Since the beginning of the year, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has shipped more than 700 thousand cubic meters of wood, which is 60% more than in the same period in 2023, said the company’s CEO Yuriy Bolokhovets.
“After a period of stagnation, sales have revived. The stocks have decreased. The volume of contracted timber at the first quarter auctions has already exceeded 2 million cubic meters,” he wrote on Facebook and added that additional auctions will last until March.
According to him, the amount of contracts for the first quarter has already reached almost UAH 4.1 billion and surpassed the figure for unprocessed wood for the same period last year.
At the same time, Mr. Bolokhovets pointed to the rise in timber prices. Currently, its price averages UAH 2.1 thousand per cubic meter. According to the state enterprise’s experts, after the sale of firewood, it will drop to about 1.9 thousand UAH/cubic meter (in the fourth quarter of last year, the average price was 1.75 thousand UAH/cubic meter).
“Two weeks ago, I talked about the difficult situation on the market, the decline in demand due to the blocking of exports through the western borders. I said that despite all the negative forecasts, I was optimistic. Not much time has passed. The anti-crisis measures taken are working,” the CEO said.
Mr. Bolokhovets said that the company has tightened control over contract compliance. If a tree is put up for auction and purchased, the branch manager must ensure that it is harvested and shipped according to the agreed delivery schedule. The entire volume of unsold timber is immediately put up for additional bidding without delay.
“In order to avoid the accumulation of residues and loss of quality, the plan for firewood harvesting is timely adjusted in accordance with the concluded contracts,” the top manager summarized.
As reported, Ukraine launched a forestry reform in 2016. As part of it, the sale of unprocessed timber at electronic auctions has already been introduced. Since 2021, an interactive map of wood processing facilities has been operating in a test mode in a number of regions.
The industry has implemented the Forest in a Smartphone project, which contains a list of logging tickets for timber harvesting and allows you to check the legality of logging on the agency’s online map.
On June 1, 2023, Ukraine launched a pilot for the electronic issuance of logging tickets and certificates of origin of timber. In addition, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has launched a pilot project to procure timber harvesting services through the electronic platform Prozorro.
Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group increased its exports of steel products to Poland by about 16% year-on-year in 2023 to over 800 thousand tons from about 700 thousand tons in 2022.
According to Yulia Mezentseva, Head of Logistics at Metinvest Polska, in an interview with the leading Polish publication Puls Biznesu, the increase in cargo traffic is facilitated by the unblocking of routes, but transshipment in ports and border crossings remain bottlenecks.
It is also noted that despite the war, Metinvest is expanding its operations in the Polish market.
“2023 was slightly better for us than the previous year. There were no more congestion and queues on the Polish railway network, which contributed to an increase in transportation efficiency. Compared to the previous year, we recorded a 16% increase in tonnage. We transported a total of 1.9 million tons through Polish ports and railways, of which about 1.3 million were steel products, 378 thousand were iron ore and 237 thousand were coking coal,” Mezentseva stated.
Out of the total volume of products delivered from Ukraine to Poland, 939 thousand tons were exported to other countries through Polish ports.
“The coal needed for our steel plants in Ukraine was also transshipped in Polish ports,” the manager said.
Some of the goods brought from Ukraine to Poland were delivered by rail or truck to Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, Slovakia, and other countries.
Mezentseva clarifies that iron ore used to dominate the structure of supplies from Ukraine, but now it is mainly steel products that are imported. According to the country’s Metallurgical Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ukraine is the largest non-EU steel supplier to Poland.
The head of logistics at Metinvest Polska predicts that in 2024, Metinvest will at least maintain and perhaps even slightly increase the volume of supplies of some goods to the Polish market. It assumes that their structure will change, especially the volume of steel imported from Ukraine.
For their part, local producers fear that if demand in Poland starts to grow, Ukrainian steel will flood our market. Przemyslaw Sztuchkowski, president of Cognor, even suggests introducing limits on the supply of steel products from Ukraine to the EU. The idea is to allow free transit through Poland to other countries and to ensure that the volume of imports on the Polish market does not threaten the stable operation of Polish producers.
At the same time, Mezentseva states. “In 2021, 1.2 million tons of our steel products were sold directly to the Polish market, 0.7 million tons in the previous year, and 0.8 million tons in 2023. Due to the war, we have limited opportunities to grow production and supplies,” she notes.
In addition, she draws attention to the problems with the transportation of goods across the Polish-Ukrainian border and transshipment in ports, which impede supplies to our market and transit by sea.
“The Polish-Ukrainian agreement stipulates that six trains a day with steel and ore should pass through the wide gauge at the Medyka border crossing. In practice, three or four are allowed through, as the Polish border and railroad administrations give priority to other transport. Therefore, we often have to wait for a long time at the border, which increases our costs. For every hour of downtime, we have to pay CHF 1.9 per commercial wagon,” says Mezentseva.
She suggests that one of the reasons for the long queues at the border could be the recent protests by Polish carriers and farmers.
“The queue on the Ukrainian side sometimes reached 70 kilometers. In the case of delicate goods that needed to be delivered quickly to customers, we sometimes decided to change modes of transportation and transfer goods from cars to trains to avoid standing in a very long line,” says the manager.
She hopes that the suspension of the protests will facilitate uninterrupted transportation by road and rail. She emphasizes that after crossing the border, transportation through Poland is quite efficient.
