Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of August 11
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Turkish Aksa Enerji Uretim A.Ş. plans to invest in the construction of a combined cycle power plant in Izmail (Odesa region) with a capacity of 260 MW.
A memorandum of understanding between the Odesa Regional State Administration, the Izmail City Council, Aksa Enerji and Marzhinal LLC (Mykolaiv, the ultimate beneficiaries are a number of Turkish individuals) was signed on August 9, according to the Regional State Administration’s Facebook page.
According to the report, Aksa Enerji is ready to invest in the construction of the plant and accompany its operation on the basis of a 25-year agreement on the purchase of electricity, with subsequent transfer to the state ownership.
“The power plant will consist of a gas turbine and/or engines and a steam turbine with a total installed capacity of 260 MW, and all power plant equipment, including all related substation equipment such as step-up transformers and switchgear, will be provided, installed and commissioned by Aksa,” Vice-Chairman of Aksa Enerji Serdar Nişli said.
In January-June of this year, the Ukrainian industrial company Interpipe increased supplies of Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) to the United States due to a surge in activity in the oil and gas sector amid rising prices for hydrocarbons, First Deputy CEO of Interpipe Denys Morozov has said in an interview with Metal Expert publication.
According to him, this is a positive moment – American companies have resumed drilling, and now is the “right time” for Interpipe to increase supplies of threaded OCTG pipes, including premium and semi-premium products.
“We are actively engaged in its production and promotion. In the first half of 2021, Interpipe has already increased the supply of OCTG pipes to the United States. We expect that positive dynamics will continue in the second half of this year,” Morozov said.
At the same time, he pointed out a number of restrictions on the supply of pipes to the United States. Thus, the U.S. Department of Commerce intends to impose duties on seamless line pipes at a rate of 23.75%.
At the same time, he said that Interpipe continues supplies to the U.S. market, but in the future it will study their economic efficiency with the hope that new relations will be built with new U.S. President Joe Biden. Accordingly, Ukraine will be able to re-start negotiations on the abolition of section 232, which is a significant barrier to the growth of supplies.
The first deputy CEO added that last year the company took a number of steps to promote its products in the Middle East region, the goal is to get into the league of premium pipe suppliers.
“In the Middle East, we continue to implement our strategy aimed at expanding our presence, looking for new niches, customers and increasing supplies. This year we plan to complete prequalification from the Emirati giant ADNOC. In general, the Middle East is a region with traditionally stable oil production and stable pipe consumption. Therefore, it is only natural that we expect sales growth in both segments: both OCTG and line pipes,” Morozov said.
According to him, the main problem in the markets of the countries of Central Asia is great difficulties with financing projects, since local companies do not have enough money to implement all projects at once. Now, amid high oil prices, the financing situation has improved somewhat. Accordingly, pipe consumers in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan resumed purchases. The positive dynamics is expected to continue in the second half of the year.
Concerning supplies to the EU, he said that at the moment it is impossible to increase sales to the EU countries due to quotas, despite the presence of deferred demand in this market. The company chooses the pipe quota allocated to Ukraine, but after its use the supplies stop. From time to time it is possible to use part of the other countries quota, but these are small amounts.
In Ukraine, Interpipe has completed several contracts for the supply of UPJ-M, UPJ-P and UPJ-F premium pipes for domestic private oil and gas companies. But the volume of drilling and consumption of OCTG pipes in the country increased insignificantly.
In 2021, the volume of supplies to the Ukrainian market did not decrease. Moreover, it is likely that even a slight increase will be recorded by the end of the year. But if we compare with the results of 2018-2019, then consumption has not yet returned to the pre-crisis level. For example, if in 2018 Ukrgazvydobuvannia purchased about 70,000 tonnes of threaded pipes, and half of them were of premium assortment, now the total consumption by this state-owned company is 20,000 tonnes.
“We hope that the current relatively high gas prices will stimulate oil and gas companies to increase the volume of drilling and consumption of our pipes. Perhaps, in the second half of the year we will see improvements, but so far these are only our forecasts,” Morozov said.
