Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group plans to carry out a large-scale green transformation of its Ukrainian assets – GOKs, Kametstal and Zaporizhstal – worth about $9 billion within 5-10 years after the end of the war.
According to a report by dsnews.ua, this will require external financing.
It is specified that as soon as the hostilities end, the group will increase production (currently, its enterprises are 65-70% utilized), so the equipment needs to be prepared for operation in advance, which is being done now.
At the same time, the strategy remains unchanged: to create a global company with Ukrainian roots based on green and digital transformation of production facilities. This requires high-quality raw materials, semi-finished products and sufficient clean energy sources.
Meanwhile, the large-scale green modernization of enterprises in Ukraine has been put on hold due to an acute shortage of electricity of any origin. However, Metinvest can help develop Ukrainian assets by investing in cleaner production. For example, the construction of a green rolling plant in Italy with a capacity of about 3 million tons of products per year will increase the utilization of the group’s Ukrainian iron and steel plants, which can no longer sell products in Ukraine after the occupation of Mariupol’s steel mills. The Italian plant is to be built jointly with partners in three to four years with up to $2 billion of credit and partnership funds.
In addition, the GOKs that receive orders will be able to modernize their production to produce high-quality pellets. In particular, Northern GOK is currently competing in the European market thanks to its upgraded production of pellets with improved characteristics.
Metinvest’s strategy for transitioning to green steel production long before the war included the conversion of blast furnaces at its steelmaking facilities to DRI (direct reduction of iron) technology. This process requires improved pellets as raw materials. Successful tests of the production of such DRI pellets were carried out at Central GOK at the beginning of the war.
The war has put major strategic projects on hold, but the Group is responding quickly to adapt its investment program to maintain efficient production, primarily by investing in existing facilities that need to be modernized. Since the beginning of the war, Metinvest has invested over $300 million annually.
In 2023, Zaporizhstal and Kametstal overhauled blast furnaces. In addition, Zaporizhstal overhauled its rolling mill equipment and Kametstal overhauled its coke oven batteries. In total, UAH 23 billion has been invested in the modernization of these two enterprises over the past two years.
“Metinvest is also consistently launching new coking coal longwalls at Pokrovskoye Coal Group. At the beginning of the year, the 11th longwall for coking coal production in Block 10 of the Pokrovskoye Mine Administration was launched.
In addition, targeted investments are important. For example, the modernization of the roasting machine in the pellet production shop at Pivdennyi GOK in 2023 helped to establish the production of homogeneous pellets with an iron content of 65%, which allowed the GOK to maintain a competitive position in the European iron ore market.
This year, the company plans to invest $320 million in capital and about $350 million in operating investments in equipment and work sites. The priority is to repair blast furnaces and sintering machines, maintain the GOK’s equipment and develop the mine management department in Pokrovsk.
State-owned Ukreximbank (Kiev) earned UAH 4.4 billion in net profit for January-June this year, which is 2.3 times higher than the result for the same period last year, the press service of the financial institution said on Friday.
“June net profit of UAH 188 million allowed Ukreximbank to complete the first half of 2024 with a profit of UAH 4.4 billion, which is almost equal to the bank’s pre-tax profit for the whole of 2023, which amounted to UAH 4.9 billion,” the report said.
Ukrexim specifies that for the six months of 2024 operating profit increased by UAH 1.9 billion compared to the result of last year – up to UAH 3.3 billion.
According to the National Bank, Ukreximbank earned UAH 1.9 billion in net profit for the first 6 months of 2023, and in total for last year it amounted to UAH 3.3 billion. As of June 1, 2024, the bank ranked third in total assets among 63 banks (UAH 293.9 billion).
Turkey’s Dalgakiran has invested UAH 400 million in launching a plant to produce industrial power equipment in Bilogorodka in Kiev region, Dalgakıran Kompresör Ukraine LLC said in a press release.
The construction project was started before the large-scale Russian aggression, and now thanks to the investment of the Turkish side it has been completed. The investment in the production site and office will create 50 new jobs.
“The office and new production in Ukraine will contribute to the development of enterprises in all sectors, giving them the opportunity to continue economic activities, save money and resources,” said Vyacheslav Dinkov, director of Dalgakiran Compressor Ukraine.
According to him, the company’s plans include further development and localization of production, development and supply of new equipment necessary for the restoration of energy and industrial production in Ukraine.
In turn, Chairman of the Board of Dalgakiran Kompresör Adnan Dalgakiran noted that the scaling of business in Ukraine is a contribution to support the country’s economy and energy sector in difficult times. “In conditions of power outages, our equipment is able to ensure the continuity of business processes and production, enable businesses to continue to operate, pay taxes and give Ukrainians jobs,” he said.
