Metinvest Group has officially announced it has bought up to 24.99% stake in Donetsksteel’s coking coal producers for about $190 million. “The Group has secured additional long-term supply of high-grade coking coal by investing in production cooperation and acquiring up to 24.99% of some coking coal assets in Ukraine,” it said in a statement on the Irish Stock Exchange on August 16. “The assets include several extraction, enrichment and sale entities, the most significant of which is Pokrovske Colliery and Svyato-Varvarinskaya Enrichment Plant, which together form the largest coking coal extraction and production business in Ukraine [until recently, they were part of the industrial and financial group Donetskstal, also known as Donetsksteel],” the statement said.
They are located on the border of Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions, close to Metinvest enterprises. The assets are registered in accordance with Ukrainian law and none is located in the non-controlled territories of Ukraine.
According to Metinvest, the acquisition is in line with the Group’s strategic priority of improving its self-sufficiency in coking coal to strengthen its vertical integration.
As of December 31, 2017, the long-life proven and probable coal reserves amounted to 81 million tonnes, as calculated according to JORC methodology as at January 1, 2013, and adjusted for production in 2013-17. In 2017, raw coal extraction was 4.3 million tonnes, while coking coal concentrate production was 2.6 million tonnes.
Metinvest says sale products mostly consist of high-quality K-grade coal (hard coking coal, most of whose quality characteristics are in line with the Platts requirements for the Premium Low Vol HCC benchmark), which is used in coke production.
The Metinvest Group is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Dnipropetrovsk region. Its major stockholders are SCM with 71.24% and Smart-Holding with 23.76%, which jointly manage the group.
Kyiv-based producer of blood-derived products Biopharma is to boost exports by 60% in August 2018 year-over-year, to UAH 130 million. Exports in August will be 40% higher than the monthly average indicator during the year, the company’s press service said. In August 2018, the company will ship, in addition to Ukraine, to markets of 10 countries, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, India, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Middle East countries, as well as to Slovakia, Mongolia, and Bangladesh. It should be noted that Biopharma’s products will be delivered to Bangladesh and Colombia for the first time. The company’s plans include the expansion of its presence in the European markets.
Biopharma immunobiological pharmaceutical company is one of the ten largest Ukrainian producers of medicines. It produces more than 20 immunobiological preparations from donated blood, preparations obtained with the use of recombinant DNA technology and probiotics.
In 2015, the company invested $3.5 million in the reconstruction of Sumy region’s blood center, which currently accounts for 98.2% of donated blood in the region.
Biopharma plans to launch a plasma fractionation plant in 2018. The Biopharma Group of Companies includes LLC Biopharma Invest, LLC Biopharma Plasma Invest, LLC Biopharma Plasma, and LLC Fractionation Plant FZ Biopharma.
Ekonavtika LLC by the end of this year will commission a complex for LPG storage and transshipment located in Izmail district of Odesa region. The press service of Odesa Regional State Administration said the second stage of construction is currently being completed. The amount of investment in the project was EUR 4 million. In addition to engineering and transport facilities for receiving and storing liquefied petroleum gas, the complex allows transshipping gas to road, rail and river transport. The total capacity of the complex is 200,000 tonnes per year.
The territory of the complex is equipped with access railway tracks, a railway overpass and a tank farm. There is also a customs warehouse in the territory of the complex.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in August improved the forecast for maize crop in Ukraine in 2018 by one million tonnes compared to the July forecast, to 31 million tonnes. According to a report on the website of the U.S. department, the forecast for maize exports for the 2018/2019 marketing year (MY, July-June) was also increased by 500,000 tonnes, to 24.5 million tonnes.
The USDA maintained the forecast for wheat exports from Ukraine in the 2018/2019 MY at 16.5 million tonnes with the yield being 25.5 million tonnes, which corresponds to the figures published in July.
In general, the U.S. department raised the forecast for grain harvest in Ukraine by 1.85 million tonnes, to 65.6 million tonnes, exports by 1.45 million tonnes, to 45.66 million tonnes.
As reported, with reference to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, exports of grains in the 2017/2018 marketing year, according to preliminary data, amounted to 39.4 million tonnes against 43.8 million tonnes for the previous MY.
The harvest of grain in Ukraine in 2017 amounted to 61.28 million tonnes, which is 4.7 million tonnes less than in 2016.
Rubizhne cardboard packaging mill in Luhansk region, one of Ukraine’s largest cardboard packaging producers, produced 145.56 million square meters of corrugated cardboard boxes in January-July 2018, including goods from its Trypilsky packaging plant, which is 16.2% up year-over-year. The mills increased production of components of corrugated cardboard (cardboard and fluting) by 4.7%, to 168,920 tonnes.
The total commodity amount produced by both plants in the period in monetary terms grew by 32%, to UAH 3.168 billion.
According to UkrPapir association, cardboard packaging production in Ukraine in January-July 2018 grew by 4.9% and amounted to 583.45 million square meters.
The Rubizhne cardboard packaging mill has worked on the packaging market since 1991, and specializes in the production of components for corrugated cardboard (cardboard and fluting) and corrugated cardboard boxes.
Its most important customers are large confectioneries, juice and tobacco producers. The Rubizhne cardboard packaging mill acquired Trypilsky packaging plant in 2002 and subsequently began producing corrugated cardboard and corrugated packaging.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
