Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) suffered losses of UAH 600-700 million in July-August and expects a small loss in 2024, despite profitable operations in the first half of the year.
“For six months (of 2024 – IF-U), we did have a profit of up to UAH 3 billion, but in July and August we faced losses. In July, it was about UAH 600-700 million, and in August we also expect a loss of up to UAH 700 million… we do not yet have the volumes of profitable cargo that give us a margin of safety,” said Yevhen Lyashchenko, Chairman of the Board of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia, at the Business Breakfast of Forbes Ukraine on Wednesday.
He expressed hope that the situation would improve as grain exports intensify after the harvesting campaign. However, this will not avoid a small loss for the year.
“I believe that if grain is exported and the volume of transportation is slightly leveled, we will make a small loss for the year, because in any case we are increasing the volume of transportation, but losses on some shipments are also increasing,” Lyashchenko said.
INGO Insurance Company (Kiev) has launched a new insurance product, specially designed to protect children from accidents, including coverage of consequences of military operations.
According to the insurer’s information, the policy is available for children from 1 to 17 years old. It covers risks of injuries, disability and even fatal accidents, with the possibility of receiving the sum insured from UAH 100 thousand.
The policy is valid on the territory of the whole world, except for zones of active hostilities and border territories with the aggressor country. Parents can choose when the insurance will be relevant: round the clock, during school or kindergarten or during sports and training.
INGO Insurance Company JSC has been providing insurance services for 30 years. Since 2017, the main shareholder is the Ukrainian business group DCH.
Centravis Production Ukraine, a part of Centravis Ltd. holding, has agreed to regularly supply seamless stainless steel pipes to Voss Fluid, a German company specializing in hydraulic connections.
According to a press release on Wednesday, Ukrainian seamless pipes are used to produce connections with a high degree of leakage protection even in the most difficult operating conditions, in particular, in projects using hydrogen and compressed natural gas.
It is explained that Voss Fluid has now developed and patented a special hydrogen hydraulic connection. Centravis mainly supplies pipes for such projects.
“We have a systematic cooperation, as our German colleagues need consistent quality and a reliable supplier. The annual supply volume is measured in tens of tons. We expect that the number of orders in this segment will grow over time, as hydrogen projects become more popular every year,” said Viktor Chernetskyi, Key Account Manager at Centravis.
It is worth reminding that Centravis, together with the French company Duncha France, has become a participant in a project to produce hydrogen-powered cars in the EU. For its implementation, Centravis has developed a line of high-precision seamless stainless steel pipes H2FIT. They will be installed in light trucks and will help comply with EU regulations under the zero-carbon initiative.
Earlier it was reported that in the first half of 2024, Centravis increased production by 9% to 6.88 thousand tons of seamless stainless steel pipes. In 2023, the company produced 12.2 thousand tons of such pipes. More than 99% of this volume was exported to 38 countries.
Germany, Italy and the United States are among the largest consumers of Ukrainian seamless pipes.
Founded in 2000, Centravis is one of the ten largest producers of seamless stainless steel pipes in the world. Its main production facilities are located in Nikopol (Dnipropetrovska oblast). In 2023, the company opened a branch in Uzhhorod.
Centravis Holding Ltd. was established on the basis of Nikopol Stainless Pipe Plant CJSC, service and trading companies of Production and Commercial Enterprise YUVIS LLC. Its shareholders are members of the Atanasov family. Centravis Ltd. owns 100% of the shares in Centravis Production Ukraine.
World central banks in July, according to preliminary estimates of the World Gold Council (WGC), increased the amount of gold in their gold reserves by 37.1 tons.
The largest buyers were Poland (14.3 tons), Uzbekistan (9.6 tons) and India (5.4 tons). Jordan (4.3 tons), Turkey (3.8 tons), Qatar (2.3 tons), Czech Republic (1.6 tons), Egypt and Malta (0.1 tons each) also increased their reserves
Kazakhstan (3.9 tons) and Mongolia (0.7 tons) sold gold.
“Central banks have remained committed to hoarding gold in recent months. While the overall level of demand cooled slightly as the gold price continued to rise to new highs, it nevertheless remained positive,” WGC analyst Krishan Gopaul said in a review.
State-owned Ukreximbank (Kyiv) is closing its representative offices in the United Kingdom and the United States to optimize operating costs, the issuer said in a statement in the disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC).
According to it, the above decisions were made by the supervisory board of the state-owned bank on August 30, 2024.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), as of July 1, 2024, Ukreximbank ranked 3rd (UAH 287.18 billion) in terms of total assets among 62 banks in the country.
The net profit of the financial institution in 2023 amounted to UAH 3.25 billion.
The Government of Norway has allocated funds for the purchase of drones and air defense equipment for Ukraine as part of a joint project between the UK, the Netherlands, Lithuania, and Norway.
“Norway has contributed NOK 570 million (EUR 48.2 million – IF-U) to this donation. The acquisition is being made through the UK-led International Fund for Ukraine,” the Norwegian government’s press service said.
It is noted that the purpose of the UK-led fund is to provide Ukraine with military materials through industrial procurement. Norway has previously contributed a total of NOK 1.8 billion to the fund since 2022. Together with the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Australia, New Zealand and Iceland, a total of more than NOK 12.5 billion has been allocated.
“Ukraine is in dire need of more military equipment to protect itself from Russia’s aggressive war. Together with other countries, Norway will do everything possible to contribute,” commented Norwegian Defense Minister Bjørn Aril Gram.
Earlier, Norway contributed to the purchase of, among other things, air defense equipment, demining equipment, artillery ammunition, transport vehicles, engineering vehicles, asphalt pavers, spare parts and maintenance equipment for Ukrainian platforms and small boats.
The support is funded through the Nansen program.
