Tag Archives: business

Fruit exports rise in Azerbaijan

JAN. 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s agricultural exports in the first 11 months of 2016 totalled $381m, a rise of 21.6% from 2015, the fruit-inform.com website reported. Most of the export increase was in fruit and vegetables. Azerbaijan is a major regional fruit and vegetable exporter although its value pales in comparison to oil and gas export volumes. Still, although the volume is small, it is also important. Azerbaijan’s government has said that it wants to diversify the country’s economy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Uranium traders see better prices in 2017 after Kazatomprom signals move

JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s been a rough sort of five years for the uranium traders and for the globe’s biggest producers.

At the top of this pile is Kazakhstan which has relentlessly pursued a market-grabbing agenda. It now controls over 40% of the world’s uranium production. Now, though, as reported on page 9, it appears to have signalled that it wants a higher price for its unprocessed uranium product, more often called yellowcake.

By holding back 3% of the world’s production, Kazakhstan’s pushed prices for uranium up by 10%.

And traders are cheering. Ever since a tsunami crashed into the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan in 2011, the market has been supply-side heavy. The tsunami wiped out a major buyer of yellowcake. Since then prices had dropped 75% before picking up slightly at the end of this year.

The problem for the industry is that stocks of yellowcake are so high that it will take Kazatomprom showing restraint for years to allow their production cuts to really take hold on the market.

Until then, uranium traders and producers are hoping, for demand to pick up and for this they are looking to incoming US president Donald Trump.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakhstan’s Mangistaumunaigas to keep output steady

JAN. 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Mangistaumunaigas, the troubled state-owned oil producer near Zhanaozen in the west of Kazakhstan, will maintain its oil output at around 6.3m tonnes in 2017, media reported quoting CEO Bakyt Imanbaev. Mangistaumunaigas runs at a loss but the government has committed to keeping it open and maintaining jobs to avoid a repeat of the strikes in 2011 that triggered riots and the shooting dead of at least 15 protesters by police sent into quell the violence.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakhstan relaxes visa rules

JAN. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan lifted visa restrictions on dozens of countries from Jan. 1 in a bid to increase tourism. Citizens of all EU states and countries belonging to the OECD can now travel to Kazakhstan without a visa for 30 days. The visa-free regime has also been extended to citizens of Malaysia, Singapore and the UAE. It had dropped visa requirements for 10 countries from July 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)

Azerbaijan extends BP deal

DEC. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan has extended a deal made with a BP-led consortium dubbed the ‘Contract of the Century’ to develop its biggest Caspian Sea oil fields. The extension, although expected, had been delayed by arguments between the partners and a row with the Azerbaijani government over a drop in output at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshly fields (ACG). ACG is the lynchpin of Azerbaijan’s economy. The BP-led consortium will now develop the fields until 2050. The original deal had been due to expire in 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)

Trump cancels Tower project in Georgia

TBILISI, JAN.4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Trump Organisation, the company running the businesses of President-elect Donald Trump, pulled out of a $250m deal to build a 47-storey apartment block in Batumi on Georgia’s Black Sea coast.

Last month, the company also pulled out of projects in Azerbaijan and Brazil to protect Mr Trump’s image. In truth, though, the Batumi project, signed in 2012, lost momentum after former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili lost power in elections in 2012 and 2013.

The project was generally derided as part of the showmanship of Mr Saakashvili, who had a talent for eye- catching initiatives.

In an email, Trump Organisation said: “[We’ve decided] to formally end the development of Trump Tower, Batumi.”

The Silk Road Group, an industrial conglomerate that was partnering Trump in the project , said it would push ahead with the development.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)

Turkmenistan cuts gas supplies to Iran

JAN. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan cut gas supplies to Iran, Iranian media reported quoted Iranian officials, straining what had been considered to be a budding regional relationship. In December Turkmenistan had accused Iran of owing it $2b for unpaid gas. Iran has denied this and said that the debt had been settled or was on the way to being settled. It has now said that it will sue Turkmenistan. The row is important because relations between Iran and Turkmenistan have been improving for some time, lending weight to Turkmenistan’s mission to become a regional gas powerhouse.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)

Chinese miner operates in Kyrgyzstan

DEC. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Chinese company Full Gold Mining produced its first batch of concentrated gold at its Ishtamberdy gold deposit in Kyrgyzstan’s southeast region of Jalabad, the Kyrgyz government said. The project had stalled since 2011 because of a series of anti-mining protests and demonstrations against excessive Chinese control over Kyrgyzstan’s industry.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)

Nicklaus prepares to build golf course in Turkmenistan

DEC. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an interview with the AP news agency, US golfing legend Jack Nicklaus said that he has made five trips to Turkmenistan since agreeing to design a golf course in the country earlier this year. He said that he is building two courses – a championship course and a learners’ course, at the Turkmen Black Sea coast resort of Awaza. He said that the course should be playable from July.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 310, published on Dec. 23 2016)

China to build textile factory in Kazakhstan

DEC. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An investment company representing Xianyang city in central China and Kazakhstan’s Khlopkoprom-Cellulose plan to jointly build a textile factory in southern Kazakhstan, they said at a press conference. The factory will cost $100m to build and will create 2,000 jobs. The factory would be operational by 2019 and, if it does materialise, will please international economists who have been urging Kazakhstan to diversify its economic base away from mining and hyrdocarbons. Khlopkoprom- Cellulose is a factory already operating near the site that the new plant would occupy. It produces cotton products used in the medical sector.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 310, published on Dec. 23 2016)