The State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” will supply any volume of timber for fortifications without intermediaries, said CEO Yuriy Bolokhovets.
“Customers do not need to turn to intermediaries – we will find the volumes and organize the delivery. No matter what point on the map of Ukraine we are talking about,” he wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
According to him, the terms of transfer of wood for fortifications are determined by the Ministry of Defense, regional military administrations, military units, and may include tenders, direct contracts and other mechanisms.
“We are the largest state-owned company. If it is necessary, Forests of Ukraine is ready to significantly increase the volume of supplies,” said Bolokhovets, adding that the company has been fulfilling all defense orders without exception.
“Recently, Forests of Ukraine won the Ministry of Defense’s tender on Prozorro for the supply of almost 28 thousand cubic meters of wood at a price of UAH 3.75 thousand per cubic meter with delivery.
Also this year, the state-owned company provided the Defense Forces with almost 75 thousand cubic meters of wood free of charge and fulfilled all requests from military units received by the company.
Earlier, Bolokhovets said that since 2023, Forests of Ukraine has provided the Armed Forces with almost 200 thousand cubic meters of lumber and raw wood worth more than UAH 330 million.
The Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (MTSBU) will hold the first session of the online course “Fundamentals of the New Law on CMTPL Insurance” on May 31 at 10:00, according to the Bureau’s Facebook page.
The session will be conducted by Roman Romensky, Head of the MTSBU Legal Department, who will talk about the basic principles and procedure for concluding insurance contracts in accordance with the basics of the new law (Section I-II of the draft law).
It is specified that participants do not need to register, it is enough to follow the YouTube live link https://www.youtube.com/live/hIQEzWFqQqc.
In connection with the adoption on May 21, 2024 by the Verkhovna Rada of the draft law “On Compulsory Insurance of Civil Liability of Owners of Inland Motor Vehicles” will hold a familiarization course on the main provisions of the bill, according to the website of the Bureau.
The familiarization course will consist of four sessions (by sections of the draft law), which will be held on the official YouTube channel of the MTSBU on Fridays at 10:00, lasting 1 hour 30 minutes, of which 30 minutes will be allocated for answering questions.
The tentative plan of the lectures is as follows: Session 1: Basic fundamentals of the New Law on CMTPL insurance and the procedure for concluding insurance contracts (І-ІІІ section of the draft law), Session 2-3: Settlement of insurance claims and the procedure for making payments (III section of the draft law), Session 4: Updating the functional work of the MTSBU and the basic principles of insurance companies’ membership in the Bureau (IV section of the draft law).
At a meeting on Thursday, the Cabinet of Ministers approved an intergovernmental agreement with the United States to raise $7.849 billion in economic aid for the Ukrainian budget.
“Today we are approving a draft agreement between Ukraine and the United States, which will allow Ukraine to receive about $7.9 billion in financial and economic support. These are funds under the new US aid package that will be allocated to the Ukrainian budget,” Shmyhal said at a government meeting.
According to the text of the agreement, published in Telegram by MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, another $50 million will be allocated to prevent and respond to food insecurity, but the list of recipient countries will be determined later.
In addition, Ukraine may be among the countries that will receive another $1.575 million in economic assistance.
It is noted that the United States provides funds on an interest-free loan with the condition of repayment in one payment 40 years after September 30, 2025. At the same time, the agreement provides for the possibility of writing off part or all of this debt by the US President: after November 15, 2024, up to 50% of the loan may be canceled, and after January 1, 2026, the entire amount of debt may be canceled.
Metinvest Group’s Kametstal Iron and Steel Works (Kamianske, Dnipro Oblast) has installed a new single-stage blower in cooperation with YASNO Energy Efficiency, which will help reduce energy consumption and cut operating costs in the process of blast furnace gas injection at gas-assisted compressor station No. 6.
According to the company, the new gas blower, which plays a key role in the technological process of transporting blast furnace gas of the required performance and pressure parameters for rollers, has an average electricity consumption of 200 kWh, taking into account the efficiency of the electric motor and control system. The capacity and pressure control is ensured by the installed guiding apparatus and a 0.4 kV frequency converter. The control systems are individually designed on the basis of a Siemens controller to operate in automatic mode within the specified performance range.
It is specified that the hourly power consumption of the previous equipment averaged 650 kWh. With a nominal capacity of 850 kWh, it required manual adjustment of the required parameters, which also reduced the stability of maintaining the required performance parameters and pressure of blast furnace gas in the existing pipelines through which it is transported to the heating furnaces of the pipe billeting mill.
