U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he had approved another $200 million military aid package for Ukraine.
“I just signed a document allocating $200 million for Ukraine’s defense,” Biden said at a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House.
He added that this aid package would be promptly sent to Kyiv.
The US president did not specify what exactly would be included in this tranche of aid.
Dynamics of changes in discount rate of NBU – from 2013 to June 2023
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
Monthly sales of the online fabric store tk.ua, owned by the Textile-Contact group of companies, currently amount to about UAH 5 million, while almost two years ago, with the start of Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, they dropped to UAH 3 million per month.
“Pre-war sales of the online store amounted to about UAH 8 million per month, but almost two years ago they dropped to UAH 3 million. Today, sales have increased to UAH 5 million per month,” the company’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
The company cites the constant replenishment of the online store’s catalog with fabrics, a convenient interface for searching and paying for goods, and improved logistics processes and sales approaches as the factors behind the sales growth.
According to the company, more than 140 thousand retail customers and 10 thousand wholesale customers buy fabrics online every year. At the same time, 10% of the site’s users come back for more.
As the owner of the company, Oleksandr Sokolovskyi, noted on Facebook, tk.ua, which was founded seven years ago, is currently the largest online fabric store in Europe in terms of assortment and number of visitors.
“Of course, there are many resources in Germany, Italy, the UK, and Finland, but there are no analogues to our product. If you have a desire to buy fabric in Europe, you will most likely be advised to come to a small family-owned store or be taken to a large (by European standards) fabric store,” Sokolovsky wrote.
At the same time, he added that when the retail network, B2B sales, corporate and departmental uniform orders dropped significantly in 2020-2021 due to the covid, online trading supported the company greatly.
“The online store’s revenue increased significantly during the covid restrictions, almost doubling to UAH 10 million in some months,” the company owner said.
Today, tk.ua offers more than 30 thousand fabrics from 25 countries, more than 9 million visitors to the online store, and more than 4.5 million running meters of fabrics delivered to customers over seven years.
“Every year, the percentage of in-house production from 12 factories of the Textile-Contact group scattered throughout Ukraine is increasing. And these are not only fabrics, but also finished products – eco-bags, clothing for defenders, medical clothing, curtains, tulle and other finished home products,” Sokolovsky notes.
“Textile-Contact is the largest trading and production group in the Ukrainian light industry market, founded in 1995. It combines the entire range of services in the textile industry: from raw materials and yarns to ready-made solutions for B2B, B2G, B2C customers.
The holding employs 1549 people. In 2022, the Group paid more than UAH 277 million in taxes to the state budget of Ukraine (in previous years – about UAH 160-165 million).
The event will become a platform for constructive dialogue, expression and discussion of various opinions between the authorities, developers, architects, builders and the public sector
On December 14, the first UKRAINIAN CONSTRUCTION CONGRESS will be held at the CEC “Parkovy” in Kyiv, where participants will have the opportunity to discuss, express their opinions and visions of the Formula for the Reconstruction of Ukraine.
Both foreign partners and the Ukrainian government, developers, builders and architects are already working on planning and implementing the reconstruction of Ukraine. But unfortunately, there is currently no clearly articulated consolidated vision, basic principles, or common vision of cooperation and interaction among all participants in the process. This was the trigger for the idea of discussing the Formula for the Reconstruction of Ukraine.
The UKRAINIAN CONSTRUCTION CONGRESS will become a platform for constructive dialogue, exchange of views and ideas between the government, developers, architects, builders, manufacturers of building materials, the public sector and other industry participants. An important issue of the congress will be the problem of returning Ukrainians from abroad, without whom Ukraine’s recovery is impossible.
The program of the event will include discussion panels, speeches and presentations by experts in various fields.
Mykhailo Podolyak, Advisor to the Head of the Presidential Office and Acting Minister of Culture and Information Policy Rostyslav Karandeyev, will also deliver a welcoming speech at the event.
The organizers have already announced a list of topics to be discussed at the event, the results and conclusions of which will form the basis of the Formula for Rebuilding Ukraine.
Among them:
– “Education in architecture. Destruction or misunderstanding of the needs of reconstruction?”
– Innovations and their impact on business development;
– “Promising areas of investment in the future reconstruction of Ukraine”;
– “Technologies of future recovery as a tool for modernization of Ukraine”;
– “Money for housing. Sources of income in 2024: investments, sales, mortgages”;
– “City without Borders: own examples and actions towards barrier-free access”;
– “Sustainable City: transforming Ukraine through urban transformation;
– “Ageism. Discrimination against the adult generation”;
– “Architect or developer. Who is in charge?”
Among the panel discussions were “How to build during the war. Innovations in construction”, “What to build during the war”.
“Our congress is a platform where we provide an opportunity for different teams and companies to interact and express their opinions on how Ukraine should move forward in the context of reconstruction,” comments Igor Parubsky, organizer of the Ukrainian Construction Congress.
