Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group continues to produce steel products at its enterprises and produce iron ore raw materials under the constant threat of enemy shelling and under conditions of power shortage.
“Our enterprises, as far as it is possible under military conditions, continue to produce products for the defense and restoration of the country’s infrastructure, keep jobs and pay taxes,” the press service of Metinvest quoted the company’s general director Yuri Ryzhenkov as saying.
According to him, Metinvest’s enterprises in Ukraine are working under war conditions, but the work is also complicated by rising production costs, falling prices for certain types of products and logistical constraints due to the blocking of maritime exports. However, even under such difficult circumstances, the group’s enterprises continue to operate at different levels of utilization, taking into account security, logistics and economic factors.
“Kametstal” and the group’s joint venture “Zaporizhstal” continue to produce. Meanwhile, Kametsteel resumed production of pig iron, steel and rolled products in December after production was halted due to Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in late November 2022.
Construction of the 11th coal mining block is underway at the Pokrovsky Coal Group enterprises. Centralny GOK continues to produce pellets.
In general, the focus of the group’s enterprises is to promptly resume work or increase production levels under favorable conditions, according to the press release.
As before, the group’s priority remains to take care of its employees who support the production process. All facilities have bomb shelters manned for extended stays. The shelters are provided with water, food and medicines.
“Metinvest continues to fight the theft by rf, which illegally exported more than 234,000 tons of the company’s metal from Mariupol. In particular, 16 enterprises of the group filed lawsuits in the European Court of Human Rights against Russia for damages caused to property and assets of the group in Mariupol and other territories of Ukraine since February 24, 2022.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical companies. The enterprises of the group are mainly located in Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
The major shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%) that manage it jointly.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
Geographical structure of foreign trade in goods in 2018-2022 (%)
NBU
China will soften restrictive measures previously imposed to combat the spread of the coronavirus in early January, the South China Morning Post reported.
China’s State Health Commission has decided to downgrade the threat of COVID 19 from the highest, “A,” to “B.” The “A” category was introduced back in 2020.
As part of this decision, from January 8, 2023, those arriving in China will not have to be sent to mandatory quarantine: this measure will remain in force only for those who have COVID 19.
At the same time, a negative test for coronavirus will be required to enter the territory of the PRC, notes Bloomberg.
In addition, according to the news agency EFE, China will also weaken control over its territory for people with coronavirus. In particular, the authorities will abandon the practice of tracking with whom a sick person had contact. They will also do away with the practice of determining how high the risk of infection is in a particular area.
2022-2024 goods trade balance forecast (USD billion)
NBU
NNEGC “Energoatom” state enterprise will increase the raise to the official salary of the pro-Ukrainian personnel of Zaporizhzhia NPP for work in difficult conditions of the occupation starting from January 1, 2023.
“Already from January 1, 2023 the size of this allowance will increase up to 50%. Ukrainian ZNPP personnel will receive the money immediately after the deoccupation of the plant and its liberation from the Rashists,” the company said in a Telegram channel in the evening of December 27.
Initially “Energoatom” introduced a surcharge at the rate of 20% of official salary, which is accrued for work in difficult conditions of occupation for the personnel of Zaporizhzhya NPP in April 2022.
In general, as NNEGC Energoatom president Petro Kotin said, the company guarantees payment of all financial obligations to ZNPP personnel with a pro-Ukrainian stance. We are talking about salaries, allowances for work in difficult conditions of the occupation, remuneration at the end of the year and bonuses for the Day of Power Engineers.
“The patriots will receive all these payments in full, even if they are in forced downtime due to the fact that they are not allowed to work by the Rashists,” Kotin, quoted in the Telegram channel, stressed.
In addition, the trade union committee of the NAEC assumed financial support of the evacuated family members of Energoatom workers, who remained at their work places, and of the evacuated personnel. As of today, all of them in total have already been paid more than 74 million hryvnias, the company noted.
