Energoatom has announced the actual completion of the splash pool construction project at South Ukrainian NPP, which will help increase electricity production at the plant.
“We have actually completed one of the priority areas of work – the construction of splash pools in full. Now we are putting them into operation, which will increase electricity production at existing facilities by reducing the temperature of the water in the reservoir, which we use to cool the condensers of NPP turbines,” said Energoatom CEO Petro Kotin during a working visit to the South Ukrainian Energy Complex on Tuesday.
According to him, the completion of the work will also help improve the environmental situation in the region where the plant is located.
Energoatom currently operates nine power units at South Ukraine, Rivne and Khmelnytsky NPPs with a total capacity of 7,880 MW located in the government-controlled territory.
Zaporizhzhia NPP with six VVER-1000 power units with a total capacity of 6,000 MW has not been generating electricity since September 11, 2022, after its occupation on March 3-4, 2022.
In Ukraine, the domestic processing of soybeans continues to demonstrate the high rates, in particular, in February 2025 the country processed the absolute monthly maximum of 320-330 thsd tonnes of soybeans, up 27% compared to January of the current year, APK-Inform news agency reported.
The analysts noted that in 2024/25 marketing year (MY, September-February) Ukraine processed the record almost 1.45 mln tonnes, up 57% compared to the same period last season and 43% compared to the previous high of 1 mln tonnes in the first half of 2019/20 season.
“Such a significant increase is primarily due to the fact that large mills started processing soybeans due to difficulties with sunflower procurement. However, the active export of soybean meal against the background of the attractive price for importers contributes to the high processing rates for several months in a row,” the experts explained.
APK-Inform forecasts that in total, in the season-2024/25 Ukraine can process up to 2.2-2.3 mln tonnes of soybeans, which is about 36% of the total supply of the crop, compared to 33-35% in the previous two seasons. At the same time, the share of soybean exports, despite the increase in physical terms, may decline to 57% in MY compared to 58-60% in previous seasons.
Prospects for soybean processing in the second half of the current season look a bit pessimistic, analysts say.
The world market expects a record soybean harvest in South America, increased processing in Argentina and increased supply in the soybean meal sector, the balance of which has been overloaded in the last few seasons. Increased tensions in trade relations between the US and the EU, as well as tariffs imposed in the soybean sector by China, may contribute to the continued high demand in the foreign market for Ukrainian raw materials, which encourages traders to increase sales of raw materials that will not be processed, the analytical agency explained.
In January-February 2025, imports of passenger cars, including cargo and passenger vans and racing cars (UKT FEA code 8703), decreased by 7.8% in monetary terms compared to the same period last year to $719.92 million.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS) of Ukraine, in February, imports of passenger cars to Ukraine were 3% higher than in February 2014, up to $385.94 million, while in January there was a 17.8% drop compared to January 2013.
In January-February of this year, the top three largest suppliers of cars to Ukraine were Germany, the United States and Japan, while last year it was the United States, China and Germany.
In particular, car deliveries from Germany increased by almost 40% to $152.15 million, and their share in the structure of car imports amounted to 21.13% compared to 13.94% a year earlier.
Ukraine imported $122.13 million worth of cars from the United States (15% less). Japan, which last year was not among the top three countries with the largest car imports, supplied $79 million worth of cars in two months this year.
Notably, China is not among the top three, with imports amounting to $114.88 million a year ago (second place after the United States).
In general, imports of passenger cars from other countries amounted to $366.63 million in the period under review, compared to $413.87 million in January-February last year.
At the same time, in January-February this year, Ukraine exported such vehicles for only $1.9 million, in particular to the UAE (67% of exports), the Czech Republic and Moldova, while a year earlier the country sold them to foreign markets for $3.8 million, mainly to Canada (47.7%), the United States (26.8%) and Moldova.
According to the State Customs Service, in the total structure of imports of goods to Ukraine in January-February, the share of passenger cars was 6.37%, in the structure of exports – 0.03%.
As reported, in 2024, Ukraine imported passenger cars worth $4.385 billion, 8% more than a year earlier, and exported $10.1 million (2.7 times less).
In 2024, PJSC “European Insurance Alliance” (Kyiv) collected UAH 309.6 million of net premiums, exceeding the volume for 2023 by 31.7%, and also increased by 20.5% the volume of gross premiums – up to UAH 362.5 million, according to the report of the
Standard Rating agency on updating the company’s financial strength rating (credit rating) at the end of the year on the national scale at the level of “uaAA”.
