Metinvest Group’s KAMETSTAL, a steelmaking plant at Dnipro Metallurgical Plant (DMK, Kamenskoye, Dnipro Oblast), has completed a 50-day overhaul of its main air separation unit (ASU).
According to the company, on New Year’s Eve, the plant’s power engineers resumed operation of the air handling unit, and the overhaul of the AKAR-40/35 was one of the largest overhauls performed at the plant under the 2024 program.
It was specified that after completion of the scheduled repair work, specialists began preparatory pre-start-up operations in mid-December. High-temperature regeneration of the adsorbent was performed after its complete replacement. As part of the overhaul, 68 tons of zeolite and 33.6 tons of aluminum oxide, highly dispersed materials for air purification from moisture and carbon dioxide, which negatively affect the performance and quality of air distribution, were loaded into the cleaned and repaired adsorbers.
On December 26, the first post-repair oxygen was supplied to the collector after completion of the preparatory stages required by the technology – heating of the unit and cooling of the vessels and apparatus of the plant. The passport characteristics of the AKar-40/35 were restored and it started operating, after which the power engineers gradually put the AKar-30 units into reserve, which replaced the main unit during its overhaul. Tests conducted on December 28 confirmed the unit’s nameplate capacity of 40 thousand cubic meters per hour of nitrogen and 35 thousand cubic meters per hour of oxygen.
“The unit is now operating in the set mode, steadily supplying air separation products to the steelmaking process. The unit’s load varies according to the needs of the production process. Thanks to the well-established cooperation between the OCC specialists and their colleagues from the blast furnace and converter shops, we determine the optimal production mode on a daily basis without unproductive losses of oxygen produced, which makes it possible to increase the efficiency of the repaired unit and the shop as a whole,” explained Vyacheslav Grevtsev, head of the oxygen compressor shop, as quoted in the statement.
“KAMETSTAL was established on the basis of Dnipro Coke Plant and Centralized Steel Works of Dnipro Metallurgical Plant.
According to the 2020 report of Metinvest Group’s parent company, Metinvest B.V. (Netherlands) owned 100% of the shares in DCCP.
Farmak Pharmaceutical Company (JSC Farmak, Kyiv) has started exporting to Pakistan, the first product supplied is an injectable drug for general anesthesia, which is also registered in the UK.
According to the company’s press release, Pakistan became the second country in South Asia after Jordan to which Farmak supplies its products. Farmak’s presence in the region is ensured by the Farmak International Middle East & Africa team.
In general, Farmak exports its products to more than 60 countries, including 15 EU countries, as well as countries of Central and South America, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Australia.
As reported, in 2023, Farmak increased its net profit by 18% compared to 2022, to UAH 1.557 billion.
Farmak Group is the leader of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market in monetary terms, has two production sites in Ukraine and a production site in Spain, as well as 11 international representative offices and marketing and distribution companies in countries such as Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Moldova. The ultimate beneficial owner of Farmak is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board Filya Zhebrovska (80% of the company’s shares).
The Slovak state-owned operator SEPS will provide electricity supplies to Ukraine as part of emergency assistance under the current contract with Ukrenergo, Czech media outlet iRozhlas writes in response to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s threats to cut off electricity supplies to Ukraine.
“Analyst Józef Badida told the Slovak newspaper Pravda that artificially limiting electricity supplies from Slovakia abroad would most likely violate European and Slovak legislation. Former Slovak Minister of Economy Karel Hirman previously stated that electricity is sold to Ukraine by traders, not the state. He argued that if electricity supplies to Ukraine were cut off, Slovakia would be drawn into a conflict within the EU,” the publication writes.
It is also noted that in the spring of 2024, SEPS extended the contract for another 12 months, under which it can supply up to 150 MW of electricity to Ukraine as part of emergency assistance. “In the first 11 months of last year, net electricity exports from Slovakia to Ukraine reached 2.43 terawatt-hours, which is three and a half times higher than in the same period in 2023,” the report says.
As reported earlier, in response to Ukraine’s decision to stop the transit of Russian gas, some of which goes to Slovakia, Slovak Prime Minister Fico threatened to cut off electricity supplies to Ukraine. In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that “it seems that Putin has instructed Fico to open a second energy front against Ukraine at the expense of the interests of the people of Slovakia.” Poland expressed its readiness to increase electricity supplies to Ukraine following the Slovak prime minister’s comments.
