Ferrexpo plc, a mining company with major assets in Ukraine, and Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH, a subsidiary of German steel company Salzgitter AG, have announced that they will strengthen their cooperation.
According to a stock exchange announcement, the companies signed a memorandum of understanding for the supply of direct reduced iron (DRI) pellets for the production of low-carbon steel.
It is specified that the memorandum on the use of pellets in SALCOS (Salzgitter Low CO2-Steelmaking), a production facility of Salzgitter, provides for the implementation of a decarbonization program, joint development of strategies for the use of raw materials within environmentally friendly supply chains.
“We have agreed on the terms of our cooperation for the future. Ferrexpo’s DR pellets can significantly reduce emissions in steel production under the SALCOS program,” explained Jaroslawa Blonska, Acting Marketing Director at Ferrexpo.
Gerd Baresh, Technical Director of Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH, expressed his hope for intensified cooperation in the context of the SALCOS program: “This agreement will help us reduce carbon emissions in our supply chains and stimulate the production of environmentally friendly steel.”
The SALCOS program is expected to be technically completed by 2033.
Ferrexpo is an iron ore company with assets in Ukraine. Ferrexpo owns 100% of shares in Poltava Mining, 100% of shares in Yeristovo Mining and 99.9% of shares in Bilanivsky Mining.
State-owned PrivatBank, Oschadbank and Ukreximbank have purchased the largest amount of domestic government bonds since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion and have become market leaders in terms of government bonds with UAH 316 billion, UAH 154.2 billion and UAH 130.5 billion, respectively.
“PrivatBank’s clients mainly invest in hryvnia domestic government bonds (64.5%) and US dollar bonds (33.7%). At the same time, 80% of clients reinvest in securities of the Ministry of Finance when redeeming government bonds,” the financial institution’s press service said.
PrivatBank noted that every third hryvnia of the 1 trillion hryvnia raised in government bonds since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia was invested by the bank or its clients.
In its turn, Oschadbank clarified that UAH 154.23 billion in equivalent of the total portfolio of domestic government bonds, UAH 26.6 billion, was purchased since the beginning of 2024, UAH 65.29 billion in 2023, and UAH 62.34 billion in 2022.
The top three are followed by the state-owned Ukrgasbank, which purchased the equivalent of UAH 89.3 billion of domestic government bonds in the primary market.
Among the top ten banks in the country in terms of assets, FUIB and Sens Bank also published data on investments in domestic government bonds.
Thus, according to the information on FUIB’s website, the amount of investments of more than 2 thousand clients of the bank (both individuals and legal entities) in government bonds since the beginning of the full-scale invasion has reached 1.6 billion in national currency, while foreign currency portfolios amounted to more than $50.5 million and EUR10.5 million, respectively.
The press service of Sens Bank indicates that as of today, the financial institution’s portfolio of government bonds held by individual investors is over UAH 8.1 billion, which “corresponds to about 13% of the total portfolio of government bonds held by individual investors in the country.”
“(…) our bank’s clients, both individuals and business representatives, continue to actively invest in securities. Thus, in April this year alone, our clients purchased government bonds worth UAH 1.87 billion, of which UAH 1.6 billion were military bonds,” the bank noted.
Sens emphasized that clients prefer hryvnia bonds, as the bank’s information shows that in April this year, 53% of consumers preferred them.
Other banks from the “Big Ten” by assets as of April 1 this year – Raiffeisen, Ukrsibbank, Universal Bank (mono) and Credit Agricole – did not publish information on the volume of purchases of government bonds since the beginning of February 24, 2022 on their websites at the time of the publication of this material.
At the same time, Kredobank, the 14th largest bank by assets, reported that its clients have invested more than UAH 3 billion in government bonds since the beginning of the full-scale Russian aggression, and more than 70% of this amount was invested in military bonds.
Kredobank reminded that it was one of the first banks to cancel brokerage fees for the purchase of military bonds after the war started and reduced the minimum investment amount in government securities to UAH 50 thousand.
“The main preferences of Kredobank’s customers for 2024 are short-term, up to 1 year, military government bonds in national and foreign currencies. We also observe that after the maturity of the bonds, more than 50% of customers re-invest their funds, doubling the amount,” said Serhii Kucheriavyi, Director of the Liquidity and Securities Department of the bank.
