Ukrainian steelmaking companies increased their production of rolled products by 75.9% year-on-year to 453 thousand tons from 257 thousand tons in January this year, according to preliminary data.
In 2022, Ukraine reduced its production of general rolled products by 72% compared to 2021, to 5.350 million tons.
In 2021, 19.079 million tons of rolled products were produced (103.5%).
In 2023, the agricultural holding Continental Farmers Group paid UAH 1.4 billion to the budgets of all levels and allocated UAH 37.7 million for social projects, the holding’s press service said on Tuesday.
“As an honest and responsible business, we constantly report annually on taxes paid and financial support to the communities we cooperate with. I would like to emphasize that Continental Farmers Group is and will remain a reliable long-term partner for both its shareholders and the state, especially in this difficult period,” the press service quoted Georg von Nolken, CEO of the agricultural holding, as saying.
According to the report, support for Ukrainian defenders remains an integral part of Continental’s social responsibility policy. Since February 2022, the agricultural holding has allocated UAH 55.1 million to help the military.
Mriya Agro Holding and CFG, united under the name Continental Farmers Group, have been operating as a single business since November 2018, when Mriya entered into an agreement with international investor Salic UK to sell its assets.
Salic was founded in 2012. Its sole shareholder is the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which invests in agricultural and livestock production.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) intends to assume up to 50% of the risk on newly issued loans to state-owned Ukrgasbank (Kyiv) totaling the equivalent of EUR50 million.
According to the EBRD on Monday, its board of directors planned to consider this project at a meeting on February 9, but has not yet made a final decision.
It is noted that the guarantee financing is planned to be provided in two equal tranches, with the second tranche not yet agreed, and the total amount of EBRD financing is EUR 12.5 million.
The project also includes a sub-limit of up to EUR 10 million, or 20% of the covered portfolio, to finance long-term investments by micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to modernize their technologies and equipment in line with EU standards, including investments in green technologies (70% of the sub-limit), and to increase their competitiveness.
According to the EBRD, the facility will be mainly used to support lending to Ukrainian private companies operating in primary and secondary agriculture, as well as other critical sectors such as food processing, retail, and logistics.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of December 1, 2023, Ukrgasbank ranked 5th in terms of assets (UAH 180.85 billion) among 63 banks operating in the country.
One of the largest grain market operators in Ukraine, Nibulon JV LLC (Mykolaiv), will change its elevator management model to optimize resource use and create an effective management system, the agricultural holding’s press service reported on Facebook.
According to the report, in 2024, Nibulon’s 22 elevators will be organized into six groups:
– Mykolaiv: the largest group, which includes the Transshipment Terminal, Kolosivsky Elevator, Vradiyivsky Elevator, Novoodesskyi and Voznesenskyi branches;
– Kremenchuk: Kremenchuk, Globinsk and Hradyzk branches;
– Poltava region: Romodan, Reshetylivka, Skorokhodiv, and Maryanivka branches;
– Cherkasy: Zolotonosha, Pereyaslav, Vitove branches;
– Zakhidna: currently unites the Teteriv, Smotrych, and Denikhiv branches, and will be joined by Khmilnyk after the expansion of storage capacity and installation of a dryer scheduled for fall 2024;
– Zaporizhzhia-Dnipro: Ternivska, Khortytsia and Zelenodolska branches.
The only branch that will continue to operate independently is Bessarabian, as it is located at a great distance from all other elevator groups and is focused on grain transshipment rather than storage and processing.
Each group will now have a unified administration, which will include a director, chief accountant and technical staff: chief engineer and chief power engineer. It will also be serviced by a service team responsible for scheduled and overhaul repairs at branches.
Each group of elevators will be assigned a shift team consisting of grain handling operators and other specialists who will assist the branches during the busiest periods of operation.
The department plans to automate all elevators, equip them with sensors that will record the equipment’s service life and automatically transfer this data to a single service center. The center will be staffed by dispatchers who will be responsible for monitoring the operation of all elevators’ equipment.
“As a result, we expect to increase the efficiency of the elevator business through optimization and automation, reduce the cost of services through the rational use of resources and increase salaries for branch teams by 30-40%,” Nibulon summarized.
