The Chumak PJSC intends to build a plant for processing tomatoes into paste in Odessa Region, as the company considers this region to be the most favorable in terms of climatic conditions, the director of the department of agrarian policy, food and land relations of the Odessa OVA, Alla Stoyanova, has said on Facebook.
The official recalled that Ukraine covers its domestic needs in vegetables at the expense of imports. According to Stoyanova, in Odessa region in 2023, the sown area of vegetable crops is 1489 hectares, of which 476.6 hectares are allocated for tomatoes, 307.1 hectares – onions, 95.11 hectares – carrots, 81.87 hectares – cabbage, 22.75 hectares – cucumbers, 434.44 – other vegetable crops.
The Director of the Department also informed that relocation of production facilities of Chumak PJSC to Odessa region will be a significant support for agro-industrial complex of the region and will create almost 5000 additional jobs.
The director of “Evrika” LLC Mikhail Bely suggested “systematic and balanced approach to the issue of product logistics”, which will facilitate the delivery of products to farmers for processing and will help the company “Chumak”.
Farmers present at the meeting expressed their willingness to expand production areas under tomato production.
“Vegetable farming is a high-cost business. It depends on irrigation and acquisition of specialized machinery, because farmers massively complain about the shortage of workers. In addition to investments in mechanization of production, attention should also be paid to storage and processing of products. We have a huge potential – natural, logistical (…), human”, summarized Stoyanova.
A study of the prospects for EU rail links with Ukraine and Moldova provides a basis for launching a project to use European gauge railway gauges on key lines, the European Commission (EC) has said.
The study was published on Tuesday by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
“The construction of the first European rail gauge in Ukraine and Moldova, which will connect their railroads with Poland and Romania, will bring these countries closer to the EU single market. With this study, we are laying the groundwork for long-term solutions, supporting Ukraine in its trade and recovery,” said Adina Velian, EC Member for Transport.
The conformity of the railroad lines of Ukraine and Moldova to the European standard of gauge, she said, will also improve conditions for citizens of these countries to travel to Europe.
The study suggests that the European gauge on the lines to Lviv and Chisinau should be implemented “as a first step to improve communication between Poland and Ukraine, as well as between Romania and Moldova”.
The study also assesses how the new European standard gauge lines will interact with the rest of the rail network in these countries, where broad gauge will continue to be used, the EC communiqué said.
The state enterprise “Scientific-Production Association “Pavlograd Chemical Plant” (“NPO PHZ”, Dnipropetrovsk region) intends to build a new waste storage facility in Kamenskoye, Dnipropetrovsk region.
According to the documentation at the disposal of Interfax-Ukraine Agency, the proposed activities are defined by categories 1-3 “Installations for production or enrichment of nuclear fuel, facilities for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, facilities for disposal of radioactive waste, storage (over 10 years) or reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel or radioactive waste outside the facility”, and also by category 1-8.1 – “Operations in the field of hazardous waste management (storage, treatment, reprocessing, storage of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste)”.
In this case it is specified that the activity consists in responsible management of REM (radioactively contaminated materials – IF), formed as a result of previous activities at the State Enterprise Uranium Ore Treatment Plant, their safe removal and transportation to places of storage – Phase 3 (U4.02/20) of the EU program.
The construction timeline and the amount of funds for the project are not made public.
It is also reported that this project will be handled by Limited Liability Company (LLC) Zlato-Stroy.
NPO PHZ specializes, among other things, in development of technologies for production and recycling of explosive materials and products, production of explosives, solid rocket fuel mixtures and products with them, drilling and blasting operations. The enterprise provides utilization of various types of ammunition unsuitable for storage, including solid rocket fuel (SRF).
Investment company BGV Group Management in 2024 plans to begin construction of a plant to produce graphite concentrate and spherical granite on the basis of Balakhovskoye deposit (Kirovograd region).
“BGV’s team is currently performing the second stage of pilot tests of the processing plant and completing the design of the production complex and graphite pilot tests on the Balakhovskoye project. Next year, the company plans to start building one of the largest production complexes in Europe,” BGV Group Management said in a press release.
According to its data, the facility’s potential capacity will be 50,000 tons of graphite concentrate per year and 19,000 tons of spherical graphite for lithium-ion batteries. The company expects that such volume will be able to cover a significant part of the European Union market demand.
BGV is also working on a pre-feasibility study for the Perzhansky complex beryllium deposit (Zhytomyr region) and expects to present the results to investors soon. According to its data, the deposit has reserves of 2.34 million tons of ore. In addition, it also has reserves of zinc, rare earth elements and other materials.
Investments in extraction and further processing of raw materials are one of the main focuses of the company, BGV Group Management board member Sergii Voytsekhovskii said during the presentation of projects at Ukraine Recovery Conference 2023 in London. According to him, the investments of the group and its founder Gennady Butkevich in the Ukrainian mining projects amounted to over $100 mln in eight years.
