Ostchem’s chemical plants will have to stop work in a week if state-run railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia continues to refuse to send railcars for the shipment of their products, Ostchem’s press service has told Interfax-Ukraine. “Ukrzaliznytsya stopped sending railway cars a week ago. As a result, the products are not being shipped and the plants are forced to stock their warehouses. If the wagons are not sent, in a week the warehouses of the enterprises will be completely filled and the plants will shut down,” the press service said.
Ostchem said the most critical situation was at its Cherkasy Azot plant and at Rivneazot, adding that the situation at its Severodonetsk Azot plant is also precarious.
“If the supply of wagons does not resume, the autumn sowing campaign will be under threat. The chemical producers will stop and bear losses. Farmers are in danger of not receiving the fertilizers they need,” the press service added.
Each plant needs about 20 gondola cars every day. Executives from Cherkasy Azot, Rivneazot and Severodonetsk Azot have written to Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and Ukrzaliznytsia officials requesting immediate resolution of the problem.
The Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank FMO (Nederladse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelinglanden N.V.) and Cyprus-based Abbeydrift Limited through a specially established company (SPV) can jointly with Cypriot Badoix Investments Ltd. indirectly gain control over Allseeds S.A. (Luxembourg), the holding company of Allseeds Group, a large Ukrainian producer and exporter of vegetable oils. According to the website of the AMC, it provided the relevant permit to FMO and Abbeydrift Limited.
Earlier mass media called Badoix Investments Ltd. one of the founders of Allseeds S.A.. At present, the ultimate beneficiary of the Luxembourg company in the state register are CEO of Allseeds Viacheslav Petrysche and Trade Director Cornelis Vrins (a citizen of Switzerland).
The Cypriot company Abbeydrift Limited was established in late 2014. There is no additional information about it.
The Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank FMO in mid-July this year disseminated information on preparing a project for the issuance of $15 million loan to Allseeds to increase the company’s capacity and achieve maximum efficiency without buying new equipment. However, now information about this project is not available on the FMO’s website.
Allseeds Group was founded in 2010. In July 2015, the group commissioned an oil extraction plant at Yuzhny port with a capacity of processing 2,400 tonnes of sunflower seeds per day (or 1,800 tonnes of rapeseeds, or 1,500 tonnes of soybeans).
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will consider a loan worth up to EUR 150 million for LLC SyvashEnergoProm, a subsidiary of Norway’s NBT, for the construction of a 250 MW wind farm in Kherson region, the lender said on its website. “This is a long-term senior loan of up to EUR 150 million in an A/B structure, of which up to EUR 75 million would be funded from the EBRD resources and the remainder would be syndicated in a B-loan structure to eligible institutions. The remaining project financing is expected to be provided via parallel loans from IFIs, DFIs, and other investors,” the Bank said.
The total cost of the project is EUR 369 million.
The project will help support the development of renewable energy in Ukraine and the overall decarbonisation of the energy sector. As was reported, NBT SA, which is a Norwegian wind farm developer with operating wind farms in China, in April 2018 bought LLC SyvashEnergoProm (operates a wind farm whose capacity is about 3 MW). It plans to build a wind farm with a capacity of 250-330 MW in neighboring areas.
Metinvest Group has officially announced it has bought up to 24.99% stake in Donetsksteel’s coking coal producers for about $190 million. “The Group has secured additional long-term supply of high-grade coking coal by investing in production cooperation and acquiring up to 24.99% of some coking coal assets in Ukraine,” it said in a statement on the Irish Stock Exchange on August 16. “The assets include several extraction, enrichment and sale entities, the most significant of which is Pokrovske Colliery and Svyato-Varvarinskaya Enrichment Plant, which together form the largest coking coal extraction and production business in Ukraine [until recently, they were part of the industrial and financial group Donetskstal, also known as Donetsksteel],” the statement said.
They are located on the border of Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions, close to Metinvest enterprises. The assets are registered in accordance with Ukrainian law and none is located in the non-controlled territories of Ukraine.
According to Metinvest, the acquisition is in line with the Group’s strategic priority of improving its self-sufficiency in coking coal to strengthen its vertical integration.
As of December 31, 2017, the long-life proven and probable coal reserves amounted to 81 million tonnes, as calculated according to JORC methodology as at January 1, 2013, and adjusted for production in 2013-17. In 2017, raw coal extraction was 4.3 million tonnes, while coking coal concentrate production was 2.6 million tonnes.
Metinvest says sale products mostly consist of high-quality K-grade coal (hard coking coal, most of whose quality characteristics are in line with the Platts requirements for the Premium Low Vol HCC benchmark), which is used in coke production.
The Metinvest Group is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Dnipropetrovsk region. Its major stockholders are SCM with 71.24% and Smart-Holding with 23.76%, which jointly manage the group.
Kyiv-based producer of blood-derived products Biopharma is to boost exports by 60% in August 2018 year-over-year, to UAH 130 million. Exports in August will be 40% higher than the monthly average indicator during the year, the company’s press service said. In August 2018, the company will ship, in addition to Ukraine, to markets of 10 countries, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, India, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Middle East countries, as well as to Slovakia, Mongolia, and Bangladesh. It should be noted that Biopharma’s products will be delivered to Bangladesh and Colombia for the first time. The company’s plans include the expansion of its presence in the European markets.
Biopharma immunobiological pharmaceutical company is one of the ten largest Ukrainian producers of medicines. It produces more than 20 immunobiological preparations from donated blood, preparations obtained with the use of recombinant DNA technology and probiotics.
In 2015, the company invested $3.5 million in the reconstruction of Sumy region’s blood center, which currently accounts for 98.2% of donated blood in the region.
Biopharma plans to launch a plasma fractionation plant in 2018. The Biopharma Group of Companies includes LLC Biopharma Invest, LLC Biopharma Plasma Invest, LLC Biopharma Plasma, and LLC Fractionation Plant FZ Biopharma.
Ekonavtika LLC by the end of this year will commission a complex for LPG storage and transshipment located in Izmail district of Odesa region. The press service of Odesa Regional State Administration said the second stage of construction is currently being completed. The amount of investment in the project was EUR 4 million. In addition to engineering and transport facilities for receiving and storing liquefied petroleum gas, the complex allows transshipping gas to road, rail and river transport. The total capacity of the complex is 200,000 tonnes per year.
The territory of the complex is equipped with access railway tracks, a railway overpass and a tank farm. There is also a customs warehouse in the territory of the complex.
