Northern Mining and Processing Plant (Pivdennyi GOK, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro region), part of Metinvest Group, has upgraded its pellet production to improve its quality by increasing the share of iron in the product.
According to the company’s information on Monday, a modernization project was implemented at the pellet production shop No. 2 of Northern GOK using the LURGI 552V roasting machine.
It is specified that thanks to the introduction of the innovation, the specialists managed to establish the production of homogeneous pellets with an iron content of 65% or more. This opened up prospects for the company to maintain a competitive position in the European iron ore market.
The press service notes that before the outbreak of the full-scale war, Yenakiieve Iron Ore Enrichment was largely focused on supplying iron ore to Metinvest Group’s Ukrainian steelmaking companies. However, with the temporary loss of control over its Mariupol plants and the blockade of the Black Sea ports, the plant was forced to look for alternative markets for its commercial products. European steel mills were a promising prospect. Northern GOK’s technologists applied operational improvements in the concentrate and pellet production chain to ensure that Northern GOK’s iron ore meets the requirements of European steelmakers.
To improve the quality of products, the LURGI 552V roasting machine underwent a large-scale overhaul to modernize the raw pellet screen. The special design of the equipment made it impossible for products larger than the standard to enter the roasting machine. As a result, the output quality of unfluxed pellets has improved.
Made from premium A1 grade concentrate, they have the required diameter of 10 to 18 mm and an iron content of 65+%, which meets the requirements of European consumers. In addition, the modernization of the equipment allows the company to reduce the cost of natural gas and electricity, as well as to reduce the amount of concentrate used for pellets by reducing the amount of rejects.
As Andrey Skachkov, CEO of Northern GOK, explained, the company’s specialists have been working to improve the pelletizing process since 2019. Operational improvement measures were taken to reduce natural gas consumption in 2021-2022, and the first stage of the modernization of the automatic process control system (APCS) was implemented in early 2023.
“The quality of pellets was also improved by the launch of a technological process for the production of concentrate with an iron content of 68% at the ore processing plant (MPP) No. 1. All of this allowed us to reorient our production for the European market despite the war, providing our employees with jobs in these turbulent times. At present, iron ore produced at Severstal is being ordered by steelmakers in Slovakia, Poland, Romania and Serbia,” the top manager said, as quoted by the press service.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies. The group’s enterprises are located mainly in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions.
Metinvest’s major shareholders are SCM Group (71.25%) and Smart Holding (23.75%), which jointly manage the company.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
MPs propose to stop enrolling students in higher education institutions for bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the evening and part-time programs, as well as for junior bachelor’s degrees, starting next year.
A group of MPs has registered Bill No. 10092 on amendments to certain laws regarding the state final certification and the 2024 admission campaign in the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament’s website reports.
The bill proposes to amend the law “On Higher Education” to establish that in 2024, admission to higher education will be carried out in a special procedure determined by the executive body in the field of education and science.
According to the proposed amendments, in 2024, competitive selection for higher education on the basis of complete general secondary education is carried out on the basis of the results of the external independent evaluation in 2021 and/or entrance examinations in 2022-2024, conducted using the organizational and technological processes of external independent evaluation and creative competition (physical ability competition).
The draft law also proposes to establish that in 2024, the entrance exams will include the Ukrainian language, mathematics, history of Ukraine, and a subject of choice (physics, chemistry, biology, foreign language, geography, Ukrainian literature).
In addition, the authors of the draft law propose to supplement the Law “On Complete General Secondary Education” with provisions exempting students who complete their studies at each level of complete general secondary education from state final certification. For students who will complete their primary education in 2024, it is proposed to conduct state final certification in a pilot mode.
Defense Ministers of Ukraine Rustem Umerov and France’s Sébastien Lecorne discussed the supply of weapons and military equipment, bilateral projects on military-technical cooperation, training of Ukrainian servicemen and the implementation of Euro-Atlantic standards, the press service of the Defense Ministry reports.
“I would like to thank Mr. Minister, the President, the government and the people of the French Republic for their unwavering support for Ukraine in providing a powerful package of military and humanitarian aid, as well as protecting Ukrainians who were forced to flee Ukraine to escape Russian bombing,” the press service quoted Umerov as saying.
It is reported that France has already provided Ukraine with modern SAMP/T and Crotale air defense systems, CAESAR artillery systems, Milan anti-tank weapons, AMX tanks, VAB armored personnel carriers, etc. According to Umerov, “this assistance certainly brings our victory closer.”
Lecorneu, for his part, emphasized the importance of continuing assistance to Ukraine by partner countries in the long term, focusing on the transfer of weapons and military equipment, training of Ukrainian military personnel and joint defense production.
“The first is the transfer of weapons. We will continue to transfer weapons to Ukraine. The second part of our support is training of soldiers. We have fulfilled our goals by the end of the year. More than seven thousand Ukrainian soldiers were trained in France (on French territory or in Poland). It was either some general training or specialized training. I would like to inform you that the training will continue at the same level. The third issue is more strategic and concerns our ability to jointly produce something for the needs of Ukraine,” the French Defense Minister said.
