In 2023, Asket Shipping LLC increased its transshipment of agricultural products to 700 thousand tons, including 570 thousand tons in the Danube ports, the company reported on Facebook.
“The year was difficult for our industry. Attacks on the port infrastructure of Odesa region, the catastrophic consequences of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam blowing up, and the blockade on the Polish border. All of this not only caused losses and suffering to the country, but also significantly harmed farmers and complicated the logistics chains of Ukrainian grain exports. And I am very grateful to our team, partners and customers for holding the line together and meeting the challenges of the year,” the press service quoted Kateryna Rusina, the company’s director and owner, as saying.
According to her, 700,000 tons of transshipment, of which 570,000 tons in the Danube ports, is “no less significant for the company than the millions of tons when we worked at home, in the ports of our native Azov.”
Rusina said that in 2023, Ascet Shipping began loading ships in Chornomorsk, expanded its presence in all operating ports of Ukraine, and provided customers with 50 thousand tons of storage in warehouses in Odesa and Mykolaiv.
“We have introduced new services and received a quality certificate for our management system according to the international standard ISO 9001:2015. Such high results are now possible only through triple efforts, coordinated teamwork and trust,” she added.
In addition, Ascet Shipping is preparing an appeal to international courts to obtain compensation from the seized funds of those responsible for the theft of Ukrainian grain, property and infrastructure in occupied Berdiansk and Mariupol.
“Ascet Shipping specializes in providing logistics services for the export of grain and food cargo in seven ports of Ukraine: Berdiansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Mariupol, Kherson, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia. At the beginning of the war, the company moved its production facilities to western Ukraine and established cooperation with elevators in the region and Europe. The company plans to ship cargo by rail and road to European ports.
As reported, Ascet Shipping LLC transshipped 500 thousand tons of grain in 2022. The company started operations in five new ports: Odesa, Izmail, Reni, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, and Kilia.
Kateryna Rusyna is the director and main beneficiary of the Asket Shipping group of companies, which includes First Fumigation Company, Asket Cargo, Azovalliance Group and others. She owns 60% of the shares. Four of her children are co-owners of the business and have 10% stakes each.
The State Tax Service (STS) has planned 3,242 inspections of businesses – both companies and individual entrepreneurs – for 2024. In more than half of the cases, documentary inspections of companies will take place. Most often, the tax authorities will visit businesses in Kyiv, and the most popular industry for company audits will be wholesale trade.
The State Tax Service has planned 2,328 inspections of companies and 914 inspections of sole proprietorships for 2024. This is 19% less than in 2023, when the tax authorities visited 2,551 companies and 1,461 individual entrepreneurs.
This is reported by Opendatabot, citing data from the State Tax Service.
In the vast majority of cases, 61.6%, tax authorities will check company documents. In 28% of cases, the State Tax Service will visit fops. At the same time, inspections of businesses that have questions about military duty and unified social tax will be halved by 2023, down to 156 companies. Inspections of non-resident financial companies account for only 5% of the plan.
Kyiv has the highest number of inspections – 590. Dnipropetrovs’k region is in second place with 205 inspections, followed by Lviv region with 156.
Businesses operating in the wholesale trade sector will be inspected most often – they account for 22% of the total number of company inspections. In 2024, businesses in the field of agriculture and hunting will also be the most frequently inspected by the tax authorities – 14.8% of inspections. The top is rounded out by inspections of retail businesses – 6.9%.
You can find out whether your business or partners are scheduled for inspections for free in the Opportunity Bot. To do this, send the bot the company code. If the business is on the tax plan, the relevant information will appear in the company card.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has fined Tairove Vineri LLC for the unlawful use of the Prosecco designation, which was previously used by members of the Consortium for the Protection of the Name of a Controlled Enterprise Consortium for the Protection of the Name of a Controlled Enterprise (Italy).
“The Committee initiated the case at the request of the Consortium for the Protection of the Name of the Controlled Enterprise Prosecco, whose members export wine products under this designation to the territory of Ukraine,” the agency said in a statement.
According to the report, Tairovo Winery LLC began using the Prosecco designation in labeling its own wine products later than the Consortium members and without obtaining their consent.
According to the AMCU, such actions could lead to confusion of Tairovo Vaineri LLC’s activities with those of the Italian consortium members and provide unfair competitive advantages by using the business reputation of such members. This is evidenced by the results of a consumer survey conducted by the AMCU.
The Committee considered the actions of Tairo Vaineri LLC as a violation of Article 4 of the Law “On Protection against Unfair Competition” and fined it UAH 946,909.
The shareholders of Kryvyi Rih Mining and Metallurgical Plant PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (AMKR, Dnipro region) have renewed the composition of the Supervisory Board.
According to the company’s announcement in the NSSMC’s information disclosure system, the shareholders considered personnel issues at the general meeting on December 28, 2023.
