Business news from Ukraine

Poland to build grain terminal in Gdansk for Ukraine

The first grain port in Poland will be built in Gdansk, in particular for the export of Ukrainian agricultural products, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Robert Telus said at a meeting with voters in Przysus, polskieradio24.pl reports.

According to the report, RSSI (Agri-Food Investment Company – IF-U) has signed an agreement with the Port of Gdansk to implement this project.

“On Tuesday, the state budget enterprise RSSI signed an agreement with the Port of Gdansk to create a grain port. We have a grain port,” the minister said, adding that this is an extremely important event.

He noted that the grain port will improve the transportation of grain, in particular from Ukraine.

The creation of further “solidarity corridors” that would allow the transportation of Ukrainian grain by sea is very important, he explained, while emphasizing that the lack of agricultural supplies to African countries is beneficial to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

As reported, on September 15, the European Commission announced that it would not extend restrictions on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine to five neighboring EU countries (Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia) under certain conditions that will help avoid a new sharp increase in supplies.

The restrictions were introduced on May 2 and applied to imports of wheat, rapeseed, sunflower and corn. These five Eastern European EU member states argued that Ukrainian agricultural products, when imported duty-free into the EU, were being deposited in their countries and were harming their local agricultural sectors.

After the restrictions were lifted, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia imposed unilateral bans. Poland expanded the list of banned products to include rapeseed cake and meal, as well as corn bran, wheat flour, and derivatives. Hungary extended the list to 24 commodity items.

Ukraine filed a lawsuit with the WTO, accusing Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia of discriminatory treatment of its agricultural products.

Ukraine is currently negotiating the introduction of a mechanism for licensing the export of Ukrainian agricultural products with mandatory verification in each of the five countries.

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KMZ pumps construction of first stage of export grain terminal for Alebor Group

KMZ Industries (Karlovskiy Machine Building Plant, KMZ, Poltava region) at the end of 2022 has manufactured and delivered the equipment necessary for the completion of construction of the “dry” port of Alebor Group located on the territory of Hlybotskiy community (Chernivtsi region) near the border with Romania.
According to the Facebook page of the engineering company, KMZ is ordering construction of the first stage of the export grain terminal with a capacity of 30 000 tons and loading capacity of 300 tons per hour.
Altogether Alebor Group is planning several stages of terminal construction for 2023-2024. In the long term, the “Vadul-Siret Terminal” project will transship Ukrainian agricultural products into narrow gauge railroad wagons for subsequent shipment to the Romanian port of Constanta, thus giving exporters an alternative to Ukrainian sea ports.
As reported, the head of Hlybock community Gregory Vanzuryak in August 2022, wrote that the facility will be equipped with silos up to 200 thousand tons and a capacity of handling up to 3 million tons / year.
He said the first phase of the $20 million project, which will be completed in January 2023, will store up to 60,000 tons of crops and transship up to 1.2 million tons of grain annually to Romania.
Vanzuryak noted that the total construction cost of the facility will be $40 million.
Alebor Group in July-2022 announced the purchase of land for the construction of a terminal for transshipment of crops from the wide Ukrainian railroad track to the narrow European railroad track, as well as an elevator with a total capacity of 60 thousand hectares.
Alebor Group was founded in 2014. Its founder is entrepreneur Alexey Kustov.
In addition to Voronivtsi KPP, the group includes Krystyniv KPP (Cherkasy region) and KPP Chestne (Odessa region), as well as trucking companies Boleko (Cherkasy region), Autoera (Odessa region) and a trading division. The total fleet of the companies amounts to 210 grain carriers.
Before the full-scale Russian invasion into Ukraine, the group of companies had the capacity to export 1.2 million tons of grains and oilseeds per year. The total capacity of the three elevators is 315 thousand tons of simultaneous storage.
KMZ Industries produces flat-bottom and cone-bottom silos, flour storage silos, Brice-Baker mine dryers (British design) and chipboards (Ukrainian design), transport equipment (elevator, chain, belt and screw conveyors), separators for grain cleaning, installs and automates elevator equipment and technological processes in grain storages.
In 2020 the plant increased revenue by 35% to 395.26 million hryvnias and made 5.05 million hryvnias of net profit against a loss of 25.37 million hryvnias. In 2021, it planned to increase production by 30-50%.
As of the fourth quarter of 2021, Dragon Capital Investments Limited (Cyprus), whose ultimate beneficiary is Tomas Fiala, owns 80% of KMZ JSC shares, while Variant Agro Bud LLC holds 20%.