“Dalgakiran Compressor Ukraine” is a representative office of Turkish Dalgakiran, specializing in the manufacture and service of generator and compressor equipment, cooling systems and industrial pumps.
Ukrainian representative office sells equipment and improves it to meet the needs of the national customer. The basic equipment is manufactured in Turkey, where a full cycle of quality control is introduced, as well as its own design office.
The company has been working in Ukraine for 19 years, has representative offices in 11 cities and more than seventy own mobile service teams.
Dalgakıran Kompresör, industrial power equipment, INVESTMENTS, TURKEY
A EUR100 million grant agreement has been signed by Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, Chairman of the Board of NPC Ukrenergo, and Lorenz Gessner, Head of the Representative Office of the German state development bank KfW in Ukraine, the company said.
According to its Telegram post on Friday, the signing took place in Kyiv on Thursday in the presence of Deputy Energy Minister Roman Andarak and members of the EU Delegation to Ukraine.
It is noted that the European Commission has authorized KfW to provide Ukrenergo with funds from the EU’s special budget program Ukraine Investment Facility and to ensure the financing and implementation of a number of priority energy projects.
These include the modernization of high-voltage substations in the western regions of Ukraine and the development of interconnectors connecting it to the power system of continental Europe, as well as the repair and restoration of equipment destroyed or damaged by Russian shelling at high-voltage substations, and the purchase and supply of new equipment.
In addition, part of the funds should be used to strengthen the physical protection of Ukrenergo’s substations.
NPC noted that this grant is the second phase of the target program “Reconstruction and Restoration of Ukraine’s Electricity Transmission Infrastructure”, as the company signed an agreement with KfW on the first phase of the program worth EUR 15 million at the Berlin Conference on the Restoration of Ukraine-2024 in June.
In total, since the beginning of the full-scale war, Ukrenergo has attracted EUR324 million with the support of KfW, and the total amount of international assistance attracted amounted to EUR1.5 billion, the NPC summarized.
Ukraine has simplified the opening of international bus routes with the Czech Republic, exempting carriers from the need to confirm the presence of a parity partner from a neighboring country, the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure (MinRestore) has announced.
According to the report, the period for coordinating the route and issuing a permit will not exceed four months. Communication channels have been established between the countries specifically for the opening of routes.
The relevant changes were agreed upon at a meeting of the joint commission between the Ministry of Reconstruction and the Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic.
“The growing demand for bus transportation requires the state to ensure an effective process of opening new routes so that the market can quickly respond to passenger demand. The Czech Republic is one of the most popular countries in terms of bus service, so together with our Czech colleagues we have simplified the procedure for opening routes,” Deputy Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure Serhiy Derkach said in a statement.
He expressed hope that the decision would help improve transport accessibility, increase passenger traffic and help boost business.
The report indicates that the Czech Republic became the first country with which Ukraine ensured full compliance of regular bus routes.
This year, agreements on non-parity passenger transportation were also signed with Slovakia.
In July 2024, the international depository Euroclear will make the first contribution of approximately EUR1.55 billion to the European fund for Ukraine, according to the company’s report.
In the first half of 2024, Euroclear received EUR3.4 billion in interest income from investing blocked Russian assets.
In 2023, these revenues amounted to about EUR4.4 billion, in 2022 – EUR821 million.
Euroclear’s total interest income in January-June this year amounted to EUR4 billion.
The company will also pay taxes on income received from Russian assets in January-June in the amount of EUR836 million.
Thus, Euroclear’s net profit attributable to the frozen assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation amounted to EUR760 million in the first half of the year.
Euroclear’s balance sheet as of the end of June 2024 amounted to EUR207 billion, of which EUR173 billion are attributable to Russian assets under sanctions.
Effective February 15, 2024, the EU Council adopted a Regulation requiring central securities depositories that hold reserves and assets of the Bank of Russia to apply special rules to cash balances accumulated due to restrictive measures. These CSDs, including Euroclear, must account for and manage such extraordinary cash balances separately from other activities, must retain net income separately, and must not dispose of the net income (e.g., as dividends to shareholders).
Euroclear’s underlying net profit, which excludes income from the blocked Russian assets, increased by 7% year-on-year in January-June to EUR602 million.
Underlying operating income increased by 5% to EUR1.45 billion.
In particular, revenues from core activities amounted to EUR865 million compared to EUR838 million a year earlier, while interest, banking and other income increased to EUR586 million from EUR539 million.