“In 2022, we often had to wait on the access roads, but now PKP PLK has significantly improved the capacity of the roads leading to the ports,” says Mezentseva, adding that access to the terminals is almost hassle-free, but there are difficulties with transshipment.
“Bulk cargo, such as iron ore and coal, is transshipped much faster than steel products. Transshipment in Polish ports is four times slower than at Black Sea terminals,” Mezentseva said.
According to her, one of the reasons for this may be the lack of staff at the terminals.
The Metinvest representative also points out that Polish customs regulations do not take into account changes in the weight of bulk cargo during transit. However, they can occur, for example, due to weather conditions. Therefore, employees of transportation and transshipment companies have to spend a lot of time during inspections explaining that coal or ore may weigh a little more in rainy weather. There may also be so-called natural losses during transportation.
“Railroad rules allow a certain percentage of deterioration for different groups of goods. Customs rules, on the other hand, do not allow any losses that are subject to individual inspection by the service. For us, this means significant losses,” emphasizes Mezentseva.
Metinvest Group notes that it is interested in building long-term business relations in the Polish market.
“We are talking about challenges, but we are ready to work out solutions together with the Polish side. We want to simplify procedures and transportation,” adds the Head of Logistics at Metinvest Polska.
“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.
The main shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage it. Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
Ukraine’s public debt to GDP ratio from 2009 to 2023 (UAH mln)
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
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Samsung Electronics Ukraine is launching sales of new Galaxy S24 series smartphones, which have received an impressive number of pre-orders thanks to the revolutionary capabilities of Galaxy AI. The new Galaxy S24 devices have received twice as many pre-orders as the previous S23 version globally and in Ukraine in particular. Moreover, more than 65% of consumers in the world have chosen the most premium model – Galaxy S24 Ultra, while in Ukraine this figure is 69%.
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Samsung is continuing to improve the new AI features so that users can enjoy these unique capabilities. In addition to the 13 languages that are already available in AI features, users will get more language packs. In addition, most of the Galaxy AI features will also be extended to previous models through software updates, including the Galaxy S23, S23 FE, Fold5, Flip5 smartphones and Tab S9 tablet. And finally, Samsung is committed to extending the life cycle of its smartphones, so the Galaxy S24 series will now have seven generations of operating system updates and seven years of security updates.
Starting February 7, Galaxy S24 Ultra, Galaxy S24+ and Galaxy S24 will be available to users both in partner stores and on the official Samsung online store. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is available in the following colors: Titanium Gray, Titanium Black, Titanium Purple, and Titanium Yellow. The Galaxy S24+ and Galaxy S24 devices are available in onyx black, marble gray, cobalt purple and amber yellow.
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Detectives of the BES in Odesa region have completed a pre-trial investigation into an organized criminal group that counteracted legitimate business activities and seized real estate of foreign companies in Odesa and Kyiv. The property worth UAH 29 million has already been returned to the owner.
During the pre-trial investigation, detectives established that in almost a year and a half, the criminal group appropriated 4 apartments in Odesa, a land plot and a house in the capital belonging to foreign companies.
For this purpose, the members of the organized crime group set up a scheme of illegal re-registration of real estate for its further sale. With the help of “black” realtors, they created fictitious companies. Using forged seals of non-residents, authorities and notaries of foreign jurisdictions, they contributed real estate to the authorized capital of the above-mentioned companies. Later, they re-registered the real estate by entering into sale and purchase agreements and other transactions. The total amount of losses incurred is UAH 41 million.
The property worth UAH 29 million has already been returned to one of the affected foreign companies – detectives initiated the cancellation of the registration of alienation of ownership of a land plot and a house in the capital.
The organizer and 3 members of the criminal group were served a notice of suspicion of committing criminal offenses stipulated by Part 2 Art. 205-1, Part 3 Art. 206-2, Part 3 Art. 209, Part 3 Art. 3 Art. 209, Art. 358(3), (4) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Two persons were chosen as a measure of restraint in the form of detention, and two others were released on bail. The indictment against 4 persons was sent to court.
Operational support was provided by the Strategic Investigations Department in Odesa region of the State Secret Service of the National Police of Ukraine. Procedural supervision – Odesa Region Prosecutor’s Office.
Recently, a Spanish citizen Angel Miguel Cerezo Gallardo publicly appealed to Ukrainian state authorities for support. The Spanish investor estimates his losses from the raider seizure of Selecto Markets, the company he co-founded, at UAH 20 million. For more details, please follow the link – Video of the press conference is available here
The USAID Economic Support for Ukraine Project (USAID Project) has purchased 85 grain railcars for Louis Dreyfus, the largest exporter of Ukrainian grain and oilseeds among foreign companies, the project’s press service reports on Facebook.
According to the report, the first 20 railcars have already been delivered to one of the company’s elevators.
USAID expects that the use of additional railcars will increase grain exports by 110 thousand tons annually. In addition, Louis Dreyfus will be able to expand its geography and ship grain from regions of Ukraine where it was not possible to export grain.
The Louis Dreyfus representative office in Ukraine owns 660 railcars, some of which are located in the temporarily occupied territories. The agricultural trader exports grain to Asia, Africa and Europe.
The USAID clarified that the purchase of equipment for agricultural companies is carried out within the framework of the Agriculture Sustainability Initiative in Ukraine (AGRI-Ukraine), implemented by the United States Agency for International Development, to mitigate the global food crisis, which has been exacerbated by Russia’s war against Ukraine.
