The State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection (SSUFSCP) has imposed a ban on the import of animals from Slovakia to Ukraine due to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in that country, the agency’s press service reports.
At the same time, it referred to official information from the European Union (through the Animal Disease Information System – ADIS) and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH).
“The import of animals susceptible to the foot-and-mouth disease virus, genetic material, raw materials and products from them to Ukraine from the Slovak Republic is prohibited,” the statement said, citing an order from the Chief State Veterinary Inspector of Ukraine.
The source of infection is animals with foot-and-mouth disease and those in the incubation period. The virus can be transmitted, in particular, through food from animals susceptible to the disease.
In January-February 2025, Ukraine increased imports of aluminum and aluminum products by 23.4% to $74.56 million. In February alone, aluminum imports amounted to $37.9 million. At the same time, exports of aluminum and aluminum products increased by 27.8% to $19.9 million.
Aluminum is widely used as a structural material. The main advantages of aluminum are its lightness, stamping resistance, corrosion resistance, high thermal conductivity, and non-toxicity of its compounds. In particular, these properties have made aluminum extremely popular in the production of cookware, aluminum foil in the food industry, and packaging. The first three properties have made aluminum the main raw material in the aviation and aerospace industries (recently it has been replaced by composite materials, primarily carbon fiber). After the construction and production of packaging, such as aluminum cans and foil, the energy sector is the largest consumer of the metal.
In 2030, Ukrainian biomethane producers will be able to supply up to 1 billion cubic meters of this fuel to the EU, says Maciej Zaniewicz, Green Deal Ukraine project expert, senior analyst at Forum Energii (Poland), who is a co-author of the study “Potential for Cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in the Field of Biomethane” by Green Deal Ukraine and the Ukrainian Climate Office.
“In our opinion, as well as in the opinion of Ukrainian analysts, the real volumes of biomethane production in Ukraine can be plus or minus 0.5% of EU demand. We are talking about about 1 billion cubic meters of biomethane in 2030,” Zanevych said in an interview with theInterfax-Ukraine energy project Energoreforma.
According to him, the most interesting thing in the study on the potential for cooperation in this area was that Ukrainian biomethane has already found buyers at market prices in the EU.
“At the same time, demand in the EU is so high that Ukrainian imports will not hinder the development of the industry within the EU,” the expert believes.
At the same time, he notes that Ukrainian biomethane “will not become some kind of export hit for Ukraine and a panacea for the EU.”
“What I mean is that it will not fully replace natural gas imports to the EU. Yes, it is an important component for diversifying gas supplies, but it will not completely replace imports,” Zanevych explained.
He also drew attention to the risk that pro-Russian circles will try to sow disinformation, “as it was with the trucks, as it was with the farmers.” “That allegedly Ukrainian biomethane producers will displace European producers. That’s why we wanted to make a reliable analysis based on objective data and show how it can actually be,” the expert said.
As reported, the first batch of Ukrainian biomethane of 67 thousand cubic meters was exported on February 7, 2025 by Vitagro, an energy holding whose plant with a capacity of 3 million cubic meters of biomethane per year operates in Khmelnytsky region. The exports were made to Germany.
On February 11, MHP’s biomethane plant Oril-Leader (Dnipropetrovs’k region) exported 27.4 thousand cubic meters of biomethane and became the second Ukrainian company to do so. MHP exported biomethane via gas pipelines across the Ukrainian-Polish border to Germany. The buyer was Vitol. The capacity of Oril-Leader is 11 million cubic meters per year.
The Gals Agro agricultural holding has built a biomethane plant with a capacity of 3 million cubic meters in Chernihiv region. The company has already been connected to the grid and is preparing to export its products.
At the Ukrainian Investment Congress in Kyiv in early March, Georgii Geletukha, Chairman of the Board of the Bioenergy Association of Ukraine (BAU), said that Ukraine could soon become the main supplier of biomethane to the European Union, with the share of Ukrainian products in the European market reaching 20% in the future.
Geletukha emphasized that Europe aims to consume approximately 35 billion cubic meters of biomethane in 2030, while European production is currently estimated at 3 billion cubic meters. Given the current market trends, the EU will be able to increase its own production to 20 billion cubic meters of biomethane within five years.
The expert explained such a delay in the development of the biomethane market in Europe by the lack of large free areas of agricultural land and, accordingly, the inability to produce the necessary amount of raw materials for processing.
He drew attention to Europe’s new plans for 2030, which include the production and consumption of 100 billion cubic meters of biomethane by 2050. However, it will not reach this figure because of the lack of raw materials, the expert believes.
According to his assumption, if Ukraine were to produce up to 15 billion cubic meters of biomethane now, the EU would “buy everything with a bang.”
According to him, in Ukraine, the range of biomethane producers and potential exporters will expand in 2025. They will be joined by another MHP company, Teofipol Energy Company, and Józefów-Mykolaiv Biogas Company. In total, Ukrainian facilities will produce 111 million cubic meters of biomethane per year.