In December 2024, Ukraine’s electricity imports increased by 2.7 times compared to November, to 433.4 thousand MWh, while exports fell by 6.1 times, to 6.8 thousand MWh. Thus, electricity imports in December-2024 exceeded exports by 63.7 times. Most electricity was imported from Hungary – 152.33 thousand MWh (35.16%). This was followed by Slovakia – 107.08 thousand MWh (24.71%), Poland – 91.98 thousand MWh (21.23%), Romania – 70.78 thousand MWh (16.34%), and Moldova – 11.12 thousand MWh (2.57%).
Vladimir Putin might have lost a slice of revenue after Kyiv closed its gas pipeline to Russian supplies, but Moscow already has alternatives for shipping the fuel that stand to shield it from any serious economic hit.
Russia plans to expand exports of liquefied natural gas while routing pipeline gas to other buyers like China.
“We will continue to increase our share on world LNG markets” even as sanctions aim to halt this growth, Putin said during his annual press conference on Dec 19. He also expressed confidence that Russian gas-giant Gazprom PJSC would survive the end of pipeline transport through Ukraine.
Despite calls to ban such supplies, Europe is buying a record amount of the super-chilled fuel from Russia, predominantly from the Novatek PJSC-led Yamal LNG plant.
The volumes have surpassed what Russia was selling through Ukraine before Jan. 1, when Kyiv, refusing to allow any more transit that funds Moscow’s war machine, closed off the five-decade old route through its territory.
The situation highlights how hard it is for Europe to cut ties with Russia, which over the last decade entrenched itself as a key commodities supplier to the continent. It also casts a spotlight on how the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has forced Russia to keep readjusting its trading network. Still, Moscow has shown that even when one avenue to markets closes, there are often others still open for Russia.
Russia’s LNG exports overall reached a record last year, ship-tracking data show.
Before the invasion, Russia used to sell about 155 billion cubic meters of pipeline gas to Europe per year. In 2024, the country exported roughly 30 billion cubic meters of gas to the region, with over a half of volumes going via Ukraine.
Since most of Russia’s piped gas had already stopped flowing to Europe, the discontinuation of the Ukrainian line won’t affect the economy much, said Tatiana Orlova, an economist at Oxford Economics.
“Europe will still need gas as all its efforts to wean itself from Russian gas have not been successful,” Orlova said. “It will probably end up buying more Russian LNG to make up for the drop in natural gas imports from Russia,” she said.
Gazprom sold about $6 billion worth of gas through Ukraine in 2024, Bloomberg calculations show. Yet, most economists and researchers foresee a muted effect on the economy from being deprived of those sales. Russia will lose an equivalent of about 0.2% to 0.3% of gross domestic product, according to various analyst estimates.
“The figures are too small to make a dent in Putin’s war machine,” David Oxley, an economist at Capital Economics said in a note last week. For comparison, Ukraine stands to lose roughly 0.5% of GDP, he said, stemming from an end to the fees it collected for transit of the gas.
Slovakia, heavily reliant on Russian gas and also earning from transit fees, is set to lose 0.3% of GDP, according to his estimates.
On top of LNG sales, Russia also has other pipeline options for shipping gas that will help make up for the loss of the route through Ukraine.
Shipments to China, which is overtaking Europe as the largest market for Russia’s pipeline gas, were forecast to reach around a record 31 billion cubic meters in 2024. They are set to rise to 38 billion cubic meters this year as the Power of Siberia link has reached the full design capacity.
That would compensate for half of the volumes lost when transit via Ukraine ended, according to estimates by Sergey Vakulenko, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Gazprom may sell more through TurkStream, the direct gas pipeline between Russia and Turkey under the Black Sea that also helps supply some European clients. In 2025, Gazprom could sell 25 billion cubic meters to Turkey and 15 billion cubic meters to Europe through TurkStream, Vakulenko estimates.
Russia plans to re-direct some fuel to countries in Central Asia and will work to increase the capacity of a Soviet-era pipeline from Russia to Uzbekistan through Kazakhstan.
Politically, the gas issue gives the Kremlin an opportunity to demonstrate that Putin isn’t a pariah, said Sergei Markov, a political consultant close to the Kremlin.
“For Moscow, it is extremely important that the diplomatic blockade is being broken for the second time,” Markov said, referring to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s surprise visit to Moscow on Dec. 23 to discuss gas among other things. He was the second European leader to visit Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s trip in July.
Putin last month said that Russia is ready to ship gas to Europe, but he cautioned that any new deal would likely be complicated to reach, even given the rising prices from tighter supply now facing Europe.
Still, the plans for both pipeline gas and LNG may face challenges of their own. While Russia aims to launch exports via a second link to China in two years, talks for a third pipeline have stalled over disagreements about the terms.
Russia seeks to triple LNG exports to 100 million tons in 2035, from last year’s 33 million tons, but western sanctions on all key future projects and the LNG tanker fleet complicate that.
