Ukraine’s international trade in goods remained stable in January-June 2024 compared to the same period in 2023: $19.5 billion worth of goods were exported, which is the same as last year, Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka said on his Facebook page.
According to him, the physical export capacity increased by 35% to 71 million tons.
“Over the year, there was a significant correlation in prices for the main export commodities, which explains the phenomenon when the volume of exports in weight is much higher, while the revenue remains stable,” Kachka explained.
The trade representative pointed out that the increase in the capacity of trade routes has an interesting impact on the pace of exports by month.
After record-breaking April and May, exports in June amounted to $2.7 billion and 9.7 million tons, respectively, which is a significant drop compared to May, Kachka said, adding that this is 18.4% less in monetary terms and 20.2% less in volume.
The main reason for this decline in exports, according to the Ukrainian trade representative, is the completion of last year’s harvest. Corn was exported by 23.7% less in June, wheat by 40.8% less, and oil by 37.8%.
At the same time, the top 10 exports remained stable: ore – 239 million (-1.5% compared to May), poultry – 79 million (-3.5% compared to May), flat products – 79 million (+7%), soybeans – 66 million (+45%).
According to Mr. Kachka, imports in June were also down 5.6% to $4.8 billion.
At the same time, in the first half of 2024, Ukraine imported goods worth $31.9 billion, which is 4.9% more than in the first half of last year.
He reminded that a new marketing year for grains and oilseeds began on July 1, and offered to summarize the results of MY 2023-2024.
According to Mr. Kachka, Ukraine exported 69.86 mln tons of grains, oilseeds and oils.
“The export of wheat amounted to 18.43 mln tonnes, which is 9% more than in 2022/23 MY. Corn exports amounted to 29.41 mln tonnes, up 0.2% compared to the previous marketing year. Barley – 2.48 mln tons, down 8.5%. Soybeans – 2.98 million tons, also -8.2% compared to last year. Rapeseed – 3.7 million tons, up 8.7%. Sunflower oil – 6.54 million tons, up 22.8%. Soybean meal – 0.662 million tons, +12.5%, sunflower meal – 5.15 million tons, +29.1%,” he said.
Kachka also drew attention to the “staggering drop in exports, which is good news”.
“Last marketing year, Ukraine exported only 324 thsd tonnes of sunflower. This is 86.3%. That is, we are returning to a situation where sunflower is processed in Ukraine,” summarized the Ukrainian trade representative.
In January-June 2024, Ukrgasvydobuvannya JSC and Ukrnafta PJSC produced 7.3 billion cubic meters of commercial gas, which is 8% more than in the same period last year, the press service of Naftogaz Group reports.
According to the press service, such production figures also exceed the group’s operational plan by almost 2%.
“We managed to achieve this result by launching 41 wells, which is one more than planned. Of these, 14 are high-rate wells producing more than 100 thousand cubic meters of gas per day. Our experts are also constantly analyzing old wells that can be brought back into operation using new technical solutions,” said Oleksiy Chernyshov, CEO of Naftogaz.
Naftogaz’s consolidated quarterly report says that the group’s forecasted commercial gas production for 2024 is expected to reach 14.6 billion cubic meters. In February, Chernyshov said that the group’s goal for this year was to get closer to 15 bcm of production.
Zaporozhkoks, one of Ukraine’s largest coke and chemical producers and a member of Metinvest Group, increased its blast furnace coke output by 2% year-on-year to 435.25 thousand tons from 426.76 thousand tons in January-June this year.
According to the company, it produced 72.56 thousand tons of coke in June.
As reported, Zaporozhkoks increased its blast furnace coke output by 16% in 2023 compared to 2022, up to 856.8 thousand tons from 737.4 thousand tons.
“Zaporozhkoks produces about 10% of coke in Ukraine and has a full technological cycle of coke products processing. It also produces coke oven gas and pitch coke.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated mining group of companies. Its major shareholders are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage the company.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
Hotel operator Ribas Hotels Group and development company Arena Bud intend to build an Erwin Hall apartment hotel in the village of Polyana (Zakarpattia region), the operator’s press service has reported.
