A representative office of the Media Center Ukraine has opened in Odessa, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy reports on Friday.
“With the support of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the Media Center Ukraine – Odesa information platform has been launched in Odessa. It is part of the Media Center Ukraine network along with Kyiv, Lvov and Kharkiv divisions,” the message says.
The information platform is located at the Chernomorets stadium and is open daily from 10:00 to 18:00 in co-working mode.
“The Media Center, in particular, will also provide journalists with service functions: the search for speakers, heroes, experts and interesting personalities. If necessary, the Media Center will be able to provide journalists with bulletproof vests and helmets for trips to the war zone (provided by the Mass Media Institute) and help in the search for fixers” , the message says.
Consumption of scrap metal in the world fell in the first half of this year by 8.4% compared to the same period last year – to 248.789 million tons, following the downward trend in steel production, the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) reported.
At the same time, it is specified that the largest consumer of steel scrap – China – over this period reduced scrap consumption by 13.8% – to 119.55 million tons, the share of scrap in the production of crude steel decreased to 22.7%.
In the second largest user, the EU, scrap use fell 3.2% to an estimated 43.856 million tonnes, while first-half US scrap use fell 3% year-on-year to 22.5 million tonnes.
The consumption of scrap metal in Turkey in the first half of the year decreased by 3% – to 12.480 million tons, the share of steel scrap in the production of crude steel was 87.1%.
BIR notes that Turkey remains the world’s largest importer of scrap steel, importing 2.23 million tons from the US, 1.16 million tons from the Netherlands and 1.135 million tons from the UK.
The second largest importer – South Korea – imported 2.72 million tons of scrap in the first half of the year, which is 29.1% more than in the previous period, while supplies from Japan amounted to 1.7 million tons, the United States – 399 thousand tons and Russia – 226 thousand tons.
India imported 2.67 million tons of scrap metal in the first half of the year, up 0.3%, of which 711 thousand tons from the UAE, 208 thousand tons from the United States and 170 thousand tons from Singapore.
Scrap metal imports also increased to Thailand, Indonesia and Norway in the first half of the year, but fell to the US, EU and Taiwan, BIR reported.
The largest exporter of scrap in the first half of the year is the United States, deliveries amounted to 8.87 million tons. Its main buyers were Mexico (2.005 million tons), Turkey (2 million tons), Bangladesh (900 thousand tons) and South Korea (357 thousand tons).
EU scrap metal exports fell 23.9% to 8.5 million tons, with Turkey (5.8 million tons), Egypt (625 thousand tons) and Switzerland (318 thousand tons) being the main destinations.
On the eve of the elections in November, the US Congress plans to approve a new aid package to Ukraine worth about $50 billion, NBC News reports, citing its own sources.
It is noted that the decision may be made in connection with concerns about cuts in aid to Ukraine if representatives of the Republican Party receive a majority in parliament.
The new aid package is likely to be part of a consolidated spending bill.
At the same time, the administration of US President Joseph Biden has not yet made a formal request for new funding.
As the newspaper notes, the leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, a candidate for the position of speaker in the event of the victory of the Republican Party in the elections, has already said that his party “is not going to issue an endless check to Ukraine.” In addition, many Republican candidates say that the US should focus on its own internal problems, and the war in Ukraine is not connected with US national interests.
At the same time, many Republicans declare the need to continue supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.
“I voted for the first funding bill and I am ready to discuss additional funding. If we do not take the necessary steps for Ukraine to protect its nation and sovereignty from Russia, I think that the ripple effects will eventually cost not only the United States, but everything much more valuable to the world,” said Chuck Fleischmann, member of the Appropriations Committee.
Representatives of the oil and fat industry of Ukraine are asking the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine to increase the duty on the export of sunflower seeds to 10% from 3.5%, this will allow them to be processed domestically into higher-margin sunflower oil, especially in the face of a reduction in the oilseed crop in 2022 from – for the aggression of the Russian Federation.
The proposal to create a working group between the ministry and the specialized association “Ukroliyaprom” to resolve the relevant issue was made by its representative Stanislav Tarshin, the beneficiary of the GradOlia company.
“We understand that the gross harvest of sunflower this year will be 30% less than last year, not 16 million tons, but 9-10 million tons. You can assume that since the beginning of the war, 1.7 million tons have already been exported, and no less will be taken out in the future. We will again be left without jobs, without receiving foreign currency and other things,” he stressed during a panel discussion with Economy Minister Yulia Sviridenko at the business forum “Dialogue between civil society, business and government: wartime challenges” in Kyiv on Friday.
