One of the largest grain market operators in Ukraine, Nibulon JV LLC (Mykolaiv), will change its elevator management model to optimize resource use and create an effective management system, the agricultural holding’s press service reported on Facebook.
According to the report, in 2024, Nibulon’s 22 elevators will be organized into six groups:
– Mykolaiv: the largest group, which includes the Transshipment Terminal, Kolosivsky Elevator, Vradiyivsky Elevator, Novoodesskyi and Voznesenskyi branches;
– Kremenchuk: Kremenchuk, Globinsk and Hradyzk branches;
– Poltava region: Romodan, Reshetylivka, Skorokhodiv, and Maryanivka branches;
– Cherkasy: Zolotonosha, Pereyaslav, Vitove branches;
– Zakhidna: currently unites the Teteriv, Smotrych, and Denikhiv branches, and will be joined by Khmilnyk after the expansion of storage capacity and installation of a dryer scheduled for fall 2024;
– Zaporizhzhia-Dnipro: Ternivska, Khortytsia and Zelenodolska branches.
The only branch that will continue to operate independently is Bessarabian, as it is located at a great distance from all other elevator groups and is focused on grain transshipment rather than storage and processing.
Each group will now have a unified administration, which will include a director, chief accountant and technical staff: chief engineer and chief power engineer. It will also be serviced by a service team responsible for scheduled and overhaul repairs at branches.
Each group of elevators will be assigned a shift team consisting of grain handling operators and other specialists who will assist the branches during the busiest periods of operation.
The department plans to automate all elevators, equip them with sensors that will record the equipment’s service life and automatically transfer this data to a single service center. The center will be staffed by dispatchers who will be responsible for monitoring the operation of all elevators’ equipment.
“As a result, we expect to increase the efficiency of the elevator business through optimization and automation, reduce the cost of services through the rational use of resources and increase salaries for branch teams by 30-40%,” Nibulon summarized.
Nibulon JV LLC was established in 1991. Prior to the Russian military invasion, the grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and crop reception complexes, a one-time storage capacity of 2.25 million tons of agricultural products, a fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugs), and owned the Mykolaiv Shipyard.
“Before the war, Nibulon cultivated 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries.
In 2021, the grain trader exported the highest ever 5.64 million tons of agricultural products, reaching record volumes of supplies to foreign markets in August – 0.7 million tons, in the fourth quarter – 1.88 million tons, and in the second half of the year – 3.71 million tons.
Nibulon’s losses due to Russia’s full-scale military invasion in 2022 exceeded $416 million.
Currently, the grain trader is operating at 32% of capacity, has created a special unit to clear agricultural land of mines, and was forced to move its headquarters from Mykolaiv to Kyiv.
Residents’ deposits in Ukrainian banks in January this year decreased by 2.1%, or UAH 49.2 billion, to UAH 2 trillion 345.9 billion, a decline in deposits recorded for the first time since August 2022, according to statistics from the National Bank of Ukraine.
According to the statistics, household deposits fell by 2.5%, or UAH 27.4 billion, to UAH 1 trillion 50.9 billion in January. The previous decline was recorded in May and January last year, but then it amounted to less than UAH 1 billion and less than UAH 4 billion, respectively.
The NBU clarified that both hryvnia deposits decreased by 2.6%, or UAH 18.8 billion, to UAH 692.2 billion, and foreign currency deposits decreased by 2.1% in dollar terms, or $0.20 billion, to $9.47 billion.
In the first month of the new year, business deposits decreased by 1.7 percentage points, or UAH 21.8 billion, to UAH 1 trillion 259.5 billion. This was due to a 3.5% or UAH 32.5 billion drop in hryvnia deposits to UAH 884.85 billion. At the same time, foreign currency deposits in dollar terms increased by 3.2%, or $0.31 billion, to $9.89 billion.
The average rate of new hryvnia deposits for households remained unchanged at 11.7% in January, while for the corporate sector, after a pause in December, it dropped by 0.3 percentage points (pp) to 9.9%, returning to the level of November 2022.
As for foreign currency deposits, their yield for individuals remained at around 1.0% per annum for the fourth month in a row, while for legal entities it gained 0.2 pp, returning to the level of August last year – 0.7% per annum.
In January, the six-month-long upward trend in the loan portfolio was also interrupted: it decreased by 0.5%, or UAH 4.76 billion.
According to the regulator, the reason for this was a decrease in the loan portfolio of legal entities by 1.2%, or UAH 8.88 billion, to UAH 748.10 billion. The largest outflow of loans was recorded in foreign currency: the portfolio decreased by 2% in dollar terms, or $0.12 billion, to UAH 6.23 billion, while in national currency, the portfolio decreased by 0.7%, or UAH 3.51 billion, to UAH 512.35 billion.
At the same time, the loan portfolio of individuals grew by 2.1%, or UAH 4.76 billion, to UAH 227.31 billion due to an increase in hryvnia loans by 2.3%, or UAH 4.90 billion, to UAH 215.49 billion, while the foreign currency portfolio again decreased by 0.9% to the equivalent of $312 million.
