KIEV, Nov. 15 - Ukraine will surprise markets with a “record" grain output that will exceed 61 million metric tons in the 2013-2014 marketing year, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said Friday.

KIEV, Nov. 15 – Ukrainian banks January through October 2011 repaid UAH 6.5 billion in refinancing loans ahead of schedule, according to Yuriy Kolobov, the first deputy governor of the National Bank of Ukraine.

KIEV, Nov. 16 – Japan, the world's largest maize importer, has made its largest purchase of European-produced maize as an alternative to U.S. supplies, having bought a large batch in Ukraine, according to Bloomberg.

KIEV, Nov. 16 – The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has said that melange, a liquid oxidizer for liquid-fuel rockets, has been removed from the western and central regions of Ukraine.

KIEV, Nov. 16 – The Ukrainian Environment and Natural Resources Ministry is planning to complete a program to remove obsolete pesticides and herbicides from the country by the start of the Euro 2012 European Football Championship (by June 2012).

KIEV, Nov. 16 – Ukraine's Parliament has ratified a financial agreement entitled "European Roads Ukraine II", signed between Ukraine and the European Investment Bank on a EUR 450 million loan for the repair and upgrade of highways radiating from Kiev.

KIEV/MOSCOW, Nov. 17 - Sberbank of Russia will issue a $260 million loan to Ukraine’s Pivdenne design bureau, the bank has reported.

The bureau plans to use the funds to finance the Ukrainian-Brazilian project to create the Cyclone-4 space and rocket complex.

KIEV, Nov. 17 - Ukraine’s largest steel and mining group Metinvest completed a transaction to acquire majority control over Illych Metallurgy Company, the country’s No. 2 steelmaker, the group reported Wednesday.

KIEV, Nov. 15 – The net inflow of foreign direct investment in Ukraine January through September 2010 was $2.547 billion, which was 14.3% down on the same period last year, the State Statistics Committee reported.

KIEV, Nov. 17 – China's Hongxin industrial Group Co. plans to invest $500 million of its own and raised funds in the realization of a project to develop the Velykotokmakske manganese ore field (Stepnohirsk, Vasylivsky District in Zaporizhia region).