In January-June 2024, the warehouse property market in the capital expanded by 23.4 thousand sq m, with 205 thousand sq m expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2024 and in 2025, according to a study of the warehouse property market in Kyiv by CBRE Ukraine.
“Despite all the current economic and security challenges, the warehouse real estate market is experiencing a steady recovery, not without sensitivity to the dynamics of military operations. The war and its aftermath remain the main factors affecting leasing and investment activity. In the first half of 2024, the impact of rising energy and raw material costs, currency fluctuations and a constant shortage of skilled labor was particularly noticeable,” Natalia Sokyrko, Head of Warehouse and Logistics at CBRE Ukraine, was quoted in the release.
The study specifies that in the first half of 2024, the first stage of the Dudarkiv logistics complex (23.4 thousand square meters) was put on the market, which increased the volume of competitive warehouse space on the market by 1.8% to 1.32 million square meters since the beginning of the year. Half of the space in Dudarky is pre-leased.
CBRE, headquartered in Los Angeles (USA), is the world’s largest commercial real estate consulting and investment company, with revenues of $30.8 billion in 2022.
The state enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” calls on local authorities to reinstate a total ban on visiting forests across the country due to massive fires, the state enterprise reported on its Telegram channel.
“Currently, the country is facing the most acute situation with forest fires since the beginning of the year. Over the past week, there have been more than one and a half hundred fires on an area of 341 hectares! The reason is massive shelling, downed missiles and drones,” the message says.
According to the Forest of Ukraine, the worst situation was recorded in Kirovohrad region, where 115 hectares of forest burned due to the detonation of missile warheads. In addition, fires on 54.9 hectares were extinguished in Kharkiv region over the week. Nearly 50 hectares of fires were extinguished in the frontline Sumy region. Due to the attacks of the “Shahed” on the capital, foresters in Kyiv region extinguished dozens of fires covering an area of 24.6 hectares.
“It hasn’t rained for many weeks in most regions of the country. The fire spreads instantly! The forest guard is working at maximum capacity. The average fire area has not increased. We are using all available means to stabilize the situation so that the 2020 disaster does not happen again,” the state enterprise explained.
The Forests of Ukraine noted that it is becoming increasingly difficult to extinguish fires, as the fire is spreading from the frontline forestry enterprises of the State Forestry Agency and the territories of the nature reserve fund. At the same time, a significant number of fires are caused by the human factor.
“We ask everyone not to visit forests during this period! We appeal to local authorities to reinstate the total ban on visiting forests across the country. This will reduce the burden on our response forces, which are eliminating the consequences of enemy attacks,” summarized the Forests of Ukraine and asked those wishing to go outdoors exclusively in the territory of recreational centers.
Source: https://interfax.com.ua/
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has authorized the purchase and transfer of foreign currency by resident legal entities that are e-commerce entities abroad to pay value added tax (VAT) on the purchase of goods from domestic producers by consumers from EU countries.
“The condition for these transactions is that the e-commerce entity must be registered as a taxpayer in the EU. This mitigation will primarily support small and medium-sized businesses that will be able to promote their own goods on the EU market through trading platforms,” the central bank said in a press release on Monday.
The regulator assumes that this will not have a negative impact on international reserves, as the inflow of foreign currency to Ukraine for the goods sold will far exceed the additional demand for currency to pay VAT in the EU.
In addition, the NBU announced a number of other currency easing measures. In particular, the central bank allowed state-owned companies to buy and transfer foreign currency abroad to cover carbon dioxide emissions.
“State-owned enterprises will be able to buy foreign currency and transfer it to non-residents to purchase quotas to cover or compensate for carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions associated with aviation activities,” the National Bank explains.
According to the regulator, this step contributes to the continuity of defense procurement under state contracts, will allow for further air transportation abroad, and will support military-technical cooperation with the EU.
Other transactions that the NBU has authorized since September 10 include payments for operations under reinsurance agreements concluded with foreign nuclear insurance pools.