A modern European-made supercharger was installed at the existing industrial site. Thanks to the optimal solutions implemented by the company’s power engineers, the maximum amount of available process equipment was used. Along with the dismantling of the previous equipment, the contractors relocated existing utilities, reconstructed the electrical room, and laid a new cable line from the substation to the gas compressor station 6.
“Kametstal was established on the basis of PJSC Dnipro Coke and Chemical Plant (DKKhZ) and PJSC Dnipro Metallurgical Plant (DMK).
According to the 2020 report of Metinvest Group’s parent company, Metinvest B.V. (Netherlands) owned 100% of the shares in DCCP.
JSC OTP BANK, as part of a joint program with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), offers small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) investment loans to support their business in times of war with the possibility of compensation for part of the costs financed by the Bank’s credit facilities. The parties have recently signed a new cooperation agreement that will allow OTP Bank to provide EUR 120 million of financing to the Ukrainian private sector with the participation of the EBRD through a 50% credit risk coverage instrument on a portfolio basis.
“This program is, in fact, a successful expansion of the previous cooperation with the EBRD, which was in great demand among our clients, and is aimed at supporting such critical industries as agriculture, production and trade of essential goods, logistics services and others. Thanks to this lending instrument, companies are able to continue their operations, develop and ensure the availability of goods and services to the population,” said Natalia Kondratchuk, Head of Corporate Finance Department of OTP Bank.
“Such loans under portfolio guarantees can be used to support long-term investments of SMEs in green technologies (modern agricultural machinery and other energy-efficient equipment, solar panels for power plants to meet their own needs) that meet the standards of the European Union and will help increase the competitiveness of enterprises in domestic and foreign markets. After the investment project financing is implemented, SME borrowers will be able to apply for investment incentives (cash compensation, cashback) provided by the EU under the EU4Business initiative.
The amount of compensation depends on the type of assets acquired and the complexity of the project and can be up to 15% of the amount of loan funds received. Reimbursement is made in euros after documentary evidence of the intended use of funds by the SME borrower and verification of documents by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The signed agreement is a continuation of the cooperation between the EBRD and OTP Bank in supporting Ukrainian business, which began in 2022. One of the components of this cooperation is the implementation of a program to increase the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises in the EU’s Eastern Partnership countries. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the total amount of new financing from Ukrainian banks, supported by similar EBRD guarantees, reached about EUR 900 million as of the end of 2023.
In the first quarter of 2024, KSG Agro agricultural holding reduced its net profit by 37% to $0.96 million, while revenue decreased by 2% to $5.02 million, according to the company’s report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
“As in the previous year, the Group used more of its own grain for feed production rather than purchasing it (to reduce dependence on external suppliers of feed components in wartime). In 2024, the Group continues to export grain,” the document says.
According to it, due to a 10-fold increase in the benefits of biological transformation this year (up to $1.06 million), gross profit increased by 10% to $2.26 million, operating profit by 5% to $1.61 million, while EBITDA decreased by 2% to $1.83 million.
It is specified that the higher profit last year was due to the sale of a subsidiary for $0.76 million.
According to the report, KSG Agro managed to slightly reduce its net debt in the first quarter of this year to $15.06 million from $15.63 million due to a reduction in bank loans to $15.17 million from $15.84 million. The agricultural holding’s free cash flows at the end of March amounted to $0.11 million compared to $0.21 million at the beginning of the year.
During January-March 2024, the key operating subsidiary KSG Dnipro issued $5 million of C and D series bonds with a coupon rate of 7% per annum and maturity in August and October 2025, respectively, of which it placed $1.35 million of C series bonds.
As noted, the sowing campaign is proceeding according to plan, without significant interruptions due to military operations. As of the date of the report, the group sowed sunflower on an area of 7.7 thousand hectares, wheat on 2.2 thousand hectares and rapeseed on 1.43 thousand hectares.
According to the report, KSG Agro, a vertically integrated holding company, is one of the top 5 pork producers in Ukraine. It is also engaged in the production, storage, processing, and sale of grains and oilseeds. Its land bank is about 21 thousand hectares in the Dnipro and Kherson regions.
In 2023, KSG Agro reduced its net loss by 30.9% to $1.16 million, while revenue increased by 13.8% to $18.79 million.