In 2023, Zaporizhzhia-based Zaporizhstal Iron and Steel Works increased its rolled steel output by 57.2% compared to 2022, to 2 million 54.7 thousand tons.
According to the company’s information on Friday, steel production for the year increased by 65.4% to 2 million 466.9 thousand tons, and pig iron production by 35.3% to 2 million 718.9 thousand tons.
In 2023, the plant operated at an average of 70% of its capacity.
In December, Zaporizhstal produced 265.5 thousand tons of iron, 228.6 thousand tons of steel, and shipped 206.5 thousand tons of rolled products, compared to 262.7 thousand tons of iron, 240.8 thousand tons of steel, and 195.6 thousand tons of rolled products in the previous month, and 141.9 thousand tons of iron, 70.7 thousand tons of steel, and 57.7 thousand tons of rolled products in December 2022.
“The increase in production in December 2023 compared to December 2022 is due to the removal of blast furnace No. 2 from hot mothballing and the establishment of three blast furnaces,” the press release explains.
As noted, enemy shelling and destruction, interruptions in the supply of raw materials and energy, and disruption of logistics routes for the export of finished products due to the blockade of seaports in 2023 led to a reduction in steel and rolled products production at Zaporizhstal compared to pre-war levels. However, compared to 2022, the steelmaker increased production of steel products by increasing capacity utilization, finding new logistics routes for raw materials and sales, and expanding its product portfolio.
“The implemented anti-crisis solutions allowed us to stabilize the production process and refocus on more efficient work in the ever-changing wartime environment, maintain production and retain our team. In 2024, we plan to maintain production volumes, and, given the favorable conditions on foreign markets and demand for rolled steel in the domestic market, to increase production capacity utilization,” said Roman Slobodianiuk, CEO of Zaporizhstal, as quoted by the press service.
As reported, in 2022, Zaporizhstal reduced its rolled steel output by 60.4% compared to 2021, to 1 million 304.3 thousand tons, steel by 61.7%, to 1 million 491.3 thousand tons, and pig iron by 54.3%, to 2 million 9.9 thousand tons.
“Zaporizhstal is one of the largest industrial enterprises in Ukraine, whose products are in great demand among consumers both in the domestic market and in many countries of the world.
“Zaporizhstal is in the process of integration into Metinvest Group, whose major shareholders are System Capital Management (71.24%) and Smart Holding Group (23.76%).
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for continued mask-wearing and social distancing to avoid COVID-19 infection, these recommendations are linked to an upward trend in many countries where coronavirus cases have been observed, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
“Many countries have seen an increase in respiratory illnesses caused by COVID-19, influenza and other pathogens for several weeks and this trend is expected to continue after the recent holidays,” he wrote on social media X.
Gebreyesus called for mandatory testing and seeking medical attention if necessary, as treatment for COVID-19 can prevent severe illness and death.
He also mentioned the need to use masks, ventilation and social distancing to reduce the risk of infection. In addition, recalled COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations.
In turn, governments need to ensure access to reliable tests, treatment and vaccines, especially for those most at risk of severe infection.
“Continue surveillance, sequencing and reporting to track the evolution of the COVID-19 virus, and clearly communicate risks and risk reduction measures to your population,” the WHO chief emphasized.
According to him, these recommendations provide more information on what governments need to do to combat the ongoing global COVID-19 threats.
A new sub-variant of the Omicron coronavirus strain, JN.1, has reportedly been discovered in many countries around the world, including China, India, the UK and the US, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified it as a “variant of interest” because of “its rapid spread,” the BBC reported Wednesday.
International hotel operator Accor Live Limitless (France) will open a three-star ibis Kyiv Beresteiska hotel in late 2023, according to the operator’s website.
“I am pleased to announce the opening of ibis Kyiv Beresteiska. It will be a great addition to the Accor family in Ukraine,” commented Andriy Davydenko, CEO of Accor Northern Europe – Ukraine, Georgia and the CIS, in a linked post.
As reported, the international hotel operator Accor Live Limitless planned to launch three new hotels in Ukraine in 2022-2023, ibis & Adagio Kyiv, ibis Lviv and Novotel Lviv. At the end of December 2022, Adagio Kyiv Beresteiska also started operating. Both hotels are located in the same building at 55 Peremohy Ave. Adagio Kyiv Beresteiska has 105 rooms and Adagio Kyiv Beresteiska has 156 rooms.
Adagio Kyiv Beresteiska is an apart-hotel, its rooms are adapted for long-term stays: they have fully equipped kitchens, special workspaces, WIFI and other necessary facilities for work and leisure. The ibis Kyiv Beresteiska has six meeting rooms for business events and conferences.
The 77-room ibis Styles Lviv Center hotel, located in the business center of Lviv at 3 Shukhevycha Street, was opened in December 2022.
Accor Group, one of the world’s leading hotel operators, opened the first hotel under the Novotel brand in Lille (France) in 1967.
As of December 2023, Accor operated 5,487 hotels, resorts and residences in 110 countries under more than 40 brands (Raffles, Sofitel, Fairmont, OneFineStay, MGallery, Pullman, Swissotel, Grand Mercure, The Sebel, 25 hours hotel, Novotel, Mercure, Adagio, Mama Shelter, Ibis, Ibis Styles, Adagio success, Ibis Budget, Jo&Joe, hotelFormule1, hotel F1, Thalassa sea&spa, greet, etc. ).
Accor SA shares are listed on Euronext in Paris and traded on the US over-the-counter market.
In Ukraine, AccorHotels manages three-star Ibis hotels in Kyiv, Ibis Styles and Gruner in Lviv, five-star Fairmont Grand Hotel in Kyiv, and Mercure Kyiv Congress Hotel. In addition, one hotel under Accor’s management is located in Odesa – MGallery Hôtel de Paris.