According to the expert, there is no significant growth in the machine-building segment either; consumption by machine-building companies is correlated with the growth / decline of the country’s GDP. Interpipe does not forecast any sharp surges until the end of the year, so the sales of machine-building pipes are likely to remain at last year’s level.
The market is expected to stabilize in the near future and the Novomoskovsk plant will resume normal operations. In turn, the company sold a record amount of steel billets to third customers this year.
Prices in the Ukrainian industry in July 2021 increased by 2.6%, while in June – by 2.4%, in May – by 3.6%, in April – by 1.2%, in March – by 1.6%, February – 7.8%, January – 5.2%, the State Statistics Service has reported.
In annual terms (in relation to the same month last year), at the end of July 2021, prices in industry increased by 42.2%, in June – by 39.1%, in May – by 33.1%, in April – by 27.8%, in March – by 26.3%, in February – by 26.6%, in January 2021 – by 17.6%.
For the seven months of 2021 (compared to the same period in 2020), the growth in prices of industrial producers amounted to 30.4%.
The State Statistics Service clarifies that within Ukraine, prices of industrial producers in July from June 2021 increased by 2.3%, for deliveries outside the country – by 3.5%.
According to the statistics department, prices in extracting industry and quarrying in July this year compared with the previous month rose by 3%, the growth in prices in extraction of coal was 11.5%, metal ores – 4.4%, while prices in production of crude oil and natural gas fell by 2.9%.
Prices in production of coke and petroleum products increased by 18.7%, in metallurgy – by 5%, in production of machinery and vehicles – by 4.8%, in production of investment goods – by 3.7%, in mechanical engineering – by 3.6%, production of intermediate consumption goods – by 3.4%, energy – by 3.2%, in processing industry – by 2.8%, in sugar production – by 6.3%, in the supply of electricity and gas, production of chemicals, wood products – by 1.9%, production of rubber and plastic goods – by 1.7%, durable goods – by 1.5%, products of pharmaceutical companies – by 1%.
Prices in production of computers, electronic and optical products fell by 0.2%.
The net profit of state-owned Ukrgasbank (Kyiv) in January-July 2021 amounted to UAH 1.135 billion, which is twice as much as in the same period in 2020 (UAH 554 million), the bank’s press service said.
According to the report, in July the bank’s profit amounted to UAH 408 million, which is 3.4 times more than in July last year (UAH 120 million).
Ukrgasbank was established in 1993. The state, represented by the Ministry of Finance, owns 94.9409% of the shares of the financial institution.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of June 1, 2021, in terms of total assets (UAH 133.5 billion) Ukrgasbank ranked fourth among 73 banks operating in the country.
Synevo laboratory, part of the Swedish medical holding Medicover, has invested EUR500,000 in the launch of a new laboratory with a capacity of more than 400,000 tests in Kherson.
According to a press release from Synevo, the new laboratory will be opened on the basis of the Taurt Medical center and will serve both the clients of the clinic and the orders of Synevo’s clients in Kherson region.
In the near future the laboratory plans to fulfill orders for Synevo clients from Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.
The laboratory plans to carry out general clinical, biochemical, immunochemical, hematological and cytomorphological studies.
The Synevo laboratory in Kherson is the eighth operating laboratory of the company in Ukraine. Synevo laboratories also operate in Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Lviv, Vinnytsia, Dnipro, Chernivtsi.
Similarly to other Synevo laboratories, the laboratory in Kherson complies with international standards for laboratory diagnostics and is equipped with automated equipment from leading manufacturers from the United States, Japan, Switzerland, Germany (Zeiss, Roche, Sysmex and others), which performs all stages of research in an automatic mode without human intervention.
Synevo is the largest network of laboratories in Ukraine, part of the Swedish medical holding Medicover. The Synevo network includes 320 laboratory centers operating in 125 settlements of Ukraine, as well as eight laboratories in which more than 1,000 types of tests are performed.
