In early October, IMC Agro Holding completed sowing of winter wheat for the 2024 harvest on 20.3 thou hectares, the company’s press service reported on Facebook.
According to the report, the warm and dry weather in September allowed IMC to sow all the planned areas with winter wheat, and the precipitation in the second decade of October helped to get friendly winter shoots.
In addition, at the end of the second decade of October, the agroholding completed threshing sunflower on an area of 32.1 thou hectares, harvesting 92.7 thou tons with an average yield of 2.9 tons/ha.
At the same time, the yield on the land in the north of Chernihiv region, which was not cultivated last year due to the occupation and the subsequent need to inspect for explosive devices, amounted to 2.2 tons/ha. On the rest of the IMC areas in Chernihiv, Sumy and Poltava regions, the sunflower yield amounted to 3.3 tons/ha.
“As for the sunflower harvest, its average yield is not a record for IMC, given the above-mentioned objective reasons, but nevertheless, the total yield and quality of sunflower give hope for its successful sale for processing,” said Oleksandr Verzhykhovsky, Chief Operating Officer of IMC.
As reported, in the 2023 season, IMC obtained a record average winter wheat yield of 7.1 tons/ha, which was the highest result in the 25 years of the agricultural holding’s operation. The company allocated 33.3 thou hectares for the crop, from which it harvested 236 thou tons of grain.
“IMC specializes in growing grains, oilseeds and milk production in Ukraine. It cultivates about 123.3 thousand hectares of land in Poltava, Chernihiv and Sumy regions. It has storage capacities of 554 thousand tons of grains and oilseeds.
In January-March 2023, IMC Agro Holding posted a net loss of $4.10 million, down 2.6 times year-on-year, largely due to higher logistics and distribution costs. The holding’s revenue increased by 11% to $41.96 million, of which exports accounted for $35.03 million. IMC’s gross profit grew 3.9 times to $8.60 million due to lower costs. Due to a twofold increase in logistics and distribution costs (up to $9.40 million), the company recorded an operating loss of $2.85 million, which is twice as good as in the first quarter of 2022.
Accrued insurance premiums under international insurance contracts “Green Card”, concluded by member companies of the Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (MTSBU), in January-September 2023 increased by 37.97% compared to the same period of 2022 – up to UAH 4.008 billion.
According to the MTSBU website, the number of concluded “Green Card” contracts for this period increased by 3.48% – up to 1.247 million.
At the same time, the amount of indemnities paid on claims increased 2.4 times – up to EUR33.088 mln, while the number of paid claims – 2.1 times, up to 10.742 thousand.
MTSBU is the only association of insurers, which provides compulsory insurance of civil liability of owners of land vehicles for damage caused to third parties.
“Green Card” is a system of insurance coverage for victims of road traffic accidents regardless of the country of their residence and the country of vehicle registration. “Green Card” covers the territory of 45 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa.
According to the decision adopted by the General Assembly of the Council of the Bureau of the International Motor Insurance System “Green Card” in Luxembourg in May 2004, Ukraine has been a full member of this system since January 1, 2005.
A Falcon rocket has successfully launched another batch of 23 mini-satellites to replenish the orbital grouping of the Starlink global Internet coverage network, the SpaceX development company has announced.
“The launch of 23 Starlink satellites has been confirmed”, the company said in a statement.
The rocket was launched from the 40th launch complex at the US Space Force base at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Saturday at 22:17 US East Coast time (Sunday at 05:17 Kyiv time).
This is the 118th launch of Internet satellites since May 2019 as part of the Starlink project and the 49th since the beginning of this year. SpaceX has already launched more than 5.3 thousand such satellites into orbit. Some of them have failed or left the orbit. Almost 5 thousand vehicles remain in orbit in working condition.
As part of the launch, the first reusable stage of the launch vehicle, which was used for the fourth time, made a controlled vertical landing on the A Shortfall of Gravitas drone platform in the Atlantic after separation.
The company is now the largest satellite operator in the world. Starlink’s Internet network is available to users in 62 countries, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. According to the Pentagon, the US military is also actively using the services of these satellites.
In the future, SpaceX plans to deploy an orbital grouping of 12 thousand spacecraft (and later – 30 thousand) to create a full-scale network that will provide the world’s inhabitants with broadband Internet access anywhere in the world. The total investment in the project is estimated at $10 billion.
Ferrexpo, a mining company with assets in Ukraine, has appointed Stuart Brown, formerly of De Beers, as an independent non-executive director to its board of directors.
