Odesa maritime merchandise port in January 2021 handled 1.654 million tonnes of cargo, which is 18.4% less than in January last year.
According to the website of the state-owned enterprise Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, during this period the port reduced the transshipment of export cargo by 23.3%, to 1.243 million tonnes, transit by 27.1%, to 71,610 tonnes, transshipment of imported grew by 11.1%, to 339,350 tonnes.
At the same time, coastal transshipment in January 2021 was not recorded.
Transshipment of dry and bulk cargo in the Odesa seaport for the specified period decreased 33.6%, to 520,830 tonnes, packaged goods by 17.4%, to 1.004 million tonnes. Transshipment of bulk cargoes in turn grew almost fivefold, to 128,910 tonnes.
Container handling in January 2021 amounted to 45,388 TEU (22.2% down).
Central Mining and Processing Plant (Kryvy Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region), part of Metinvest Group, in 2020 reduced the production of merchant pellets by 5.4%, compared to the previous year to 2.27 million tonnes.
According to the audited consolidated financial results released by Metinvest on Tuesday, last year the output of iron ore concentrate at the plant increased by 10%, to 4.904 million tonnes.
Central Mining and Processing Plant is one of the five largest producers of mining raw materials in Ukraine. It specializes in extraction and production of iron ore raw materials – concentrate and pellets.
The plant is part of Metinvest Group, the main shareholders of which are PrJSC System Capital Management (SCM, Donetsk, 71.24%) and the Smart-Holding (23.76%).
Metinvest Group’s management company is Metinvest Holding LLC.
Inhulets Mining and Processing Plant (Kryvy Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region), part of Metinvest Group, in 2020 increased output of iron ore concentrate by 4% compared to 2019, to 12.858 million tonnes.
According to the audited consolidated financial results released by the company on Tuesday, work was carried out last year to modernize the transport infrastructure.
Completion of the construction of a new cyclical flow technology at Inhulets plant is planned in the second half of 2021.
The enterprise specializes in extraction and processing of ferruginous quartzites of Inhulets deposit, located in the southern part of the Kryvy Rih iron ore basin. It produces two types of iron ore concentrate with an iron content of 64.8% and 67%.
The production capacity is 14 million tonnes of iron ore concentrate per year.
Inhulets Mining and Processing Plant is part of Metinvest Group, the main shareholders of which are PrJSC System Capital Management (SCM, Donetsk, 71.24%) and the Smart-Holding (23.76%).
Metinvest Group’s management company is Metinvest Holding LLC.
KSG Agro agricultural holding increased its land bank by 6.7%, to 23,900 hectares, the company’s press service said on Wednesday.
According to the report, the agricultural holding has increased its land bank due to 1,500 hectares of land shares in village Strilkove (Henichesk district, Kherson region), where it plans to grow crops.
The exact names of the products are not indicated.
The vertically integrated holding KSG Agro is engaged in pig breeding and production, storage, processing and sale of grain and oilseeds.
Over the nine months of 2020, the agricultural holding posted $4.77 million in net profit, which is 52% less than in the same period in 2019, revenue decreased by 17%, to $14.67 million.
The first ten days of February did not bring any changes in the cost of billets in the domestic market of China, prices remain in the range of $603-624 per tonne ton exw with 13% VAT, at the same time, export quotations grew slightly to $550-560 per tonne fob versus $550 per tonne fob a week earlier.
As noted in the press release of the Ukrainian Industry Expertise, the decline in trading activity on the import markets of Southeast Asia led to a drop in prices at the lower level by $5, to $540-560 per tonne cfr. By the end of the second week of February, incoming supplies began to increase in price again due to the rise in prices for scrap in Turkey.
Weak demand for finished products was a consequence of low business activity on the billet markets in MENA. Billet import prices range from $560-575 per tonne fob versus $585-615 per tonne cfr at the end of January. Proposals for billets from Iran for the sale of large batches decreased to $ 520-525 per tonne fob. At the same time, suppliers no longer make concessions in anticipation of the emerging tendencies to improve the situation in connection with the rise in scrap prices.
Together with the rise in scrap prices and the rise in domestic prices for rebar, supply of semi-finished products on the Turkish market shifted to the upper part of the range of $550-565 per tonne exw. The target level of Turkish importers, as a rule, does not exceed $540-550 pet tonne cfr, while supplies from the CIS countries come in the range of $550-565 per tonne cfr.
According to the forecasts of analysts, CIS producers in the coming weeks will seek to raise quotations by $10-15, using the rise of scrap prices in Turkey and the expected recovery in demand in China and Southeast Asia after the holidays.
On the rebar and wire rod market in China, demand is expected to recover after the holidays, as evidenced by the growth of quotations on the futures market in the first ten days of February. Domestic prices for rebar and wire rod strengthened by $3 over the week due to exchange rate fluctuations to $678 per tonne exw and $699 per tonne exw with 13% VAT, respectively.
On export routes, supplies of Chinese companies increased by $5-10 to $615-630 per tonne fob for rebar and $625-660 per tonne fob for wire rod. Import prices in Southeast Asia over the past two weeks have been $620-640 per tonne cfr for rebar and $635-670 per tonne cfr for wire rod. Moreover, further price increases are expected.
On the Turkish market, the rise in scrap prices and the rise in the cost of billets provoked a jump in domestic prices for rebar by $22, to $600-610 per tonne exw. Export deals last week were in the range of $590-610 per tonne fob, and the last supplies at the end of the second week of February did not fall below $600-610 per tonne fob.
Ukrainian Industry Expertise analyst Oleh Hnytetsky predicts that according to the rise in scrap prices, suppliers of rebar and wire rod in the coming weeks will test the market for increasing export quotations of products at the Black Sea ports by $10-15.
Low domestic demand and a rollback of export quotations since mid-January determine the downward price trend in the Ukrainian rebar market. In conditions of low final demand, excess stocks of rolled products in warehouses and a significant rollback of export quotations, traders were forced to make concessions and reduce domestic prices by an average of UAH 895 for rebar and UAH 740 for wire rod.
Traders’ expectations remain pessimistic as of late February – early March.
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 18/02/21
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