As reported, the Ministry of Finance managed to lower interest rates by another 0.1-0.27 percentage points (p.p.) at auctions for the placement of domestic government bonds on Tuesday, May 21, bringing the total decrease to 0.92-1.37 p.p. after the National Bank cut the discount rate from 14.5% to 13.5% per annum on April 26.
According to the website of the Ministry of Finance, the cut-off rate for one-year securities decreased from 15.15% to 15.05%, for two-year securities – from 16.2% to 16.08%, and for three-year securities – from 17.2% to 16.93%.
The number of concluded Green Card contracts in January-April 2024 decreased by 8.88% to 451.8 thousand, according to the website of the Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (MTIBU).
According to the report, in January-April 2024, the total accrued insurance premiums under international insurance contracts “Green Card” concluded by the member companies of the Bureau increased by 3.81% compared to the same period in 2023 – up to UAH 1.680 billion.
At the same time, the amount of compensation paid on claims increased by 21.51% to EUR 16.758 million.
The Motor Bureau also noted that while previously Green Card insurance certificates were mostly issued for a short period of up to three months, now drivers are increasingly choosing long-term or annual insurance contracts.
MTIBU is the only association of insurers that provide compulsory insurance of civil liability of owners of land vehicles for damage caused to third parties.
“Green Card is a system of insurance coverage for victims of road traffic accidents, regardless of their country of residence and country of vehicle registration. “The Green Card covers 45 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa.
According to the decision taken by the General Assembly of the Council of the Bureau of the International System of Motor Insurance “Green Card” in Luxembourg in May 2004, Ukraine became a full member of the system on January 1, 2005.
The number of road accidents caused by children has increased 1.4 times
Almost 6.5 thousand road accidents with victims were recorded in Ukraine in 4 months of 2024, according to the Patrol Police Department (PPD). This is 6% more than in the same period in 2023. 813 people died in these accidents. There has also been a significant increase in the number of road accidents involving children – 1.4 times this year. Most of these accidents occurred in the Lviv region.
6475 road accidents with victims were recorded in Ukraine in the first four months of 2024. This is 6% more than last year.
The number of people killed in such accidents this year reached 813, and 8155 were injured.
For the second year in a row, the top three anti-leaders in terms of the number of accidents with victims are led by Dnipropetrovska oblast, where 637 such incidents occurred, 10% of the total number in the country. The number of accidents here increased by 14.5% compared to the same period last year.
Lviv region ranks second with 586 accidents with victims (9%), and Kyiv closes the top three anti-leaders with 534 cases (8%).
The largest increase in road accidents with victims over the year was recorded in Kherson (+26%), Mykolaiv (+23%) and Rivne (+23%) regions.
Most people – 70% of the total number – died in road accidents due to speeding (430) and maneuvering violations (136).
It is worth noting that the number of road accidents involving children is increasing year by year. For example, 956 such accidents occurred in the first four months of 2024, almost a quarter more than in the same period last year. The highest number of such accidents was recorded in Lviv region – 115 cases.
The number of accidents involving children has increased 1.4 times this year compared to last year and 3 times compared to 2021. The largest number of such cases occurred in Lviv (21), Rivne (14), Ivano-Frankivsk (13), and Volyn (12).
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/kids-dtp-2024-4
Heat map of risks for the financial sector of Ukraine
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
In January-April 2024, insurance companies-members of the Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (MTIBU) concluded 2.307 million contracts of compulsory insurance of civil liability of owners of land vehicles (CTP), which is 5.66% more than in the same period in 2023.
According to the data published on the MTIBU website, 1.708 million contracts were concluded in electronic form (20% more).
In the first four months of 2024, the Bureau’s members increased the collection of insurance premiums under MTPL policies by 26.74% compared to the same period in 2023 – up to UAH 2.904 billion, including UAH 2.319 billion (+41.3%) under electronic contracts.
The average insurance premium under MOTPL contracts is UAH 1,259 thousand.
The total amount of accrued insurance claims under domestic insurance contracts increased by 34.26% to UAH 1.501 billion, including UAH 308.5 million paid using the Europrotocol (+24.25%).
The Bureau also recorded a 40.6% increase in the number of settled insurance claims to 48.9 thousand, including 17.3 thousand claims paid using the Europrotocol (+15.6%).
The average payment for property amounted to UAH 40,190 thousand, for the Europrotocol – UAH 17,62 thousand, for health – UAH 54,974 thousand.
MTIBU is the only association of insurers in Ukraine that provides compulsory insurance of civil liability of owners of land vehicles for damage caused to third parties. The Bureau’s members include 35 insurance companies.