“In particular, to pay a break-even bonus, which is a mandatory condition stipulated by the reinsurance agreement. This mitigation will have a minor impact on international reserves and at the same time will allow the Nuclear Insurance Pool to fulfill its obligations to partners, which is important for the smooth operation of the industry,” the NBU said in a release.
As reported, the regulator also allowed Ukrainian businesses to reimburse coupon payments on Eurobonds paid from February 24, 2022, to July 9, 2024, at the expense of their own foreign currency accumulated in Ukraine.
At the same time, starting from September 10, the NBU introduced a limit of UAH 100 thousand per month for payments for watches, jewelry, precious stones and coins from currency cards of Ukrainian banks abroad and up to UAH 500 thousand per month for transactions with real estate agents.
All of the above innovations are introduced by Resolution No. 108 of September 6, 2024, which was officially promulgated on Monday, September 9.
In August, more than 25.7 thousand used cars imported from abroad were added to the Ukrainian car fleet, which is 22% more than in the same month in 2023 and almost 29% more than in July this year, Ukravtoprom reported on its telegram channel.
“This is the best figure for the last 25 months,” the statement said.
As reported, according to the association, 8.1 thousand new passenger cars were registered in August (40% more than in August last year), meaning that the demand for imported used cars exceeded the demand for new ones by more than three times.
According to Ukravtoprom, the largest share in the used car segment in August, as before, belonged to gasoline cars by a wide margin – 46%. This is followed by diesel cars – 25%; electric cars – 20%; cars with LPG – 5%, hybrids – 4%.
Volkswagen Golf remains the leader among imported second-hand cars with 1325 registrations.
The top ten most popular models of the month also included Renault Megane – 1037 units, Skoda Octavia – 959 units, Volkswagen Passat – 738 units, Volkswagen Tiguan – 685 units, Audi Q5 – 671 units, Nissan Leaf – 658 units, Tesla Model Y – 588 units, Nissan Rogue – 581 units and Tesla Model 3 – 561 units.
The average age of used cars that switched to Ukrainian license plates in August was 8.6 years.
In total, 159 thousand used cars were registered for the first time in Ukraine in January-August, which is a quarter more than in the same period in 2023.
As reported, in 2023, registrations of used cars imported from abroad decreased by 45% compared to 2022 – to 214.4 thousand units.
Brent crude oil prices may fall below $70 per barrel in the relatively near future, according to Ben Lukock, head of oil at Trafigura.
At the same time, he warned the market against being too pessimistic.
“It’s dangerous because there are so many unexpected things that can happen,” Lukock said, speaking at the Asia-Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC). – “I wouldn’t bet everything on a price decline.
Oil prices began to fall in mid-July on concerns about global demand and increased supply by OPEC+ countries and have now shown negative dynamics since the beginning of the year.
Torbjörn Thornqvist, the head of Gunvor, also shares the negative forecast.
“The world is now producing much more oil than it consumes, and this balance is expected to only worsen in the coming years,” Bloomberg quoted Thornqvist as saying at the APPAC conference.
Jeff Curry of Energy Pathways voiced a somewhat more optimistic view. He acknowledged the problems in China’s economy, but pointed out that the expected Federal Reserve rate cut could support investor sentiment.
“Growth in demand for oil and other energy will come from regions such as India, Africa and parts of Latin America in the future,” he said.
France will use EUR300 million in 2024 to purchase weapons for Ukraine, part of the EUR1.4 billion in proceeds from frozen Russian assets allocated by the European Union, the French Defense Ministry said.
“The European Commission has agreed with the Directorate General for Armaments that it will use these funds to quickly acquire priority equipment for Ukraine from the French industry, ammunition, artillery and air defense equipment from the French industry for a total of 300 million for 2024,” the ministry said in a communique published on Friday.
Earlier, EU Diplomacy Chief Josep Borrell said that the EU has already begun to transfer the proceeds of Russia’s frozen assets to the Ukrainian side and the bloc countries that will supply Kyiv with weapons.
