Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is on a visit to China. His goal is to stabilize ties with Beijing before the US presidential election, Bloomberg reports.
The visit will last from July 27 to 31. During this time, she will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang.
According to an anonymous source, during the talks with the Chinese leaders, the prime minister will discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine and the war in the Gaza Strip.
The publication writes that since coming to power in 2022, Meloni has tried to present herself as a diplomat capable of communicating with leaders who adhere to different ideologies, from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Now, according to another anonymous source, her ambitions have grown to include Xi Jinping in this group.
“Nova Poshta, part of the Nova group of companies, opened a post office in the Italian capital Rome this weekend, the second city where the Ukrainian company has a presence in the country after it entered the Italian market with the opening of its first office in Milan last December.
“I think that Naples or Verona will be the next cities in Italy. These two cities are in the near future. We haven’t found premises there yet, but there will be openings,” Vyacheslav Klimov, co-founder of Nova Poshta and Nova, told Interfax-Ukraine during the opening.
According to him, at the same time, the company will increase targeted delivery to any location in Italy by building contacts with local market leaders to gain access to their networks, branches and post offices.
Klimov also said that Nova Poshta also plans to offer domestic delivery in Italy.
“One of the company’s strategic principles is fast.
We don’t know how to deliver for a long time. Now it (domestic delivery) will definitely be between Milan and Rome, it will definitely be next day delivery,” the co-owner said.
In a press release, Nova Poshta also noted that along with the opening of the Rome office, it began delivering parcels to partner post offices and delivery points located throughout the country, with delivery time to Ukraine starting at 7 days.
The Rome branch is open daily, and customers can send documents, parcels and cargo up to 100 kg to and from Ukraine, within the country and between the European countries of Nova Poshta’s presence.
It is specified that Nova Poshta’s own courier delivery will soon start operating in Rome and the suburbs, as it already does in Milan, and thanks to cooperation with local logistics companies, customers will be able to send parcels across the country.
In particular, since June, customers have been able to use a new delivery service to post offices and parcel delivery points from the GLS partner network operating in any part of the country. At such service points, customers can receive prepaid parcels weighing up to 25 kg and no more than 41x38x64 cm. Thus, according to the release, today the Nova Poshta network in Italy consists of two branches, 2000 post offices and 4500 parcel delivery points.
Italy, according to Eurostat, is the fifth largest European country with the number of Ukrainians with temporary protection status: at the end of May, there were 165.13 thousand of them, which is 0.50 thousand more than in April.
Agrarians in all regions of Ukraine have already harvested 22.325 million tons of new crops from 5.872 million hectares, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported on Friday.
According to the report, more than 19 million tons of grains and more than 3 million tons of oilseeds have already been harvested.
It is specified that 14.7 million tons of wheat have been harvested from 3.502 million hectares at a yield of 42 c/ha, 3.8 million tons of barley from 1020.2 thousand hectares at a yield of 37.9 c/ha, 416.3 thousand tons of peas from 189.8 thousand hectares at a yield of 21.9 c/ha.
Ukraine also continues harvesting oilseeds. In particular, more than 3 mln tons of rapeseed have been harvested from 1086.3 thou hectares with a yield of 28.3 c/ha and 0.3 thou tons of soybeans from 0.2 thou hectares with a yield of 19.3 c/ha.
Also, the top three in terms of grain harvesting are farmers of Odesa region – 733.3 thou hectares, Dnipropetrovska – 630.7 thou hectares, Mykolaivska – 536.5 thou hectares. Khmelnytsky region is the leader in terms of yield with 64 c/ha.
Farmers in Poltava region have completed harvesting early grains and pulses.
The Ukrainian Sea Corridor has transported 60 million tons of cargo in 11 months of operation, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA) reported on Facebook.
“60 million tons – the cargo turnover of the ports of Greater Odesa for 11 months of the Ukrainian Corridor,” the USPA said in a statement on Friday.
It is noted that 40.6 million tons of this volume are grain cargoes. They were exported to 46 countries.
“The bulk carrier Manta Hacer with 25.2 thousand tons of Ukrainian humanitarian wheat is moving through the Ukrainian corridor to Yemen. This is another vessel chartered by the UN World Food Program,” the USPA said.
The Administration emphasized that despite the war and the enemy’s insidious shelling of port infrastructure, including hangars for storing agricultural products, Ukraine remains a key player in the issue of global food security. This is especially true for grain exports to Asia and Africa.
Earlier it was reported that during the 10 months of operation of the Ukrainian Sea Corridor, cargo exports reached a record high of 55 million tons. In mid-July, it reached 57.55 million tons.
Since the beginning of the year, Uglepromtrans LLC, a member of Metinvest Group, has transported 2 million tons of coking coal and coal concentrate within the framework of Metinvest Pokrovskugol, which manages the enterprises of Pokrovsk Coal Group (Pokrovskoye).
