Rail container transportation in Ukraine in the first seven months of 2024 amounted to 160,268 thousand twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), which is 58% more than in the same period last year, said Valery Tkachev, Deputy Director of the Department of Transportation Technology and Commercial Work of Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ).
“This means that we have a record volume of transportation in seven months. It even surpassed the pre-war figures,” he said at a meeting of the export office on Wednesday.
In addition, the Liski Transport Service Center is going to start signing long-term contracts with cargo owners for the use of fitting platforms for a specific period of time and at a fixed price, which will depend on the volume of transportation, Ukrzaliznytsia reported.
Acting Minister of Culture and Information Policy (MCIP) Rostislav Karandeyev discussed with the Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia to Ukraine Anica Dzhamic the preservation of cultural heritage amid ongoing Russian aggression, the press service of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy reported.
“The discussion focused on the needs of Ukraine in the field of preservation of cultural heritage suffering from Russian aggression, return of cultural values, protection of intangible cultural heritage. It was also about cooperation within the framework of UNESCO activities,” the report said.
Karandeev spoke about the challenges facing Ukraine. Among them, in particular, the preservation of cultural heritage and people of the cultural sphere. He thanked the Croatian government for financial and material assistance to Ukrainian citizens who will continue to need it because of Russia’s aggression.
“We would like our citizens to keep in touch with their country and not lose their Ukrainian identity. It is important to create favorable conditions for this,” said Karandeev.
Also, the head of the Ministry of Culture emphasized the need for Ukraine to create a depository for the preservation of evacuated museum values and emphasized the value of Croatian experience in this matter. He also proposed to intensify cultural cooperation: the organization of Ukrainian exhibitions, tours, film screenings in Croatia, as well as the creation of conditions for learning the Ukrainian language and support for book publishing, translations of Ukrainian authors into Croatian.
In addition, the parties discussed the problems of preservation of intangible cultural heritage, in particular, the Greeks of the Azov region.
In turn, the Croatian Ambassador offered to hold an online meeting with the responsible persons in the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia on the preservation of cultural heritage, and reiterated support for Ukraine.
“Croatia has been with Ukraine since the first days of the war, primarily because of its own experience of the war it lived through. Our experience helps Ukraine to more quickly master the processes that await it, as well as to avoid mistakes that the country may make out of inexperience,” said the Ambassador.
The Danish company Grundfos Holding A/S has provided 120 sets of pumping equipment for the municipal enterprises “Water of Donbass” and “Donetskteplocomunenergo”, which will improve the operation of critical infrastructure of life support systems, said Vadym Filashkin, Chairman of the Regional State Administration of Water Supply.
“The regional utility companies Voda Donbassa and Donetskteplokomunenergo will modernize and re-equip important facilities with the support of Grundfos Holding A/S from Denmark, which provided 120 sets of pumping equipment,” he said in his telegram channel.
According to the head of the UWA, the pumps will help improve the critical infrastructure of life support systems, which is especially important for the provision of utilities in the current environment, as well as in preparation for the new heating season.
Filashkin expressed his gratitude to international partners for their continued support.
In Ukraine there is a significant decrease in selling prices for sugar, which are 26.5-27.5 UAH/kg, which is caused not so much by the growth of sugar reserves in the country, but by difficulties with exports, said the analytical cooperative “Pusk”, established within the framework of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Rada (VAR).
“In August, Ukraine exported only 3-4,000 tons of sugar, which is critically low compared to the 100,000 tons exported two months ago. The Ukrainian sugar market is facing difficulties as we are now fully focused on domestic consumer demand,” analysts said.
Experts expect further increase in sugar stocks in Ukraine as domestic production will grow. Against the background of closed exports to Europe, Ukrainian producers need to look for new markets, they advise.
“In the new season, Europe will also increase sugar production, which will complicate the realization of Ukrainian products internationally. Objectively, by January 2025, Ukraine will have to either pay high export duties or wait for the zeroing of quotas,” Pusk stated and added that prices will be low in the new season.
Polish fashion brand Sinsay, owned by the large retail group LPP, plans to open five new stores in Ukraine by the end of the summer.
According to the retailer’s website, the store in Tyachiv (Zakarpattia region) is scheduled to open on August 19, in Yuzhnoukrainsk (Mykolaiv region) – on August 22, in Kryvyi Rih, Zhytomyr and Poltava – on August 23.
As reported, the Polish group LPP, which owns the brands Reserved, Sinsay and others, plans to double the number of its stores in the next three years, betting on the budget brand Sinsay and the overall growth of the company’s sales. There are plans to reach 4755 stores by the end of 2026, of which 3248 are Sinsay stores.
The group has more than 140 stores in Ukraine.
At the end of 2023, the group’s sales increased by 9.3% to PLN 17.41 billion, while net profit increased by 85.5% to PLN 1.61 billion.
Philip Morris International (PMI) in January-June 2024 increased tax deductions to budgets of different levels by 33.5%, or UAH 6 billion, compared to the same period of 2023 – up to UAH 23.9 billion, the company said in a press release on Wednesday.
“Important factors for the increase in tax deductions were the recovery of the company’s share in the Ukrainian market, as well as the launch of a new factory, in which the company invested $30 million,” PMI Ukraine CFO Sergiy Kalnoochenko is quoted in the release.
It is specified that excise tax accounted for UAH 12 bln, VAT – UAH 3.2 bln.
Last year PMI reported on payment of 30.3 billion UAH of taxes in Ukraine.
Kralnoochenko added that the growth of tax payments was also facilitated by the increase in the legal tobacco market, which became possible due to the active struggle of state authorities with illegal producers.
According to him, Philip Morris will continue to invest in the development of its own business, as a result of which in August 2024 it plans to pay to the budget more than 3.5 billion hryvnias of excise tax alone as part of direct production at the newly opened factory in Lviv region and its own imports, as well as under a local contract for contract manufacturing.
Philip Morris was spun off from Altria in 2008 and is among the world’s largest tobacco manufacturers, declaring the goal of full transition to smokeless products in the future.
PMI has been operating in the Ukrainian market since 1994, and during this time its declared investments have exceeded $750 million. The company has suspended operations at its factory in Kharkiv region since February 24, 2022 due to Russian aggression and was forced to switch to importing products from eight PMI factories outside the country and a temporary partnership with another international manufacturer in Ukraine. In May this year, the company officially launched a new factory in Lviv region with an announced investment of $30 million.
PMI cut shipments in the Ukrainian market by 30.1% to 11.07 billion cigarettes and tobacco sticks in 2022 due to the war, but it managed to increase finished goods shipments by 8.4% in 2023, including a 14.9% increase in the fourth quarter. Last October, the company said its share of the Ukrainian market had recovered to 24% after dropping to 14% from 28.5% in the first months after the Russian Federation invasion.