According to the National Bank, interest rates on hryvnia loans to businesses and individuals increased by 0.6 percentage points to 18.1% and 0.9 percentage points to 34.6% per annum, respectively. At the same time, interest rates on foreign currency loans for legal entities increased by 0.3 percentage points to 6.7%, and for individuals, on the contrary, fell by 1.4 percentage points to 5% per annum.
According to the central bank, interbank and overnight lending rates decreased by 0.4 percentage points in January, to 14.6% and 14.5% per annum, respectively.
As reported, on December 15, the NBU cut the discount rate and the overnight DS rate from 16% to 15% per annum, the three-month DS rate from 20% to 19%, and the refinancing rate from 22% to 21%, and kept the rates at this level by a decision dated January 25.
Ukraine’s annualized inflation rate fell to 4.7% in January this year from 5.1% in December and November.
Number of refugees from Ukraine in selected countries as of 15.12.2023
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
The international information and analytical platform EastFruit has published an article in which Uzbekistan may become one of the world’s 5 largest exporters of fresh onions by the end of the 2023/24 season.
The publication reports that the 2023/24 season was marked by bans on the export of onions from many countries. In particular, Egypt, which is usually one of the five largest exporters, introduced a ban on onion exports.
In Uzbekistan, as in many other countries in the region, records were set in terms of onion production areas and volumes. As a result, onion prices in Uzbekistan in January were 40% lower than at the time of harvest, which guaranteed losses for resellers.
Traders began to actively look for opportunities to export onions, as in January onions from Uzbekistan flooded the wholesale markets in Poland. In addition, the first export shipments of the new onion harvest of 300 thousand tons are planned for the end of March, which may be a new export record. This will allow Uzbekistan to overtake Poland, Afghanistan, Spain, Egypt and possibly the United States in terms of onion exports and enter the top 5 global exporters.
The second half of February 2024 is rich in shareholder meetings of large Ukrainian companies.
We have analyzed the calendar of shareholders’ meetings that are expected in the near future, with the largest joint-stock companies holding meetings in..:
12.02.24 – PJSC JSIC Dnister,
12.02.24 – JSC Bank Alliance,
12.02.24 – CHAO MHP,
12.02.24 – PJSC IC “Nadiyna”,
12.02.24 – PJSC Turbovskiy Kaolin Plant,
13.02.24 – PJSC Vovchansk oil extraction plant, PJSC
13.02.24 – PJSC Kropyvnytskyi Oil Extraction Plant,
13.02.24 – PJSC Research and Production Center “Borshchahivskiy Chemical and Pharmaceutical Plant”,
15.02.24 – PJSC Poltava Oil Extraction Plant-Kernel Group,
15.02.24 – PJSC Poltava Grain Receiving Enterprise,
15.02.24 – PJSC Sukha Balka,
15.02.24 – PJSC Ukrpostach,
19.02.24 – PJSC Kontur,
23.02.24 – PJSC Dnipropetrovs’k Food Concentrates Plant,
23.02.24 – PJSC Metiz,
25.02.24 – PJSC STC “Electronprylad”,
26.02.24 – PJSC Korosten Chemical Engineering Plant,
26.02.24 – JSC Volodymyr-Volyn Agricultural Company,
26.02.24 – JSC Kharkivoblenergo,
29.02.24 – PJSC IC Inter-Policy,
The general meeting of a joint-stock company is the supreme management body of the company. The general meeting must be held annually, as it is a mandatory procedure in the company’s activities.
Traditionally, most of them are held in March, although the law allows holding a joint-stock company meeting no later than April 30.
Dnipro Metallurgical Plant (DMZ, formerly Dneprokoks), a part of DCH Steel, a DCH group owned by businessman Aleksandr Yaroslavsky, is going to build a new electric arc furnace complex.
According to the company, DMZ is holding an open competitive tender for the right to design a feasibility study for the new construction of an electric arc furnace complex located at 17 Naberezhna Zavodska Street, Dnipro.
The deadline for submitting applications for participation in the competitive selection is February 23, 2024.
The selection rules and the list of documents required for participation in the tender can be obtained from the leading engineer for the procurement of services of the Procurement Bureau for Works and Services of the TSO and the GSE of the Supply Directorate.
Maxim Minyushkin, Corporate Communications Director of DCH Steel Group, confirmed the new construction plans to Interfax-Ukraine.
“We are currently preparing information for the media on this issue,” the source explained.
As reported, Yaroslavsky’s DMZ intends to increase its presence in the domestic market of Ukraine in 2024.
In 2023, the plant increased its rolled metal output by 86.2% compared to 2022, up to 105.6 thousand tons, and coke output by 38.5%, up to 292.7 thousand tons.
DMZ specializes in the production of steel, pig iron, rolled products and products made from them. On March 1, 2018, DCH Group signed an agreement to buy Dnipro Metallurgical Plant from Evraz.
