The Russian Federation’s attack on the Danube port of Reni on the night of July 24 has led to a significant increase in freight rates for the transportation of grain and oilseeds by barges from the ports of Reni and Izmail (both in Odessa region) to Constanta (Romania), freight for transportation by coasters has increased significantly, the press service of the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) reported.
According to the report, as of June 27, 2023, freight rates for transportation of corn and wheat, rapeseed and barley by barges to the Romanian port increased by EUR8/tonne – to EUR38/tonne and EUR43/tonne respectively. At the same time, freight for transportation of granulated sunflower meal increased by EUR7/ton – up to EUR45/ton.
Besides, freight rates for wheat and corn transportation by coasters from Reni and Izmail ports to Crete increased by USD4-6/tonne – up to USD42-44/tonne, to Israel and Eastern Mediterranean – by USD3/tonne, to USD48-50/tonne and USD43-45/tonne respectively, to the east coast of Italy – by USD2-5/tonne to USD50-53/tonne, to the east coast of Greece – by USD2-3/tonne to USD39-40/tonne. Rates for grain transportation to Spain increased by USD1-4/ton to USD56-59/ton.
At the same time, UZA noted that shipowners demanded payment of additional military insurance premium for shipments to Spain, Israel and the eastern coast of Italy.
According to its data, freight on transportation of rapeseed meal by coasters from Reni and Izmail ports to Spain increased by USD2-5/tonne to USD77-80/tonne, granulated sunflower meal to Marmara by USD3-4/tonne to USD43-44/tonne, non-granulated by USD3/tonne to USD48/tonne.
“At the beginning of the week, amid mass anxiety, some shipowners refused to provide their vessels to call at Sulina (Romania), but later returned to fulfill their obligations,” UZA stated.
Qatar will allocate $100 million to Ukraine for rehabilitation in the field of medical care, education, humanitarian demining and other important social and humanitarian projects, Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said during a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal on Friday.
“During the meeting, we also noted the importance of resuming the work of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and the need to continue the implementation of the Grain from Ukraine initiative.” We discussed in detail the Formula of Peace initiated by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. Thanks to Qatar for its readiness to make mediation efforts to return Ukrainian children, whom Russia illegally exported and continues to hold on its territory,” Shmygal wrote in his Telegram channel.
The parties also agreed to work closely within the framework of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Trade and Technical Cooperation.
“As well as to create other specialized working groups and commissions to work out issues in different spheres: from high technology and digitalization to the supply of drinking water in those regions of Ukraine where it is needed,” Shmygal added.
The Verkhovna Rada has exempted from value added tax (VAT) a number of goods imported to Ukraine for security and defense needs.
A total of 294 people’s deputies voted for the relevant draft law No. 9467 on amendments to the transitional provisions of the Tax Code on the peculiarities of importing into the customs territory of Ukraine goods for security and defense needs at the plenary session on Friday, a member of the faction “Golos” Yaroslav Zheleznyak said in his Telegram channel.
The bill exempts from VAT thermal imaging binoculars, monoculars and binoculars, night vision devices and rangefinders that are imported into the customs territory of Ukraine.
TAS Insurance Group (Kyiv) has paid UAH 1.567 million for a Hidromek HMK 370LC HD excavator drowned in a swampy area, having settled the incident in full, according to the insurer’s website.
It is specified that the incident occurred at one of the border areas in the Rivne region, where large construction equipment, including the excavator insured by TAS, was involved in the construction of additional protective structures. At some point, the excavator suddenly began to “sink”. To rescue the machine, the State Emergency Service was called, which used another excavator to try to make a flooring and at the same time launched drainage pumps.
After examining the circumstances of the incident, TAS Insurance Group, where the excavator was insured under the Pravoe KASKO contract, recognized the incident as insured and settled it in full.
Dynamics of exchange rate of hryvnia to U.S. Dollar in 2022-2023
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
The Verkhovna Rada on Thursday supported in the second reading and in general the bill No. 9346-1 with amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine on ensuring predictability of budget policy and strengthening debt sustainability, the head of the budget committee of the parliament Roksolana Pidlasa said.
According to her, the adoption of the law ahead of schedule means the implementation of a new structural beacon (#10) under the EFF Extended Fund Facility Program with the International Monetary Fund, as well as the launch of the implementation of beacon #12 – revision of the Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy with a deadline for its publication by the end of September this year.
Pidlasa specified that the adopted law prescribes to submit to each draft law on amendments to the state budget an expert opinion of the Ministry of Finance and to consider such draft laws in the Rada if there are conclusions of the Ministry of Finance on their support.
In addition, it restores more stringent conditions for amending the law on the state budget, as defined by Article 52 of the Budget Code, leaving the exception in the conditions of martial law revision of expenditures of the security and defense sector, the MP said.
Another norm of the adopted law is the restoration of the medium-term budget planning by drawing up the Budget Declaration from January 1, 2024, which was stopped last March due to the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, Pidlasa pointed out.
She added that the law limits in 2023-2028 the volume of state guarantees provided by decisions of the Cabinet of Ministers to 3% of the planned revenues of the general fund of the state budget, while the limit of state guarantees provided on the basis of international treaties will be determined by the law on the state budget.
Finally, the document instructs to resume this year the development of the Strategy of State Debt Management for 2024-2026, also halted due to the full-scale invasion, providing for its submission by the Ministry of Finance to the Government for consideration by October 25, 2023 and approval by the Government within a month from the date of adoption of the law on the state budget for 2024.
