Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group has built about 600 steel bunkers and command posts for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and other units as part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front initiative.
Metinvest’s Chief Operating Officer Oleksandr Myronenko told the American magazine Newsweek that out of the 600 bunkers, about 480 were used to create “hideouts.” Another 120 bunkers were used to make 20 steel command posts, of which about 14 are already in operation and the rest have been delivered to the teams preparing to use them.
The remaining four command posts will be handed over to the National Guard after production is completed. One more will go to the Kraken unit, which is part of the Main Intelligence Directorate.
It takes about a week to build a “hideout”. The six bunkers can be connected into a more complex structure to form a steel command post.
According to Myronenko, the bunkers are designed to provide minimal comfort to the military near the front line. The 20 command posts can accommodate unit commanders, store weapons or provide sleeping quarters for the military.
The bunkers were used to build fortifications along Ukraine’s defense lines near the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies. The Group’s enterprises are located primarily in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovs’k regions. The main shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage it. Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
Dnipro Metallurgical Plant (DMZ), a part of DCH Steel of businessman Aleksandr Yaroslavsky’s DCH Group, reduced rolled steel production by 61.2% year-on-year to 35.8 thousand tons in January-October this year.
According to a report in DCH Steel’s corporate newspaper on Thursday, the company did not produce rolled steel in October, selling products made in previous periods. At the same time, the company shipped 2.1 thousand tons of rolled steel last month, while in October 2023 it produced 9.2 thousand tons.
“In October, rolling shop No. 1 drilled holes in rails before shipping them to customers. Rolling Shop No. 2 was preparing for a new rolling campaign, which is scheduled to start on November 11,” the company said in a statement.
Coke production for 10 months of 2024 decreased by 1.2% to 242.6 thousand tons. In October, coke production increased by 1.9% month-on-month to 24.5 thousand tons. In October 2023, 26.5 thousand tons of metallurgical coke were produced.
As reported, in 2023, DMZ increased its rolled metal output by 86.2% compared to 2022, up to 105.6 thousand tons, and coke output by 38.5%, up to 292.7 thousand tons.
In 2022, the plant reduced rolled steel production by 74.2% compared to 2021, to 58.4 thousand tons, and coke production by 56.3%, to 211.3 thousand tons.
DMZ specializes in the production of steel, pig iron, rolled products and products made from them.
On March 1, 2018, DCH Group signed an agreement to buy Dnipro Metallurgical Plant from Evraz.
Germany increased exports of goods to Russia by 3.6% in September compared to August, according to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany (Destatis). At the same time, imports from Russia rose by 20.1%.
On a year-on-year basis, September exports to Russia rose 5.6%, but imports from Russia fell 34.4%. Overall, between January and September, German exports from Germany to Russia decreased by 18.5% year-on-year, while imports decreased by 53.6%.
Total seasonally adjusted German exports fell 1.7% in September to €128.2 billion, the first decline since June. By contrast, imports rose 2.1% to €111.3 billion.
Exports to the European Union in September were down 1.8% from August, while shipments to non-EU countries fell 1.6%. Exports to the US increased by 4.8%, exports to China decreased by 3.7% and exports to the UK decreased by 4.9%. Imports from the EU increased by 1.6% and imports from outside the EU increased by 2.6%. In particular, imports from China increased by 5.6%, from the US decreased by 0.3% and from the UK by 0.6%.
Germany’s foreign trade balance surplus narrowed to €17 billion in September from €21.4 billion in August.
As part of a partnership project with OKKO Group, Agrotrade Agricultural Holding shipped 24.4 thousand tons of rapeseed by sea from Odesa to Ghent (Belgium), the press service of the agricultural holding reported on Facebook.
According to the report, half of this cargo – about 12 thousand tons – is grain grown on the fields of the agricultural holding in 2024. The rest of the cargo belongs to OKKO Group.
“This shipment is a big step forward for us, as we used to export small batches of rapeseed by sea – 3-5 thousand tons each. This year, we agreed with OKKO that we would make a partnership project, share the risks and ship the vessel together. This has many advantages, in particular, in terms of saving on ship freight. There were many difficult moments during the shipment, but we successfully dealt with them. In addition, the economy was one of the best this year compared to other sales,” said Andrii But, Director of the Foreign Trade Department of Agrotrade.
