NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy has announced a default on its eurobonds due to the government’s refusal to agree on payments on them.
“The deadline for payments to holders of Naftogaz Eurobonds expired on July 26 without payment taking place,” the company said in a press release published on Tuesday evening.
Naftogaz said that the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers had earlier on July 21 issued order No. 625-r obliging Naftogaz officials to seek Cabinet approval before executing any transactions related to the company’s eurobonds.
In its official letter to the government, Naftogaz indicated the availability of the necessary funds in its accounts to cover eurobond payments. Naftogaz officials also detailed the possible negative consequences for the company and for the country in the event of a hard default on eurobond payments.
The company said that in response, the Cabinet of Ministers failed to provide permission for Naftogaz to fulfill its payment obligations to eurobond holders for either the 2022 issue or the 2024 issue.
“The government has therefore defaulted on Naftogaz eurobond payments. As this failure to meet its eurobond obligations effectively deprives Naftogaz of access to international capital markets, the Cabinet of Ministers as the responsible party now assumes full responsibility for raising the funds necessary for the import of natural gas for the 2022-2023 heating season,” the company said in the press release.
In the first 27 days of exporting electricity to the EU, NPC Ukrenergo earned over UAH 500 million from the sale of access to interstate power lines at cross-border sections with Romania and Slovakia, the company’s press service reported on Monday.
“This is the result of high competition at auctions for access to interstate power grids, which Ukrenergo conducts according to transparent European rules. From six to 13 participants participated in each of the auctions,” the report says.
It clarifies that in the direction of Romania there were ten or more companies in most auctions, and more than six in the direction of Slovakia, while in total more than 200 participants have already registered for participation in the auctions.
The company notes that the export of electricity to the EU countries allows the state and electricity producers to earn funds to prepare for the heating season: buy coal, finance repairs of power units of power plants and grids. In particular, at present, the company sells at auctions all available transmission capacity with Romania and Slovakia – 100 MW, which is in demand, since the price of electricity in the EU exceeds the Ukrainian one by several times.
The company’s income from access to interstate grids during the war can be used to settle the balancing market to give electricity producers an additional resource to prepare for winter. To this end, amendments to the law on the electricity market are expected.
According to Ukrenergo, the weighted average daily price of access to sections with Romania and Slovakia amounted to UAH 7,700 per MW over 24 days. At the same time, the highest weighted average price was at auctions for the delivery day on July 26 – UAH 14,600 per MW. At the same time, in previous years, such a record did not exceed UAH 3,000/MW.
The Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul for maritime exports of agricultural products from Ukraine continues to work intensively, as it is necessary to send the first ships with Ukrainian grain to customers as soon as possible.
This was announced by Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar during a meeting with Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov, according to the website of the Turkish Ministry of Defense.
During the meeting, Akar said Turkey is fulfilling and will continue to fulfill its part of the obligations as part of the shipment of goods from the seaports of Ukraine.
According to the Turkish department, its head expressed satisfaction with the news about the possible start of grain exports from Ukraine this week.
Kernel, one of the largest Ukrainian agro-industrial groups, in the 2022 financial year (FY, July 2021-June 2022) reduced sales of vegetable oil (sunflower and rapeseeds) by 29% compared to FY 2021 – to 967,000 tonnes from 1.37 million tonnes, the total processing of oilseeds – by 31%, to 2.19 million tonnes from 3.18 million tonnes.
According to a report published on the company’s website, the decline in production and sales of oilseeds and vegetable oil was caused by the blockade of Ukrainian seaports by warships of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation, as a result of which the active harvesting, processing and export of grain and sunflower oil was stopped.
It is specified that in the fourth quarter of FY2022 (March 2022-June 2022), Kernel sold 60,800 tonnes of sunflower and rapeseeds oil (less by 78% compared from the fourth quarter of FY2021) and processed 156,600 tonnes of oilseeds crops.
The total export of agricultural crops by Kernel in the fourth quarter of FY2022 decreased by 93% compared to the same period of the last fiscal year, to 123,000 tonnes, while in FY2022 the reduction was 1% – to 7.97 million tonnes.
In total, in the fourth quarter of FY2022, the group of companies increased the volume of agricultural products delivered to its elevators by 12% compared to the fourth quarter of FY2021, to 65,500 tonnes, while for the entire FY2022, some 4.19 million tonnes of agricultural raw materials were delivered to elevators – 10% more than in FY2021.
