks to get more traffic, providing a path to southern and central Europe markets through rail hubs in Slovakia and Hungary.
With train passenger rider volumes at half the levels of one year ago, Ukrzaliznytsia plans to lay off 30,000 workers, about 11% of the 260,000 total​, Vadim Bubnyak, chairman of the Trade Union of Railway Workers and Transport Builders of Ukraine, told reporters Tuesday. Yesterday, employees of the state railroad staged a protest in front of the Cabinet of Ministers.
9.1.4 ​Construction & Real estate sector news
Postal operators – Nova Poshta, Ukrposhta and Meest Express – account for almost half of the 364,000 square meters of warehouse and logistics space to be commissioned this year, ​according to a study by Alterra Group. In terms of geography, 55% of the new space – or 200,000 square meters -- is to open in Lviv. This includes four projects of about 40,000 square meters: expansion of the Protec warehouse in Zymova Voda; Lvivsilmash; Galileo Logistic and Port Lviv Logistic centre. New supply in Kyiv will be 71,400 square meters, largely projects delayed from 2020, reported Alterra, a commercial real estate development and consulting company.
Public works construction pulled the sector ahead last year for an overall increase of 4%, to $7.1bn, ​the State Statistics Service reports. Road construction was up 142% in nominal terms, making up for a 53% drop in renewable energy facilities. Overall engineering structures was up 15% in real terms. Residential work was down 18.5%. Commercial was down 3%. By contrast, construction grew by 24% in 2019 over 2018. Last year, construction in Kyiv City was down 2%. But the capital remained far and away the nation’s leader, with $1.5bn in construction work.
Vacancy rate on the Kyiv office market reached 20% in 2020, ​while the declared rental rates did not change, Managing Partner of UTG Offices Volodymyr Heliuta said as cited by Interfax Ukraine. The vacancy rate is even higher in business centres of B and C class, old-style business centres, and where the companies refused to cooperate with their tenants. Top end office
54​ UKRAINE Country Report​ March 2021 ​ ​www.intellinews.com