TOP20 Index raises by 0.44 percent www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ In trading of February 19, the Mongolian Stock Exchange sold 57,754 pieces of shares of 19 companies which are listed in the first, second and third categories.

Rio Tinto weighing power generation options for Oyu Tolgoi, Mongolia www.mining-technology.com

Rio Tinto is considering options to develop domestic energy generation for the Oyu Tolgoi operation after the Government of Mongolia terminated the power sector cooperation agreement (PSCA) for the country’s southern region.

Diesel import increases but drops in gasoline import www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ According to the Statistics Division of the Mongolian Customs General Administration, Mongolia imported 19 thousand tons of auto gasoline last month, with a decrease of 10 thousand tons against the same period of previous year.

Cabinet cancels energy cooperation agreement with Oyu Tolgoi www.gogo.mn

The Government of Mongolia has cancelled a 2014 agreement signed with Oyu Tolgoi (OT) regarding the mine's energy needs.

GM offers $2.2 billion debt for equity swap in return for Seoul's support - sources www.reuters.com

SEOUL (Reuters) - General Motors (GM.N) has offered to convert debt of around $2.2 billion owed by its ailing South Korean operation into equity in exchange for financial support and tax benefits from Seoul, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Russian grain exports near record of 50mn tons www.rt.com

The growing production of grain in Russia is boosting the country’s exports, which are close to a record 50 million tons this year according to the director of the SovEcon analytical center, Andrey Sizov.
The director said that the country exported 48 million tons between July 2017 and the end of January 2018.

U.Ganzorig appointed president of Mongolian Bankers Association www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Golomt Bank U.Ganzorig has been appointed as President of the Mongolian Bankers Association (MBA), finishing tenure of the former president O.Orkhon. CEO of Trade and Development Bank O.Orkhon worked as the president of the MBA in 2015-2017.

Mining M&A jumps to 4-year high – expect more in 2018 www.mining.com

The value of global mining and metals deals hit a four-year high in 2017, according to accountancy firm EY, boosted by a jump in money raised on stock exchanges to a six-year high.

Chicken chaos as KFC closes outlets www.bbc.com

KFC has closed more than half of its 900 UK outlets after delivery problems meant they ran out of chicken.

Last week, the fried chicken chain switched its delivery contract to DHL, which blamed "operational issues" for the supply disruption.

It was unclear when the delivery problems would be rectified, a KFC spokesperson said.

Workers are being encouraged to take holiday but would not be forced to do so, he added.

"Our teams are working flat out all hours to get the rest back up and running as soon as possible - but it's too early to say how long it will take to clear the backlog."

KFC has set up a web page where "fans" can find their nearest outlet that is still open.

It said that in the restaurants owned by the chain, staff on short-term contracts would be paid the average hours worked per day over the past 12 weeks, while those on salaries would be paid as normal.

However, 80% of KFC outlets are run on a franchise basis.

"Franchisees will be seeking their own independent advice, but we're encouraging them to adopt this policy too," said the chain.

Until last Tuesday, KFC's chicken was delivered by South African-owned distribution group Bidvest, which describes itself as "the leading supplier of logistical and supply chain solutions to the UK hospitality and restaurant sector".

But after the change in the contract, many of the food giant's outlets began running out of chicken products.

'Teething problems'
"The chicken crossed the road, just not to our restaurants," KFC said on Twitter.

"We've brought a new delivery partner onboard, but they've had a couple of teething problems - getting fresh chicken out to 900 restaurants across the country is pretty complex!" it added, apologising to customers for the inconvenience.

"We won't compromise on quality, so no deliveries has meant some of our restaurants are closed, and others are operating a limited menu or shortened hours."

The statement listed KFC restaurants that were still open despite the problems.

The distribution network uses software developed by the firm Quick Service Logistics (QSL).

The GMB union said it had tried to warn KFC that switching from Bidvest to DHL was a mistake. The change led to 255 job losses and the closure of a Bidvest depot, said Mick Rix, GMB national officer.

He said: "Bidvest are specialists - a food distribution firm with years of experience. DHL are scratching around for any work they can get, and undercut them.

"KFC are left with hundreds of restaurants closed while DHL try and run the whole operation out of one distribution centre. Three weeks ago KFC knew they had made a terrible mistake, but by then it was too late.

One KFC customer, Claire, told BBC Radio 5 live she was surprised when she went out with her children at the weekend.

