DTEK Energy, amid low coal stocks at its TPPs’ warehouses, has begun importing thermal coal from Kazakhstan and is negotiating coal supplies from Poland and the United States, the company’s press service has said.
According to the press service, DTEK Energy is actively looking for opportunities to provide TPPs with additional imported coal.
“Despite the increased demand for coal on global markets, we are actually starting to import it. The first batch from Kazakhstan is already on its way. Next week we expect the start of coal supplies from Poland. We are also negotiating the supply of shiploads from the United States,” CEO of DTEK Energy Ildar Saleev said.
According to the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, coal stocks in the warehouses of thermal power plants of five power generating companies (DTEK Dniproenergo, DTEK Zakhidenergo, DTEK Skhidenergo, Centrenergo and Donbasenergo) as of Wednesday morning dropped to 754,000 tonnes, which is almost 500,000 tonnes less than the accumulation schedule approved by the ministry on August 11 (1.237 million tonnes).
The net profit received by agricultural, forestry and fisheries enterprises in 2020 amounted to UAH 81.1 billion (11% down compared to 2019), this value exceeded the profitability indicators of other types of economic activity in Ukraine, the National Scientific Center Institute of Agrarian Economics (IAE) said on its website on Tuesday.
“Last year, 82.6% of enterprises in the industry saw UAH 107.9 billion of net profit, while only 17.4% of enterprises ended the year with losses of UAH 26.8 billion. This is the best indicator among all types of economic activity, where on average there were 71.0% of profit-making and 29.0% of loss-making enterprises,” Director of the IAE Yuriy Lupenko said.
The IAE recalled that the net profit of agricultural enterprises in 2019 amounted to UAH 91.3 billion, and the share of profit-making enterprises – 83.0%, while in the whole economy it was UAH 671.9 billion and 74.0%, respectively.
“So, at the end of 2020, the profits of agricultural enterprises decreased by almost UAH 10 billion, while maintaining a high share of profit-making enterprises,” Lupenko said.
In addition to agriculture, the largest net profit to the Ukrainian economy in 2020 was brought by enterprises of the financial sector and insurance activities (UAH 25.3 billion); repair of vehicles (UAH 22.2 billion); healthcare and social assistance (UAH 18.9 billion); transport, warehousing, postal and courier activities (UAH 18.0 billion); information and telecommunications (UAH 14.3 billion).
According to the IAE, the most significant losses were incurred in the past year by industrial enterprises (UAH 39.8 billion of loss) and the real estate industry (UAH 35.2 billion). The share of profitable enterprises in the agro-industrial complex significantly exceeds this value for other sectors of the economy. In particular, the share of profitable enterprises in the field of healthcare and social assistance amounted to 75.6% of their total number, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles – 74.1%, transport, warehousing, postal and courier activities – 71.3%. At the same time, the smallest number of profit-making enterprises in 2020 was in the field of art, sports, entertainment and recreation (53.4%), as well as temporary accommodation and catering (58.8%).
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 11/08/21
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
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.
