The average level of reserves in underground storage facilities in Europe fell to 29.99% at the end of the gas day on February 27, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe. This is 16 percentage points lower than the average for the last five years.
The fill rate of underground storage facilities in Germany and France, Europe’s leading economies, is significantly lower than the European average — 20.6% and 21.4%, respectively, and 10.7% in the Netherlands.
The spot price of gas with “day ahead” delivery on the benchmark European TTF hub closed at $387 per 1,000 cubic meters on Friday.
Since the beginning of 2025, the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine has ceased. Europe is trying to compensate for the shortage of Gazprom’s pipeline gas supplies by importing liquefied natural gas. At the end of 2025, countries in the region purchased 109 million tons of LNG (142 billion cubic meters after regasification), which is 28% more than in 2024. In February 2026, liquefied gas imports reached 9 million tons, which is 9% higher than a year earlier.
Despite high demand, there remains a large unused capacity reserve—on February 27, terminals were operating at 64% of their throughput capacity.
Europe entered the current heating season with incomplete underground gas storage facilities. The need to replenish the reserves used up during this period will be an additional factor driving demand on the global market throughout the coming year.
Given not only technical but also realistic and economic constraints that will limit the European injection campaign in the summer of 2026, the question of how much Europe will be able to fill its UGS facilities by next winter and how risky the 2026/27 heating season will be will be relevant.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) in mainland China’s economy fell by 5.7% in January to 92.01 billion yuan ($13.4 billion), according to the country’s Ministry of Commerce. The manufacturing sector attracted 26.09 billion yuan, while the service sector attracted 64.04 billion yuan. Investment in high-tech industries increased by 0.6% year-on-year to 33.75 billion yuan.
FDI from Germany to China grew by 86.6%, from Switzerland by 57.4%, and from Singapore by 10.9%.
At the same time, 5,306 new enterprises with foreign capital participation were registered in the country last month, which is 25.5% more than in January 2025.
As reported, FDI fell by 9.5% in 2025.
Metinvest B.V. (Netherlands), the parent company of an international vertically integrated mining and metallurgical group of companies, paid the next coupon on its 2027 Eurobonds and, despite the war in Ukraine, continues to fulfill its debt obligations, in particular to Eurobond holders.
“We can confirm that the coupon for March 1 was paid on time,” Andriy Burlakov, head of the Metinvest Group’s press service, told Interfax-Ukraine in response to a request.
The coupon payment date for Eurobonds-2027 is March 1.
“The coupon payment dates are March 1 and September 1 of each year,” according to the information on the 2027 bonds.
The coupon rate is 7.650% per annum.
Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical enterprises. Its enterprises are located in Ukraine – in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions – as well as in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The main shareholders of the holding company are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%). Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of the Metinvest Group.
A ceremony to lay the foundation stone for a Boeing aircraft maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) hangar center was held in Shymkent, according to the press service of the Kazakh Ministry of Transport.
“The new complex will become the largest aircraft maintenance and repair facility in Central Asia and one of the most significant infrastructure projects in Kazakhstan’s aviation industry,” the ministry said.
The project involves the creation of a modern full-cycle production center focused on servicing Boeing aircraft, including the Boeing-737 (Classic/NG/MAX) and Boeing-757/767 families, as well as promising programs for Boeing-777 wide-body aircraft. In this regard, the purchase of additional Boeing aircraft is planned.
The complex will be located on an area of 10 hectares. The total area of the engineering and technical infrastructure will exceed 45,000 square meters, including an aircraft parking area of more than 6 hectares. It is planned to build at least 15 high-tech facilities.
“The implementation of the project will allow Kazakhstan to create a modern service base of international level, capable of attracting foreign airlines to service their aircraft, expanding industry competencies and creating new highly skilled jobs,” the press release said.
It is noted that the initiative to create the center was developed during President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s working visit to the United States, where, at a meeting with Boeing executives, the prospects for expanding strategic cooperation were discussed, including the implementation of a project to build a Boeing aircraft maintenance and repair center in Shymkent.
Earlier, Kazakh airline SCAT agreed with Boeing Co. to increase the number of Boeing 737 aircraft in its fleet to 15 by 2035: in September 2025, SCAT received its 11th Boeing 737 MAX8.
A few years ago, Kazakh airline Air Astana announced plans to start flying to the US once it got its hands on some Boeing 787 Dreamliners. In November 2025, Air Astana said it signed a deal with Boeing Co. to get up to 15 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. The airline expects to take delivery of four Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Nova Poshta, the leader in express delivery in Ukraine and part of the NOVA group, does not plan to become a marketplace, as it has no intention of engaging in the business of its own customers, according to co-owner Vyacheslav Klimov.
“Our main asset is our focus on delivery, so there will never be a marketplace,” Klimov emphasized in the second part of the Fedoriv Vlog episode on YouTube.
According to Nova Poshta co-owner Volodymyr Poperechnyuk, the company plans to develop in the field of logistics and delivery over the next 10 years.
“There are no marketplaces in our 10-year plans at all,” Poperechnyuk clarified.
Separately, Poperechnyuk noted that Nova Poshta has set goals for increasing the use of robots in performing work tasks.
“I think we will start from global practices, such as Amazon, which has millions of robots. I think we will start with thousands,” the co-owner emphasized.
The day before, during the presentation of the book “For Managers” by Artem Borodatyuk, founder of the IT company Fractal, Klimov announced that one of Nova Poshta’s strategic bets for the future is fulfillment services — providing a complete chain from ordering goods to delivering them to the customer.
As reported, Nova Poshta increased its revenue by 21% in 2025 compared to 2024. The number of parcels and cargo delivered in 2025 increased by 7.4% – from 486 million to 522 million, including international deliveries – by 52.6%, from 19 million to 29 million.
The main activity of Nova Poshta is the express delivery of documents, parcels, and palletized large-sized cargo. Its ultimate beneficial owners are Volodymyr Poperechnyuk and Vyacheslav Klimov.
As of early January 2026, the company’s network had more than 50,000 service points, including 15,900 branches and 34,200 post offices.
The price of gold and other precious metals rose sharply on Monday due to the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
By 9:57 a.m. ET, April gold futures on the Comex exchange rose about 3.3% to $5,418 per ounce.
Silver futures rose 3.3% to $96.38 per ounce, and platinum futures rose 2% to $2,422 per ounce.
As reported, on Saturday, the US and Israel launched military action against Iran. They carried out more than a thousand missile strikes on Iranian cities, killing Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran launched retaliatory strikes against Israel and a number of Persian Gulf countries. In particular, residential areas of the capital of Bahrain were affected, and damage to a number of hotels and the airport in Dubai was reported.
Meanwhile, the price of aluminum on the London Metal Exchange jumped nearly 3% on Monday to $3,231 per ton. It is noted that Iran’s neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain, are major aluminum producers. According to AZ China, the Middle East accounts for about 9% of global production of this metal.
Earlier, the Experts Club analytical center presented an analysis of the world’s leading gold-producing countries in its video on YouTube channel — https://youtube.com/shorts/DWbzJ1e2tJc?si=BywddHO-JFWFqUFA
EXPERTS CLUB, GOLD, IRAN, ISRAEL, USA
