The leaders of Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia have supported the “Grain from Ukraine” initiative announced by the president of Ukraine and announced further efforts to increase existing and create new transit corridors for the export of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products.
“Since the beginning of the war, 8.4 million tons of grains and oilseeds from Ukraine have been transited (through Romania) to consumers in the world. We expect transit exports from Ukraine to increase in the coming months,” Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said in a video message at the international food security summit in Kiev on Saturday.
He noted that Romania has acted very strongly in support of Ukrainian grain exports through Romanian ports and will continue working to increase connectivity between the countries by land and rail, including the recent opening of a new border crossing.
Ciuche also stressed that Romania has and will not back down from supporting Ukraine and Moldova in the energy sphere. “We will not allow Russia to plunge the region into darkness,” he said.
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said at the summit that Bulgaria has managed to transport about 200,000 tons of grain from Ukraine across the Danube in recent months, and the country intends to continue this transportation project.
“Unfortunately, the loss of power in Ukrainian ports due to Russian shelling has made this process difficult for Bulgarian vessels,” he said.
Radev also said Bulgaria is providing fuel to Ukraine so the country can support the agricultural and transportation sectors.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrea Plenkovic also supported work on new corridors for the supply of Ukrainian products as part of the EU’s Solidarity Routes project.
“Croatia is actively joining, and will attract other ports on the Adriatic and there are opportunities for corridors along the Danube River,” said the Croatian government head.
The three leaders welcomed the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative for another 120 days, and the Bulgarian president urged the search for stable long-term solutions.
Ukrainian enterprises in January-October this year, reduced the export of scrap ferrous metals in 13.3 times compared to the same period last year – up to 37.774 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS), in monetary terms, the export of scrap metal during this period decreased by 13.4 times – to $14.589 million.
At the same time, the country has reduced the import of scrap metal in volume terms by 11.7 times to 1.691 thousand tons for ten months. In monetary terms, the import of scrap decreased by 10.8 times – to $ 3.453 million.
In addition, steel companies in Ukraine in January-October 2022, did not import products of direct reduction of iron ore to code 7203 – hot briquetted iron, which is a substitute for pig iron and scrap, but exported 258 tons of these products to India (100%) amounting to $ 48 thousand.
As reported, Ukraine in 2021 increased exports of scrap metal in 17.2 times compared to the previous year – up to 615.687 tons. In monetary terms, exports of scrap metal increased by 25.2 times to $238.895 million.
In 2021, the country reduced imports of scrap metal by 13.1% in volume terms, to 22.964 thousand tons. In monetary terms, scrap imports increased by 72.4% to $44.883 million.
Imports of scrap metal in 2021 was carried out mainly from Turkey (60.42% of supplies in monetary terms), Russia (33.44%) and Belarus (1.57%); exports – to Turkey (84.85%), Romania (6.66%) and Poland (3.45%).
In addition, steel companies in Ukraine in 2021 imported from Russia 1.603 tons of products of direct reduction of iron ore to code 7203 – hot briquetted iron (HBI), which is a substitute for pig iron and scrap, worth $ 653 thousand, while in 2020 – 2.648 tons to $ 805 thousand. In this case, the export of products to India was 288 tons to $91 thousand.
Exports of goods in % to the previous period in 2021 and 2022
SSC of Ukraine
KSG Agro rented an oil extraction plant (OEZ) in Dnipropetrovsk region to produce virgin sunflower oil from its own raw material.
According to the agricultural holding’s press release issued on Friday, the crude sunflower oil it produces will be exported to European Union countries by road.
It is specified that the capacity of rented crushing plant allows processing 2.5 thousand tons of sunflower seeds into 1 thousand tons of sunflower oil per month. Staff of the factory consists of 30 persons. The production is equipped with modern equipment manufactured in Ukraine in 2008.
Agroholding reminded that after the start of a full-scale Russian military invasion into Ukraine, it began exporting rapeseed and sunflower oil to Poland, Slovakia and Italy. In addition, it began pilot shipments of sunflower oil to Poland and Italy using “flexitanks” – polymeric containers designed to transport liquid cargo and installed on trucks.
The vertically integrated holding KSG Agro is engaged in pig farming as well as the production, storage, processing and sale of grain and oilseeds. Its land bank is about 21,000 hectares.
According to the agricultural holding, it is one of the top five pork producers in Ukraine.
In 2021, the holding increased its net profit in 16 times compared with 2020 – up to $20.27 million, revenue – by 44%, to $30.75 million, while increasing EBITDA by half – to $12.28 million.
The owner and chairman of the board of directors of KSG Agro is Sergey Kasyanov.
Exports of goods in % to the previous period in 2021 and 2022
SSC of Ukraine, graphics of the Club of Experts
Ukraine in January-September this year reduced the export of pig iron in kind by 55.9% compared to the same period last year – up to 1 million 77.356 thousand tons.
According to statistics published by the State Customs Service (SCS), over the specified period, the export of pig iron in monetary terms decreased by 56.5% – to $550.490 million.
At the same time, exports were carried out mainly to the USA (41.75% of deliveries in monetary terms), Poland (34.1%) and Turkey (8.7%).
In January-September 2022, Ukraine imported 15 tons of pig iron from Germany for $25,000, while in 9 months-2021 it imported 149 tons of pig iron for $163,000 from Germany (64.42%), Russia (28.22%) and Slovakia (7.36%).
As reported, in 2021 Ukraine increased the export of pig iron in physical terms by 4.2% compared to 2020 – up to 3 million 235.772 thousand tons, the export of pig iron in monetary terms increased by 78.1% – up to $1 billion 642.596 million At the same time, exports were carried out mainly to the USA (53.61% of deliveries in monetary terms), Italy (22.08%) and Turkey (9.74%).
In 2021, Ukraine imported 185 tons of pig iron worth $226 thousand from Germany (74.34%), the Russian Federation (20.35%) and Slovakia (5.31%), while in 2020 it imported 593 tons worth $417 thousand.
