The State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has announced “tough personnel purges at all levels,” the company’s CEO Yuriy Bolokhovets said on Facebook.
“Throughout the year, the security of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” recorded the facts of violations, collected information, conducted internal investigations, and passed materials to law enforcement. It was a huge job that took time. But there is a real result,” he wrote and added that the details of the investigation have not yet been disclosed.
As reported, the state specialized economic enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” is one of the largest forest users in Europe and the largest forest user in Ukraine. It is managed by the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine. The company manages 6.6 million hectares of state forest land.
In 2016, Ukraine launched a forestry reform. It has already introduced the sale of unprocessed timber at electronic auctions. Since 2021, an interactive map of wood processing facilities has been operating in a test mode in a number of regions.
The industry has implemented the Forest in a Smartphone project, which contains a list of logging tickets for timber harvesting and allows you to check the legality of logging on the agency’s online map.
On June 1, 2023, Ukraine launched a pilot for the electronic issuance of logging tickets and certificates of origin for timber.
In addition, to combat corruption within the state enterprise, the management of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has implemented a pilot project on GPS monitoring of the movement of freight and specialized vehicles in forests to improve the electronic timber circulation system (ETS).
In January-September of this year, Ukrtruboprom’s enterprises increased pipe production by 5% year-on-year to 376.1 thousand tons.
According to the association on Friday, in January of this year, about 30 thousand tons of pipe products were produced (44.9% compared to January-2022), in February – 39.5 thousand tons (80.4% compared to February-2022). In February, the company produced 57 thousand tons (1631.4% compared to March 2022), in March – 57 thousand tons (1631.4% compared to March 2022), in April – 42.3 thousand tons (228.6% compared to April 2022), in May – 49.6 thousand tons (96.5% compared to May 2022), in June – 35 thousand tons (67.8% compared to June 2022).
In July, the company produced 43.9 thousand tons of pipes (up 12% compared to July-2022), in August – 41.8 thousand tons (14.5%), in September – 36.9 thousand tons (down 10.2%).
At the same time, it is noted that for 9 months of 2023, pipe companies have demonstrated multidirectional dynamics. In particular, Interpipe Nico Tube and Ukrtruboizol II increased production of seamless pipes by 8.8% and 26.2%, respectively, while Trubostal reduced production by 54.5%. “Centravis increased its production of stainless pipes by 12.9%, while Interpipe NMTZ decreased its production of SAW pipes by 62.9%. Oscar’s pipe production decreased by 25%.
Georgiy Polskiy, CEO of Ukrtruboprom, noted that in the first nine months of the year, the Ukrainian pipe industry showed positive dynamics despite the constant shelling of production sites located in the frontline areas, particularly in Nikopol. The plants are investing in employee safety, for example, by placing mobile protective units on the territory of the workshops where people can hide from the bombardment. In addition, the problem of stable water supply to pipe production facilities remains unresolved after the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam was blown up and the Kakhovka reservoir was shallowed.
“The blockade of the Ukrainian-Polish border, which began in early November, was a real stab in the back for Ukrainian exporters, particularly steel pipes. The European direction is the only one left for our business after the start of a large-scale war. Many trucks with pipes are still stuck in traffic, and all delivery deadlines to European customers have been disrupted. But there is a threat that the strike will spread to other Eastern European countries. If this happens, almost all pipe plants located in the frontline regions will have to shut down production facilities from mid-December,” the CEO emphasized.
As reported, Ukrtruboprom’s enterprises increased pipe production by 5.9% to 126.5 thousand tons in the first quarter. In the first half of the year, they increased pipe production by 5% to 253.5 thousand tons.
In 2022, Ukrtruboprom’s enterprises reduced pipe production by 37.9% compared to 2021, to 449.7 thousand tons. Last year, all plants showed negative dynamics. “Interpipe Nico Tube and Trubostal reduced production of seamless pipes by 31.1% and 61.6%, respectively, Centravis – stainless pipes by 38.3%, Interpipe NMTZ – electric-welded pipes by 67.1%. Production of pipes at Oscar fell by 20%, and only Ukrtruboizol, the second largest producer of pipes, reached the level of the year before last. Dnipropetrovs’k Pipe Plant is idle and in the process of liquidation.