He emphasized that the oil and fat industry of the country may face a shortage of raw materials for the production of sunflower oil due to a smaller sunflower crop in Ukraine in 2022 due to Russian invasion and temporary occupation of part of its territory. This can lead to underloading of enterprises in the industry, a reduction in foreign exchange from oil sales abroad, as well as the closure of enterprises and an increase in unemployment in the country.
To prevent such a development of events, Tarshin proposed to establish a duty on the export of sunflower seeds from the country at a rate of 10% instead of the current 3.5%.
In addition, the representative of Ukroliyaprom called on the Minister of Economy to stimulate deep processing of sunflower oil in Ukraine, including its purification and packaging before selling it abroad.
“We should have reduced the export of crude sunflower oil (in favor of processed – IF-U). Many people think that if we export not sunflower, but crude oil, then this is the final product. This is a big mistake – such oil is a raw material that is subsequently processed many countries of the world. We export 6-6.5 million tons annually, while we only eat 0.5 million tons in the country,” Tarshin specified.
According to him, in order to increase the deep processing of sunflower oil by 50% of the current level, it will be necessary to build about 20 enterprises of this profile in Ukraine, which will additionally create tens of thousands of jobs in the country.
Zurich Insurance Group (Switzerland) celebrates its 150th anniversary this week, according to the insurer’s website.
Since the company was founded in the city of Zurich on October 22, 1872 – originally as a marine reinsurer known as the Versicherungs-Verein – Zurich has grown into a global business spanning more than 210 countries and territories.
“Today, Zurich can celebrate this with its ability to successfully navigate a volatile world,” said Michel M. Lies, Chairman of Zurich. “The last few years have shown that Zurich, as always, is agile and successful, and is in a very strong position. As we celebrate this special milestone, we want to celebrate our history and thank our customers, our communities and our employees in every corner of the world.”
Since the beginning of 2016, Zurich has risen from 10th to 7th place among the largest insurance companies in the world by market capitalization and now ranks 2nd in Europe. During this period, Zurich’s total shareholder return was 145% compared to 27% for the STOXX Europe 600 insurance index, and customer and employee satisfaction improved. This figure was achieved against the backdrop of extreme weather events, a global pandemic, war in Europe and inflation.
Zurich Insurance Group is the largest insurance company in Switzerland, with the US, Germany, Spain, Australia, UK, Brazil and Italy being its second main markets. As of 2021, Zurich was the 75th largest company on the Forbes Global 2000 list and ranked 168th on the Fortune Global 500 list.
Quotes of futures for US stock indices are falling on Friday against the backdrop of continued growth in US Treasury yields, as well as unfavorable corporate news.
Rising interest rates, high inflation and a slowdown in global economic growth affect the financial results of companies. Earnings for the 88 S&P 500 companies that have released quarterly earnings so far are down an average of 2.6%, according to Refinitiv data.
At the same time, in the case of 75% of the reported companies, profits were higher than market forecasts, Market Watch notes.
Shares of Snap Inc. lose in price more than 28% during the preliminary trading on Friday. The company that owns the Snapchat app recorded the lowest revenue growth rate in its history in the third quarter of 2022. The indicator increased by less than 6% in annual terms, to $1.13 billion.
“Our revenue growth continued to slow in the third quarter, driven by a number of factors, including platform policy changes, macroeconomic challenges and increased competition,” Snap said in a statement.
Snap’s management noted that revenue was up about 9% at the start of the fourth quarter and declined to give guidance for the quarter as a whole.
Papers Twitter Inc. fell by 4.2% on the information of the Bloomberg agency that the administration of US President Joe Biden is discussing the possibility of checking some of Elon Musk’s businesses for compliance with the interests of state security.
We are talking about Musk’s SpaceX company, as well as Twitter, which is being bought by a billionaire, informed sources told the agency. According to them, the White House is concerned about Musk’s recent statements about a possible withdrawal of funding for the Starlink satellite communications system for Ukraine, as well as a series of tweets suggesting his ways to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian war.
American Express slipped 4.7% despite the fact that the company, which is one of the leaders in the US plastic card market, recorded net income and revenue in the past quarter above market expectations.
Schlumberger shares rose 1.1% in pre-trade. The American oilfield services company increased its net profit in the third quarter by 1.6 times, revenue – by 28%.
The December E-mini futures for the S&P 500 fell 0.78% to 3646.5 points by 3:55 pm on Friday. The quote of the December E-mini futures on the Dow Jones index fell by this time by 0.7%, to 30,140 points. Futures on the Nasdaq 100 for December fell 1.25% to 10952.25 points.