The discussion of topics and opinions on the Formula for Rebuilding Ukraine will be attended by Tetiana Lomakina, Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Barrier-Free Access, Vadym Svyrydenko, Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Rehabilitation of Combatants, Daryna Marchak, First Deputy Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine, Volodymyr Popereshniuk, co-founder of Nova Poshta, Massi Nayyem, Founder of Miller Law Firm, co-founder of the Human Rights Center “Principle”, Artur Mikhno, CEO of work. ua, Anatoliy Amelin – Director of Economic Programs at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, Andriy Dligach – Ph. Sc. Chairman of Advanter Group, Vitaliy Melnyk – Vice President of UDP, Vlad Goldakovskiy – Founder of Goldakovskiy Group Architects, Oleksandr Kashchenko – Dean of the Faculty of Architecture of KNUBA, Anatoliy Davydov – Dean of the Faculty of Architecture of NAOMA, Borys Goldenstein – Founder and CEO of ZEZMAN HOLDING, Andriy Vavrysh, founder of SAGA Development, Mark Kestelboim, CEO of Well-Being contech, Budova, Sergey Samusev, development company ZV Development, Mark Marchenko, CEO of SENSAR Development, Igor Guda, founder of Creator-Bud, Igor Mazepa, CEO of Concorde Capital, and others.
The congress will also feature an analysis of the Ukrainian real estate market by Olga Okhrimenko, an expert of LUN.
Other representatives of the construction industry from all over Ukraine can also take part in the Ukrainian Construction Congress. Admission is free upon pre-registration on the organizer’s website, which reserves the right to refuse participation.
The full program and speakers, as well as the registration form, are available at https://www.ubc-ua.info/.
“Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) plans to make a net profit of UAH 7 billion in 2023 after a net loss of UAH 9.6 billion in 2022, acting CEO Yevhen Lyashchenko said at the final meeting of the Ministry of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure’s team with diplomatic missions and the public in Kyiv on Tuesday.
According to him, in 2023, UZ will receive a record revenue of UAH 99.6 billion over the past five years, UAH 82.1 billion of which will be accounted for by freight transportation, UAH 8.4 billion by passenger transportation, and UAH 9.1 billion by other revenues.
According to the data provided by him, in 2022, UZ’s revenues fell to UAH 75.7 billion from UAH 86 billion in 2021 and UAH 90.4 billion in 2019.
In particular, revenues from freight transportation last year decreased to UAH 63 billion from UAH 72.3 billion a year earlier, passenger transportation – to UAH 5.9 billion from UAH 6.2 billion, and other revenues – to UAH 6.8 billion from UAH 7.5 billion.
Lyashchenko noted that the implementation of measures to optimize operations helped UZ to reach profit in 2023, and 70% of operational purchases by value are already made under direct contracts with manufacturers.
According to the CEO, in particular, since March 2023, UZ has saved more than UAH 1 billion on diesel fuel purchases by adjusting fuel standards and procurement practices.
In January-November of this year, Ukrainian companies increased exports of ferrous scrap by 3.84 times compared to the same period last year, to 161,025 thousand tons, including 14,098 thousand tons of strategic raw materials exported in November.
According to the statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS), in monetary terms, scrap metal exports amounted to $46.406 million in the period under review (up 2.93 times).
At the same time, the export of scrap metal has been growing since March: in January, about 8.28 thousand tons of scrap were exported, in February – 16.5 thousand tons, in March – 15.45 thousand tons, in April – about 16.19 thousand tons, in May – 21.5 thousand tons. tons, in May – 21.003 thousand tons, in June – 14.6 thousand tons, in July – 9.567 thousand tons, in August – 15.849 thousand tons, in September – 13.7 thousand tons, in October – 15.796 thousand tons, in November – 14.1 thousand tons.
Scrap metal was formally exported to Poland (85.87%), Greece (8.07%) and Bulgaria (2.35%).
In the first two months of the year, the country did not import scrap metal; in March-November, it imported 987 tons of scrap worth $383 thousand (48.04% from Slovakia, 22.45% from Poland, 7.31% from Estonia).
Earlier, Ukrmetallurgprom President Oleksandr Kalenkov stated in a column on the Interfax-Ukraine website that scrap metal is exported through the European Union, which has a preferential export duty of EUR3 per ton, and from there the raw materials are redirected to real customers. He pointed out that exporting raw materials directly to customers would cost EUR180 in export duty, and the Ukrainian budget has already lost UAH 350 million.
According to him, the State Bureau of Investigation has already taken an interest in such export schemes.
The head of Ukrmetallurgprom called for a temporary ban on the export of ferrous scrap to provide steelmakers with strategically important raw materials in the ongoing war. He also clarified that a ton of scrap metal processed into steel brings in 10 times more to the budget than the EU export duty, which is about $300 per ton.
As reported, in 2022, Ukraine reduced exports of ferrous scrap by 11.5 times compared to the previous year to 53,557 thousand tons, while in monetary terms it decreased by 12.4 times to $19.271 million. At the same time, last year the country reduced imports of scrap metal in physical terms by 12.6 times to 1,824 thousand tons. tons, compared to the previous year – to $19.271 million tons, in monetary terms by 12.9 times – to $3.488 million. Imports of scrap metal in 2022 were mainly from Turkey (78.92% of supplies in monetary terms), the Russian Federation (13.25%) and Cyprus (5.08%); exports – to Turkey (38.97%), Poland (34.25%) and Greece (10.12%).