According to the company’s information on Monday, Brown took office on October 22.
Ferrexpo also reports that Graeme Dacomb, who has been a member of the board of directors since May 2020, will resign from the board at the end of this year. It is clarified that Dacomb is currently the chairman of the audit committee, and Brown will take over from January 1, 2024, which will provide the necessary time for an orderly transfer of functions. Brown is also appointed as a member of the Audit Committee upon his appointment to the Board of Directors.
The press release states that Brown is an experienced mining executive with extensive board-level experience. He previously held the positions of CFO and CEO at De Beers and its various subsidiaries. Most recently, he served as President and CEO of Mountain Region Diamonds Inc. listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and CEO of Firestone Diamonds Plc, formerly listed on the AIM of the London Stock Exchange.
It is also reported that after Brown’s appointment, the number of independent directors will increase to five, two of whom are women. After Dacombe’s resignation at the end of this year, the number of independent directors will be reduced to four.
Ferrexpo is an iron ore company with assets in Ukraine.
Ferrexpo owns a 100% stake in Yeristovo Mining, 99.9% in Bilanivsky GOK and 100% in Poltava Mining.
In the Kyiv region, 95 facilities are being repaired under the state program “Renovate Home”, including 63 projects that have been fully or partially completed, the press service of the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine reports.
According to the release, condominiums in Kyiv region were the first to join the Restore Home program after its launch in November 2022. Most of the high-rise buildings are being renovated in Irpin – 87. Three houses are also being repaired in Bucha, two in Makariv and Gostomel, and one in Sofiyivska Borshchahivka.
“About 5,000 families have already participated in this initiative, which allows them to quickly repair their homes and return home. The total amount of grants to be received by condominiums in Kyiv region is UAH 280.5 million, of which UAH 116 million has already been paid by the Fund,” said Yehor Fareniuk, Director of the Energy Efficiency Fund.
Recently, the Energy Efficiency Fund has started implementing the main stage of the Restore Home Program. Now it covers the entire territory of Ukraine, except for the temporarily occupied territories and territories of active hostilities. As before, condominiums whose buildings were damaged as a result of hostilities can participate in the program. They can receive a grant from the Energy Efficiency Fund, which compensates 100% of the cost of works and materials, but it cannot exceed UAH 7.2 million.
The State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has increased its profit to UAH 2.6 billion in the first nine months of operation, according to the company’s CEO Yuriy Bolokhovets.
“This is ten times more than the industry earned before the reform, in the days of state forestry. We direct the lion’s share of our profits to the state budget. These are funds for new weapons, ammunition, and military salaries,” he said.
According to the company’s press service, over the past nine months, Fores of Ukraine transferred UAH 4.7 billion to the state budget, which is UAH 1.1 billion more than last year. The company invested hundreds of millions of hryvnias in new equipment for the Armed Forces.
“Record profits were achieved in a declining market. The situation on the timber market has not improved. Compared to last year, the average selling price of an impersonal cube of unprocessed wood fell from UAH 1.8 thousand to UAH 1.7 thousand. We have also abandoned our own processing – sales of sawn timber by the SOE’s branches decreased from UAH 2.8 billion to UAH 2.1 billion,” explained Bolokhovets.
According to the company’s CEO, the SOE’s profits have increased due to de-shadowing and increased efficiency of the state-owned enterprise. Most of the procurement was transferred to Prozorro, which made it possible to eliminate the loopholes in timber sales related to direct contracts – products are sold at prices set by competitive markets.
The company emphasizes that its customers are offered additional services, including loading and customs clearance of products. The fulfillment rate of exchange contracts has increased to almost 90%. Contractors’ services for procurement and other work have been standardized, and ceiling prices have been introduced.
In addition, the electronic accounting system has been improved, making it more difficult for illegal timber to enter the market, which has increased demand for legal products. Also, all untargeted expenses of the branches, such as “laying pavement”, were reduced.
SE “Forests of Ukraine” has standardized the staff of its branches and reduced unnecessary administrative apparatus, resulting in the replacement of almost half of the branch managers.
The company has also decided to sell subsidized facilities through the State Property Fund.
“We are really counteracting fictitious works and services that were common in the days of forestry. We have abandoned the use of expensive and inefficient financial instruments that used to often lead to the leakage of funds from state forestry enterprises, such as renting equipment at unreasonable rates,” Bolokhovets summarized.
As reported, the state specialized economic enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” is one of the largest forest users in Europe and the largest in Ukraine. It is managed by the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine. The company manages 6.6 million hectares of state forest land.