"We went on Saturday night to our local KFC in Luton and queued for about 20 minutes in the drive-thru, about 15 cars in the queue, and when we got to the actual counter and asked for our standard family bucket, we were told there was no chicken," she said.

"The kids, who are nine-year-old twins, they wanted chicken and clearly it wasn't available, so we said there's nothing available that we wanted, and we then had the joy of queuing to get back out again."

Other disgruntled KFC customers have been taking to Twitter to express their dismay at the shortages.

Foreign trade for the first one month of 2018 www.gogo.mn

A result of foreign trade for the first one month of 2018 has been based on 28168 export, and 15469 import customs declarations and other non customs resources of information.

679 export and 342 import declarations belong to the goods crossed through seasonal ports.

A result of total turnover of foreign trade for the first 1 month of 2018 amounted 785.0 mln.USD which increased in 100.4 mln.USD or 14.7 percent against the same period of the last year.

Export exceeded import in 62.7 mln.USD and foreign trade balance became positive.

The volume of export is 423.8 mln.USD which means decrease by 1.1 percent if compared with the same period of the last year.

99.1 percent of exported goods comes to transactions paid in hard currency.

In total export minerals amounted

351.7 mln.USD or 83.0%; natural or cultured pearls, precious or semi-precious stones amounted 27.2 mln.USD or 6.4%; vegetable products 4.1 mln.USD or 1.0%; export of raw hides and skins, leather, furskins and articles thereof equaled to 3.3 mln.USD or 0.8%, textiles and textile articles 10.3 mln.USD or 2.4% and in total 93.6% of export came to these goods.

Сrude oil, iron ores and concentrates, copper concentrate, molybdenum concentrates and zinc ores and concentrates were exported to China (100.0%), coal were exported to China (96.1%). Flouspar concentrates were exported to China (53.6%), the Russian Federation (46.1%); leather of bovine or equine animals were exported to China; 100.0 percent of combed cashmere to China; most of exported raw hides and skins, washed cashmere comes to China, and gold were exported to United Kingdom (100.0%) and 88.9 percent of total export belong to these goods.

Mongolia has exported goods to 37 foreign countries including

China (88.5%),
United Kingdom (6.6%),
the Russian Federation (1.2%) and 96.3% of whole export comes to these countries.
Goods and raw materials with value of 361.1 mln.USD were imported and the volume of total import increased by 83.9 mln.USD or 30.3% in comparison with the same period of 2017.

Imported goods consist of transactions paid in hard currency (94.9%), goods supplied by foreign loan (0.1%), goods imported as foreign aid (0.4%), goods imported as foreign investment (3.3%), processed goods (1.1%).

In total import machinery, mechanic equipment and parts thereof, electric appliances, parts thereof amounted with value of 80.1 mln.USD (22.2%), minerals-90.4 mln.USD (25.0%) and among them oil products were 75.0 mln.USD (83.0%), products of animal or vegetable origin and foodstuff 49.4 mln.USD (13.7%), vehicles and aircraft, parts there of 43.3 mln.USD (12.0%), plastics and rubber and articles thereof 15.4 mln.USD (4.3%), base metals and products thereof – 25.3 mln.USD (7.0%), chemical products – 22.8 mln.USD (6.3%) and 90.5% of the total import comes to these goods and products).

Goods with value of 1273.4 thous.USD have been imported as foreign aid from international financial and economic organizations and donor-countries. If we take into consideration the countries of origin Switzerland (39.6%), China (29.3%), Republic of Korea (14.8%).

The goods, donated from donor countries, came from the Switzerland (39.6%), China (29.2%), Japan (20.0%).

Goods worth 392.3 thous.USD were imported as foreign loan by the international financial and economic organizations and donor-countries and these goods were originating from different countries such as the USA (50.6%), China (25.1%), Republic of Korea (15.9%).

Total loan goods were imported as government loans. If we take into consideration the lenders, loan lent from Japan (72.1%) and from Republic of Korea (15.9%).

In total goods with value of 12.0 mln.USD were imported to the charter fund of joint ventures and companies with foreign investment and these goods were originating from different countries such as China (37.6%) and the Russian Federation (62.2%).

Mongolia has imported goods originating from 99 different countries including

Russian Federation (34.1%),
China (29.3%), 
USA (4.5%),
Japan (9.0%),
Republic of Korea (3.6%) 
Federal Republic of Germany (2.3%) and goods from these countries are equal to 82.8% of total import.