“At the same time, female workers with children under seven years of age from September to November this year were set an additional payment in the amount of the minimum wage. The total amount of this assistance amounted to more than 16 million hryvnias,” the NAEC added.
Also, as reported by the head of the primary trade union organization “Energoatom” Alexei Lych, the company is currently working out algorithms of compensation of possible financial losses of the pro-Ukrainian personnel of ZNPP in case the occupants are not allowed to work.
On December 26, Energoatom approved a collective agreement for 2023-2024.
During the last two months a series of scientific and practical seminars-tastings of vintage drinks of 20-80 years old were held on the basis of Analytical center “Club of experts” with the assistance of a public association “Ukrsadvindindprom” and Charity fund “Reconstruction and development of Ukraine”. Representatives of Ukrainian wine industry, retail, mass media and other experts took part in these seminars.
All in all, participants of the workshops got acquainted with more than 40 kinds of vintage alcohol, produced in Ukraine and European countries in the second half of the last century. The total age of the drinks exceeds 3000 years.
In particular, such famous Ukrainian collection brands, as “Massandra sherry” from the 1980s and “Black Doctor” from 2007 were presented at the conferences. Among the European alcoholic brands the participants distinguished a rare sherry brandy “Hispano” 1870 (!), another Spanish drink “Ponche Rives” 1978, vermouth “Marsala” 1950-ies and other drinks. All in all 15 different vintage drinks were evaluated by the participants.
According to the words of the expert-collector of vintage alcoholic drinks Igor Magalas, the cost of the majority of samples which were presented at the seminars does not exceed the prices of similar drinks on supermarket shelves. At the same time, the taste and eco-friendliness of vintage drinks are an order of magnitude superior to many modern brands.
“The thing is that the automation of alcohol production lines, which became widespread at the end of the last century, led to a natural decline in quality for the sake of quantity. More than once I faced situations when at closed tastings sommelier experts preferred lower class vintage alcohol produced in the 1960s-1970s to modern expensive brands bottled in the 2000s-2010s,” Magalyas noted.
According to the expert, the reason for this is not the number of years the drink has been in the bottle, but the technological process of production at the initial stages, which largely affects the bouquet and taste of any alcohol.
Maxim Urakin, the organizer of the series of seminars, in turn, expressed hope for the further development of the vintage drinks market in Ukraine and for promotion of the culture of their consumption in the new year 2023.
“We will continue the promotion of vintage alcohol in the Ukrainian market. In Europe this product has a wide consumer audience for a long time, while in our country it is still considered “elite” and unavailable, although in my opinion it is a delusion. Therefore, the main purpose of our seminars, to make vintage alcohol more accessible to Ukrainians” – he stressed.
Vintage (molesim) in wine-making means the year of ripening of a certain grape variety which is used to produce wine, brandy, cognac or other vintage-based drinks. This indicator is important in determining the characteristics of the drink because weather and climatic conditions change every season, which may affect both positive and negative effects on the organoleptic characteristics of beverages of the same brand.
The Club of Experts is Kiev analytical center, which is engaged in researches in the field of economics, sociology and other scientific disciplines. In particular, with the assistance of the Club of experts during the last year there were held several events for the promotion of the national winemaking products.
Public Union “Ukrsadvindindprom” was a partner of the seminar and tasting. “Ukrsadvindwinprom” unites about 200 producers of fruits, berries, nuts and grapes, enterprises that process fruits and berries and produce wine, as well as scientific institutions for implementation of new scientific approaches in production.
The “Reconstruction and Development of Ukraine” Charitable Foundation has been providing extensive volunteer support to the army and civilians since the war began. In particular, with the support of KNUSA Rector Petr Kulikov, the foundation donated a modern mobile hospital for the needs of the military.
CLUB_EXPERTS, CONFERENCE, SCIENCE, UKRSADVINPROM, URAKIN, VINTAGE_WINE, WINE, WINEMAKING
