The state-owned enterprise Forests of Ukraine has shipped the first batch of round timber under a contract with the Ministry of Defense, the company’s press service reported on its telegram channel.
According to the report, 11,021 thousand cubic meters of pine have already been shipped from the branches of Polissia, Stolychne, Slobozhanskyi, Northern and Central forest offices to the frontline regions for the construction of engineering and military facilities. The final destinations will be Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
It is explained that the timber is intended for five military units of the Engineer Troops engaged in the construction of fortifications of the first line of defense – dugouts, fireworks, trenches. The delivery price includes the cost of removal from the intermediate warehouse, loading into railcars and delivery by rail. To reduce costs, the railcars are lined with boards to increase their capacity.
As reported, in September 2024, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” signed an agreement with the Ministry of Defense for the supply of almost 65 thousand cubic meters of round timber. In total, this year, 10 contracts have been concluded with military units for the supply of 97 thousand cubic meters of wood, most of which have been completed by 95%.
“This year, we have supplied 185.2 thousand cubic meters of wood worth UAH 335.5 million, which is almost twice as much as last year. We close all applications by 100%, because we understand the importance and significance of wood for the construction of fortifications,” summarized the Forests of Ukraine.
As reported, Ukraine launched a forestry reform in 2016. As part of it, the sale of raw wood at electronic auctions has already been introduced. Since 2021, an interactive map of wood processing facilities has been operating in a test mode in a number of regions.
The industry has implemented the Forest in a Smartphone project, which contains a list of logging tickets for timber harvesting and allows you to check the legality of logging on the agency’s online map.
On June 1, 2023, Ukraine launched a pilot for the electronic issuance of logging tickets and certificates of origin of timber. In addition, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has launched a pilot project for the procurement of timber harvesting services through the electronic platform Prozorro.
Insured losses from natural disasters for 9 months of 2024 exceeded the average and amounted to USD 102 billion, which is higher than last year’s USD 88 billion and the average of USD 79 billion.
This is reported in the report of the global brokerage group Aon “Global Catastrophe Review for the third quarter – October 2024” published on its website.
It is noted that the consequences of Hurricane Milton and other events expected by the end of the year may lead to annual insured losses exceeding USD 125 billion recorded in 2023.
According to the report, since the beginning of 2024, at least 280 major natural disasters have occurred around the world, resulting in economic losses of at least USD 258 billion, which is approximately 27% lower than the figure for the nine-month period of 2023 of USD 351 billion, and below the average of USD 277 billion.
Aon notes that between the first and third quarters, insured losses from major risks were relatively low, and no event demonstrated the potential to significantly impact the broader reinsurance market.
In fact, USD 59 billion, or 58% of insured losses for the period, were caused by severe convective storms (SCS), and USD 21 billion, or 21%, by tropical cyclones.
According to Aon, in the third quarter, losses were caused by three costly hurricanes, SCC events in the United States and Canada, and floods in Central Europe.
In addition, Canada is experiencing its largest year of insurance losses on record, with most of the impact coming from four events that occurred within a single month in the third quarter, and expected payouts will exceed $5.9 billion.
According to Aon, in other parts of the world, Typhoon Yagi, the deadliest event of the year and the most expensive event on record in Vietnam, was the third most damaging event in the period under review.
According to Aon, by the end of the third quarter of 2024, natural disasters had killed about 13 thousand people, the lowest number since 1986.
During the Week of International Cooperation Initiatives, which took place on October 17-25 in Tashkent, Anthony Bringazen, Vice President for Central Asia of the Saudi company ACWA Power, said that the company is implementing large-scale projects in Uzbekistan worth about $15 billion.
This fund has been allocated for 15 projects. Most of the projects are related to wind energy. In particular, 87% of the investment will be directed to green energy projects, and the rest to the production of green hydrogen. All 15 projects are planned to be commissioned by 2030.
Anthony Bringaisen noted that after Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan accounts for the largest volume of the company’s investments.
