Benchmark oil prices are little changed on Monday morning after rising on Friday and throughout last week.
The price of December futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange at 8:10 a.m. is $90.92 per barrel, which is $0.03 (0.03%) higher than at the close of the previous session. Last Friday, these contracts increased in price by $4.89 (5.7%) to $90.89 per barrel.
Quotes for November futures for WTI in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by this time decreased by $0.01 (0.01%) to $87.68 per barrel. At the end of the previous session, they rose by $4.78 (5.8%) to $87.69 per barrel.
Over the past week, Brent prices rose by 7.5% and WTI by 5.9%.
The sharp jump in oil prices on Friday was caused by rising geopolitical risks, FXTM’s Lukman Otunuga told MarketWatch.
Meanwhile, data from the oilfield services company Baker Hughes showed that over the past week, the number of active oil rigs in the United States increased by 4 to 501 units. The number of gas rigs decreased by 1 to 117.
The Nova Poshta Group plans to enter six more EU countries by the end of the year, opening its first offices there, said Vyacheslav Klimov, co-owner of Nova Poshta, at the Kyiv International Economic Forum held this week.
“We are expanding. There are already eight countries. There will be six more by the end of this year,” Klimov said.
The company’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine that Nova Post will open offices in Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, France, and Austria.
At the forum, Klimov noted that Nova Post offices abroad will be bilingual in local and Ukrainian.
“We have made a firm decision that two languages will be spoken in Nova Post offices in Europe. It will be the local language and Ukrainian,” said the company’s co-owner.
At the forum, he also said that the company’s group allocates about UAH 100 million per month to the needs of the army. Klimov clarified that 3,249 employees of the company are currently serving in the Armed Forces, and 99 colleagues have been killed since the start of the full-scale invasion.
As reported, Nova Post has already opened 62 branches in Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Romania, Germany and Moldova.
As of the beginning of July 2023, the Nova Poshta network in Ukraine included more than 10 thousand branches and more than 14 thousand post offices.
The Group of Companies includes Ukrainian and foreign companies, including Nova Poshta, NP Logistic, NovaPay payment system and Nova Poshta Global.
The average rate of new hryvnia deposits for the corporate sector decreased by 0.9 pp (percentage points) for the second month in a row to 12.5% in September, while for households it remained at around 12.25% per annum after the first decline of 0.5 pp in August for 14 months.
According to the NBU on its website, the yield on foreign currency deposits for individuals also remained unchanged in September at around 1.15% p.a., while the yield on corporate deposits decreased by an average of 0.15 percentage points to 0.58% p.a.
Interbank lending rates, as indicated by the National Bank, fell by 1 percentage point to 17.2% per annum in September, including overnight rates by 0.3 percentage points to 16.4% per annum.
As for the volume of deposits, the gap between corporate and retail deposits continued to narrow in September: while corporate deposits decreased by UAH 12.1 billion, or 1.1%, to UAH 1 trillion 116.3 billion, retail deposits increased by UAH 22.9 billion, or 2.4%, to UAH 999.4 billion.
Households increased their deposits both in hryvnia by 2.5% to UAH 663.7 billion and in foreign currency by 2% to the equivalent of UAH 335.7 billion, while in September, corporate deposits in foreign currency decreased by 5.4% to UAH 340.2 billion, while in hryvnia they increased by 0.8% to UAH 776.1 billion.
The total loan portfolio, which returned to slow growth in July, added another UAH 4.9 billion in September to reach UAH 975.0 billion.
The growth was driven by hryvnia loans to the corporate sector, which increased by 1.9% to UAH 509.6 billion, while foreign currency loans decreased by 1.4% to the equivalent of UAH 230.8 billion.
In September, consumer loans decreased both in national currency by 0.3% to UAH 202.4 billion and in foreign currency by 0.4% to the equivalent of UAH 12.5 billion.
As reported, on September 15, the NBU cut the discount rate from 22% to 20% per annum, while reducing the rate on three-month deposit certificates from 22% to 20%, while the rate on overnight deposit certificates decreased from 18% to 16%.
Inflation in Ukraine in annual terms slowed to 7.1% in September from 8.6% in August and 11.3% in July.
Israel has postponed the start of a ground military operation in the Gaza Strip for several days, partly due to the weather, The New York Times (NYT) reports, citing sources in the Israeli Defense Forces.
“The invasion was originally planned for the weekend, the officers said, but was postponed for several days, at least in part because of weather conditions that would make it difficult for Israeli pilots and drone operators to provide air cover for ground troops,” the publication says.
