US duties on goods from China have now reached 145%, CNBC reported on Thursday, citing an unnamed White House official.
The US presidential administration explained that the day before, the American leader had raised “retaliatory” duties on Beijing from 84% to 125%, but at the same time, he had introduced a 20% fee even earlier in response to the fact that Beijing, in Washington’s view, was not doing enough to stop the supply of fentanyl to the United States.
So far, US media have reported that US duties on Chinese products have reached 125% in total.
Last Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Beijing wants to conclude a trade agreement with Washington, but does not know how to do it. When asked to comment on this statement by the American leader, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that the United States has so far only imposed duties on Chinese products, and Beijing does not accept such behavior in any way. He noted that in order to start a dialogue, the United States needs to demonstrate respect and equal treatment of the other side.
In 2024, the manufacturer of agricultural machinery and special vehicles, Fregat Plant JSC (Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv region), increased its net income from sales by 34.6% compared to 2023, to UAH 188.6 million.
According to the company’s financial report published in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), its loss increased by 58% to UAH 60.4 million.
At the same time, the plant earned UAH 71.1 million in gross profit, up 44% year-on-year, and its operating profit increased 1.5 times to UAH 12.6 million.
As reported, in January-September 2024, the plant increased its loss by 5.4 times compared to the same period in 2023, to UAH 41.6 million, due to a 7.5-fold increase in expenses under “other expenses” to UAH 48 million, while net income increased by 42.4% to UAH 134.7 million.
Thus, in the fourth quarter of 2024, the plant reduced its loss by 38.4% compared to October-December 2023 to UAH 18.8 million, while net income increased by 18.4% to UAH 54 million.
Fregat specializes in the production of irrigation systems, road fencing, metal structures, as well as engineering products and special-purpose machinery.
The company exports road safety fences to Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and the former CIS countries (except Russia and Belarus), where it also supplies agricultural machinery for crop production.
The main foreign customers are BBV Baustahl und Blechverarbeitungsgesellschaft mb, Scuer GmbH (Germany), Meerman Technisch Buro B.V. (Netherlands), and Agrorada (Poland).
As of the beginning of this year, the average number of employees was 260, and the average salary was UAH 12.4 thousand (44.2% more than in 2023).
In 2023, the plant, according to its financial report, reduced its loss by 4.2 times compared to 2022, to UAH 33.6 million, while net income decreased by 16% to UAH 140 million.
As of the third quarter of 2024, Fregat Engineering Limited (Cyprus) owns more than 96.25% of the authorized capital of Fregat Plant JSC, and the ultimate beneficiaries, according to opendatabot, are members of the Dementienko family from Dnipro.
In January-March 2025, Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (UZ) tripled the number of repaired locomotives and repaired 50% more electric trains than in the same period last year, the company’s press service reports.
“Ukrzaliznytsia has increased the volume of rolling stock repairs and component manufacturing. Due to this, in the first quarter of 2025, we record a positive trend in the volume of rolling stock repairs and production of major railway components,” the company’s press service posted on Facebook on Thursday.
In January-March 2025, 12 electric trains were repaired, which is 50% more than in the same period in 2024. The number of repaired locomotives during this period tripled to 29 units.
In addition, the number of repaired line equipment units (infrastructure elements located along the railways that ensure uninterrupted, safe and efficient operation of rolling stock – IF-U) increased by 70% (to 1173).
Ukrzaliznytsia reported that the production of sleepers in the first quarter doubled to 79 thousand units, the production of rail connectors and other components increased by 20%, and the production of reinforced concrete structures increased by 18%.
Earlier it was reported that in 2025 Ukrzaliznytsia will complete the creation of the Locomotive Company, which will centrally coordinate the existing locomotive depots. UZ has about 50 locomotive depots: repair depots that carry out major repairs and modernization of the locomotive fleet and operational depots that service locomotives between flights.
The state enterprise National Energy Company (NEC) Ukrenergo on April 10 announced a tender for voluntary insurance of motor vehicles (hull insurance) of 228 units.
According to the electronic public procurement system ProZorro, the expected cost of purchasing services is UAH 7.017 mln. The last day for submitting applications for participation is April 18.
Ukraine has resumed ferry service with Georgia, operating two sailings from the Chornomorsk port to the Georgian port of Batumi for the first time since the start of the full-scale invasion.
“Two flights were made on March 18 and 26 from the port of Chornomorsk to the port of Batumi, and the third flight is planned for next week,” said Tymofiy Murakhovsky, Director of Commercial and Logistics at Ukrzaliznytsia JSC, at a meeting on the Restoration of the Ukraine-Georgia Ferry Service within the TTM Corridor.
According to him, the project is being implemented with the participation of the shipping company Ukrferry (Odesa) and UZ Cargo Poland, a subsidiary of Ukrzaliznytsia, in Warsaw. According to Murakhovsky, the first voyages in March were carried out in a mode of information silence. He urged businesses to become more actively involved in the direction. As you know, since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale aggression in February 2022, there has been no maritime traffic between Ukraine and Georgia.
The shipping company Ukrferry announced the resumption of the Chornomorsk-Batumi ferry service on July 9, 2024, but this did not happen.