In the first ten days of October, an upward price trend continued on the regional iron markets under the influence of the rise in prices for scrap metal and iron ore raw materials, Ukrainian Industry Expertise (UEX) said in a press release on Monday.
At the same time, in the U.S. market, consumers are under pressure from a deficit and a rapid rise in prices for high-quality scrap grades, so buyers are forced to return to contracting cast iron. Also, most of them are trying to accumulate sufficient stocks for the winter, buying large quantities without waiting for the rise in prices for raw materials. Despite the growth in demand and prices, producers of raw materials are in no hurry to unload warehouses, as they expect to maintain an upward trend in the coming month. As a result, cast iron quotes increased to $600-610 per tonne CIF.
A significant rise in the cost of flat products and a shortage of material on the Italian domestic market pushed the quotes for cast iron to rise to $590-595 per tonne CIF. The factories are experiencing a supply deficit driven by an increase in cast iron consumption in Turkey and the United States.
According to forecasts of the UEX analyst Yuriy Dobrovolsky, in the coming weeks the quotations of cast iron will increase amid the rising cost of scrap metal and the exhaustion of stocks at large importers. The prices will also be supported by a low supply from the main suppliers from Russia and Brazil, as well as the active creation of winter stocks by the main importers in Turkey and the Asian region.
In the second half of October, scrap prices continued to rise rapidly due to the catastrophic shortage of raw materials and the active formation of winter reserves by large importers of scrap.
In Turkey, deals are being made in all directions, with buyers willingly making concessions to suppliers, fearing that the upward trend will continue in the near future. The problem remains with the prompt supply of material for the current production programs amid weak internal scrap procurement. As a result, at the beginning of the second decade of October, quotations of scrap HMS 1 & 2 (80:20) rose to $500 per tonne CIF, which is $25 per tonne more than a week earlier. Crushed raw materials are traded by $10 per tonne more – at the level of $510-515 per tonne CIF.
In the Asian market, scrap prices are also moving rapidly upward on the back of growing demand for long products and a lack of supply in the domestic market. Japanese scrap suppliers noted an increasing demand for the material in the domestic market, which limits the volume of supplies to foreign destinations. As a result, scrap HMS1 rose in price to $490 per tonne CIF.
UEX analysts predict in the near future an increase in the price of scrap metal in connection with the replenishment of stocks by the largest buyers and the creation of reserves for the winter period. The quotes will also be supported by the dwindling supply of material from American and European suppliers, who feel a shortage of scrap in the domestic markets of their countries.
About 30% of adult Ukrainians have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, Health Minister Viktor Liashko has said.
“A record daily number of 291,293 COVID-19 vaccine shots have been administered in Ukraine today. Owing to this, we have reached the figure of 30% of the adult population who have been vaccinated with at least one dose,” Liashko said at a press briefing on Wednesday.
Ukraine is using COVID-19 vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), and over 9 million vaccine doses are currently available at vaccination stations across the country, he said.
“We have vaccine supplies planned week by week for the period up to the end of the year. These include both vaccines procured using state budget funds and those shipped to the country owing to its participation in the global COVAX mechanism,” he said.
In line with the contracts concluded for the vaccine, Ukraine should receive another 13.4 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine marketed under the tradename of Comirnaty by the end of 2021. Additionally, the shipment of 5.45 million vaccine doses under the COVAX program in 2021 has also been confirmed, he said.
“Thus, the overall number of vaccine doses Ukraine is expected to receive by the end of 2021 is 18.85 million,” Liashko said.
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) presents its winter flight schedule.
As the press service of UIA reported on Wednesday, in particular, since the change of the schedule on October 31, UIA will continue operating domestic flights together with a partner airline to Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipro, Zaporizhia and Ivano-Frankovsk, as well as its own regular flights to Odesa.
The airline will operate international flights on 26 routes. From Kyiv, in particular, UIA will fly to Amsterdam, London, Paris, Vilnius, Berlin, Baku, Chisinau, Rome, Milan, Larnaca, Athens, Geneva, Yerevan, Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Dubai, Delhi, Cairo, Munich, Tbilisi, Istanbul and Prague. From Odesa it will fly to Istanbul and Tel Aviv. The company also plans to fly to Tel Aviv from Kharkiv and Dnipro.
In addition, in January 2022, UIA intends to increase the frequency of flights from Kyiv to Munich (additional flights on January 2, January 9 and January 16), Geneva (additional flights on January 2, January 3 and January 9) and Prague (additional flights from December 27 to December 30 and from January 3 to January 8).
Ukrainian banks’ cash exchange rates on 27/10/21
Source: Interfax-Ukraine
The State Property Fund (SPF) during an auction held on Wednesday sold the First Kyiv Machine-Building Plant JSC (previously the Bilshovyk plant) for UAH 1.429 billion. The auction, which lasted about 10 minutes, was held in one round, during which participant 3 offered a price of UAH 1.409 billion, and participant 1, which was General Commerce LLC, offered UAH 1.429 billion.
The price grew by UAH 40 million. Participant 2 was Invest Novatsiia LLC, participant 3 was Developing Company Kaskad LLC.
General Commerce LLC was registered in Kyiv in 2018, the charter capital is UAH 4,100. Its head is Ihor Khyzhniak.
The ultimate beneficiary of the company, Volodymyr Dovhopolov, is also the founder with a share of 9.99% via UDP Asset Management.
As Head of the State Property Fund Dmytro Sennychenko said, after the auction, the procedure provides for 10 days to sign the contract, 30 days to pay the specified amount, as well as the approval of the Antimonopoly Committee.
As reported, the starting price of the plant was set at UAH 1.39 billion. According to the privatization conditions, the new owner shall pay off the debts of the plant to employees, the state budget and other creditors (now the debts are more than UAH 500 million), implement the current collective agreement and prevent dismissal within a certain period.
In addition, the buyer needs to invest at least UAH 57 million in the modernization of the enterprise over three years, to retain a part of the production that has potential at the site in Kyiv or Zhashkiv, or other production facilities in Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden did not change his opinion that the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is a factor of instability for Ukraine and Europe, but, being unable to prevent its completion, the U.S. administration turned its attention to mitigating the negative consequences of its completion, the Voice of America said with reference to a representative of the U.S. State Department.
“The idea of reaching the joint statement with Germany was recognizing the reality of the complete – the near completion of the pipeline itself, understanding that aggressive action by the United States would likely not have changed the outcome and perhaps only would have delayed it. So looking at reality, understanding it, and fashioning something with an arrangement with Germany that would allow us to continue to defend the significant interests that Europe has, that the United States have to defend the security of Ukraine while addressing and mitigating the bad effects and the threats that Nord Stream 2 could pose,” the U.S. Department of State quoted Amos Hochstein, senior advisor for global energy security, as saying.
The senior U.S. official also stressed that Washington is in contact with European countries and Ukraine regarding the search for mechanisms that would alleviate the risks that may arise in the winter.
Hochstein also noted that the world is on the verge of transition to cleaner energy and expressed hope that in the future Ukraine would retain its historical role in the supply of energy resources to Europe.
In his opinion, the factor of this will be investments in Ukraine, indicated by the joint statement of the United States and Germany, and the integration of Ukraine into the European power grid.