It is noted that revenues from individuals increased by 28.04% to UAH 113.481 million, while revenues from reinsurers, on the contrary, decreased by 31.3% to UAH 0.733 million. Thus, by the end of 2024, legal entities continue to prevail in the company’s client portfolio.
Last year, the company paid out UAH 169.7 million to its clients, which is 36.9% more than a year earlier.
According to the RA, as of the beginning of 2025, 46.8% of the company’s liabilities were covered by equity, and 3.99% by cash and cash equivalents.
At the same time, the company has formed a portfolio of financial investments, consisting of government bonds and bank deposits, in the amount of UAH 106.565 million, which has a positive impact on the insurer’s provision with liquid assets. Therefore, as of the beginning of 2025, liquid assets (cash, government bonds and bank deposits) covered 68.05% of the liabilities of “European Insurance Alliance” PrJSC.
PrJSC “European Insurance Alliance” has been operating in the insurance market of Ukraine since 1994. The company is a member of the Audit Commission of the MTIBU, a party to the agreement on direct settlement of losses for compulsory insurance of civil liability of owners of land vehicles and a member of the Council of the Nuclear Insurance Pool of Ukraine.
The company provides 30 types of voluntary and compulsory insurance, including property, motor, liability and personal insurance.
In January-February of this year, Ukrainian enterprises increased their consumption of rolled metal products by 50.47% compared to the same period last year, up to 556.7 thousand tons.
According to a press release issued by Ukrmetallurgprom on Tuesday, 207.4 thousand tons, or 37.26% of the domestic rolled metal consumption market, were imported during this period.
According to Ukrmetallurgprom, in 2 months of 2015, steel companies produced 957 thousand tons of rolled metal products (106.3% compared to the same period in 2024), of which, according to the State Customs Service of Ukraine, about 607.7 thousand tons, or 63.5%, were exported. In January-February 2024, the share of exports amounted to 77.9% (701.4 thousand tons with a total production of 900.2 thousand tons of rolled metal products).
The share of semi-finished products in export deliveries in January-February 2025 was 33.21%, which is significantly lower than in January-February 2024 (47.46%). The share of flat products in export deliveries in the period under review was significantly higher than in January-February last year (47.79% and 38.68%, respectively). The share of long products is also significantly higher – 19.01% vs. 13.86%, respectively.
The structure of imports in January-February 2025 is still characterized by a significant dominance of flat products over long products – 82.55% and 14.42%, respectively. In January-February 2024, the dominance of flat products over long products was also significant: 85.05% and 13.67%, respectively.
“In 2 months of 2025, the domestic market capacity amounted to 556.7 thousand tons of rolled steel, of which 207.4 thousand tons, or 37.26%, were imported. In January-February 2024, the domestic market capacity was 370 thousand tons, of which 171.2 thousand tons, or 46.27%, were imported. Thus, in January-February 2025, there was an increase in the domestic market capacity by 50.47% compared to January-February 2024, while the share of the import component decreased by 9.01%,” the press release states.
According to the State Customs Service, the main export markets for Ukrainian rolled metal products in the period under review were the European Union (73.8%), the rest of Europe (13.5%) and the CIS (7.7%).
Among metallurgical importers in January-February 2025, the first place was taken by other European countries (56.6%), the second by the EU-27 (24.5%), and the third by Asian countries (18.5%).
As reported, Ukraine’s rolled steel market in 2024 decreased by 6.26% year-on-year to 3 million 288.4 thousand tons, while in 2023 it increased 2.19 times compared to 2022, to 3 million 505.6 thousand tons.
On Wednesday, the most actively traded gold futures hit a record high as investors avoided risk amid heightened geopolitical tensions and the situation around tariffs. April gold futures are up 0.1% during trading on Wednesday and are trading at $3045 per ounce. At the same time, quotes reached $3052.5 per ounce during the session.
Since the beginning of the year, the price of gold has risen by 14.6%, over the past 12 months – by 34.1%.
Israel has launched the deadliest strike on Gaza since the ceasefire in the conflict with Hamas and warned that this is “just the beginning,” Trading Economics writes.
Meanwhile, US tariffs, including a 25 percent levy on steel and aluminum, have increased tensions in global trade, and Washington’s counter duties on imports from countries that impose duties on US goods are due to take effect in early April.
“It is planned to impose duties on April 2,” the White House said.
“Unless customs and non-customs barriers are equalized or US duties are higher, these duties will go into effect,” Reuters quoted a White House official as saying.
In addition, on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will summarize the results of its regular meeting, which, along with the interest rate decision, will release new forecasts for the US economy.