According to the company, Vuglepromtrans trains are responsible for delivering premium concentrate to customers. Despite the war, the railroaders are working in a stable mode, increasing their speed and shunting operations.
In addition, it is reported that locomotive crews at Shakhtnaya station are providing railcars for loading coal concentrate to their main customers, Pokrovskoye Mine Administration and Svyato-Varvarinskaya Concentrator.
Currently, the rolling stock service employs 63 people, and one in four of them is a diesel locomotive driver.
As reported, in 2023, Vuhlepromtrans railroaders built 68 meters of track and three turnouts. The plans for this year are to lay another turnout and 60 meters of track, which will facilitate access to the diesel locomotive garage.
Nikolay Vishnevsky, Director of Vuglepromtrans, noted that in the face of a full-scale invasion, Metinvest transformed its business in a timely manner and set up logistics to maintain key production facilities and, most importantly, retained its staff.
“Metinvest created Metinvest Pokrovskugol, which manages the Pokrovske Coal Group’s enterprises. It includes, among others, Pokrovske Mine Administration and Svyato-Varvarinskaya Concentrator.
Svyato-Varvarinskaya Enrichment Plant is a premium coal concentrate producer in Ukraine. Its production capacity is about 8 million tons of raw coking coal per year with the ability to enrich five different classes of coal.
Pokrovskoye (formerly Chervonoarmeyskaya-Zapadnaya No. 1) is Ukraine’s largest coking coal producer.
The major shareholders of Metinvest B.V. are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding Group (23.76%), which jointly manage the company. Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has set the transfer of 25-28% of shares in PrJSC Dickergoff Cement Ukraine to an independent investor as a condition for CRH to buy two Buzzi cement plants, the committee’s website reports.
As reported, in June 2023, the Italian cement producer Buzzi, listed by the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption as an international war sponsor, through its subsidiary Dyckerhoff GmbH, reached an agreement to sell part of its Eastern European business to the Irish CRH group, including Ukrainian assets in the form of two cement plants – Volyn Cement (Zdolbuniv, Rivne region) and Pivden Cement (Vilshanske, Mykolaiv region).
The AMC has been considering CRH’s application for concentration since September 2023.
According to the published terms, CRH must, within nine months from the date of the announced concentration, sell or otherwise transfer shares (stakes) in the amount of 25% to 28% of the authorized capital to a third party not related to CRH UKRAINE B.V. with veto rights (to ensure blocking of key management decisions of the supreme management body of the holding company). It is expected that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will become such an investor, as in December 2023 CRH signed a mandate letter with the EBRD on the joint acquisition of the assets of the Italian company Buzzi in Ukraine.
In addition, CRH will also be obliged to report regularly to the AMCU for five years, in particular, on production volumes and selling prices in the domestic market.
It is expected that CRH will invest in the acquired plants, expanding and modernizing their production facilities, preserving jobs and improving working conditions for employees.
As reported, in 2023, the total volume of cement produced in Ukraine increased by 37% year-on-year to 7.4 million tons. In January-March 2024, the companies that are members of the Ukrcement association increased their cement production by 46.3% compared to the same period in 2023, up to 1 million 477.9 thousand tons of cement.
According to the Ukrcement Association, Ukraine’s cement production potential is currently 13.6 million tons of cement, while current financial and human resources suggest consumption of 12.5 million tons. He believes that despite the ability of Ukrainian enterprises to fully cover the market’s needs, it makes sense to plan to expand production.
According to Valeriy Korbut, director of Khmelnitskzalizobeton, one of Ukraine’s largest reinforced concrete plants, investments and modernization of enterprises always increase competition in the market. This, in turn, makes the product better and more affordable. That is why it is important to attract investments in the cement industry today to be ready for recovery.
Viktor Hushel, Commercial Director of Budindustriya-1, a concrete producer, states that, with a focus on recovery projects, it is necessary to invest in cement production right now.
CRH has been operating in Ukraine since 1999. Since November 2021, its cement enterprises in Ukraine have been operating under the Cemark brand: Podilskyi Cement JSC (Khmelnytskyi region), Cement LLC (Odesa), and Mykolaivcement PrJSC (Lviv region).
CRH’s separate business in Ukraine is the production of concrete and reinforced concrete products. PoliBeton Energo’s Bila Tserkva concrete goods plant is a specialized enterprise that produces power transmission towers. PoliBeton’s concrete hub in the north of Odesa was included in the CRH 2020.
Since 1999, the company has invested about $500 million in Ukraine. In particular, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, CRH has invested $80 million, including $34 million in the construction of a cement terminal in Kyiv region.
CRH is the world’s leading manufacturer of building materials. The company employs about 71,000 people at its 3,200 facilities in 28 countries. It is the largest building materials producer in North America and Europe. The company is also represented in Asia. CRH American depositary shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
