The Mariupol Investment Group (MIG, UTA Group), which owned the UkrTransAgro sea terminal in Mariupol before the Russian military invasion, has resumed trading agricultural products through the Danube ports.
The grain trader in the current 2022/2023 marketing year (MY, July-June) has already shipped 3.14 thousand tons of wheat on barges, according to the organization’s Facebook page.
“For our company, this is an important event, since we are returning to business after losing access to the territories and the terminal itself in Mariupol (…) Now we are at the stage of formation and improvement of business processes, which will allow us to reach the design capacity for shipping up to 15 thousand tons per month. We hope that soon we will gather our former team of specialists, who are now in different parts of Ukraine,” UTA Group quotes its head Pavel Plotnikov.
The company clarified that in July this year it rented a granary with a capacity of 5 thousand tons in order to accumulate agricultural products for further export, while in the first month of operation it processed a total of 5.5 thousand tons of wheat.
As reported, the marine terminal of UkrTransAgro LLC (Mariupol, Donetsk region), which is part of the Mariupol Investment Group (MIG, UTA Group), stopped working immediately after the Russian military invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
UkrTransAgro LLC and UTA Logistic LLC are part of MIG, founded in 2007 by Oleksandr Savchuk to consolidate assets. Later, Savchuk divided the management of the main (Azovmash group) and promising (MIG) business areas.
In 2010 MIG was transformed into the management company “Mariupol Investment Group”.
MIG manages the Azov Shipyard, UkrTransAgro LLC, UTA Logistic LLC, Maritime Logistics LLC, Martlet LLC, TRK TV-7 LLC.
Transshipment of grain and oilseeds through the sea terminal of UkrTransAgro LLC in 2020/2021 MY decreased by 39% compared to 2019/2020 MY – to 430 thousand tons from 711 thousand tons.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS, Danube, INVESTMENT GROUP, MARIUPOL, PORTS
In its August report, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) increased the forecast for the harvest of Ukrainian corn in 2022/2023 marketing year (MY, July-June) compared to July by 5 million tons – up to 30 million tons from 25 million tons, and its export estimate has been raised by 3.5 million tons to 12.5 million tons from 9 million tons.
According to a report on the website of the US Department of Agriculture, the estimate of domestic corn consumption in Ukraine has been increased by 1 million tons – from 9.5 million tons to 10.5 million tons.
In the new forecast, the agency also increased the forecast for wheat exports from Ukraine in 2022/2023 MY by 1 million tons – up to 11 million tons from 10 million tons, while the assessment of its harvest remained at the same level – 19.5 million tons. At the same time, the forecast for its domestic consumption in Ukraine was also left at the same level of 10.2 million tons.
In addition, the forecast for carry-over stocks of wheat at the end of the current marketing year has been reduced – from 5.24 million tons to 4.24 million tons compared to 5.84 million tons at its beginning.
According to the report, in general, the forecast for the feed grain harvest in Ukraine for 2022/23 MY was increased by 5.7 million tons – up to 37.46 million tons from 31.76 million tons, and its export – by 3.5 million tons, up to 14 .33 million tons from 10.83 million tons.
As reported, since the beginning of MY 2022/2023, Ukraine has exported 2.21 million tons of grain and leguminous crops, which is 2.1 times less than in the previous MY. The country supplied to foreign markets 1.45 million tons of corn (26.1% more than in 2021/2022 MY), 562 thousand tons of wheat (3.2 times less), 192 thousand tons of barley (8.4 times less) and 5.1 thousand tons of flour (3.2 times less).
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the implementation of the grain initiative to export Ukrainian grain made it possible to reduce the severity of the food crisis.
“It is very important that the grain export initiative yields results. Since the beginning of its implementation, 16 vessels with grain for seven countries on three continents have already left Ukrainian ports. This is Europe, Asia, Africa,” he said in a traditional video message on Saturday.
According to him, “almost half a million tons of agricultural products are on board: corn, wheat, sunflower oil, soybeans and other goods that are absolutely necessary on the world market.”
“This has already made it possible to reduce the acuteness of the food crisis, gave some hope for peace to the countries that consume our agricultural products. And in the future, it can help to completely remove the food crisis from the global agenda,” he said.
Of course, the president noted, “if the partners ensure the implementation of the safe part of the initiative and prevent Russian provocations and terror at sea or against our ports.”
Zelensky noted that “the first ship has already arrived for loading under the UN World Food Program – this is the supply of grain, in particular, for Ethiopia, where the situation with hunger is especially severe. Now the vessel is being prepared for departure from the Yuzhny port.
According to him, “in less than two weeks, our three ports – Odessa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny – managed to export such a volume that is equal to all agricultural exports by road in July and more than two-thirds of exports by rail over the past month” .
“These are jobs for our people, these are the funds that are needed for our sowing next year, and this is our state budget revenues. Increasing economic activity is an indispensable element on the path to victory,” the president said.
Ukrzaliznytsia announced the return to the development of a network of regional express trains in western Ukraine, the launch of the Bukovina Express No. 702 Lviv – Chernivtsi and the resumption of the Carpathian Express No. 807/808 Kolomyia – Lviv.
According to information on the UZ website, tickets for “Bukovina Express” are on sale from August 14, and for “Prikarpatsky Express” – from August 15.
