Metinvest Group’s Zaporizhstal Iron and Steel Works has overhauled the third stage of blast furnace No. 4.
“Our fourth blast furnace has been renovated and is fully ready for operation, waiting for the first pig iron after the repair,” the company said in a statement.
It is specified that as part of the overhaul, a new charging machine was installed, the casting yard, air heaters and cleaning units were updated.
As reported, the overhaul was implemented as part of the plant’s investment program, with a total estimate of more than UAH 92 million.
“Zaporizhstal is one of the largest industrial enterprises in Ukraine, whose products are in great demand among consumers both in the domestic market and in many countries around the world.
“Zaporizhstal is in the process of integration into Metinvest Group, whose major shareholders are System Capital Management (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%).
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
Benchmark oil prices are rising on Monday morning.
Quotes for September futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange by 8:14 a.m. increased by $0.38 (0.45%) to $85.38 per barrel. On Friday, their price rose by $0.26 (0.3%) to reach $85 per barrel. August contracts, which expired at the end of the previous trading, rose in price by $0.02 to $86.41 per barrel.
August futures for WTI in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) in the morning added $0.36 (0.44) to $81.9. On Friday, the value of these contracts decreased by $0.2 (0.2%) and amounted to $81.54 per barrel at the close of the session.
In June, Brent rose in price by 1.2%, WTI – by 5.9%.
The hurricane season has begun in the Atlantic, and traders are watching to see how it might affect oil trade in the US.
As Hurricane Beryl approaches the Caribbean from the southeast, it has strengthened to a category four, the Associated Press reports.
“This is a very dangerous situation,” the US National Hurricane Center (NRC) said. According to its forecasts, Beryl will cause a storm surge and pose a threat to life due to wind speed.
Currently, already 30 thousand square kilometers of de-occupied territories of Ukraine are recognized as such, which do not contain evidence of contamination by explosive objects, it is more than 17% of the preliminary assessment of contamination, reported in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
“Today, thanks to our joint work, the area of contaminated territories has already decreased by 30 thousand square kilometers. This means that in these territories were not found or were neutralized detected explosive objects,” – said the head of the Main Department of mine action, civil protection and environmental safety of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Colonel Ruslan Beregulia.
He also emphasized that now the most contaminated remain Kherson, Kharkiv and Mykolayiv regions, where more than 50% of all incidents with explosive objects among civilians have occurred.
According to the colonel, while carrying out demining activities, a comprehensive approach is applied, which, among other things, provides for chemical analysis of soils of agricultural lands for the presence of hazardous substances.
The head of the Main Department of Mine Action also noted that now 78 mechanized demining vehicles of both domestic and foreign production are used for demining of de-occupied territories from explosive objects by demining groups of security and defense forces, as well as by mine action operators.
The ministry recalled that initially the area of potentially explosive contaminated de-occupied territories in Ukraine was estimated at 174 thousand square kilometers, of which 14 thousand square kilometers are water areas.
France will hold the first round of early elections to the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, on Sunday.
Polling stations mostly opened at 08:00 local time (09:00 Kiev time), the end of voting at most polling stations will take place by 18:00 (19:00 Kiev time), however, in some cities and departments the schedule of polling stations may differ. In particular, in major cities, including Paris, the French will be able to cast their vote until 20:00 (21:00 Kiev time).
The first results are expected to appear after 20:00 local time (21:00 Kiev time).
Voters will have to elect 577 parliamentarians, with 289 seats needed for an absolute majority.
According to the procedure, if a candidate wins a majority of votes in the first round with a turnout of more than 25%, he or she immediately gets a seat in parliament. If no candidate is elected, there is a second round.
As a rule, one round is not enough to determine the winner of the French parliamentary elections. This time the second round is scheduled for July 7.
In the elections there is a bloc of left-wing parties called “New Popular Front”, the coalition “Together”, including, in particular, the party “Renaissance”, founded by Macron, as well as the right-wing party “Republicans”. The main intrigue of the election, however, is how many seats the far-right Rassemblement Nationale party, affiliated with Marine Le Pen, which won France’s European Parliament elections earlier this month, will be able to win.
According to the latest pre-election polls, Rassemblement Nationale can count on nearly 40 percent of the vote in the first round, which could give the party between 250 and 280 seats in the lower house, while 289 seats are needed for an absolute majority. A coalition of the Left is likely to come in second place, while the Together coalition is likely to come in third.
Early elections in France are being held after French President Macron’s Renaissance party lost to the far-right Rassemblement Nationale in the June 9 European Parliament elections. On the same day, the French leader announced the dissolution of the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, and called early parliamentary elections.
Earlier the analytical center Experts Club presented an analytical material about the most important elections in the countries of the world in 2024, more detailed video analysis is available here – https://youtu.be/73DB0GbJy4M?si=eGb95W02MgF6KzXU.
Subscribe to Experts Club YouTube channel here – https://www.youtube.com/@ExpertsClub
The Verkhovna Rada may fill the vacancies in the Cabinet of Ministers at one of its upcoming plenary sessions, Ukrainian parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk said.
“I am convinced that literally in the near future the Verkhovna Rada will return to personnel issues and our task is to fill the government,” Stefanchuk said on the air of a national telethon on Saturday.
He emphasized that one of the next plenary sessions of the parliament could be devoted to personnel issues.
According to Stefanchuk, it is necessary to move away from the practice of “acting ministers in certain areas.”
“There should be a minister, a full-fledged member of the government who fulfills the tasks entrusted to him by the people of Ukraine in the area of the executive branch entrusted to him,” the speaker noted.
Since August 2023, the sea corridor created by the Ukrainian Navy has exported 55 million tons of cargo, of which more than half (37.4 million tons) were agricultural products, the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure (MinRestore) reports.
“During the 10 months of operation of the Ukrainian Sea Corridor, a record amount of cargo was transported – 55 million tons of cargo – the cargo turnover of the ports of Greater Odesa,” the report says.
The Black Sea ports handled 1,954 thousand vessels.
Approaching the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi are 68 vessels, exporting almost 2 million tons of cargo, the Ministry of Reconstruction said.
In early June of this year, it was reported that the sea corridor had exported 50 million tons of cargo since its launch, with 1737 vessels handled in the ports.
