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.
The Japanese government will provide Ukraine with a loan of 471.9 billion yen ($3.08 billion at the current exchange rate) under the G7’s Emergency Revenue Assistance (ERA) initiative, Kyodo news reported on Monday.
It is noted that as of October 28, the G7 countries reached a final agreement to start providing assistance to Ukraine in the amount of about $50 billion and to distribute these funds, in particular, the EU will provide a loan of EUR 18.115 billion.
It is specified that each G7 country will conclude an individual loan agreement with Ukraine, distributing loans in installments from December 1, 2024, to the end of 2027. The loans will be repaid from the proceeds of Russia’s frozen assets, and Ukraine will not actually pay them back.
As reported, on October 25, the G7 in Washington announced that it had reached a consensus on a collective loan of $50 billion to Ukraine. Earlier, the United States said it would provide $20 billion under the ERA. Then, the EU confirmed plans to provide Ukraine with about EUR18 billion in 2025 in the form of new macro-financial assistance, the terms of which are tied to the Ukraine Facility.
On October 22, the UK also announced that it was providing Ukraine with a GBP2.26 billion (almost $3 billion at current exchange rates) military loan to purchase the necessary military equipment under the ERA.
Back in June, immediately after the G7’s decision on the ERA initiative, Canada announced the allocation of CAD5 billion ($3.6 billion at the current exchange rate) under the initiative.
The European Commission recalled that the consensus among G7 members was facilitated by the creation of a special Ukraine Loan Cooperation Mechanism (ULCM) by the EU, which will receive extraordinary revenues from frozen Russian sovereign assets and other voluntary contributions made by member states or third countries. These resources will then be used to repay the principal and interest under Ukraine’s relevant bilateral loan agreements with creditors.
The IMF, in its updated EFF program following the fifth review, noted that if the war ends at the end of 2025, Ukraine will need $33.1 billion of the $50 billion to support its budget: $19.1 billion next year, $9.2 billion in 2026, and $4.9 billion in 2027.
In a negative scenario, if the war continues until mid-2026, Ukraine’s budget will need all $50 billion to cover the deficit.
“Kernel, one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural holdings, processed 684 thousand tons of oilseeds in the first quarter of fiscal year 2024-2025 (July-September), up 12% year-on-year, a record high for the first quarter, according to the company’s annual report released on Monday evening.
“This growth was driven by the additional capacity of our new plant, which was commissioned in February 2024, and the earlier start of sunflower harvesting, which improved the availability of seeds in the reporting period. To maximize capacity utilization, Kernel processed oilseeds from third parties under tolling contracts, as well as rapeseed along with sunflower. Out of the total volume, 132 thousand tons were supplied under tolling contracts,” the report says.
According to the agroholding, in the first quarter of 2024-2025, it has already processed 589 thsd tonnes of sunflower seeds and 95 thsd tonnes of rapeseed.
At the same time, oilseed processing volumes decreased by 28% due to a one-month break for maintenance of processing plants in the summer and preparation for the new season.
“Taking into account the quarterly decline in oilseed processing volumes, Kernel reduced sales of edible oil by 30% in July-September 2024-2025 MY to 269 thousand tons, of which 18 thousand tons were bottled sunflower oil.
Kernel Agro Holding is the world’s largest exporter of sunflower oil, one of the largest producers and sellers of bottled oil in Ukraine. It is also engaged in the cultivation and sale of agricultural products.
Kernel’s net profit for FY2023 amounted to $299 million, while the company ended the previous year with a net loss of $41 million. The agricultural holding’s revenue for FY2023 decreased by 35% to $3.455 billion, but EBITDA increased 2.5 times to $544 million.
In the first nine months of FY2024, the agricultural holding reduced its net profit by 53% to $204 million, while revenue decreased by 4% to $2.595 billion, and its EBITDA decreased by 36% to $384 million.