At the same time, he noted the high quality of rapeseed grown and sold by the agricultural holding. In particular, the oil content in the grain is 45%, while the basic indicators are usually 40-42%.
Agrotrade Group is a vertically integrated holding company with a full agro-industrial cycle (production, processing, storage and trade of agricultural products). It cultivates over 70 thousand hectares of land in Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava and Kharkiv regions. Its main crops are sunflower, corn, winter wheat, soybeans and rapeseed. It has its own network of elevators with a simultaneous storage capacity of 570 thousand tons.
The group also produces hybrid seeds of corn and sunflower, barley, and winter wheat. In 2014, a seed plant with a capacity of 20 thousand tons of seeds per year was built on the basis of Kolos seed farm (Kharkiv region). In 2018, Agrotrade launched its own brand Agroseeds on the market.
Vsevolod Kozhemiako is the founder and CEO of Agrotrade.
OKKO Group unites more than 10 diversified businesses in production, trade, construction, insurance, maintenance and other services. The flagship company of the group is Galnaftogaz, which operates one of the largest filling stations in Ukraine under the OKKO brand, with about 400 filling stations.
The group’s founder and ultimate beneficiary is Vitaliy Antonov.
The leader of the Ukrainian road construction market, Avtomagistral-Pivden LLC, has invested about $15 million in re-equipment during the war, said Mykola Tymofeev, CEO of Avtomagistral-Pivden LLC, in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“During the war, we invested approximately $15 million in re-equipment, primarily in equipment for third-level industrial construction: cranes, drilling rigs, concrete plants. We have brought to Ukraine the most powerful drilling rig in the country with a drilling depth of up to 120 meters. We have recently purchased up to 50 combined machines for winter operation,” said Timofeev.
He also added that the number of employees is much lower than before the war.
“At the beginning of the war, we employed 7.5 thousand people. In 2022, we dropped to 2,000. Today, taking into account all the facilities, we have 3,800 employees. Many of the administrative staff have been laid off, and more than 500 employees have been mobilized,” he said.
Avtomagistral-Pivden LLC has been on the market since 2004. It designs and builds highways, bridges, interchanges, airfield complexes, and hydraulic structures. The company’s owner is listed in Opendatabot as Oleksandr Boyko. According to the financial results for 2023, the company’s net profit amounted to UAH 624.9 million, and revenue was UAH 8.215 billion.
Source: https://interfax.com.ua/
TAS Agro Agro has completed sowing winter crops for the 2025 harvest on 38 thou hectares, the company’s press service reported on Facebook.
According to the report, 15 thou hectares were allocated for winter rapeseed and about 23 thou hectares for winter wheat.
The agroholding noted that despite abnormally dry conditions in August and the first half of September, the company’s specialists managed to get high-quality winter rapeseed seedlings in all clusters. Winter wheat was sown in a short time.
“Wheat in the crop rotation in 2024 occupies a quarter of the agricultural holding’s area and required concentrated efforts and coordinated work of all departments to ensure timely sowing and root system formation before the onset of cold weather. As of today, the company has received winter crops that are in good and satisfactory condition,” said Oleg Zapletnyuk, CEO of TAS Agro.
The agroholding continues to thresh corn, prepares the soil for the next season and completes the sugar beet harvest. The average corn yield is 8 tons per hectare, which is significantly higher than the national average.
TAS Group was founded in 1998. Its business interests include the financial sector (banking and insurance) and pharmacy, as well as industry, real estate, and venture capital projects.
Before the war, TAS Agro Group cultivated 83,000 hectares in Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kherson and Dnipro regions, where it grows soybeans, sunflower, rapeseed, wheat, barley and corn. In addition, the agricultural holding is engaged in dairy farming (up to 5.5 thousand heads of cattle) and owns six elevators with a one-time storage capacity of 250 thousand tons.
The founder of TAS is Sergey Tigipko.