“The situation with the group’s critical infrastructure remains unchanged. The group’s two oil extraction plants in Kharkiv region, located in the temporarily occupied territories, remain inaccessible. The new granaries were not damaged, except for two silos with a capacity of 74,000 tonnes, which were badly damaged in the spring of 2022,” the group said.
“Since the beginning of the war with Russia, 1,150 of our employees have been mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine or joined the defense units. Of these, 460 were demobilized and returned to work,” the agricultural holding stated.
Kernel also noted with regret that 11 of its employees were killed in Ukraine due to the military aggression of the Russian Federation.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide EUR 1.59 billion supported by guarantees from the EU budget, to help Ukraine repair the most essential damaged infrastructure and resume critically important projects addressing the urgent needs of Ukrainian people, the European Commission said on Tuesday.
“This EIB support will keep strategic public sector companies financially viable and able to carry out urgent repairs of critical infrastructure, resume the provision of essential services and address other immediate needs of the Ukrainian people, including those displaced by Russia’s war,” European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said.
He assured that “the European Commission will keep working with EU Member States and our international partners to support Ukraine on every level — for as long as it takes.”
The European Commission said that This is the second package of support for Ukraine under the EIB Ukraine solidarity urgent response developed in close cooperation with the European Commission. It follows an emergency support package of EUR 668 million.
Like the first one, this new financing is offered at favourable terms including long tenors.
The bank will immediately disburse EUR 1.05 billion. It will help the Ukrainian government to cover priority short-term financing needs, provide support to strategic state-owned companies, ensure urgent repairs of damaged infrastructure, resume the provision of disrupted municipal services, and support urgent energy and energy efficiency measures in preparation for the cold season.
Another EUR 540 million will be used to resume implementation of EIB-financed projects in Ukraine where possible. The selected projects will cover energy, energy efficiency, roads, transport, education and infrastructure, as well as reconstruction and recovery programmes, the European Commission said.
In January-June of this year, the State Customs Service of Ukraine issued 80 certificates for the export of scrap metal to EU countries to enterprises dealing with ferrous scrap, according to the Ministry of Finance’s response to the letter of the Ukrainian Association of Secondary Metals (“UAVtormet”), dated July 23, 2022.
At the same time, the Ministry of Finance stated that the State Customs Service did not receive requests from subjects of foreign economic activity regarding problems in obtaining certificates.
In turn, “UAVtormet” sent a letter to the Ministry of Finance and the State Customs Service on June 20, 2022, a copy of which is in the possession of the “Interfax-Ukraine” agency, in which it pointed out the appeal of market participants regarding selectivity in the issuance of permits for export procedures, in particular, in the issuance of certificates for supply of scrap to the EU.
In the appeal of “UAVtormet” it was emphasized that the Ministry issued an order dated March 2, 2021 approving the procedure for issuing certificates. According to the Association, the procedure for obtaining a certificate is significantly complicated, it does not contain a complete list of necessary documents, and the procedure for a full or partial inspection of vehicles for product identification is used to delay the registration of export consignments.
UAVtormet believes that this creates corruption risks and causes financial losses to both the state and Ukrainian business.
The association asked the Ministry of Finance to hold an operational meeting on problematic issues in the export of scrap metal, with the involvement of experts from the ministry, the State Customs Service, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, “UAVtormet” and “UAVtormetresurs”.
As reported, Ukrainian enterprises in January-June of this year reduced the export of ferrous metal scrap eightfold compared to the same period last year – to 28.74 thousand tons, in monetary terms, the export of scrap metal decreased by 6.8 times – to $12.24 million.
Scrap metal was exported in January-June 2022 mainly to Turkey (61.35%), Poland (12.49%) and Germany (9.45%).
In 2021, Ukraine increased the export of scrap metal by 17.2 times compared to the previous year – up to 615.69 thousand tons. In monetary terms, the export of scrap metal increased 25.2 times to $238.90 million.
Ukrainian Association of Secondary Metals (“UAVtormet”), Ukrainian Association of Scrap Metal Exporters (UAEM) and “Ukrainian Association of Secondary Metals and Resources” (“UAVtormetresurs”) operate in Ukraine.
CERTIFICATES, EU, EXPORT, SCRAP METAL, STATE CUSTOMS SERVICE