Number of unemployed in Ukraine and job opportunities, October 22 – October 23
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
In January-October 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (UZ) increased the volume of grain and milling products transportation by 5.8%, or 1.32 mln tonnes compared to the same period of 2022, to 24.26 mln tonnes, according to the UZ report.
According to the document, 17.55 mln tons of grain and milled products were transported in export traffic in 10 months, which is 0.7% or 129 thsd tonnes less compared to the same period of 2022.
In total, 10.46 mln tons of grain cargo were transported by rail to ports in 10 months, which is 15% less than in the same period of 2022. At the same time, the volume of transportation in the direction of border crossings amounted to 7.09 mln tonnes (31% more).
The volumes of grain cargo transportation to ports have been growing since August, due to the launch of the temporary sea corridor to the ports of Greater Odesa, UZ said.
It is specified that in October, the share of grain transportation towards ports amounted to 56.8%.
Earlier it was reported that 151 vessels have used the Ukrainian sea corridor established by the Ukrainian Navy since August 10, 2023, 121 of which have already used it with 4.4 mln tons of export cargo.
According to the forecast of Yuriy Vaskov, Deputy Minister of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development, if the sea corridor is fully operational, more than 50% of export shipments in 2024 will be carried out by sea.
Benchmark oil prices continued to fall on Friday.
The postponement of the OPEC+ ministerial meeting has brought some nervousness to the market. However, experts believe that the postponement will not affect the outcome of the meeting, MarketWatch reports. Citi analysts expect that Saudi Arabia will extend its voluntary production cap by 1 million bpd for the first quarter of 2024, while other countries will generally promise to adhere to the established quotas by the end of the year.
UBS experts also predict that the cartel will reach an agreement on production caps. At the same time, they expect oil prices to remain volatile in the near future.
Quotations of January futures for Brent crude oil on the London ICE Futures exchange as of 6:58 a.m. amounted to $81.33 per barrel, which is $0.09 (0.1%) lower than the price at the close of the previous session. On Thursday, these contracts fell by $0.54 (0.7%) to $81.42 per barrel.
The price of January futures for WTI in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) fell by $0.7 (0.9%) to $76.42 per barrel in the morning. The main session on Thursday was not held due to the Thanksgiving Day celebrations in the United States.
PrJSC United Mining and Chemical Company (UMCC), which manages Vilnohirsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant (VGMK, Dnipro region) and Irshansk Mining and Processing Plant (IGOK, Zhytomyr region), has discussed with potential customers the supply of over 200 thousand tons of titanium ore next year.
According to the company’s press release, the discussion of possible supplies took place at the 17th annual TZMI Congress, the largest exhibition of the global titanium industry, which took place in Singapore.
Thanks to the event, which brought together the largest players in the titanium market, UMCC representatives held a number of meetings to expand international cooperation and plan supplies for 2024. In particular, preliminary negotiations were held with leading companies from America, Japan, the UK and the European Union.
“The total volume of supplies discussed for the next year is more than 200 thousand tons of UMCC products. We have now started working on the next stages of negotiations with counterparties and procedures preceding the signing of contracts. We hope that the expansion of cooperation, which we are now actively working on, will help increase the economic stability of the company,” said Dimitri Kalandadze, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the company, as quoted by the press service.
At the same time, he stated that the blockade of export routes and shelling of maritime infrastructure by Russia lead to disruptions in the delivery of products to customers. This directly affects the image of Ukrainian exporters and delays payment for goods. However, in such circumstances, it is very important to develop alternative ways of cooperation and expand it. This is a priority for the company’s management, summarized the Deputy Chairman of the Board.
The United Mining and Chemical Company started its actual operations in August 2014, when the Ukrainian government decided to transfer the property complexes of Vilnohirsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant (VGMK, Dnipropetrovska oblast) and Irshansk Mining and Processing Plant (IGOK, Zhytomyrska oblast) to its management. Previously, these plants were leased to Firtash’s structures. Then the company was transformed into a PJSC and then into a PrJSC.
In August 2016, the government included UMCC in the list of companies to be privatized in 2017. Its deadline was postponed several times, and the tender was disrupted twice.
UMCC used to sell its products to more than 30 countries and was one of the world’s largest producers of titanium raw materials, accounting for 4% of the global market. The company mines titanium ore.
