OREANDA-NEWS. Representatives of the largest Ukrainian chemical plants, Ukrainian Chemists Union and leading research institutes launched development of the special strategy for promotion of their products on the EU markets. This was stated by Oleksiy Golubov, President of the Ukrainian Chemists Union, during the all-Ukrainian chemists' forum. The forum was held at the premises of Cherkasy Azot (part of OSTCHEM holding, consolidating Group DF's fertilizer business).

"Large companies should take some joint steps to enter European markets and lead Ukrainian chemical industry out of crisis. Not only companies' representatives but relevant research institutes are involved in development of the programme. It is not enough for Ukrainian companies to modernize and invest in renewal of fixed assets and in launch of new production units. We need actions for opening new markets such as the EU, the USA or Asia. We should get involved in creating favourable investment climate and mutually beneficial business terms and conditions even today," President of the Ukrainian Chemists Union said.

According to Mr Golubov, 'Competitiveness improvement of Ukrainian chemical products on European markets in the context of Ukraine-EU Association Agreement' is the key unit of the programme. In particular, Cherkasy NIITEKHIM (State Research Institute for technical and economic information in chemical industry) has already developed the project of new technical regulation regarding fertilizer in Ukraine.

"In order to start selling on European markets we should play by their rules - we need a total harmonization of the Ukrainian engineering legislation in fertilizer circulation with the European one. In this regard, our priority task is implementing and adapting new technical regulation to the European standard. We have elaborated a new regulation but its adaptation implies that we should remove all the disagreements from Ukrainian regulatory framework, legal acts and bylaws and various statutes of chemical industry. Law of Ukraine 'About standardisation' came into effect on January, 3. The next step will include putting into effect the law of Ukraine 'About technical regulations and compliance verification' on February, 11, 2016. Regardless of whether we want it or not, the work should be continued. Ukraine is a large mineral fertilizer producer, exporter and consumer. We should change our legislation, regulations and standards rapidly to remove all legal and technical restrictions on new markets. It is a good thing that OSTCHEM and Ukrainian Chemists Union have initiated this work," explained Tamara Kovenya, director of Cherkasy NIITEKHIM.

According to OSTCHEM estimates, annually the EU market consumes 20.6 million tons of nitrates (ammonium nitrate, calcium ammonia nitrate (CAN), about 11.5 million tons of urea and about 5 million tons of urea ammonium mixture. In addition, imported fertilizer still provides sufficiently big share (annually the EU imports about 4 million tons of ammonia).

"Naturally, we are interested in these markets. OSTCHEM has the third largest nitrates production capacity in the world. We have a high export potential. Our investments are aimed at construction of the up-to-date reliable chemical association capable of producing output which corresponds with requirements of the European markets. Due to modernizing our plants, we reduce different consumption indexes, to make production reliable and to decrease the prime cost. As a result, we enhance competitiveness of our products," comments Oleksandr Khalin, General Director of OSTCHEM.

As explained by Oleksiy Golubov, the modernisation programme for Ukrainian chemical industry will include suggestions regarding implementation of the number of large investment and innovation projects at Ukrainian chemical enterprises till 2025. "The programme with all the projects and suggestions will be delivered to the Agency for Modernization of Ukraine for expertise and potential inclusion in the National modernisation programme for Ukrainian economy," President of the Ukrainian Chemists Union says. He is sure that after Ukraine Tomorrow forum in Vienna and establishment of the Agency for Modernization of Ukraine global investors and influential European politicians, scientists and businessmen, who attended the forum, will support Ukrainian business.