Share of new buildings, in which construction was resumed, by regions of Ukraine in march 2023
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
The expenses of Ukrainian insurance companies on advertising and marketing in January-March 2023 increased by 18.9% compared to the same period in 2022 – up to UAH 30.8 million, according to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
According to the report, the administrative costs of insurers during the reporting period amounted to UAH 1.310 billion, which is 12.3% less than in the first quarter of 2022, and their costs on sales decreased by 3% – to UAH 474 million.
In addition, there was 8.4% reduction in the expenses on conclusion and prolongation of insurance contracts – from UAH 2.818 billion in January-March 2022 to UAH 2.581 billion this year. Expenses on agent remunerations decreased by 10.4% 0 to UAH 2.369 bn.
Expenses on conclusion and prolongation of reinsurance contracts have increased by 28% up to UAH 24,2 mln, including fees for brokers – by 32,7%, to UAH 23,9 mln, from which non-resident brokers have reduced by 37,5% down to UAH 4,5 mln.
Expenses on settlement of insured events increased by 14.8% up to UAH 101.1 mln, and expenses on services of evaluators increased by 32.7% up to UAH 32.9 mln.
The expenses for assistance services have decreased by 2.2% and amounted to UAH 45,2 mln. At the same time, payment for the services of non-resident assistance reduced 2.3 times, to UAH 2.4 mln.
The expenses on court cases increased in 2,8 times, up to UAH 13,2 mln.
As it was reported, in January-March 2023 Ukrainian insurance companies collected net premiums to the amount of UAH 9.911 billion, which is by 6.1% more than in the same period a year earlier (UAH 9.338 billion).
In addition, in the first quarter of 2023 Ukrainian insurers paid out UAH 3,745 billion of net insurance payments (+19%). The level of net payments increased from 33,7% to 37,8%.
According to the NBU, the total number of insurance companies in Ukraine as of April 1, 2023 amounted to 122 companies, 12 of which specialize in life insurance, while on the same date a year earlier there were 145 (13 life insurance).
The consumption of milk and dairy products in Ukraine during 2022 decreased by 28% due to the migration of the main consumers of women and children abroad, as well as a decrease in the purchasing power of the population against the background of the war, said the head of the project “Wholesale milk sales” Elena Zhupinas at a briefing of the Association of milk producers (AMP).
“Since 2019, there has been a positive trend in the consumption of milk and whole-milk products in Ukraine. However, in February 2022 the consumption of all categories of products, including hard cheese, fell rapidly: from 18% to 20% – due to migration of the population and occupation, another 5-8% – due to inflation and from 3 to 5% – due to other factors that negatively affected purchasing power,” – her words in a message on the website of the analytical agency milkua.info on Thursday.
According to the expert, processing enterprises due to the fear of reduction of milk production during winter and in March 2023 tried to restrain prices for raw milk and hoped that the market situation would change, that people would come back and consumption of dairy products would increase. In April, however, they had to cut prices.
“Today there is a situation in the domestic market where consumption is falling, but imports of products are growing,” stated Župinas.
As reported, oversupply of production, high price of finished products and recession led to excessive accumulation of finished dairy products in the warehouses of EU countries. The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food together with the APM developed a number of amendments to the industry legislation and prepared a “Roadmap for Dairy Industry Recovery” in order to solve the problems of the dairy industry.
Ukrnafta PJSC (Kyiv) on May 25 announced a tender for voluntary medical insurance of its employees, the electronic state procurement system Prozorro reports.
The expected cost of purchasing services amounts to UAH 12.048 mln.
According to the system, the last day for submission of tenders is June 2 at 12.00.
United Mining and Chemical Company PJSC (UMCP), managing Volnogorsky Integrated Mining and Metallurgical Works (VMMC, Dnepropetrovsk region) and Irshansky Integrated Mining and Processing Plant (IGOK, Zhitomir region), is holding active negotiations on sale of IGOK production to Western partners and plans to resume mining and concentration of ilmenite concentrate at this affiliate at 18 thousand tons per month by the end of this year.
