The Ukrainian cabinet of ministers has prolonged for the first quarter of 2010 the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the country's mining and metallurgical companies, signed in November 2008.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, in November 2008 the Ukrainian government and the country's mining and metallurgical companies signed an MoU aimed at the minimization of the consequences of the economic crisis in the industry, in particular at the stabilization of prices for ore, coal and steel products, the maintenance of jobs, salary levels and other social securities for employees, and also at the development of the Ukrainian domestic market.
Within the framework of the MoU, the Ukrainian government granted benefits for domestic chemical as well as mining and metallurgical companies, i.e., imposed a moratorium on the increase of gas, railway transportation and electricity supply tariffs. Among the conditions for granting of benefits is the decreasing of companies' prices for the domestic market to levels not higher than their export prices, the absence of debts to the budget, to Ukraine's pension fund and to Ukraine's state gas company Naftogaz, and also the payment of wages.