Turkey and Egypt have upgraded their diplomatic relations to ambassadorial level, appointing them for the first time in 10 years, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
“Turkey and Egypt announce that diplomatic relations between the countries have been upgraded to ambassadorial level,” the media cited excerpts from a Foreign Ministry press release.
Salih Mutlu Shen, the country’s former representative to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, was appointed the new Turkish ambassador to Egypt. The Egyptian side offered to appoint Amr Elhamami as ambassador to Ankara.
“The move is aimed at normalization between the two countries and reflects the mutual desire to develop bilateral relations in accordance with the interests of the peoples of Turkey and Egypt,” the document stressed.
Arab media recall that Turkish and Egyptian presidents Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi agreed to exchange ambassadors in late May. At that time, the office of the Egyptian leader said that in a telephone conversation the two presidents agreed to strengthen relations and cooperation between the two sides and therefore decided to raise the level of relations to ambassadors.
Relations between Ankara and Cairo deteriorated after the military coup in Egypt in July 2013. At that time, Turkey and Egypt recalled their ambassadors. In November 2013, Cairo declared the Turkish ambassador “persona non grata.
Energy Company of Ukraine” (“EKU”) has transferred about UAH 17 mln to pay dividends for 2022.
As noted in the release of the company on July 4, this is the first dividends received by the state from the new energy trading company, which began its commercial activities in August last year.
It is indicated that the net profit of EKU for the five months of 2022 amounted to 33.9 million UAH.
According to the decisions of the government and the State Property Fund (SPF) of Ukraine, to which the state company is subordinated, 50% of this amount shall be used to pay dividends, 30% – to counteract the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, and 20% – for the costs provided for by the financial plan of the company for 2023, the company explained.
Thus, in total, “EKU” will allocate 27 million UAH to the budget and to the fight against the Russian Federation.
“In a short time we managed to build a capable company from scratch and reach the planned level of profit. The state has strengthened its position in the energy market and began to earn in highly competitive segments, where it was almost not present before”, – commented the general director of “EKU” Vitaly Butenko, whose words are given in the release.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, JSC Energy Company of Ukraine (EKU) is a diversified energy supplying company, which deals with buying, selling and supplying energy resources to commercial customers, including import and export operations. 100% of the company’s shares are owned by the state.
Generation distribution in power system of Ukraine in 2022
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
Registrations in Ukraine of new commercial vehicles (trucks and special vehicles) in June amounted to 1,068 units, which is 12% more than in May this year and 2.5 times more than in June 2022, “Ukravtoprom” reported in Telegram channel.
“This is the best result in the last 17 months,” stated in the message.
At the same time, compared to the pre-war June-2021 registrations of commercial cars decreased by 26%.
The top five commercial vehicles on the market in June were: Renault – 356 units; Scania – 127 units; Volkswagen – 67 units; Peugeot – 60 units and Mercedes-Benz – 53 units.
Total, according to the Association, in the first half of the year 5,190 new trucks were added to the Ukrainian park of trucks and special vehicles, which is 61% more than during the same period last year.
In its turn, analytical group Auto-Consulting, analyzing the segment of trucks on its web-site on Tuesday, points out that in June there is again a record of their delivery to the Ukrainian market – 440 units, which is 2.2 times more than in June last year.
“And it is not a situational jump, because according to the results of six months we record the growth of the market by 89%”, – the experts state.
According to the group’s data, in June this segment of the market was headed by Scania, which managed to take 29% of the market, the second result was gained by DAF with 9%. IVECO, Renault, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz also increase their sales.
“There is a segment of trucks of 3.6-8 tons with a gross weight which is developing powerfully, where European producers are more and more present. But Chinese brands have started to actively develop the segment of communal machinery and have already achieved certain success. Now any tender on this theme consists of at least three or four proposals on the chassis of Chinese manufacturers”, – is noted in the report.
According to analysts, the high rate of recovery of the truck market is primarily due to the fact that businesses are trying to increase their own fleets to transport goods through the new logistics corridors.
As it was reported with reference to Ukravtoprom, in 2022 the market of new commercial vehicles was added 6.9 thousand new cars – 2.3 times less than in 2021.
Oil is moderately expensive on Tuesday morning.
The price of September Brent futures on London’s ICE Futures Exchange stands at $75.02 a barrel by 8:11 a.m., $0.37 (0.5%) above the previous session’s closing price. Those contracts fell $0.76 (1%) to $74.65 a barrel on Monday.
WTI futures for August crude oil grew by $0.36 (0.52%) to $70.15 per barrel at electronic trades on NYMEX. The day before these contracts went down by $0.85 (1.2%) to $69.79 per barrel.
On Monday, Saudi Arabia announced that it was extending its voluntary cut of oil production by 1 mln bpd for August. Thus, Saudi Arabia’s oil production will remain at around 9 million bpd in August.
Meanwhile, Russia, in an effort to balance the market, will voluntarily reduce supplies to oil markets by 500,000 bpd in August by reducing exports by a specified amount, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters.
Oil initially reacted to the news with moderate positivity, but it was not enough for a significant rally, Sevens Report Research analysts said.
A negative factor for the market was the news that the index of business activity in the U.S. manufacturing sector (ISM Manufacturing) fell to 46 points in June from 46.9 points a month earlier. Experts, the consensus forecast of which was quoted by Trading Economic, had expected the growth up to 47 points.
Meanwhile, the euro area manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 43.4 points this month, down from 44.8 points in May, according to final data from Hamburg Commercial Bank (HCOB) and S&P Global. Previously, it had reported a decline to 43.6 points. The final result indicates the sharpest deterioration in the sector since May 2020, Trading Economics wrote.
Ukraine’s State Budget General Fund on Monday received the second tranche of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) $890 million Extended Fund Facility (EFF), the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine said.
“The funding received is the result of effective and coordinated cooperation of the government, the Ministry of Finance, the National Bank of Ukraine with experts and IMF management under the extended financing program,” Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko said in a statement.
The Ministry of Finance specified that by now Ukraine has already received $3.59 billion from the IMF out of the total volume of this four-year program of $15.6 billion (11.6 billion SDR), opened at the end of March this year.
During the first review of the EFF program, which resulted in the allocation of the second tranche, experts and IMF management noted the significant progress of the Ukrainian side in the implementation of structural measures and quantitative performance criteria defined in the program, the Ministry of Finance pointed out.
“Thanks to the funds provided, we are able to continue to maintain economic stability in Ukraine and ensure priority spending of the state budget,” Marchenko noted.
Representatives of the IMF said after the first review that the second review is expected in late November and early December.