It is noted that the $1.1 billion TPP project in the Syr Darya will provide electricity to more than 3 million households and hundreds of industrial enterprises. The first phase of the green hydrogen project will produce 3 thousand tons of hydrogen. Next, the focus will be on mineral fertilizer processing and the construction of a 52 megawatt wind farm.
As of October 22, farmers in all regions of Ukraine planted 5.7 million hectares of winter crops, up from 5.4 million hectares last week, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported.
According to the report, winter crops are being sown in all regions. In total, they have already sown almost 4.7 million hectares, which is 90% of the forecast. In particular, winter wheat has been sown on 4.1 million hectares (3.8 million hectares a week earlier), which is 92% of the projected area under the crop, barley – on 486.1 thousand hectares (421.3 thousand hectares) and 76%, rye – on 66 thousand hectares (62.5 thousand hectares) and 94%, rapeseed – on 1.05 million hectares (1.048 million hectares) and 94%.
Agrarians in Volyn, Poltava, Rivne, Ternopil and Chernihiv regions have completed sowing winter crops. Farmers in 12 regions have completed sowing winter rape.
According to the Ministry, the leaders in terms of sowing of winter grain crops are farmers of Mykolaiv – 503.1 thou hectares (100.5%), Zaporizhzhia – 100.8 thou hectares (99.9%) and Khmelnytskyi – 238.8 thou hectares (99.5%) regions.
As of the same date a year earlier, Ukraine planted 5.4 mln ha with winter crops, 3.733 mln ha with wheat, 403 thou ha with barley, 76 thou ha with rye and 1.142 mln ha with rapeseed.
In January-September this year, Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group, including its associates and joint ventures, increased its payments to the budgets of all levels in Ukraine by 38% year-on-year to UAH 15.2 billion.
According to the company’s press release on Tuesday, Metinvest remains a pillar of the country’s economy amid the full-scale war.
Among the largest payments is the fee for subsoil use, which increased 2.8 times compared to the first and third quarters of 2023, to UAH 4.2 billion. The Group also increased its unified social tax payments by 16% to UAH 2.8 billion. In addition, Metinvest paid UAH 2.5 billion in personal income tax to the budget, up 11% compared to the first three quarters of 2023.
Land payments in January-September 2024 increased by 6% year-on-year to UAH 948 million, and environmental tax by 21% to UAH 543 million. At the same time, income tax payments decreased by 32% to UAH 1.9 billion.
“In a time of war, paying taxes is critical to supporting the Ukrainian economy. The main task of our company is to strengthen the country’s defense capabilities by all means available: to be a reliable employer, investor, manufacturer of steel products for the frontline and supplier of ammunition and equipment to the Armed Forces. Only by working together can we create a solid foundation for Ukraine’s victory and ensure a peaceful future for Ukrainians,” said Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest.
As reported earlier, Metinvest increased its tax payments to the state budget by one and a half times to UAH 10 billion in the first half of 2024. In 2023, the company paid UAH 14.6 billion to the state budget.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies. The group’s enterprises are mainly located in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions.
The main shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage it.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
Ukraine and the EU have agreed to increase the capacity of electricity imports during the winter months to 2.1 GW, Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said Tuesday.
“Starting December 1, the maximum capacity of imports of e/e from EU countries will be increased from the current 1.7 GW to 2.1 GW. This will increase the resilience of the Ukrainian energy system in the face of criminal Russian shelling and infrastructure destruction. I am grateful to European partners, in particular to European Commissioner Kadri Simson for their consistent position and effective steps to support our energy system on the eve of winter,” Energy Minister German Galushchenko was quoted by the press service as saying.
Ukraine will also additionally have an opportunity for guaranteed 250 MW of overflow capacity from the EU in emergency assistance mode.
As the Energy Ministry recalled, the need to make an important decision for Ukraine on increasing the import capacity was discussed at a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in September in Kiev.
