Zaporizhzhia Automobile Plant (ZAZ), part of the UkrAVTO Group, plans to produce 282 buses in 2025, compared to 179 units in 2024, according to Dmitry Kiselevsky, deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development.
“Buses are currently ZAZ’s main product. Significant capacity is also used to produce spare parts (including for export) for passenger cars that were once manufactured in Zaporizhia. Currently, passenger car production has been suspended until the end of the “Euroblach era” in Ukraine,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday after visiting the plant.
Kysilevsky noted that ZAZ has planned to create new modifications of the A08 bus with a modified design that complies with Euro 6 standards for the current year. There are also plans to resume the project for the 12-meter-long A18 bus (1st class).
“A prototype of this bus was already ready last year, but it was hit by rocket fire,” the MP wrote, adding that over the past three years, ZAZ has survived 16 rocket strikes, and one of the rockets hit the beginning of the bus assembly line.
“The Zaporizhzhia workers simply separated the impact site, moved the surviving equipment, and continued working,” Kysilevsky wrote.
According to him, the continuation of the car plant’s work, despite the rocket strikes and the proximity of the front line, is the result of two programs: localization (a requirement for public procurement of equipment to ensure at least 25% Ukrainian content) and “School Bus” (an annual targeted program for the purchase of transport for educational institutions).
The average level of localization in ZAZ buses is 48%, the MP added.
“Despite the war, the legendary ZAZ remains a powerful and ambitious enterprise. Although it now employs around 500 workers, rather than 5,000 as before, it continues to impress with its size and potential. The plant has agreements with several foreign partners to resume production of light vehicles as soon as the war ends,” Kysilevsky said.
ZAZ manufactures buses on Chinese AsiaStar chassis.
According to the Clarity Project, in 2024, ZAZ LLC received a net profit of UAH 1.4 million, compared to a loss of UAH 154.6 million in 2023, with revenue growing by 85% to UAH 570.2 million.
As reported, 1,296 new buses were produced in Ukraine in 2024, 24% more than a year earlier.
BUSES, UkrAVTO Group, Zaporizhzhia Automobile Building Plant
PJSC Azot (Cherkasy), part of the OSTCHEM nitrogen holding, has resumed production of mineral fertilizers after a forced shutdown three weeks ago due to a drop in gas pressure caused by a drone attack on Cherkasy’s external gas infrastructure, the company said in a press release on Wednesday.
“We managed to restart the plants and bring key workshops back to planned capacity after the gas infrastructure was restored. The plant is fully supplied with the gas needed for fertilizer production and continues to deliver fertilizers,” the release quotes board chairman Vitaly Sklyarov as saying.
As noted in the release, the A-3 ammonia workshop (with a capacity of 900 tons per day) and the M-2 urea workshop (1,100 tons per day) have resumed operations. Within a few days, the M-5 workshop (non-concentrated nitric acid) and the M-9 workshop (ammonium nitrate) for the production of UAN are also scheduled to be launched.
According to Sklyarov, despite the forced shutdown, the plant will fulfill its obligations in full, and the annual production plan will be met.
As reported, the plants of the OSTCHEM nitrogen holding company increased mineral fertilizer production in the first quarter of 2025 by 5.3% compared to the same period last year, to 529,300 tons: Cherkasy Azot – 394,800 tons, Rivneazot – 134,400 tons.
The release notes that OSTCHEM enterprises faced forced production stoppages due to drones entering their territory and the destruction of external gas and energy infrastructure in the Cherkasy and Rivne regions. Force majeure led to forced disruptions in fertilizer supplies.
In response, the nitrogen holding company has revised its strategy: the new priority is to reduce production risks through investments in the energy independence of enterprises.
Group DF is a diversified international group of companies consolidating assets in the gas distribution, chemical, titanium, and port industries, as well as in agriculture and media. The founder and owner of Group DF is Dmitry Firtash.
