Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

Agrotrade has completed sowing winter wheat on 15.8 thou hectares

Agrotrade has completed sowing of winter wheat on 15.8 thou hectares in Sumy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Poltava regions, which is 4.5 times more than last year, the company’s press service reports.

According to the report, a quarter of the agroholding’s land bank is planted with winter wheat, which is due to the need to comply with crop rotation.

“This season, we completed winter crops sowing very quickly. We prepared for the work thoroughly – we planned the supply and application of fertilizers in advance and made sure that the required amount of seeds was available in our warehouses. So, apart from the war factor, there were no difficulties. We sowed early, and after the recent rains, we already have the first seedlings, which are in good condition,” said Oleksandr Ovsyanyk, Director of Agrotrade’s Agricultural Department.

As reported, the agroholding fulfilled the overall plan for harvesting winter wheat in the 2023 harvest by 110%.

The Agrotrade Group is a vertically integrated holding company with a full agro-industrial cycle (production, processing, storage and trade of agricultural products). It cultivates over 70 thousand hectares of land in Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava and Kharkiv regions. Its main crops are sunflower, corn, winter wheat, soybeans and rapeseed. It has its own network of elevators with a simultaneous storage capacity of 570 thousand tons.

The group also produces hybrid seeds of corn and sunflower, barley, and winter wheat. In 2014, a seed plant with a capacity of 20 thousand tons of seeds per year was built on the basis of Kolos seed farm (Kharkiv region). In 2018, Agrotrade launched its own brand Agroseeds on the market.

Vsevolod Kozhemiako is the founder and CEO of Agrotrade.

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Ukrnafta has built platforms for well workovers on its own

PJSC Ukrnafta has designed and built platforms with removable base supports for well workovers on its own.

“The maximum load on the rotor table that the platform can withstand is 60 tons, which is enough to accommodate all the necessary equipment, even with a reserve,” the company said in a press release on Thursday.

The design allows for comfortable and safe working conditions for employees and reduces the cost of hoisting operations during repairs.

According to the company, the order for the Ukrnafta Drilling well workover and underground repair shop was made at the production base of Ukrnafta’s Oilfield Service Department (OPSD) in Dolyna, Ivano-Frankivsk region.

“The design took into account all the technical and technological requirements, as well as the specifics of use – both in well conditions and during transportation,” the company said.

The teams at the production base in Dolyna have been working on the project for several months.

Currently, two workover platforms have already been manufactured, and plans for this year include the manufacture of two more similar platforms for current well workovers.

Evacuation flight from Israel for Ukrainians is being prepared for October 14 – MFA

Diplomats are preparing the first evacuation flight for Ukrainian citizens from Israel to Romania on Saturday, October 14, according to the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Oleg Nikolenko.

“More than a thousand Ukrainian citizens have asked for help in leaving Israel due to canceled flights. Diplomats are preparing the first evacuation flight to Romania for Saturday, October 14. We are working on organizing additional evacuation flights,” Nikolenko wrote on Facebook.

The Foreign Ministry noted that details will be sent to citizens who have provided their data to the Ukrainian embassy in Tel Aviv.

In addition, about 200 Ukrainians have expressed a desire to evacuate from Gaza, but due to the lack of security, it is still impossible to leave.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ukrainian embassies in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, as well as other Ukrainian agencies involved are making active efforts to get our people out as soon as possible,” emphasized Nikolenko.

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Oil prices fall on Thursday on API data

Oil prices are falling on Thursday on the back of data from the American Petroleum Institute (API), which showed a steady increase in US stocks.

According to API estimates, US oil reserves jumped by 12.94 million barrels in the week ended October 6, the highest since early January.

The official report of the US Department of Energy on energy reserves in the country will be released on Thursday at 18:00 GMT.

The cost of December futures for Brent oil on the London ICE Futures exchange as of 8:15 a.m. is $85.6 per barrel, which is $0.22 (0.26%) lower than at the close of the previous session. On Wednesday, the price of these contracts fell by $1.83 (2.1%) to $85.82 per barrel.

Futures for WTI for November in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) fell by $0.32 (0.38%) to $83.17 per barrel by this time. As a result of previous trading, the value of these contracts decreased by $2.48 (2.9%) to $83.49 per barrel.

Traders are focused on the situation in the Middle East. Israel is not a major oil producer, but investors fear an escalation of the conflict in the region, given media reports that Hamas’ actions against Israel were planned with the assistance of Iran.

“Currently, the risks to the oil market are low,” says Brian Swan, chief commodities analyst at Schneider Electric. – “However, there is a slight possibility of a price increase as the US closely assesses Iran’s ties to Hamas.

“If Washington decides to restrict Iran’s oil exports more tightly, it could change the market situation,” Market Watch quotes Swan as saying.

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EU plans to disburse EUR 4.5 bln to Ukraine by end of this year

In 2023, the European Union became the largest donor to Ukraine, having already disbursed EUR13.5 billion under the macro-financial assistance instrument and expecting to disburse another EUR4.5 billion by the end of the year, European Commissioner for Economic Affairs Paolo Gentiloni said.
“Overall, the progress is very good, and I am optimistic about the prospects that Ukraine will fulfill all the conditions by the end of 2024 and beyond,” he said on Wednesday at the 4th Ministerial Roundtable on Support to Ukraine at the IMF-World Bank (WB) meeting in Marrakech.
According to him, the EU and other international partners should be proud of the fact that they contributed to covering Ukraine’s financing gap both last year and this year, and thanks to this solidarity, Ukraine’s economy is in better shape today than many expected.
“We count on the support of all international partners. We also need to harmonize the conditions of support between international donors and international financial institutions to ensure their consistency,” the European Commissioner added, emphasizing that funding remains a key factor.
He noted that Ukraine has demonstrated the ability to continue to implement important economic reforms, recalling that the current conditions of the EU financial assistance include, among other things, judicial reform of Ukraine, improved regulation of economic activity and improved bankruptcy regime.
“The European Commission’s proposal to allocate $50 billion over the next four years will allow us to significantly help meet Ukraine’s financial needs,” Gentiloni said.

Ukrainian mining companies reduced iron ore exports by 40.8% in real terms

In January-September this year, Ukrainian mining companies reduced exports of iron ore by 40.8% in physical terms compared to the same period last year, to 12 million 644.570 thousand tons.

According to the statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS), foreign exchange earnings from iron ore exports amounted to $1 billion 323.212 million (down 50.4%) in the period under review.

Iron ore was exported mainly to Slovakia (29.33% of supplies in monetary terms), the Czech Republic (22.58%) and Poland (19.83%).

In January-September of this year, Ukraine imported iron ore worth $86 thousand in the total amount of 126 tons. Imports during this period were made from Norway (41.18%), Italy (34.12%) and the Netherlands (23.53%). At the same time, in the same period of 2022, iron ore worth $27 thousand was imported in a total volume of 49 tons.

As reported, in 2022, Ukraine decreased the export of iron ore in physical terms by 45.9% compared to 2021 – to 23 million 984.623 thousand tons, while foreign exchange earnings decreased by 57.8% to $2 billion 912.974 million.

Iron ore was exported mainly to Slovakia (19.23% of supplies in monetary terms), the Czech Republic (17.32%) and Poland (16.49%).

Last year, Ukraine imported iron ore worth $65 thousand in a total volume of 101 tons, while in 2021 – $184 thousand in a volume of 1,202 thousand tons.

Imports were carried out from Norway (36.92%), the Netherlands (27.69%) and the UK (16.92%).

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