In January-July 2024, Ukrainian ports increased their transshipment volume by 1.7 times compared to the same period in 2023 – up to 59.9 million tons, according to the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA).
“According to the operational data of USPA for January-July 2024, the ports of Ukraine handled 59.9 million tons of cargo, compared to 34.4 million tons in 2023,” the USPA said on its Facebook page on Monday.
In July, 7 million tons were handled, the same as in June. This figure exceeds the volume handled by ports in July 2023 by 2.2 times.
More than half (4.2 mln tons) was accounted for by agricultural products exported to 46 countries.
Earlier it was reported that amid an increase in transshipment volumes in the Black Sea ports and a decrease in the Danube ports in January-June 2024, Ukrainian ports increased transshipment volumes by 1.6 times compared to the same period in 2023, to 53 million tons.
IMC Agro Holding has completed harvesting winter wheat from 20.2 thousand hectares and harvested 139.8 thousand tons with an average yield of 6.9 t/ha, which is the second best result in the history of the company and 60% higher than the average wheat yield in Ukraine, the company’s press service reported on its Facebook page.
According to the report, the agricultural holding is satisfied with the results, as most of the harvested winter crops meet the quality parameters of milling wheat.
“Last fall’s weather conditions were favorable for timely sowing, good germination and tillering of winter wheat. This spring, we carried out fertilization and plant protection against weeds, diseases and pests in accordance with the technological map. All operations were completed on time according to the crop development stages and weather conditions,” said IMC Production Director Mykola Pylypenko.
He noted that the agroholding started wheat harvesting earlier than usual due to the lack of precipitation needed for optimal plant development in the Poltava cluster. This led to a slight decrease in yields and an early start of the harvest in Poltava region.
“In other regions of the company, Chernihiv and Sumy, weather conditions were more favorable, and we significantly exceeded our targets for yield and gross production of winter wheat,” summarized Pylypenko.
“IMC is an integrated group of companies operating in Sumy, Poltava and Chernihiv regions (north and center of Ukraine) in the crop production, elevators and warehouses segments. The land bank is about 120 thousand hectares, storage capacity is 554 thousand tons, with a 2023 harvest of 1.002 million tons.
In 2023, IMC posted a net loss of $21.03 million compared to $1.12 million a year earlier, and its EBITDA decreased 11.3 times to $3.22 million. The holding’s revenue increased by 22.3% to $139.45 million, while the share of exports decreased to 68% from 73% a year earlier.
In January-June this year, FUIB (Kyiv) received UAH 3.82 billion in net profit, which is 4% higher than in the same period of 2023 (UAH 3.68 billion), according to the bank’s quarterly report.
According to the report, the financial institution’s net profit for the second quarter of 2024 decreased by 20.8% compared to the comparable period of 2023 (UAH 2.13 billion) to UAH 1.69 billion.
According to the document, the bank’s net interest income for the first half of the year increased by 31.7% to UAH 7.12 billion, while net commission income increased by 15.1% to UAH 1.23 billion. In particular, these figures improved by 23.6% to UAH 3.56 billion and 43.2% to UAH 0.71 billion in April-June, respectively.
Since the beginning of 2024, the bank’s assets have increased by 6.3%, or by UAH 9.67 billion, and reached UAH 163 billion as of June 30, compared to UAH 125.7 billion at the end of the first half of 2023. This increase was primarily due to the growth of loans and advances to customers from UAH 52.06 billion to UAH 57 billion, in particular, by UAH 3.19 billion in the second quarter of 2024.
Since the beginning of the year, FUIB has increased cash on hand and in transit, as well as funds on the current account with the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) by 29.6% and 41.2%, respectively, to UAH 3.74 billion and UAH 14.11 billion.
Funds under the item “other financial assets” increased 1.6 times to UAH 4.19 billion in the structure of total assets, which, in turn, was facilitated by more active purchases of foreign currency and an increase in bank card payments.
The volume of loans and advances to banks increased by 15.5% to UAH 4.87 billion, while investments in securities increased by 1.7% to UAH 59.16 billion.
Between January and June, the financial institution managed to increase its customer accounts from UAH 126.54 billion to UAH 132.93 billion, while the funds of banks increased from UAH 2.72 billion to UAH 3.33 billion.
In general, FUIB’s liabilities for this period increased from UAH 135.94 billion to UAH 141.22 billion.