At a cost of EUR900 per 1 thousand cubic meters of biomethane produced from crop waste or from animal waste, including manure or litter, at EUR1100-1200 per 1 thousand cubic meters, Ukraine will be able to receive up to EUR100 billion annually from exporting these products to the EU, Geletukha predicts.
The study on the prospects of cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in the field of biomethane is available at https://greendealukraina.org/uk/products/analytical-reports/the-potential-of-ukraine-eu-biomethane-cooperation
PJSC “Ukrstal Zaporizhzhia Steel Structures Plant” ended 2024 with a net loss of UAH 15.803 million, while in 2023 it was UAH 13.955 million.
According to the company’s announcement in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), the company’s shareholders’ meeting scheduled for April 20, 2025, proposes to leave the net loss for 2024 uncovered.
According to the agenda, the shareholders will review the reports of the Supervisory Board and the auditor for the past year and approve the results of financial and economic activities.
PrJSC “Ukrstal Zaporizhzhia Steel Structures Plant” is the legal successor of PJSC “Zaporizhzhia Steel Structures Plant” (the name was changed in April 2017). Its principal activity is the production of building metal structures.
According to the third quarter of 2024, Closed Non-Diversified Venture Corporate Investment Fund Rift JSC owns 56.303% of the shares of PJSC “Ukrstal Zaporizhzhia Metal Structures Plant”, Technological Renaissance LLC owns 42.8637%.
The authorized capital of the PrJSC is UAH 137.424 million, the par value of 1 share is UAH 0.01.
Zaporizhzhia-based Zaporizhstal Iron and Steel Works has successfully passed an audit for compliance of its hot-rolled and cold-rolled products with the requirements of EN 10025 and EN 10130 standards, the company announced on Tuesday.
According to a press release, on February 24 and 25, 2025, an auditor from Technical and Management Services LLC, a corporate partner of the certification company TÜV ZÜD, inspected the manufacturing technology of Zaporizhstal’s hot-rolled and cold-rolled products.
To confirm that the mechanical properties of rolled products meet the requirements of the standards, metal samples were taken and tested at the plant’s product testing and certification center. The auditor reviewed the technical and organizational documentation and highly appreciated the systematic work aimed at improving product quality and implementing new approaches to customer focus.
Based on the audit results, Zaporizhstal confirmed the compliance of its hot-rolled and cold-rolled products with the requirements of EN 10025-1:2004, Annex ZA, Construction Regulation 305/2011/EU and EN 10130.
In addition, the scope of the certificate has been extended to cover hot-rolled products made from steel grades suitable for cold forming and bending. This will open up opportunities for the sale of such rolled products in accordance with the requests of European consumers.
At the same time, it is reminded that Zaporizhstal has been operating in accordance with the requirements of EN 10025-1: 2004 and EN 10130: 2006. The plant has also been certified and regularly confirms its compliance with the requirements of international standards for the quality management system IS0 9001 since 2003, the environmental management system ISO 14001 and the occupational health and safety management system ISO 45001 since 2008, the statement said.
“Zaporizhstal is one of the largest industrial enterprises in Ukraine, whose products are in great demand among consumers both in the domestic market and in many countries of the world.
“Zaporizhstal is in the process of integration into Metinvest Group, whose major shareholders are System Capital Management (71.24%) and Smart Holding Group (23.76%).
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
The construction of the Chernivtsi-Suchava (Romania) European railway will begin in 2026, and a feasibility study is being prepared, Deputy Finance Minister Oleksandr Kava said.
“Under an optimistic scenario, construction of the European railway to the city of Chernivtsi (from Suceava, Romania – IF-U) may already begin next year… A feasibility study is currently being prepared for the project. Chernivtsi has the opportunity to become the second regional center after Uzhhorod to get access to the European gauge directly in the city,” Kava said at the conference ‘Logistics as a Driver of Economic Growth’ organized by the We Build Ukraine think tank.
According to him, the construction of the Chop-Uzhhorod European railway is currently underway, funded 50% by Connecting Europe Facilities (CEF) and 50% by the state budget.
The launch of this Euro-gauge is planned for the summer of 2025, Kava said.
“This (Chop-Uzhhorod European railway – IF-U) will not only allow to launch direct passenger trains from Uzhhorod to Budapest, Bratislava, Prague, Vienna, Dresden, but will also enable shippers operating in Uzhhorod to send goods via the European railway to partners in Europe and also receive goods, containers and materials from European countries directly to Uzhhorod,” the deputy minister said.
Earlier it was reported that Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (UZ) made temporary changes to the schedule of a number of passenger trains heading to Uzhhorod until the end of July due to large-scale work on laying a European standard track between Chop and Uzhhorod.
At a meeting with European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apostolos Tsitsikostas, Vice Prime Minister for Reconstruction of Ukraine and Minister of Community and Territorial Development Oleksiy Kuleba said that direct European gauge rail service to Uzhhorod would be launched in the second half of 2025.
