Contrary to forecasts, Ukrainian corn has started to rise in price on world markets due to increased demand from China, Turkey, Egypt and the European Union, according to the analytical cooperative “Pusk”, created within the framework of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council (AAC).
“The expectations of the trade that with the arrival of a new corn crop from Argentina on the world market, demand and prices for Ukrainian grain would fall, did not materialize. Argentine new crop is sold at higher prices than Ukrainian corn. We can predict a rise in prices for corn from Ukraine in the coming weeks,” the analysts said.
According to them, China is actively contracting Ukrainian corn. Other importers, such as Turkey, Egypt, Italy, and Spain, have also started buying a lot of Ukrainian corn. In seaports, the conditional prices for it have risen to $142-145/ton and have been increasing for a week and a half. The supply is sinking, while demand is stable.
“It can be predicted that amid demand, prices will add $2-3 per tonne per week and reach at least $150/tonne on a CPT basis by the end of March,” the experts emphasized.
They said that in April, the main factor of corn price changes will be the information on the grain harvest in Brazil. In April, there will be more reliable information about the harvest in Brazil: the planted areas, soil moisture, and crop condition. This will affect the global market. If the drought continues in Brazil and the harvest is reduced, the price will rise. But for now, this is one of the scenarios. In case of rainfall in Brazil, the situation on the global corn market will be different.
On a DAP basis, Ukrainian corn is traded for delivery in March-April to Italy, Austria and Germany in the range of $192-197/ton, Pusk summarized.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has announced a new $300 million military aid package for Ukraine, including artillery ammunition and HIMARS shells.
“I’m announcing a $300 million emergency security assistance package of weapons and equipment to address some of Ukraine’s most pressing needs,” Sullivan said at a briefing on Tuesday.
He noted that the opportunity to transfer the aid was made possible by “unanticipated cost savings” in contracts that the Defense Department had awarded to replace equipment that had already been sent to Ukraine.
Sullivan noted that the opportunity to transfer the aid was made possible by “unanticipated cost savings” from contracts the Defense Department had signed to replace equipment that had already been sent to Ukraine.
“To be very clear, we can use these cost savings to provide this modest amount of new security assistance right now without compromising the U.S. military. And the president has instructed his team to use those savings,” Sullivan explained.
The White House reported that the announced aid package, in particular, includes a large batch of artillery ammunition and GMLRS used in the M270 MLRS and M142 HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems.
“This is the assistance Ukraine desperately needs to hold the front line against Russian attacks and to counter Russia’s ongoing offensive in eastern and other parts of Ukraine. This ammunition will keep Ukrainian forces firing for some time, but only for a short period,” he emphasized.
Sullivan added that this aid will not prevent Ukraine from running out of ammunition in the coming weeks.
“It goes without saying that this package does not and should not postpone the critical need to pass a bipartisan national security bill,” he emphasized.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has included two companies Risk End Life Consulting LLC and Universal Insurance Brokers and Consultants LLC into the State Register of Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers.
According to the NBU website, the decision was made on March 8
Risk End Life Consulting LLC was registered in Kiev in July 2009. The authorized capital is UAH 63 mln.
LLC Insurance Broker “Universal Insurance Brokers and Consultants” was registered in Kiev in March 2010. Authorized capital is UAH 20 th.
According to the NBU data as of March 1, 2024 there were 37 insurance and reinsurance brokers registered in Ukraine.
The U.S. Department of Energy has sharply raised its forecast for the price of Brent crude oil for both 2024 and 2025 due to the extension of production restrictions by OPEC+ countries. According to a new report by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), in 2024, the forecast for the price of Brent crude oil has been raised from $82.42/bbl to $87/bbl.
“As OPEC+ continues to cut oil production, we have lowered our 2024 global oil production growth forecast. The lower growth contributes to a significant reduction in global oil inventories in our forecast for the second quarter of 2024,” the report says.
The oil price forecast for 2025 has been raised from $79.48/bbl to $84.8/bbl.
Insurance company Busin (Kyiv) has collected UAH 293.238 mln of gross premiums in 2023, that is by 10.63% less than a year earlier, the rating agency Standard-Rating reported in the information on updating the credit rating/rating of financial stability of the insurer at the level of “uaAA+” on the national scale on the basis of the analysis of its statements for the specified period.
