Oil prices are rising Tuesday morning, recovering from a sharp decline the day before.
The value of June futures for Brent on London’s ICE Futures Exchange stood at $84.73 a barrel by 8:05 a.m., $0.55 (0.65%) above the previous session’s closing price. Those contracts fell 94 cents to $84.18 per barrel at the close of trading on Tuesday.
The price of WTI futures for May at electronic trades of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is $80.33 per barrel by that time, which is $0.59 (0.74%) above the final value of the previous session. The day before, the contract fell by 96 cents to $79.74 per barrel.
The publication of reports by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the International Energy Agency and OPEC will be key events for the oil market this week.
Investors are also waiting for data on U.S. inflation in March. Analysts polled by Trading Economics forecast that the pace of consumer price growth in the U.S. slowed to 5.2% in March from February’s 6%.
The spread between Brent futures for December of this year and December next rose to $5.5 a barrel from $2.5 a barrel three weeks earlier. This indicates that the market fears a reduction in inventories, notes Bloomberg.
Ukrainian companies in January-March this year increased exports of scrap ferrous metals 5.7 times compared to the same period last year – up to 40.255 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS), the export of scrap metal for the period amounted to $11.725 million in monetary terms.
However, there was an increase in exports of scrap metal in March: 24.8 thousand tons was exported in the first two months of this year, including 8.280 thousand tons in January, and 15.5 thousand tons in the third month of the year alone.
Exports of scrap metal in January-March 2023 was carried out in Poland (96.65%), the Netherlands (1.31%) and Slovakia (0.95%).
In the first two months of the year, the country did not import scrap metal, but in March it imported 46 tons of scrap metal worth $16 thousand from Slovakia.
Earlier, the president of Ukrmetallurgprom Alexander Kalenkov in his column on the Interfax-Ukraine noted that scrap metal is exported through the European Union, which has a preferential export duty of EUR3, and from there the raw material is redirected to the real customers. To export raw material directly to customers would cost EUR 180 export duties, and the Ukrainian budget has already lost 350 million hryvnias on it.
According to him, the State Bureau of Investigation has already taken interest in such export schemes.
The head of “Ukrmetallurgprom” urged to temporarily ban the export of scrap ferrous metals to provide the strategically important raw materials in the ongoing war.
“If scrap metal will remain in the country – more than 500 thousand people will have jobs, and the country will have millions of foreign exchange earnings from the export of steel. At the same time, the military also benefits – because metallurgists help the fighters a lot, buying for them equipment and cars, and even producing body armor. Nobody benefits from the export of scrap metal. That is why now the authorities should be proactive and temporarily ban the export until the situation stabilizes and stops threatening the national economic security”, says Kalenkov.
He noted that 1 ton of scrap metal, processed into steel, provides the budget 10 times more than the export duty in the EU – about $300 per ton.
As reported, Ukraine in 2022, reduced exports of scrap ferrous metals in 11.5 times compared to the previous year – up to 53.557 tons, in monetary terms down to 12.4 times – to $ 19.271 million. At the same time last year, the country reduced the import of scrap metal in kind by 12.6 times – to 1.824 tons. Imports of scrap metal in 2022 was carried out mainly from Turkey (78.92% of supplies in monetary terms), Russia (13.25%) and Cyprus (5.08%), while exports – to Turkey (38.97%), Poland (34.25%) and Greece (10.12%).
Global shipments of personal computers (PCs) collapsed 29% to 56.9 million units in the first quarter, according to preliminary data from International Data Corporation (IDC).
Negative factors for the global computer market were weak demand, high levels of unsold inventory, and deteriorating macroeconomic indicators.
“Inventories at retailers have declined slightly in recent months, but remain well above normal levels of 4-6 weeks of demand,” said Jitesh Ubrani of IDC. – “Even with high discounts, we can expect this situation to continue through the middle of the year and possibly manifest in the third quarter as well.
A return to growth in shipments is not expected until later this year.
Chinese Lenovo and U.S. HP Inc. and Dell Technologies remained in the top three global leaders in terms of devices sold in the first quarter. Apple Inc. recorded the steepest drop in sales, down 40.5%.
Changes in consolidated budget expenditures in 2021-2022 (%)
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky held a meeting with Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group and the Virgin Unite non-profit foundation, British entrepreneur who joined the team of ambassadors for the United24 fundraising platform.
According to the Office of the President’s website, Zelensky thanked the businessman for his powerful messages of support for Ukraine during the war.
“I am glad that you decided to become an Ambassador of United24. It is very important that new well-known and influential personalities join this platform. One of the main tasks is to keep the world’s attention on Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has been going on for over a year. In addition, there are very specific issues on which we can work together,” the head of state said.
During the meeting, Zelensky discussed with Branson the reconstruction of the state, in particular educational institutions, which need to be digitized and equipped and provided with bomb shelters.
The head of state also spoke about the needs of Ukraine in demining. In addition, he drew Branson’s attention to the problem of mass illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and the need for pressure on this issue, in particular information, on the aggressor state.
In turn, Branson noted his admiration for the Ukrainian people.
“I look forward to using Virgin Unite’s global reach and networks to help support the work of United24 for the people of Ukraine,” he said.
Richard Branson has consistently supported Ukraine since 2014, advocating for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state.
Ukraine since the beginning of 2022/2023 marketing year (MY, July-June) and till April 10 has exported 38.82 million tons of grain crops, including 22.86 million tons of corn (58.9% of total supplies), 13.34 million tons of wheat (34.4%) and 2.3 million tons of barley (5.9%).
As reported on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food on Monday, the rate of grain exports since the beginning of this MY is 14.3% lower than the same period of the previous MY, when 45.26 million tons were delivered abroad on that date.
According to the Ministry, Ukraine exported 22.86 million tons of corn (+9.5% compared to the same period last year), 13.33 million tons of wheat (-23%), 2.3 million tons of barley (2.4 times less), 17.7 thousand tons of rye (9.1 times less) and 120.1 thousand tons of flour (+56.9%) from the beginning of 2022/2023 MY to April 10 this year.
It is specified that Ukraine exported 848 thousand tons of cereals, including 476 tons of corn, 337 tons of wheat, 33 thousand tons of barley and 4.2 tons of flour in March.
As reported, Ukraine exported 48.51 million tons of cereals and leguminous crops in 2021/2022 MY, which is 8.4% higher than in the previous MY, despite the full-scale invasion of Russia and the difficulties with the export of agricultural products due to the blockade of Ukrainian seaports. 18.74 million tons of wheat (12.6% more than in 2020/2021MY), 23.54 million tons of corn (+1.9%), 5.75 million tons of barley (+35.9%), 70.9 thousand tons of flour (-44.1%) were supplied to foreign markets.
Ukraine in 2020/2021 MY exported 44.72 million tons of grain and leguminous crops: 16.64 million tons of wheat, 23.08 million tons of corn, 4.23 million tons of barley, 126.9 thousand tons of flour and 18.4 thousand tons of rye.
In 2019/2020 MY, Ukraine exported 56.72 million tons of grain and leguminous crops.
The total export of Ukrainian flour as of April 10 is estimated at 120.1 thousand tons (in April – 4.3 thousand tons), including wheat – 115.5 thousand tons (4.2 thousand tons).