OSTCHEM is Group DF’s nitrogen holding company, which has brought together the largest producers of mineral fertilizers in Ukraine. It includes Rivneazot, Cherkasy Azot, and Severodonetsk Azot, as well as Stirol (the latter two are not operational and are located in occupied territories).
American Kraft Heinz Co., one of the world’s largest food producers, is considering potential strategic deals to increase shareholder value. According to the company’s statement, this process has been ongoing for several months, but at this time there is no guarantee that it will result in any transaction.
“The company has not set a timeline for the completion of this process and does not plan to make any further announcements regarding it unless it believes additional disclosure is appropriate or necessary,” the press release said.
Two members of Kraft Heinz’s board of directors representing Berkshire Hathaway Inc. are leaving the company’s board of directors. This is not related to the company’s operations, policies, or practices, the statement said.
In recent years, Kraft Heinz has faced weakening demand for its core product lines. In April, it lowered its annual forecasts, citing economic uncertainty related, in particular, to the situation in the retail sector. Kraft Heinz shares rose 1.4% in after-hours trading on Tuesday. Since the beginning of this year, their value has fallen by 9.2%. Kraft Heinz was formed in 2015 through the merger of H.J. Heinz Co. and Kraft Foods Group Inc. The company’s portfolio includes well-known brands such as Philadelphia cheese, Maxwell House coffee, Heinz ketchups and baby food, and Jell-O desserts. The company’s products are sold in 190 countries.
In 2025, construction will begin in Serbia on the largest food industry enterprise in decades—a corn starch processing plant. The project is being implemented by Amelo, part of the Moldovan agro-industrial group Trans-Oil.
Location and scope of the project
The plant will be built in the city of Sremska Mitrovica on the site of the former Checherana sugar factory. The total investment will amount to €35 million. The plant will be able to process up to 250,000 tons of corn per year, producing native and modified starch, as well as corn syrup for the food, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries.
Construction will begin in May 2025 and will last 18–20 months. The project partner is the Chinese company Myande Group, which specializes in equipment for starch production.
Once operational, the plant will create around 150 new jobs. Sremska Mitrovica Mayor Branislav Nedimovic noted that this is one of the largest investments in Serbia’s food industry in the last 40–50 years.
The new plant will increase domestic corn processing, reduce raw material exports, and increase the added value of products. This will strengthen Serbia’s position in the European market for starch and related products.
On May 20, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a tender for the purchase of compulsory motor third-party liability insurance services, according to the Prozorro electronic public procurement system. The expected cost of the services is 156,903 thousand hryvnia.
No tender security is required. The deadline for submitting bids is May 28.
compulsory motor third-party liability insurance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, TENDER
ARX Life Insurance Company (Kyiv) collected insurance premiums totaling UAH 81.551 million in January-March 2025, which is 3.12% more than in the same period last year. This was reported by Standard-Rating on its website in information about the update of the company’s credit rating/financial stability (reliability) rating at the level of “tsAA” on the national scale.
The amount of payments and reimbursements made by the insurer in the first quarter of 2025 decreased by 10.55% to UAH 15.216 million compared to the same period in 2024. Thus, the insurer’s payment ratio decreased by 2.85 percentage points to 18.66%.
The insurer’s acquisition expenses for the first quarter of 2025 decreased by 1.32% to UAH 42.991 million compared to the same period in 2024.
As of April 1, 2025, the company’s assets increased by 1.07% to UAH 379.145 million, equity grew by 4.80% to UAH 292.194 million, liabilities decreased by 9.74% to UAH 86.951 million, cash and cash equivalents increased by 44.32% to UAH 167.356 million.
Based on the results of the first three months of 2025, the companies received a net profit of UAH 13.395 million.
At the same time, RA notes that as of the reporting date, the insurer had made financial investments in the amount of UAH 202.09 million, consisting of government bonds and government bonds (92.52% of the portfolio) and deposits in banks with an investment-grade credit rating (7.48% of the portfolio).
ARX Life is part of the international insurance holding company Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. ARX Life is one of the top ten companies in the life insurance market in Ukraine.