“Bukovina Express” via Khodoriv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kolomyia and Snyatyn will depart from Lviv daily at 17:25 and arrive in Chernivtsi at 22:17. The train will leave Chernivtsi at 7:30 and arrive in Lviv at 11:54.
“Prikarpatsky Express” with a message via Ivano-Frankivsk, Kalush, Dolyna, Morshyn and Stry will depart from Kolomyia daily at 6:10 and arrive in Lviv at 10:40, and return at 17:20 and arrive in Kolomyia at 21:47 .
In addition, UZ announced plans to launch the Dniester Express in the near future, the first flight of which failed in February this year due to the start of a full-scale military aggression of the Russian Federation.
DPKr diesel trains will be used on all routes.
The leader in increasing the volume of public deposits in June was the state-owned PrivatBank, which increased them by UAH 21.08 billion, or 6.6%, over the month.
As reported on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), another representative of the state, Oshchadbank, follows: the absolute inflow of public funds to it amounted to UAH 5.74 billion, and the relative inflow was 4.2%.
At the same time, if at Privat the number of depositors increased by 68.03 thousand, including currency depositors – by 35.98 thousand, then at Oshchad the number of depositors decreased by 30.5 thousand. with an increase in currency by 2.8 thousand
The largest increase in the number of depositors in June was shown by the Ukrainian Universal Bank (monobank) – 114.91 thousand, including currency depositors – 48.15 thousand. With such an increase in depositors, the increase in deposits amounted to 2.6%, or UAH 1.16 billion, which ensured the bank the fourth position.
Banks with foreign capital – Ukrsibbank and Raiffeisenbank, in which 40% and 30% respectively belong to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), took third and fifth place. Deposits in them increased in June by UAH 1.59 billion, or 3.8%, and by UAH 1.09 billion, or 2%, respectively, and the number of depositors increased by 20.6 thousand. and 10.1 thousand
On the other side of the list is Alfa-Bank, deposits in which in June decreased by UAH 943.5 million, or 2.2%, including currency deposits – by UAH 699.5 million, or 3.4%. At the same time, the number of depositors increased by 13,140, which is probably due to the bank’s card product and a good exchange rate for it.
In addition, UAH 386.7 million, or 1% of the funds of natural persons, was left in June by FUIB. He also had the largest part of the outflow – UAH 224.7 million – on currency deposits.
The outflow of funds from Accordbank amounted to UAH 124.3 million, or 6.8%, from Vostok Bank – UAH 103.7 million, or 2%.
Rounding out the bottom five is A-Bank, whose deposit volume in June decreased by UAH 74.7 million, or by 0.8%. At the same time, the increase in depositors was 59.08 thousand. – it came third, second only to monobank and PrivatBank, and far ahead of the trailing TASkombank with 22.68 thousand. new depositors.
In general, according to the data of the NBU, in June the funds of individuals in banks increased by UAH 30.36 billion, or by 3.5% – almost all due to hryvnia deposits, since currency deposits increased by only UAH 0.17 billion, or by 0 ,1%.
Data on the volume of deposits and the number of individual depositors in Ukrainian banks as of 07/1/22 and their dynamics in June (Ukrainian)
Kation Invest LLC (village of Tereblya, Transcarpathian region) has begun the development of the Bushty salt deposit on the territory of the Bushty community of the Tyachevsky district of the Transcarpathian region, which will fully meet the needs of Ukraine in technical salt, the head of the Transcarpathian Regional Military Administration (OVA) said. Viktor Mikita on Facebook.
He specified that the company expects to produce the first batches of salt within six months. In total, the field allows to produce up to 150 thousand tons per month by underground extraction through boreholes located on the surface of the earth.
“Unfortunately, due to the hostilities in the Donetsk region, the Artemsol state enterprise, which provided 100% of the country’s needs, stopped. To fulfill certain tasks to cover the country’s food security, Transcarpathia was involved in this difficult, but extremely important work. After preliminary geological research, a colossal salt layer starting from 35m to 500m,” he said.
According to Mikita, Cation Invest has already begun engineering work on the construction of an access road, marking drilling sites, equipped housing for workers, and also purchased modern equipment for deep industrial drilling.
“According to experts, in six months we will have the first mined salt. The deposit will be able to meet 100% of Ukraine’s demand for technical salt supplied to hold roads in the winter. Now the country’s need for technical salt is up to 450,000 tons per season” , – the head of the OVA emphasized.
In addition, it is planned to develop the infrastructure of the enterprise for the production of table salt for the needs of the population.
“We provided the investor with the most favorable conditions, agreed to consider additional options within the industrial park, allowing the enterprise to develop faster,” Mikita summed up.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, Kation Invest LLC with an authorized capital of UAH 4.3 million was established in 2014, 95% of its shares belong to Valentin Kondratiev and 5% to Igor Gerey.
As reported, the state-owned enterprise Artyomsol (Soledar, Donetsk region), previously the largest salt producer in Europe, stopped work in April indefinitely due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops. The production process at the enterprise is impossible due to the shelling of Soledar by the Russians, damage to its salt mines and infrastructure.
As a result, Ukraine was forced to buy salt from Poland, Romania and Hungary.
Earlier, a video analysis of the state of the salt market in Ukraine and about the harm and benefits of salt for the human body was released on the YouTube channel “Club of Experts”. For more details, watch the video at the link
