South-East Asia interested in two Ukrainian An-148s
The Antonov state-run company has signed a contract with Russia’s Ilyushin Finance leasing company on the supply of two new An-148 medium-haul jets planes in 2011 to a South East Asian country. They are to be manufactured at the Antonov Serial Production Factory. The factory’s press service reports, quoting the conditions of the contract signed on July 30, that the first airplane is to be delivered within six months. According to Antonov president and general designer Dmytro Kiva, it is the first contract the company has signed on the supply of the An-148 to a customer outside the CIS. “It is the result of intensive and coordinated work of all the program partners,” the press service quotes Kiva as saying. “The An-148 plane we have made meets all the modern safety and environmental standards. As a result, it has aroused the interest of not only national but also foreign air companies.”
Ministry of Transport initiates Ust-Dunaisk port privatization
The Ministry of Transport and Communications of Ukraine is going to privatize the Ust-Dunaisk port, the Minister of Transport and Communication Kostiantyn Yefymenko declared during his business trip to the Lower Danube region. “This port is doomed to failure without serious investments,” the press service of the Ministry quotes Yefymenko, “That is why I opted for privatization. “The port can provide the region with new working places.” The Minister noted that the decision was caused by the record low level of transshipment, and only privatization can save the enterprise. By Oleksii Savytsky, The Day.
Turboatom to equip Russian hydroelectric facility
The Kharkiv-based Turboatom, Ukraine’s only manufacturer of turbine units for hydro, thermal and nuclear power plants, intends to supply equipment for the modernization of a hydro unit at the Novosibirsk Hydroelectric Station in Russia until December 2011. A contract, the value of which has not been disclosed, was signed to this effect last July. The company’s press service reports that, under the contract, Turboatom will manufacture and deliver an 8-meters-in-diameter Kaplan turbine adjustable-blade impeller. Besides, the supply batch will contain turbine embedded parts and mechanisms, including the wicket gate, the shaft, bearings, gaskets, and other items. The total weight of metal structures, including mounting devices and spare parts, is 800 tons. According to Viktor Yefymenko, Turboatom’s deputy chief hydro turbine designer, modernization will be carried out in two stages. The first stage will involve the delivery and installation of a turbine without replacing the generator, which will boost the unit’s power from 58.6 to 72 MW. At the second stage, after the reconstruction of the generator, the turbine’s rated capacity will rise to 82 MW.
Rail haulage on the rise
Ukraine’s State Administration of Rail Transport (Ukrzaliznytsia) increased daily loadings by 14.1 percent to 936,800 tons in January-July 2010 against the same period of 2009. In particular, according to the company’s press service, the Donetsk, Dnipro, Southern, South-Western, Odesa, and Lviv railways registered an increase of 8.3, 23.2, 1, 13.8, 24.4, and 18.7 percent, respectively. The press release says that an average 15,000 freight cars were unloaded daily in the seven months of 2010. During this period, one freight car was in operation for an average 6.67 days. A car’s idle time during a loading operation was reduced by 2.61 hours to 40.68 hours. The railroads of Ukraine shipped a total almost 198.6 million tons of cargo in the seven months of the current year, up 14.1 percent on the last year.