According to the report, receipts from individuals for this period have grown by 7,19% – to UAH 1,446 mln, and from reinsurers, on the contrary, have decreased by 7,39% – to UAH 43,182 mln.
Insurance payments sent to reinsurers for 2023 decreased by 10.62% compared to 2022 – to UAH 193.951 million. Despite such decrease, the ratio of reinsurers’ participation in insurance premiums remained almost unchanged – at the level of 66.14%.
Net premiums for the year decreased by 10.65% – to UAH 99.287 mln, while earned premiums increased by 30.89% – to UAH 114.479 mln.
For 2023, the company paid UAH 1,317 mln of insurance payments and indemnities to its clients, which is 91,70% more than for 2022. Thus, the level of payments has increased by 0,24 p.p. – to 0,45%.
The financial result from operating activity of IC “Busin” for 2023 has grown to UAH 65,143 mln, and net profit has amounted to UAH 55,218 mln.
Assets of the insurer on January 1, 2024 have decreased by 4,04% – to UAH 586,909 mln, shareholders’ equity has increased by 20,88% – to UAH 243,016 mln, liabilities have decreased by 16,25% – to UAH 343,893 mln, cash and cash equivalents have increased by 25,97% – to UAH 265,873 mln.
According to the information provided by RA IC “Busin”, as of January 1, 2024 has complied with the criteria of liquidity, profitability and quality of insurer assets, solvency and capital adequacy norms, riskiness norms of operations and asset quality norms.
IC Busin was registered in February, 1993. It specializes on risky types of insurance. It is a member of a number of professional and branch associations – League of Insurance Organizations of Ukraine, National Club of Insurance Payouts, International Association of Aviation Insurers (UA), Nuclear Insurance Pool, American Chamber in Ukraine, British Business Club.
Payment system NovaPay remained the leader in transfers of funds within the country by system in 2023, but the share of transfers made through it again decreased – to 32% from 35% at the end of the first half of 2023 and 45% for May-December 2022, according to the data of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU)
Payment system Moneycom LLC “Swift Garant” for the year increased its market share to 17.57% from 2.51% in May-December 2022, jumping from seventh place in the ranking to second place, which was previously occupied by the payment system LEO, whose registration was revoked by the NBU in March last year.
In the second half of 2023, Moneycom also surpassed Financial World Ukrainian Payment System LLC, increasing its market share by 5.2 percentage points.
PrivatBank’s PrivatMoney moved from sixth to third place in the ranking, with its market share increasing from 2.61% in 2022 to 15.98% by the end of 2023. In particular, PrivatMoney’s market share increased by 10.3 p. p. in the second half of last year. This allowed the payment systems City 24 FC Phoenix, Financial World and Postal Transfer of Ukrposhta JSC, whose registration was revoked by the National Bank in the second half of 2023, to be ahead of the payment systems City 24 FC Phoenix, Financial World and Postal Transfer of Ukrposhta JSC.
As a result, “Financial World” for the year fell in the rating from the third place to the fourth, although its share increased from 12.72% to 15.00% (with a slight decrease of 0.6 p.p. in the second half of the year).
Rounding out the top five with 5.35% is Platiservice payment system of the same name LLC, which jumped from eighth place in the ranking in 2022 (1.74%). The company managed to bypass City 24 FC Phoenix, which took the seventh position with a share of 4.16% in 2023, positioned between Postal Transfer (5.34%) and LEO (1.48%).
In terms of participants, the share of NovaPay decreased to 32.23% (from 45.46% in 2022 and 35.58% in the first half of 2023), from fifth to second position went Swift Guarant, whose share increased from 3.79% to 20.66%, from fourth to third – FC Kontraktovy Dom with an increase in share from 9.92% to 13.06%, from sixth to fourth – PrivatBank with an increase in share from 2.61% to 12.36%. Ukrposhta with 5.35% (12.22%), which was second a year earlier, rounds out the top five.
According to the NBU, 844.55 million domestic transfers worth UAH 728.01 billion (or $19.9 billion in equivalent) were made in 2023, the average amount of one transfer within Ukraine amounted to UAH 862. For comparison for May-December 2022 transfers were 446.35 million for 292.6 billion UAH.
It is indicated that as of January 1 of this year, activities in the country were carried out by 35 systems of funds transfer, of which – 26 resident and nine non-resident.