At the same time, the meeting terminated the powers of the members of the Supervisory Board, re-electing for a new term the CTO and Chief Strategy Officer of ArcelorMittal Clarke David George, Chief of Staff of the CEO and Chairman of the ArcelorMittal Group Anna Escobedo, Independent Director Sergey Ishchuk, Independent Director Oleg Lagodienko and CFO of ArcelorMittal Europe; Vijay Goyal, CEO of ArcelorMittal Downstream Solutions; and Vijay Goyal, CEO of ArcelorMittal CIS. Also, Sonya Neffati, Head of Organizations and Human Resources at ArcelorMittal Luxembourg, was elected to the Supervisory Board.
In addition, the shareholders terminated the powers of the members of the audit committee and did not elect new ones in connection with the liquidation of this controlling body.
As reported, at the meeting, AMKR shareholders planned to approve the results of the company’s financial and economic activities in 2021 and 2022, determine the procedure for repayment of losses, and amend the company’s charter and bylaws.
AMKR ended 2022 with a net loss of UAH 49 billion 9.104 million, while in 2021 it made a net profit of UAH 25 billion 216.068 million. The outstanding loss by the end of 2022 amounted to UAH 3 billion 283.553 million. The value of assets halved to UAH 52 billion 682.761 million from UAH 105 billion 800.975 million in 2021.
“ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is the largest rolled steel producer in Ukraine. It specializes in long products, including rebar and wire rod.
ArcelorMittal owns the largest mining and metallurgical plant in Ukraine, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, and a number of small companies, including ArcelorMittal Berislav.
Mittal Steel Corporation acquired a 93.02% stake in Kryvorizhstal at an open tender on October 24, 2005 for UAH 24.2 billion at a starting price of UAH 10 billion, after which the plant was renamed Mittal Steel Kryvyi Rih and later ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih.
According to the company, Arcelor Mittal Duisburg GmbH (Germany) owns 95.128% of its shares.
The authorized capital of the plant is UAH 3 billion 859.533 million.
Zaporozhkoks, one of Ukraine’s largest coke and chemical producers and part of Metinvest Group, increased its blast furnace coke production by 16% in 2023 compared to 2022, up to 856.8 thousand tons from 737.4 thousand tons.
According to the company, it produced 71.9 thousand tons of coke in December.
“Zaporozhkoks produces about 10% of coke in Ukraine and has a full technological cycle of coke and chemical products processing. It also produces coke oven gas and pitch coke.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated mining group of companies. Its major shareholders are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage the company.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
Polish farmers who have been blocking the Ukrainian-Polish border are ready to resume their protest on January 2-3 if they do not receive written assurances from the Polish government that their demands will be met, the Polish TV channel TVP Info reports, citing a statement by the head of the National Council of Agrarian Chambers, Viktor Shmulevych.
“The Minister of Agriculture of Poland, after consultations with the government, must satisfy the demands of the farmers who suspended the protest on the Polish-Ukrainian border on Christmas Eve. The resumption of their activities depends on a written statement on the fulfillment of their basic requirements,” the Polish politician said.
The publication reminded that the picketers, who are associated, in particular, with the Podkarpackie Oszukanej Wsi (Deceived All), demand the abolition of the increase in agricultural tax, easier access to soft loans to maintain liquidity of their farms, as well as subsidies for corn in the amount of 1000 zlotys per hectare.
In an interview with TVP Info on Tuesday, Polish Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Sekerski said that work in this area is ongoing.
“I was at the border where I talked to the protesters. But legislative decisions are needed to prepare solutions. We are waiting for the #UE to agree to subsidize corn. We want to preserve low-interest loans. We also want local governments to be able to exempt farmers from agricultural tax increases without losing themselves,” the Polish Ministry of Agriculture quoted Sekerski as saying on Twitter.
Commenting on the demand of the protesting farmers, who insist on regulating the conditions of food imports from Ukraine, Sekerski explained that a trilateral agreement between Warsaw, Kyiv and Brussels is needed.
“Until it is lifted, the embargo on grain imports will remain in place. We have to keep the embargo in place until the conditions that would replace this situation are determined, i.e. limiting the volume of possible inflow of specific agricultural goods. There is some experience that Ukraine has already gained in its relations with Romania and Bulgaria when it comes to restrictions. This will allow us to control these processes,” the minister was quoted as saying by polskieradio24.pl.
Commenting on Sekersky’s interview on TVP Info, the head of the National Council of Agrarian Chambers, Shmulevych, said that the minister is a member of the government and is responsible for the sector that falls within his competence.
“Therefore, if the minister makes such statements, his words are sacred, and I think he has the approval of the government and there should be no problems in this matter,” Shmulevich assessed the situation.
The Polish edition emphasized that a group of Polish farmers is ready to resume the protest on January 2 or 3 in the absence of a written statement from the Polish government on the satisfaction of their demands.