According to the company’s press release, this was reported by Dmitry Kalandadze, member of the board of OGCC, during a visit to the enterprise by representatives of the Department of Corporate Rights of the State Property Fund (SPF).
“Irshanskiy GOK suspended its work in November last year. Now there are almost 54 thousand tons of ilmenite concentrate and 100 thousand tons of rough concentrate in the company’s warehouses and ports. It has to be sold in order to start the production of new raw materials,” explained Kalandadze, who was quoted by the press service of the State Property Fund.
According to him, the company is now in active talks to sign new contracts to export products from Irshan field and hopes that in June the first shipments will begin, but at the same time is looking for the best conditions for the logistics of production to potential partners.
Currently IGOK on its own forces is engaged in repair of equipment, funds for renovation of which have not been invested for a long period, and is preparing to launch.
“Restoring product sales will allow us to gradually restore mining and beneficiation. We will be able to get back to work the part of IGOK’s employees who are currently idle and receive 2/3 of their salaries. That is a priority task for us. We are planning to reach the production level of 18 thousand tons of ilmenite concentrate a month already by the end of this year. This is almost at the level of the plan we set at the beginning of 2022, before the war,” Kalandadze added.
The State Property Fund believes that the start of production at Zaporizhzhia Titanium and Magnesium Plant (ZTMP) may also have a positive impact on the activity of OGCC as a raw material supplier and therefore the options of how to resume the work of the titanium giant are already being considered.
At the same time, the SPF indicates certain problems with the launch of production at ZTMC – “first of all, it is the influence on the enterprise of the structures controlled by one of the Ukrainian sanction oligarchs”.
“Despite the fact that the enterprise has been returned to state ownership and is now de jure under the management of the Fund, we are constantly facing resistance from the previous owners. But we have a plan how to restore the production chain,” said Alexander Fedorishin, director of the Department of Corporate Rights of the State at the State Property Fund.
Now the SPF is also fighting hard to regain control of another state-owned titanium industry enterprise, Sumykhimprom, which the same oligarch’s structures drove to bankruptcy and continue to control, blocking privatization, as summarized in a press release.
The United Mining and Chemical Company began its actual operations in August 2014, when the Ukrainian government decided to transfer the property complexes of the Volnogorsk Mining and Metallurgical Combine (VMMC, Dnipropetrovsk Region) and the Irshansk Mining and Processing Combine (IGOK, Zhitomir Region) to its management. Earlier these plants were leased by Firtash’s structures. Then the company was transformed into a PAO, and then – into a PrJSC.
In August 2016, the government put OGCC on the list of companies to be privatized in 2017. Its deadline was postponed several times, and the tender was twice thwarted.
Previously, OGHK sold products to more than 30 countries and was one of the world’s largest producers of titanium raw materials, accounting for 4% of the global market. The company produces titanium ore.
In Ukraine in January-March 2023, 1.942 million square meters of housing was commissioned, said the State Statistics Service (Derzhstat).
According to the report, the total is 24905 apartments, of which 4922 in single-family houses, 19983 – in apartment buildings.
Most of the housing is commissioned in the Vinnitsa region – 5669 apartments. In the Kiev region 3621 apartments were added to the housing fund, 2312 in the Kiev region, 1847 in the Lviv region, 1580 in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, 1166 in the Odessa region, 1126 in the Dnipropetrovsk region, 1052 in the Volynsk region, Cherkassy – 891, Kharkiv – 888, Transcarpathian – 795, Ternopil – 703, Rivne – 683, Poltava – 637, Khmelnytsky – 563, Chernivtsi – 530, Sumy – 333, Zhytomyr – 231, Chernihiv – 132.
Less than a hundred new apartments were commissioned in the regions of Mykolaiv (79), Kirovograd (50), Zaporizhzhia (12) and even in Donetsk (5). Not a single new dwelling was commissioned in the first quarter of 2023 in Lugansk and Kherson regions.
Data for the first quarter of 2022 Gosstat did not publish. At the end of 2022, the commissioning of housing in Ukraine decreased by 37.8% compared to 2021 – up to 7 million 110.2 thousand square meters. m.