BGV Group Management is an investment company, which develops businesses and projects in mining, processing, energy efficiency, retail and development. Its founder Gennady Butkevich is also a co-owner of ATB Corporation
NNEGC Energoatom President Petr Kotin and U.S. Holtec International President and CEO Chris Singh on April 21 signed an agreement on cooperation in the deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs), which provides for construction of up to 20 SMR-160 reactors, with implementation of the first pilot project and reaching minimum regulated reactor capacity and grid connection by March 2029.
According to Energoatom’s Web site on Saturday, Kotin signed the agreement in Kiev and Singh signed it in Camden, New Jersey, USA. Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko and Riaz Awan, Holtec International’s vice president of operations in Ukraine, also attended the ceremony.
“The construction of the SMR in Ukraine will not only contribute to strengthening the energy security of the state, but will also make it possible to replace the thermal power capacity destroyed by Russian attacks and achieve the goals of decarbonization. Ukraine has a significant human resource potential for the development of leading nuclear technologies and will make every effort, particularly in cooperation and with American partners, to oust the Russian nuclear industry from the world market. MMR is a powerful technology which will also allow us to decentralize generation,” Galushchenko said.
According to Energoatom’s president, the agreement with Holtec International “is based on 20 years of successful cooperation between the companies.” “It will enable the introduction of promising, safe, clean, reliable and efficient small modular reactor technologies and make Ukraine the world’s leading country in clean energy,” Kotin said.
The document also envisages the deepening of cooperation between the companies to strengthen the energy security of Ukraine. In addition, the agreement will contribute to the universal decarbonization of the Ukrainian energy sector, strengthen Ukraine’s energy independence and begin high-tech production of parts for SMRs in our territories.
“We are grateful to esteemed Energy Minister Galushchenko and the esteemed President of Energoatom, representing the government of Ukraine, for restoring your nation’s confidence in our company by choosing our extremely safe SMR-160 reactors and Holtec International as a partner to meet the country’s clean energy needs…We are committed to helping the Ukrainian people rebuild their energy infrastructure when Russian aggressors are driven from the country,” Singh said at the signing ceremony.
According to Energoatom, Holtec International, their longtime partner, served as the contractor for the Centralized Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility, which went into operation in April 2022.
The SMR-160 is a 160-MW pressurized light-water reactor that uses low-enriched uranium as fuel and is flexible to produce process heat for industrial applications and hydrogen production.
“Energoatom is the operator of all four operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine. It operates 15 power units equipped with water-water power reactors with a total installed electric capacity of 13.835 GW.
Velta Group of Companies with titanium ore mining assets in Novomirgorod (Kirovograd Region) decided to build a plant to produce titanium products using its own innovative technology in the United States instead of Ukraine and the UAE because of the war.
The company’s president, Andrei Brodsky, said on Facebook on Sunday that it has been more than two weeks since he returned from a business trip to Washington, D.C.
“Before the full-scale war began, we, VELTA, were starting to build a pilot plant to make titanium products using our own technology. We obtained a lease on an industrial facility in Novomoskovsk, began repair and construction work and the purchase of equipment. We also received a long-term lease on the territory of a former mine next to our mining and processing facility in Novomirgorod in Kirovograd region and began designing a large enterprise. It has to be a new Ukrainian industrial giant. Everything was stopped by the war”, stated the CEO.
According to him, near the future enterprise “two Russian missiles flew in, right above our mine our air defense shot down another one, there was a threat of a quick breakthrough front”.
In order “not to give high-tech developments to the enemy,” they decided to create the first enterprise for the processing of titanium raw materials outside of Ukraine. “It was a forced and very difficult decision,” said the co-founder of VELTA.
At the same time, he noted that the company had very strong ideas to build an enterprise in the UAE.
But the UAE has taken an unclear position with regard to Ukraine, “Kadyrovites and simply fugitive Russians have created their own almost hub there, and I stopped to consider Dubai or Abu Dhabi as an attractive haven,” Brodsky said. He also noted that he had to reformat his plans concerning titanium products: “Even now I really want to produce purely civilian products. And we are going to do that. Perhaps later… Now the market says completely different things. The world has completely changed with the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine.
According to Brodsky, it was decided to build the company in the United States, which is Ukraine’s main and reliable ally in the fight against Russian invaders and also the leading leader in technology and weapons production.
PKF VELTA LLC was registered in April 2000. The main activity is the extraction and production of ilmenite concentrate.
VELTA Holding LLC owns 100% of PKF VELTA LLC. The ultimate beneficiaries are three individuals: Andrey Brodsky (60%), Vadim Moskalenko (20%) and Vitaly Malakhov (20%).