In addition, during the visit of the Minister of the French Armed Forces to Ukraine, a memorandum of intent on cooperation was signed between the state-owned enterprise of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine “Defense Procurement Agency” and the Directorate General for Armaments (DGA) (France). The document envisages indefinite cooperation and creates a legal framework for concluding contracts. It will also contribute to deepening military-technical cooperation, in particular in the development of joint high-tech projects for the defense of both countries.
The State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine (STD) has won the Silver Dolphin award at the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards for Ukraine’s tourism promotion campaign, the STD press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
It is the first time in the history of independent Ukraine that a government agency has received the prestigious Cannes Film Festival award for the best corporate and documentary films.
And DART reported that in 2021, at their request, the ODDEE agency created a series of commercials for a large-scale tourism campaign aimed at attracting visitors from all over the world to our country. The campaign was supposed to start in the spring of 2022 and is still waiting for its implementation.
“In February 2022, our plans, as well as the lives of all Ukrainians, were disrupted by Russia’s aggressive actions. We really wanted to show Ukraine to the world. The organizers of the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards gave us this opportunity and accepted the application from GART – The Campaign Waiting to Happen,” said Mariana Oleskiv, Head of the State Agency for Tourism Development.
“The Campaign Waiting To Happen, submitted to the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards jury, consists of three videos. In the next three days, it will be published on the Facebook page of Ukraine NOW.
The Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards festival has been held since 2010 and sets global standards for corporate films.
New York has once again taken the top spot in the list of the world’s largest financial centers, according to a survey by Z/Yen Group, a financial consulting company that calculates the Global Financial Centers Index (GFCI).
New York overtook London in the ranking in the fall of 2018 and has maintained its leadership since then.
Compared to the previous version of the ranking, published in March this year, New York’s score increased to 763 from 760, and London’s, which ranks second, to 744 from 731.
The top three is still closed by Singapore, which added 19 points. Hong Kong is in fourth place, showing similar dynamics. San Francisco, Los Angeles and Shanghai follow.
In contrast to the March edition, Washington, D.C., took eighth place, displacing Chicago by one position and moving up three places at once.
Geneva became a debutant in the top 10 financial centers of the world this year: the capital of the Swiss canton of the same name soared 13 places, increasing the number of points scored by 29.
Dublin showed even more rapid growth, moving from 48th to 25th place.
Moscow (114th place) experienced the sharpest drop in the ranking – by 35 positions. St. Petersburg, for its part, dropped from 115th to 118th place. Among the financial centers of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Astana is the leader (60th place, +48 points).
In September, Miami entered the list for the first time, ranking 24th.
Among the financial centers that could increase their influence in the next two to three years, the respondents to the Z/Yen Group survey most often named Seoul, Singapore and Dubai.
The World Financial Centers Index was first published in 2007 and is updated every six months (the current edition is the 34th). The ranking is based on various statistics and surveys.
Horizon Capital has announced the third stage of closing of its new Horizon Capital Growth Fund IV (HCGF IV), which increased its size from $254 million to $298 million, founder and CEO of the company Elena Koszarny wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
“We managed to attract more than 65% of private sector capital from leading institutions, family offices, foundations and other investors, as well as receive a $10 million replenishment from the EBRD, which increases their commitment from $40 million to $50 million,” she said.
She thanked the investors for the opportunity to extend the final stage of the fundraising until December 31, 2023.
“Horizon Capital believes strongly in Ukraine and Moldova, in compelling investment opportunities from world-class founders in our core markets, and in our ability to deliver returns and impact for our investors, as evidenced by our HCGF IV team’s contribution, which now exceeds 4% of the funds raised,” Koszarny added.
As reported, in late April, Horizon Capital announced the closing of the second round of investment and raising $254 million against its target size of $250 million.
Since then, HCGF IV has announced one investment – in the Ukrainian company Preply, a leading global platform for learning foreign languages online, without specifying a specific amount.
IFC, as one of the investors, specified that the fund would invest $10-30 million to acquire minority stakes in 10-15 companies in Ukraine and Moldova with an average capitalization and value of $50-150 million. According to the corporation, HCGF IV is the successor to the $200 million EEGF III, which was formed in 2017, and will follow a similar investment strategy focused on IT services and products, as well as e-commerce, innovative consumer goods and fintech.
Horizon Capital is a large investment company that manages six private equity funds (more than 40 institutional investors) with $1.4 billion in assets, including WNISEF (with $150 million in capital), Emerging Europe Growth Fund (EEGF, $132 million), EEGF II ($370 million) and EEGF III ($200 million), and HCGF II ($258.3 million). The funds have been invested in more than 160 companies employing over 77 thousand people in Ukraine and Moldova.