“The natural gas and LNG landscape has changed dramatically for Russia in the last three years,” said Claudio Steuer, an energy consultant and faculty member of IHRDC, Boston. It requires “far greater investment and effort for a less profitable business” now that Russia needs to search for business further afield with buyers that are more price sensitive.
Sanctions have already stifled Russia’s aims for growth in LNG. Novatek’s newest project, Arctic LNG 2, last year managed to start limited exports, but sanctions imposed by the US and its allies limited the plant’s access to ice-class tankers needed to navigate frigid northern waters and made foreign buyers reluctant to buy the shipments.
In 2025, the focus will be on what Donald Trump decides to do about sanctions on Russia. Muddying the picture are the US’s own ambitions to supply more of its LNG to Europe.
A ban on transshipping Yamal LNG cargoes in European ports could also complicate logistics for Russian supplies to Asia when the Northern Sea Route is closed, but sanctions may actually lead to more of that supply being sent to Europe instead.
In 2024, China significantly strengthened its position in Serbia’s economy, becoming its largest trading partner, overtaking the European Union.
As of 2023, the volume of bilateral trade between China and Serbia amounted to USD 4.35 billion, up 23.7% year-on-year. In 2024, after the entry into force of the Free Trade Agreement between the two countries on July 1, further growth in trade accelerated, which led to an increase in trade with China compared to the EU. This is reported by the Serbian Economist TV channel.
One of the growth factors was the increase in imports of high-tech equipment, electronics and raw materials for the metallurgical industry from China. In addition, China is actively investing in key infrastructure projects in Serbia, such as the construction of an industrial park near Novi Sad and the modernization of the Belgrade-Budapest railway line.
For example, the project to build an industrial park near Novi Sad with an investment of 300 million euros will create about 5,000 new jobs.
Modernization of the Belgrade-Budapest railway line and other infrastructure projects aimed at improving the transport network and logistics in the region.
Strengthening ties with China allows Serbia to diversify its trade relations and reduce its dependence on the EU and Russia, which contributes to sustainable economic growth and development of key industries.
Serbian Economist – https://t.me/relocationrs
In December 2024, Ukraine imported dairy products (DP), in particular, under headings 0401-0406 UKT FEA (condensed milk and cream, condensed milk and cream, fermented milk products, whey, butter and other fats, cheeses of all kinds and cottage cheese) for $38.5 million, which is a record value for 2022-2024.
According to the Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine (UDEP), the previous maximum (in terms of value) of about $29 million was recorded in January 2022 and December 2023.
Analysts noted that the volume of dairy imports in December 2024 was more than a third higher than in December 2023.
“This was the result of the price situation in the raw milk market in the second half of 2024. From June to December, prices for raw milk of extra quality in Ukraine increased by almost 45% (from less than UAH 14 to more than UAH 20 per kg). This automatically led to a decrease in the competitiveness of domestic dairy products, especially cheese, in the domestic market. As a result, by the end of November, the price of raw milk in Ukraine came close to the European average, exceeding the indicators of some European countries with developed dairy farming,” the industry association explained.
At the same time, the volume of imports of dairy products in December 2024 was more than 2.1 times higher than the corresponding figure for May-June 2024, when Ukraine recorded a positive balance of exports and imports of foreign trade in these goods. According to analysts, the volume of cheese imports increased the most: in December, Ukraine imported more than 5.34 thousand tons of this product worth about $32 million, which is 43% more than the previous maximum in December 2023, when 3.73 thousand tons of cheese were imported. In July-October, the standard indicator of cheese imports to Ukraine amounted to about 3 thousand tons.
Exports of dairy products in December 2024 declined sharply compared to previous months, to their lowest level since March 2024. While the average export of these products in June-November exceeded $20 million, in December it fell below $16 million. Export volumes decreased significantly: TP 0405 (oil and milk fats) amounted to only 44% of the August figure and 68% of the November figure; TP 0406 (cheeses) was at 60% of the October-November figure.
“Imports in value terms in December 2024 were 2.4 times higher than exports, which is a record value for the period of martial law in Ukraine (the previous maximum was recorded in December 2023, when the excess was 2.15 times),” the business association stated.
Experts predict that in January 2025, the negative trend in foreign trade in dairy products will continue, with imports significantly exceeding exports.
“It is obvious that the level of raw milk prices that was formed in early December 2024 causes the loss of competitiveness of domestic dairy products both on foreign and domestic markets. The only way out of this situation is to increase the supply of raw milk, which is possible only through the implementation of effective measures to stimulate investment activity in the dairy sector in Ukraine,” the UMPA summarized.