It is noted that the bank’s capital increased by 25.3% over the six months of this year and reached UAH 21.78 billion, in particular, in the second quarter – by 11.3%, or UAH 2.22 billion. It is noted that retained earnings increased by 46.5% to UAH 11.41 billion during this time.
The remuneration of 10 members of the bank’s management board in terms of salary for the first half of 2024 increased by 12.1% compared to the same period of the previous year and amounted to UAH 75.6 million, while the remuneration of eight members of the supervisory board increased by 46.7% to UAH 16.6 million.
JSC First Ukrainian International Bank was founded on November 20, 1991 and started its operations in April 1992. As of March 31, 2024, the bank’s shareholders were SCM Finance (92.3%) and SCM Holdings Limited (7.7%, Cyprus) of Rinat Akhmetov.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of June 1, 2024, FUIB ranked 6th (UAH 169.9 billion) among 63 banks in the country in terms of assets. The financial institution’s net profit for 2023 amounted to UAH 3.96 billion.
The amount of remuneration to members of the Supervisory Board and Management Board of state-owned PrivatBank (Kyiv) in January-June this year increased by 26.4%, or UAH 24 million, compared to the same period last year, to UAH 115 million, according to the bank’s quarterly report.
According to the report, remuneration to members of the supervisory board and management board of the financial institution included salaries, pension fund contributions, and other short-term payments.
As reported, three state-owned banks, which are among the top five in terms of assets in the country, significantly reduced remuneration for the performance of job functions to members of the supervisory board last year, in particular: PrivatBank – by 38.8%, Oschadbank – by 32%, and Ukreximbank – by 45.8%.
Last year, PrivatBank paid UAH 51.6 million to six independent members of the Supervisory Board and three state representatives, while in 2022 it paid UAH 84.3 million. As for the remuneration of board members, Privat increased it by 1.9% to UAH 78.9 million in 2023.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), as of June 1, 2024, PrivatBank was the leader in total assets (UAH 872.40 billion) among 63 banks operating in Ukraine. Net profit for the previous year amounted to UAH 37.76 billion.
The Cabinet of Ministers has amended the procedure for providing grants for the establishment of horticulture, berry and viticulture, as well as the development of greenhouse farming, which are aimed at the recovery of the grape and wine industry, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported.
“Viticulture is a key industry that is now in stagnation. Therefore, realizing these conditions, we have updated the grant procedure. The changes will help winemakers integrate into the grape vertical. They will be able to use the grants to plant their own vineyards. We have also eliminated the mandatory requirement to install irrigation systems and water intake for grapes,” – commented on the Government Resolution No. 871 adopted by the Acting Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotskyi.
According to his information, the order of granting grants for the establishment of horticulture, berry growing and viticulture presents an expanded list of regions for growing stone fruit species. The total area for planting peach, apricot, sea buckthorn, raspberry, currant, gooseberry, blackberry, currant has been increased at the expense of reducing the total area of planting under pigeonpea and blueberry. The document also clarifies the period during which a garden grant recipient is required to create an appropriate number of seasonal jobs. In addition, the requirement to install an irrigation system and water intake for grapes has been eliminated.
The decree expands the range of potential recipients of grants for orchards and greenhouses. They can be agrarians who are located and carry out economic activities in the territories of active hostilities, where the state electronic information resources are functioning, produce (without adding alcohol) and / or sale of wine grapes, fruit and berry, honey drinks.
The decree shall come into force from the date of its publication.
berry growing, CABINET OF MINISTERS, GRANTS, HORTICULTURE, VITICULTURE
The bitcoin exchange rate is falling sharply on Monday amid a global sell-off in risky assets.
Bitcoin fell by 10.8% to $52,827 thousand by 12:25 Kyiv time, according to CoinDesk. Over the past five sessions, the cryptocurrency has lost more than 21% of its value, although it has added almost 26% since the beginning of the year.
The Ether exchange rate fell by 15.3% to $2,330. This is a record drop since 2021.
The Japanese stock index fell by 12.4% on Monday, the fastest pace since October 1987, and futures on the US stock index Nasdaq Composite are down 4.2%.
The collapse of risky assets is caused by growing fears of a recession in the United States after weak statistics released last week. Goldman Sachs analysts now believe that the probability of a recession in the US economy in the next year is 25% instead of the previously expected 15%, and markets see a 60% chance that the Federal Reserve will hold an extraordinary meeting this week and cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points.
“The market is in a panic mode,” said Grace Chen, head of the Bitget cryptocurrency exchange.
