KIEV, April 1 – The state's debt to steel companies for reimbursed VAT on exported products now comes to over UAH 5.5 billion, and that to chemical companies has reached UAH 1.2 billion, Industry Minister Dmytro Kolesnykov hsaid at a meeting in the ministry.

KIEV, March 31 – The State Property Fund has announced a tender to sell a 76.001% stake in OJSC Luhanskteplovoz Holding.

The fund said that the initial price of the stake is UAH 400 million. The bid increase is UAH 4 million.

The tender is to be held on June 15.

KIEV, March 31 – The Agriculture Ministry has declared crop cultivation, pig breeding and dairy cattle breeding as top-priority segments that require reform.

KIEV, March 31 – Ukrainian banks will start cutting mortgage interest rates no earlier than in 2012, according to Anton Shaperenkov, the director of the retail business department at Kiev-based VAB Bank.

KIEV, April 1 – Attempts to conduct initial pubic offerings of shares in 2010 will be made by around 20 Ukrainian companies, although less than one third of them will be a success, according to Yevhen Cherviachenko, vice president for corporate finances at BG Capital Investment Company.

KIEV, April 1 – Trade advisor of the Polish Embassy to Ukraine Andrzej Grabowski has been elected president of the International Trade Club in Ukraine, the secretary of the club and department head at the Economy Ministry, Valeriy Baliasny, has told Interfax-Ukraine.

MOSCOW, March 31 - The deal between Ukraine's Energoatom nuclear monopoly and the US' Westinghouse on possible supplies of fuel for Ukrainian nuclear power plants in 2011-2015 signed on Sunday has as its aim to force Russia's state nuclear corporation TVEL, a traditional nuclear fuel supplier to Ukraine, to reduce its price, experts believe.

KIEV, March 31 – Ukraine and Poland will not revise the width of the strip defining local border traffic in the agreement between the two countries, according to Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Yeliseyev and Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer.

KIEV, March 31 - Avlita stevedoring company (Sevastopol), part of Metinvest Group, has drawn up a comprehensive development program for 2008-2010, which foresees over $100 million in investment, which would allow the handling of general and bulk cargo to 10 million tons, the company announced.

KIEV, April 1 – Pavlohradvuhillia has resumed coal extraction at the Zakhidno-Donbaska, Heroiv Kosmosu, Ternovska and Stashkov mines, which was suspended due to a lack of free rolling stock, according to a company announcement issued on Monday.