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
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of February 18
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Kyivstar increases income by 12.4%, EBITDA by 15.6% in 2020
The net income of Kyivstar over 2020 amounted to UAH 25.158 billion, which is 12.4% more than in 2018.
According to the company, the operator’s income from mobile services grew by 12%, to UAH 23.418 billion, and from fixed-line services by 18.7%, to UAH 1.602 billion.
In addition, EBITDA last year increased by 15.6% and amounted to UAH 16.979 billion, while EBITDA margin increased by 1.9 percentage points to 67.5%.
Capex (excluding licenses and leases) for the year increased by 22.1% and amounted to UAH 4.851 billion.
Kyivstar’s total mobile customer base in the fourth quarter of 2020 decreased by 1.3% compared to the same period in 2019, to 25.9 million, while the number of fixed-line subscribers increased by 10.9%, to 1.1 million.
“Kyivstar’s total mobile customer base showed a y-o-y decline of 1.3%, to 25.9 million users due to the decline of second SIM cards in the market and lower gross additions during lockdown when the strict measures resulted in the partial closure of Kyivstar stores,” the company said.
According to Kyivstar, in the fourth quarter of 2020 the number of mobile Internet users reached 17.1 million, which is 1.3% more than in the fourth quarter of 2019. At the same time, the number of subscribers using 4G Internet increased by 30% over the year. The growth in the 4G users and the associated increase in data usage contributed to an ARPU increase of 16,9%, to UAH 80 y-o-y.
Users in 2020 increased the usage of mobile Internet and voice services. Thus, in the fourth quarter of 2020, the average consumption of data traffic per subscriber was 6.1 GB, which is 43% more than a year earlier.
Usage of voice traffic per subscriber for the specified period amounted to 651 minutes, or 12.7% more than in the same period last year.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, the operator’s income increased by 15.2%, to UAH 6.697 billion. Of these, UAH 6.229 billion accounted for income from mobile services (more by 15%), and UAH 430 million for income from fixed-line services (more by 21.3%). EBITDA during this period increased by 10.4%, to UAH 4.452 billion, the margin decreased by 2.8 percentage points, to 66.5%.
Capital investments in the fourth quarter of 2020 amounted to UAH 1.251 billion, which is 25.9% more than in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Over the past year, Kyivstar transferred taxes and other payments to the state budget for a total of UAH 9.3 billion.
In addition, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kyivstar has provided assistance to society and subscribers for UAH 80 million – free communication services, benefits for health workers, the purchase of ventilators for a number of medical institutions, and much more.
Reform of decentralization and judicial reform are important on the path of Ukraine’s European integration, German Ambassador to Ukraine Anka Feldhusen has said.
“This is already my 12th year in Ukraine, and I really want to make a contribution to bring Ukraine closer to the EU and, in my opinion, there are two very important topics. The first is the reform of decentralization. Last year we successfully completed the stage of unification of territorial communities, there were very successful local elections, and now we are still working on what legal status the communities will have, what kind of finance they will receive directly,” Feldhusen said at a virtual meeting, broadcasting on Facebook on Tuesday.
According to her, it is important that communities can now actively work in the interests of their residents.
“But this reform, indeed, is already at its final stage. There is another reform that has hardly started yet. This is judicial reform, and I think this will be my most important priority this year,” Feldhusen said.
The ambassador also said that Germany has already received an invitation to take part in the celebrations of the Independence Day of Ukraine in 2021, adding that high-ranking guests from Germany are expected to visit Ukraine to participate in the first summit of the Crimean Platform on August 23.
