In the first four months of 2025, Ukraine imported aluminum and aluminum products worth $166.26 million (+21.6%), while exports amounted to $45.06 million (+17.9%). In April, imports reached $49.47 million, while exports amounted to $13.36 million.
Aluminum is widely used as a structural material. The main advantages of aluminum are its lightness, malleability, corrosion resistance, high thermal conductivity, and non-toxicity of its compounds. These properties have made aluminum extremely popular in the manufacture of kitchen utensils, aluminum foil in the food industry, and for packaging. The first three properties have made aluminum the main raw material in the aviation and aerospace industries (recently, it has been replaced by composite materials, primarily carbon fiber). After construction and the production of packaging—aluminum cans and foil—the largest consumer of aluminum is the energy sector.
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) has listed 27 of 30 planned scrap metal lots with a total value of UAH 77.12 million on the Prozorro.Prozori system.
The size of the lots offered for sale ranges from 130 to 700 tons, and UZ plans to sell a total of 12,000 tons of scrap metal in thirty lots, the company’s press service reported on Friday.
The auction will take place on May 26. All lots will be sold in three rounds in the English format (by increasing the price).
The scrap metal is located in the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Poltava, Odesa, and Chernihiv regions. A single loading cost per railway car has been set for all lots at 1,344.5 UAH/ton (including VAT), UZ reported.
“It is fundamentally important for us that the auction takes place with maximum competition, participation, and results. For our part, we have done the preparatory work, including switching to the updated DSTU, reducing the number of shipping points, etc.,” said Yevgeny Shramko, a member of the UZ board (Repair and Production), as quoted by the company’s press service.
Earlier it was reported that after a nearly two-year hiatus, UZ plans to resume auctions in the Prozorro.Prozori system. The company said it was ready to put up for sale about 160,000 tons of scrap metal for gradual sale in separate lots.
The OKKO Group plans to open a new 60,000-tonne elevator by autumn 2025 and a bioethanol plant in summer 2026, OKKO Group CEO Vasyl Danylyak said in an interview with Tomas Fiala, co-founder of investment company Dragon Capital.
According to him, the company began construction of an 83,000-ton bioethanol plant last year. Only part of its production will be supplied to the domestic market, with the rest intended for export.
“In Ukraine, since May 1 of this year, there have been mandates to add 5% bioethanol to fuel in accordance with European standards, but this share may increase to 10%. Accordingly, after analyzing our market share, we decided to build a plant with a capacity of 83,000 tons. In addition, we worked with American consultants, who are number one in the market, on the format of the plant’s operation. Thanks to this, we chose the best option: it will work partly for our group and partly for export,” said Danylyak.
The CEO emphasized that by the fall of this year, the group of companies plans to complete the construction of a 60,000-ton storage elevator, and in June-July next year, it expects to fully launch the plant.
Danylyak also said that this year OKKO Group closed a deal to buy 17,000 hectares of land in the north of the Ternopil region and the south of the Rivne region, increasing its land bank to 50,000 hectares.
“As of today, we have a total of about 50,000 hectares under cultivation,” the top manager said.
He explained the interest in these regions by the favorable natural and climatic conditions and the best yield indicators compared to other regions.
Danylyak noted that an important component of OKKO’s agricultural portfolio is its partnership with the Gadz-Agro enterprise in the Ternopil region, in which the company acquired a stake in 2023. The enterprise cultivates 26,000 hectares of land and has about 10,000 head of cattle, of which 5,000 are dairy cows. It is also one of the largest horticultural farms in Ukraine, but OKKO decided not to integrate the horticultural part of the business.
OKKO Group unites more than 10 diverse businesses in the fields of manufacturing, trade, construction, insurance, services, and other services. The group’s flagship company is Galnaftogaz, which operates one of the largest petrol station chains in Ukraine under the OKKO brand, with around 400 petrol stations.
The founder and ultimate beneficiary of the group is Vitaliy Antonov.
On Sunday, May 18, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Holy Mass in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican to mark the beginning of his Petrine ministry, Vatican News reports.
In his first sermon as Pope Leo XIV, he called for “unity and love.”
“In our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, fear of differences, an economic paradigm that exploits the earth’s resources and marginalizes the poor. And in the midst of this trial, we want to be a small leaven of unity, communion, and fraternity,” he said.
Voting in the presidential election began in Poland on Sunday at 7:00 a.m. local time (8:00 a.m. Kyiv time – IF-U), according to the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
Thirteen candidates are participating in the election. Voting will continue until 9:00 p.m. An election silence is in effect in the country until the polls close.
“Almost 29 million citizens are eligible to vote. Polling stations are open throughout the country – more than 32,000, with another 511 stations operating abroad,” the report said.
Earlier, the Experts Club analytical center released a video analysis dedicated to the most important elections in the world in 2025. For more details, see here — https://youtu.be/u1NMbFCCRx0?si=QeURHol_f1zN_jLE