The number of border crossings in Ukraine between December 30 and January 5 decreased by 18.4% compared to the previous week, to 475,000, and the number of vehicles let through decreased by 18.2%, to 90,000, according to the State Border Guard Service’s Facebook post.
According to the data, while the flow of people entering Ukraine had been exceeding the flow of people leaving by 22-24 thousand every week for two weeks, the situation reversed on New Year’s Eve: the number of people crossing the border decreased from 302 thousand to 224 thousand, while the number of people entering the country decreased from 280 thousand to 250 thousand.
The number of cleared vehicles with humanitarian cargo decreased to 340 from 576 a week earlier.
Compared to the situation a year ago, the inflow to Ukraine has shifted a week ahead, which may be due to the postponement of Christmas celebrations.
Statistics from the Polish Border Guard Service during the New Year’s week also show a change in dynamics after two weeks of net inflows to Ukraine: during the New Year’s week, 23.5 thousand more people leaving Ukraine than entering were recorded, with a decrease in total passenger traffic by 18.3% to 311.5 thousand. A year ago, net inflows to Ukraine across the Polish border were recorded until January 6 inclusive.
In total, from the beginning of the war to January 5, 2024, 18.27 million people arrived in Poland from Ukraine, while 16.48 million people traveled in the opposite direction.
As reported, since May 10, 2022, the outflow of refugees from Ukraine has been replaced by an influx, which lasted until September 23, 2022 and amounted to 409 thousand people.
However, since the end of September, possibly under the influence of news about mobilization in Russia and “pseudo-referendums” in the occupied territories, and then massive shelling of energy infrastructure, the number of people leaving has been exceeding the number of people entering. It temporarily stopped in the second half of December and early January during the holidays, but then resumed again and reached a total of 223 thousand people from the end of September to the anniversary of the full-scale war.
Since then, the number of border crossings to enter Ukraine has exceeded the number of crossings to leave by 64 thousand people.
As Deputy Economy Minister Serhiy Sobolev noted in early March this year, the return of every 100,000 Ukrainians home results in a 0.5% increase in GDP.
According to the UNHCR, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe was estimated at 5.937 million as of January 3, and 6.340 million worldwide, which is only 1-2 thousand more than a week earlier.
In Ukraine itself, according to the UN, as of November 6, there were 3.674 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), compared to the previous estimate of 5.088 million. “This (significant reduction) is not due to a significant return of IDPs, but rather, first of all, to a change in the methodology for calculating the number of IDPs. The new baseline population figure used to extrapolate IDP estimates now takes into account the absence of some 6.2 million refugees from Ukraine who are no longer in the country,” UNHCR explains.
India’s solar space observatory Aditya-L1 was successfully placed into a halo-orbit near Lagrange point L1 – 1.5 million km from Earth – on Saturday, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said.
“The Aditya-L1 solar observatory was put into halo-orbit at around 16:00 Indian time (12:30 Q) on January 6, 2024,” the organization said in a statement.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the halo-orbit launch “a testament to the relentless dedication of Indian scientists in conducting the most challenging space missions” and said India will continue to push the boundaries of scientific knowledge for the benefit of humanity.
According to the organization, this halo orbit was chosen to minimize the number of maneuvers to correct it and thereby reduce fuel consumption to keep the observatory operational for a period of 5 years.
The Aditya-L1 observatory is equipped with various payloads for scientific research. It will study the Sun’s photosphere and chromosphere, as well as its upper layer, the solar corona, using instruments to detect magnetic fields and electromagnetic particles, spectrometers and coronagraphs.
Scientists expect to obtain new data that will help understand the causes of coronal mass ejections (ejections of matter from the solar corona) and solar flares, as well as study the space weather and magnetic field near the L1 point.
In the southern part of Ukraine, no precipitation at night on January 7, rain during the day; temperature at night 2-7° C, during the day 5-10° C, in the Crimea up to 16° C; wind east, southeast, 7-12 m/s, reports the Ukrainian Weather Center. In the northern, Volyn and Rivne regions, there will be light snow in some places; the temperature during the day will be 7-12° below zero, in Chernihiv and Sumy regions in some places 15-20° below zero.
In the rest of the country, weather conditions will be difficult: rain and sleet (significant precipitation in most of the central and Donetsk regions during the day), ice, sleet, snowstorms. Temperatures at night and during the day will be from 1° Celsius to 4° Celsius.
Northeast wind, 7-12 m/s, gusts of 15-20 m/s in the western and central regions.
There will be ice on the roads, except in the south.
In Kyiv, on January 7, there will be light snow in some places. There will be ice on the roads. Northeast wind, 7-12 m/s.
The temperature during the day will be 8-10° below zero.
According to the Central Geophysical Observatory named after Borys Sreznevsky. On January 7, the highest daytime temperature in Kyiv was 8.0° in 1975, and the lowest at night was -29.7° in 1935.
On January 8, in the southern part of Ukraine, heavy rain with sleet, slush build-up, ice, night and day temperatures 0-5° Celsius; in the eastern and central regions, heavy snow, night and day temperatures 7-12° Celsius (up to 16° Celsius in Kharkiv region at night); in the western regions, moderate, in the northern part, sometimes light snow, night temperatures 11-16°, day temperatures 8-13° Celsius.
There will be ice on the roads. Northeast, north wind, 7-12 m / s, in the southern, central and eastern regions gusts of 15-20 m / s, blizzards.
In Chernihiv and Sumy regions, no precipitation, temperature at night 20-25°, during the day 13-18° below zero.
In Kyiv, on January 8, there will be light snow in some places. There will be ice on the roads.
Northeast, north wind, 7-12 m/s. The temperature will be 12-14° below zero at night, 9-11° below zero during the day.