The NYT writes that the military confirmed that reconnaissance teams briefly entered the Gaza Strip on Friday and that Israeli troops are increasing their “readiness” for a ground war.
It is believed that tens of thousands of Hamas militants are holed up in hundreds of kilometers of underground tunnels and bunkers under Gaza City and adjacent areas of the northern part. Israeli military leaders expect Hamas to try to impede their advance by blowing up some of these tunnels as the Israelis advance over them, as well as by detonating roadside bombs and mining buildings.
The NYT quoted three Israeli officers who provided some details about Israeli military preparations. In particular, “to facilitate the actions of Israeli soldiers, rules of engagement have been relaxed, allowing soldiers to conduct fewer checks before firing at perceived enemies.”
Also, the NYT writes, due to the widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip caused by recent Israeli air strikes, Israeli soldiers have received additional training in recent days to help them fight in the devastated urban environment.
In Ukraine on Monday, October 16, rains, at night in the central and some northern regions, during the day in some places in Poltava, Sumy and Kharkiv regions heavy rains, only in the southeastern regions at night without precipitation, the Ukrhydrometcenter reported.
Northwest wind (southern in the southeastern part), 7-12 m / s, gusts of 15-20 m / s in the morning and afternoon in Ukraine (in the northern part in some places).
The temperature in the southern, eastern and Dnipropetrovska regions will be 6-11° at night, 11-16° during the day, up to 18° in Donetsk and Luhansk regions; in the rest of the country it will be 3-8° at night, 7-12° during the day.
In the Carpathians, rain, sleet; temperature at night from 2° C to 3° C, during the day 0-5° C.
In Kyiv, moderate rain on Monday night, light rain during the day. Northwest wind, 7-12 m/s. The temperature at night will be 6-8°, during the day around 10°.
According to the data of the Borys Sreznevsky Central Geophysical Observatory. On October 16, the highest daytime temperature was 23.4 in 2018, and the lowest nighttime temperature was -4.9 in 1976, according to the Borys Sreznevsky Central Geophysical Observatory in Kyiv.
On Tuesday, October 17, there was no precipitation in Ukraine.
Northwest wind with a shift to southwest, 5-10 m/s.
Temperature at night from 4 ° C to 1 ° C, during the day 7-12 ° C; in the southern part at night 1-6 ° C, during the day 10-15 °, in the south of Odesa region 16-18 °.
No precipitation in Kyiv on Tuesday, October 17. Northwest wind with a shift to southwest, 5-10 m/s. The temperature at night will be 2-4° Celsius, during the day about 10°.
In January-September of this year, Ukrainian enterprises increased their consumption of rolled metal products by 92.96% compared to the same period last year, up to 2 million 604.9 thousand tons.
According to a press release issued by Ukrmetallurgprom, 818.9 thousand tons, or 31.44% of the domestic rolled metal consumption market, were imported during this period.
According to Ukrmetallurgprom, in January-September 2023, Ukrainian steelmakers produced 3.93 million tons of rolled steel (83% compared to the same period in 2022), of which, according to the Expert and Scientific Council of UAVtormet, about 2.14 million tons, or 54.4%, were exported. In the same period of 2022, the share of exports amounted to 79.9% (3.78 million tons with a total production of 4.73 million tons of rolled metal products).
The share of semi-finished products in export deliveries for 9M2023 amounted to 43.16%, which is comparable to the same period in 2022 (44.05%). The share of flat products in exports in 9M2023 is slightly lower than in January-September 2022 (36.58% and 37.84%, respectively). The share of long products in export deliveries for 9M2023 is significantly higher than in the same period of 2023 (20.25% in 2023 vs. 18.11% in 2022).
“In January-September 2023, the domestic market capacity amounted to 2604.9 thousand tons of rolled steel, of which 818.9 thousand tons, or 31.44%, were imported. In the same period of 2022, the domestic market capacity amounted to 1350 thousand tons, of which 401 thousand tons, or 29.7%, were imported. Thus, for 9 months of 2023, there was an increase in the domestic market capacity by 92.96% compared to January-September 2022, with a simultaneous increase in the share of the import component by 1.73%,” the press release states.
The structure of imports in January-September 2023 is characterized by a significant dominance of flat products over long products (75.48% and 24.45%, respectively); in the same period of 2022, the dominance of flat products over long products was also significant (62.57% and 36.06%, respectively).
According to UAVtormet, the main export markets for Ukrainian steel products in January-September 2023 were the European Union (84.0%) and the rest of Europe (6.8%).
Among metallurgical importers in 9 months of 2023, the first place is occupied by other European countries (38.9%), the second – by the EU-27 (38.5%), and the third – by Asian countries (20.3%).
