Business news

Mozyr Oil Refinery starts exporting bitumen to Poland, UK
In July the company’s bitumen output rose by 30% to a record high of 83,000 tonnes. The result was achieved despite limited supplies of raw materials in Q1 2020...

Grodno Oblast’s merchandise export up by 15% in H1 2020
In H1 2020 Grodno Oblast met more than half of the key performance indicators and even beat the target regarding the merchandise export that came at $775 million, which was up by 15% year-on-year. The region had a surplus of $150 million. Grodno Oblast raised more than $89 million in foreign direct investment (well above the target of $55 million) in H1...

Naftan starts receiving second batch of U.S. oil
The entire batch will be delivered to Naftan during August...

Construction of connecting pipeline between Belarusian oil refineries to begin in October
The entire pipeline will be finished by 2023...

Cheaper electricity for real sector after Belarusian nuclear power plant launch
Viktor Karankevich reminded that the loading of nuclear fuel into the reactor of the first unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant began on 7 August. The work will be finished on 13 August – all the 163 fuel rod arrays are supposed to be loaded then. “After that the reactor will be assembled, sealed, and will have to reach minimal output levels. Connection to the power grid and the generation of electricity for consumers in the country are scheduled for Q4 2020”...

Belarusian oil refineries intend to process at least 16-16.5m tonnes of oil in 2020
According to the source, at present the Belarusian oil refineries operate steadily, plans on deliveries till the end of the year are in place...

Miory Steel to debut at Belarusian commodity exchange in September
"Participants of the inaugural trading session will be able to purchase a total of 4,700 tonnes of cold-rolled coils at the initial price of €460 per tonne. Miory Steel offers the following terms of payment and delivery: full advance payment within 3 banking days from the invoice issue date and shipping under Ex Works (Miory). Several foreign traders registered on BUCE have already expressed interest in buying Miory Steel products"...

Belarus’ central bank expects annual inflation at 5-5.3% till year end
"A combination of lengthy disinflation factors, which effect is already manifested, will help keep prices stable later on"...

Belarusbank, UBS Switzerland AG to finance purchase of Stadler trains for Belarusian Railways
The company has already started producing ten five-car FLIRT trains for Belarusian Railways. The first new electric train will be launched in July 2021...

Plans to sell Belarusian wood pellets to Europe
The forestry enterprises where new pellet plants have been set up intend to export at least 10,000 tonnes of fuel pellets in August...

Foreign investments in Belarus at $4.5bn in H1 2020
Among the main investors in Belarus were economic entities of Russia (42.8% of the total), Cyprus (10.9%), and Austria (7.9%)...

Belarus’ agricultural export to Uzbekistan up 3.3 times in H1 2020
The ambassador and the minister also reviewed progress in implementing Belarus-Uzbekistan joint projects in the agricultural sector, including projects to set up a milk processing complex and a selection breeding center and a project to launch production of veterinary medicines...

Lukashenko: Belarus should boost food export
"All countries have gone on a lockdown, while we keep working. Go ahead and sell your products. Markets are open, you just need to work harder"...

Price controls on staples to remain in place in Belarus till 2021
At the same time, Vladimir Koltovich noted that price controls as such make sense only when they are used for a short period of time – not longer than a year...

Belgospishcheprom companies launch exports to 18 countries in H1 2020
"The concern sells to a total of 58 states. Work is underway to set up a trading representation in China"...

Belarusian Belorusneft builds four wellbores in July
The Svetlogorsk drilling department did the work. All the wells but one are over 3km deep. The exception is 2,880m deep...

Lukashenko lauds BNBC's advanced full-cycle agricultural facility
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, construction works continued even amid the complicated epidemiological situation. As a result, builders did not fall behind the schedule and are now even ahead of it...

Second tanker delivers American oil for Belarus to Klaipeda port
It is the second batch of American oil delivered for Belarus by a tanker ship. This oil blend was chosen as an analog replacement of the Russian blend Urals for European oil refineries...

NASB-BelCCI exhibition cooperation results in $0.5bn worth of export contracts
"We have a huge potential. We need to learn how to demonstrate the country, accomplishments of Belarusian scientists all over the world in order to secure an economic effect among other things"...

Belarus' gold, forex reserves up 0.7% to $8.9bn in July
In July 2020, the country's gold and foreign currency reserves went up by $61.8 million (or 0.7%), after being $916.4 million (11.63%) up in June...