Nibulon JV LLC was established in 1991. Prior to the Russian military invasion, the grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and crop reception complexes, a one-time storage capacity of 2.25 million tons of agricultural products, a fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugs), and owned the Mykolaiv Shipyard.
“Before the war, Nibulon cultivated 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries.
In 2021, the grain trader exported the highest ever 5.64 million tons of agricultural products, reaching record volumes of supplies to foreign markets in August – 0.7 million tons, in the fourth quarter – 1.88 million tons, and in the second half of the year – 3.71 million tons.
Nibulon’s losses due to Russia’s full-scale military invasion in 2022 exceeded $416 million.
Currently, the grain trader is operating at 32% of capacity, has created a special unit to clear agricultural land of mines, and was forced to move its headquarters from Mykolaiv to Kyiv.
Residents’ deposits in Ukrainian banks in January this year decreased by 2.1%, or UAH 49.2 billion, to UAH 2 trillion 345.9 billion, a decline in deposits recorded for the first time since August 2022, according to statistics from the National Bank of Ukraine.
According to the statistics, household deposits fell by 2.5%, or UAH 27.4 billion, to UAH 1 trillion 50.9 billion in January. The previous decline was recorded in May and January last year, but then it amounted to less than UAH 1 billion and less than UAH 4 billion, respectively.
The NBU clarified that both hryvnia deposits decreased by 2.6%, or UAH 18.8 billion, to UAH 692.2 billion, and foreign currency deposits decreased by 2.1% in dollar terms, or $0.20 billion, to $9.47 billion.
In the first month of the new year, business deposits decreased by 1.7 percentage points, or UAH 21.8 billion, to UAH 1 trillion 259.5 billion. This was due to a 3.5% or UAH 32.5 billion drop in hryvnia deposits to UAH 884.85 billion. At the same time, foreign currency deposits in dollar terms increased by 3.2%, or $0.31 billion, to $9.89 billion.
The average rate of new hryvnia deposits for households remained unchanged at 11.7% in January, while for the corporate sector, after a pause in December, it dropped by 0.3 percentage points (pp) to 9.9%, returning to the level of November 2022.
As for foreign currency deposits, their yield for individuals remained at around 1.0% per annum for the fourth month in a row, while for legal entities it gained 0.2 pp, returning to the level of August last year – 0.7% per annum.
In January, the six-month-long upward trend in the loan portfolio was also interrupted: it decreased by 0.5%, or UAH 4.76 billion.
According to the regulator, the reason for this was a decrease in the loan portfolio of legal entities by 1.2%, or UAH 8.88 billion, to UAH 748.10 billion. The largest outflow of loans was recorded in foreign currency: the portfolio decreased by 2% in dollar terms, or $0.12 billion, to UAH 6.23 billion, while in national currency, the portfolio decreased by 0.7%, or UAH 3.51 billion, to UAH 512.35 billion.
At the same time, the loan portfolio of individuals grew by 2.1%, or UAH 4.76 billion, to UAH 227.31 billion due to an increase in hryvnia loans by 2.3%, or UAH 4.90 billion, to UAH 215.49 billion, while the foreign currency portfolio again decreased by 0.9% to the equivalent of $312 million.
According to the National Bank, interest rates on hryvnia loans to businesses and individuals increased by 0.6 percentage points to 18.1% and 0.9 percentage points to 34.6% per annum, respectively. At the same time, interest rates on foreign currency loans for legal entities increased by 0.3 percentage points to 6.7%, and for individuals, on the contrary, fell by 1.4 percentage points to 5% per annum.
According to the central bank, interbank and overnight lending rates decreased by 0.4 percentage points in January, to 14.6% and 14.5% per annum, respectively.
As reported, on December 15, the NBU cut the discount rate and the overnight DS rate from 16% to 15% per annum, the three-month DS rate from 20% to 19%, and the refinancing rate from 22% to 21%, and kept the rates at this level by a decision dated January 25.
Ukraine’s annualized inflation rate fell to 4.7% in January this year from 5.1% in December and November.
Number of refugees from Ukraine in selected countries as of 15.12.2023
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