According to the press release, the hotel is scheduled to be commissioned in the third quarter of 2027. According to the project, the seven-storey hotel will have 116 apartments of different categories: smart, 1- and 2-room apartments with an average area of 32 square meters.
According to the founder of Ribas Hotels Group, Artur Lupashko, the estimated payback period of the hotel is up to 9 years, with a yield of up to 11.5% per annum.
“Mineral waters and unique nature have always provided a reliable tourist flow and turned Polyana into a resort that also has a good and safe location, as it borders Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania. We are also ready to cooperate with the local authorities and develop the surrounding areas, including infrastructure for drivers and pedestrians, landscaping and lighting,” explained Oleksandr Kurakh, CEO and founder of Arena Bud, as quoted in the statement.
Ribas Hotels Group is an international management company established in 2014 in Odesa, whose flagship service is the operational management of hotel and restaurant complexes. The company also provides services in concept development, design, support of all stages of project implementation, consulting and franchising for developers.
The company has 28 city, beach, and ski hotels under the Ribas, Ribas Hotels, Ribas Rooms, WOL home + hotel, and Mandra Glamping brands under integrated management and exclusive booking. The operator’s total room capacity is over 1000 rooms. In total, the portfolio includes 55 projects, including those under design and construction.
The company is currently developing facilities in Poland, Moldova, and Indonesia.
Arena Bud’s portfolio includes nine commissioned residential complexes with a total area of over 40 thousand square meters in the western regions of Ukraine.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrived in Kiev on Tuesday morning, July 2, for a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Magyar Nemzet reported citing Orban’s press chief Bertalan Havasi.
“The most important topic of discussion is the possibility of achieving peace. Viktor Orban and Vladimir Zelensky will also discuss topical issues of Hungarian-Ukrainian bilateral relations,” Havasci commented.
Critical infrastructure protection projects contracted by Avtostrada Group have been funded by only 10%, with the debt for the work performed amounting to almost UAH 9 billion, its founder Maxim Shkil said.
“The third level of protection of substations, which is being carried out by Avtostrada in accordance with the contracts signed in May 2023, was supposed to be completed by the end of June 2024. However, due to lack of funding (only 10% of the cost was financed), large debts were incurred, which led to a complete halt in the work and, as a result, the third level of protection was not built. This applies to all contractors involved in the construction of the third level of protection of energy facilities, without exception. Today, the debt to Avtostrada is almost UAH 9 billion,” he wrote on Facebook.
He reminded that back in April he reported on the critical situation with payments for work performed on infrastructure facilities, in particular for the construction of the third level of protection of energy facilities and a water supply system in the Dnipropetrovs’k region. One of the key contractors for these works is Avtostrada.
In April of this year, Shkil mentioned a debt to Avtostrada of more than UAH 5 billion for the protection of energy facilities alone.
However, according to Shkil, the debt has only grown since then. According to him, after being informed about the critical situation with payments, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal completely stopped all payments and instructed the Bureau of Economic Security (BES) and the State Audit Service of Ukraine (SASU) to check prices and construction of energy facilities protection.
At the same time, according to the group’s founder, the checks showed that Avtostrada’s prices are the lowest among all contractors, and the degree of readiness is one of the highest.
“At our facilities, all the inspecting units recorded the only problem – lack of funding,” he stated.
Avtostrada Group is one of the leaders in the road construction industry and is part of MS Capital holding, with Maxim Shkil as the ultimate beneficiary.
According to the results of 2023, Avtostrada increased its revenue to UAH 8.07 billion, which is 80% higher than in 2022, while net profit decreased more than 10 times, to UAH 46 million 966 thousand from UAH 504 million 934 thousand a year earlier.
Source: https://interfax.com.ua/
