Ukraine is exhausting its tariff-free quotas for honey, corn and chicken supplies to the European Union, European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski said at a conference after the Council of Agricultural Ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday.
“I am pleased that today, during the discussion on Ukraine, member states generally expressed positive views on the new autonomous trade measures and on the safeguard measures introduced. It was the initiative of the European Commissioner for Agriculture to introduce these import limits, and they are working. They were activated for three products – sugar, eggs and oats. We are observing the situation with other sensitive products. Honey, whose exports have already reached 89% of the limits, corn – 67%, and chicken – 59%,” he said.
Wojciechowski emphasized that European politicians’ accusations against the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy that it is aimed at reducing domestic production and further increasing dependence on imported products are unfounded. The EU has been and will remain the largest exporter of agricultural products in the world, he assured.
According to the European Commissioner, the EU’s agricultural trade surplus in 2023 reached a record EUR 70 billion. This year, this record may be broken, as in the first quarter alone, the EU’s trade surplus with third countries already amounted to EUR 18 billion.
Beer production in Ukraine in the first six months of 2024 reached 67.9 million dal, up 104.2% compared to the same period in 2023, according to the website of the industry organization of brewers Ukrpyvo.
Earlier it was reported that in 2023, beer production in Ukraine (except for non-alcoholic beer with an alcohol content of up to 0.5 vol%) amounted to 133.4 million dal, which is 7.8% more than in 2022. This figure is only 78.3% of the country’s beer production in 2021.
Beer production in Ukraine in 2022 decreased by 27.9% compared to 2021 – to 122.8 million dal.
By the end of 2022, the brewing industry had partially recovered after a 50% drop in production in the first quarter due to the Russian invasion and the shutdown of some breweries. Thus, in the first four months of the year, the decline amounted to 42.8% compared to the same period in 2021, 36.4% in January-May, 32% in January-June, 31.6% in January-July and January-August, 30.5% in January-September, 28.6% in January-October, 28.1% in January-November, and 27.9% in the previous year.
In January-June 2024, Ukrgasvydobuvannya JSC increased natural gas production (commercial) by 8.8% compared to the same period in 2023 – up to 6.913 billion cubic meters, the company’s press service said on Wednesday.
According to the company, 165.864 thousand meters were drilled during the reporting period, which is 9.117 thousand meters more than last year’s penetration rate for the first half of 2023.
“Ukrgasvydobuvannya put 41 new wells into operation, 14 of which are high flow rate wells. For example, the daily flow rate of one of the latter exceeds 400 thousand cubic meters. These are very good results that we have achieved thanks to the integrated work of the team,” said the Head of the company Serhiy Lagno.
According to him, UGV also demonstrates good gas production performance at old modernized wells due to the introduction of new technologies.
As reported, Ukrgasvydobuvannya and Ukrnafta produced 7.3 bcm of commercial gas in January-June 2024, which is 8% more than in the same period last year.
In 2022, UGV produced 12.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas (commercial), which is 3% less than in 2021. In 2023, the company produced 13.224 bcm of commercial gas, which is 0.679 bcm more than in 2022.
NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine owns 100% of Ukrgasvydobuvannya shares.
Benchmark oil prices are falling on Tuesday morning after a moderate decline the day before.
The cost of September futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange as of 8:03 a.m. is $84.59 per barrel, which is $0.26 (0.31%) lower than at the close of the previous trading. The day before, these contracts fell in price by $0.18 (0.2%) to $84.85 per barrel.
August futures for WTI in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) fell by $0.31 (0.38%) to $81.60. On Monday, the contract fell by $0.3 (0.4%) to $81.91 per barrel.
A negative factor for the oil market was the weak statistics from China, which indicated a slowdown in China’s GDP growth in the second quarter to 4.7% in annual terms from 5.3% in the previous quarter.
“The growth of the Chinese economy is directly linked to global economic activity and fuel demand,” wrote StoneX analysts led by Alex Hodes.
Traders were also assessing the news of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, which resulted in the politician being lightly wounded. According to analysts, this event increases his chances of winning the US presidential election in November.
“The Trump government has prioritized energy independence and economic growth over environmental regulation in the past,” said Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group. – “If he becomes president again, we expect him to take the same approach, which will be positive for the energy sector and especially for fossil fuels.
Former US President Donald Trump has won enough votes at the Republican Party convention to become a candidate for the presidency in the 2024 elections, the Associated Press reports.
“Donald Trump has become the official Republican presidential nominee after receiving a sufficient number of delegate votes at the Republican National Convention,” the agency reports.
“We declare him the Republican presidential nominee,” Trump’s son Eric said at the convention.
Earlier on Monday, Trump announced that if he wins the presidential election, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance would become his vice president.
“After much deliberation (…) I have decided that the person best suited to serve as Vice President of the United States is J.D. Vance, Senator from the great state of Ohio,” Trump wrote on his social network Truth Social.
US President Joe Biden and Trump actually won the internal party elections in the Democratic and Republican parties. Their candidacies must be approved at party conventions (congresses). The Republican Party convention is taking place on July 15-18 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Democratic Party convention will be held in August.
The US presidential election is scheduled for November 5, 2024.
Earlier, the Experts Club think tank presented an analytical material on the most important elections in the world in 2024, a more detailed video analysis is available here – https://youtu.be/73DB0GbJy4M?si=eGb95W02MgF6KzXU
In May 2024, state-owned PrivatBank increased its net profit by 80% compared to April and with UAH 6.5 billion topped the country’s five most profitable banks, according to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on its website. According to the data, Privat is followed by state-owned Oschadbank, which earned UAH 2.3 billion in net profit in May, up 40.3% from April.
Another state-owned bank, Ukreximbank, rounded out the top three most profitable banks in May, increasing its net profit more than threefold to UAH 1.3 billion compared to April, and pushing Raiffeisen Bank to fourth place, whose net profit in May decreased by 16.3% to UAH 670.2 million compared to April.
The top five in May was rounded out by Pivdenny Bank, which quadrupled its net profit in May compared to April to UAH 632 million.
The second five were formed by Universal Bank (mono) – UAH 625.4 million, Uksibbank – UAH 594.8 million, FUIB – UAH 534.9 million, Credit Agricole Bank – UAH 506.6 million and OTP Bank – UAH 446 million.
According to the statistics, Ukrgasbank, which was the 7th largest bank in terms of net profit in April, took the 12th position in May with a net profit of UAH 370.3 million.
In addition to Ukrgasbank, four other banks made a net profit of over UAH 100 million in May 2024: City Bank – UAH 390 million, Sense Bank, which was nationalized last July, – UAH 254 million, Cominbank – UAH 137.8 million, and Kredobank – UAH 121 million.
The top three most unprofitable banks in May were led by Poltava-Bank with a net loss of UAH 28.8 million, followed by Cominvestbank with UAH 17.2 million and Industrialbank with UAH 6.5 million.
Overall, in the first 5 months of 2024, banks’ net profit increased to UAH 67.9 billion from UAH 52.1 billion in the first four months of the year.