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NIBULON INTENDS TO REPLACE TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS AT GRAIN TERMINAL

JV Nibulon LLC (Mykoliav) intends to replace technological flows at its operating transshipment terminal for grains and oilseeds in Mykoliav and modernize the aspiration (ventilation) system, which will minimize the impact on the environment, increase the emergency safety of production, improve working conditions, fire safety and industrial sanitation.
Information about this is stipulated in the unified register of environmental impact assessment of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.
The project involves the installation of additional 24 aspiration systems at the terminal, replacement of belt conveyors with chain conveyors, installation of fire-fighting dry pipes and explosion arresters for transport elevators – devices to prevent an explosion in an enclosed space.
At the moment, Nibulon is considering two options for installing the aspiration system: using dust collectors of the sleeve type or cyclone type.
The company said that its transshipment terminal is located on a plot with a total area of 15.86 hectares, which it owns.

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CARGILL BECOMES OWNER OF 51% STAKE IN UKRAINIAN NEPTUNE GRAIN TERMINAL

Cargill became the majority (51%) owner of a joint venture with Neptune Port Holding B.V. brothers Yehor Hrebennikov and Andriy Stavnitser of M.V. Cargo LLC, a grain terminal Neptune with a design capacity of 5 million tonnes per year in Pivdenny port in the Black Sea.
“Neptune is meeting the growing demand for deep water port infrastructure in Ukraine by giving farmers access to new distant markets,” Cargill said in a statement on Friday.
The U.S. company said that in 2016 it signed an agreement with Stavnitser and Hrebennikov on the construction of the terminal, which started operation in 2019.
“Neptune is strengthening Cargill’s port infrastructure in the Black Sea region, therefore, we continue to invest in the agricultural sector of Ukraine,” Cargill said.
Neptune handles various types of grains and oilseeds, primarily maize, barley and wheat, with a depth of 16 meters at the terminal berth, which allows it to receive large-tonnage vessels. Cargill is an important user of the terminal, exporting a significant portion of the products purchased in Ukraine from it, but Neptune serves other customers as well.
“In short: Cargill had an obligation to enter the project, and we signed to bring the terminal to the level of Cargill’s space standards. Now Yehor and I are practically equal partners with the largest private food corporation in the world,” Stavnitser said on Facebook.
He said that in 2014, when the war broke out, an oil extraction plant in Donetsk was taken away from the U.S. investor, but Cargill was persuaded to make a new investment in Ukraine.
Stavnitser said that two years after the launch and in the process of completion, Neptune became grain terminal No. 2 on the Black Sea in terms of cargo turnover.
The statement does not contain information about the cost of the transaction. It is said that Cargill, as the majority shareholder, will lead the strategic development of the Neptune terminal, with a local team responsible for operational management.

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KOREAN POSCO AND UKRAINIAN OREXIM OPEN NEW GRAIN TERMINAL IN MYKOLAIV REGION

Posco International Corporation Korea-based Company and Ukrainian Orexim Group have officially opened a grain terminal with a total storage capacity of over 140,000 tonnes in Mykolaiv seaport.
As Orexim reported on its website, the grain terminal was built on the base of Mykolaiv Milling Works.
“By the start of work of the new grain terminal Posco plans to increase Ukrainian grain export to 3 million per year. Also, the company has in plans to create their own park of rail wagons for grain transporting,” said the Group.
As reported, in February 2019, Posco Corporation announced that it has signed an agreement with the Orexim Group from Ukraine on the acquisition of 75% of shares in the grain export terminal being built at the Mykolaiv maritime merchandise port.
Orexim Group started its activity in 2004 as a small trading company having transformed over several years of continuing successful activity into a market leader with around 1,000 employees. The group incorporates over 20 enterprises.
The core business is exports of agricultural products, port and logistics services. The company has invested over $100 million in fixed assets.
In August 2016, the group finalized a deal to acquire Mykolaiv Grain Terminal.
In February 2018, the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is providing EUR 31 million to Orexim Group to reconstruct and modernize private joint-stock company Mykolaiv Grain Terminal.

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VEGETABLE OIL COMPANY RISOIL WILL INSTALL NEW SILOS IN GRAIN TERMINAL IN CHORNOMORSK PORT

Risoil S.A. plans to install eight new silos at the grain terminal Risoil Terminal in Chornomorsk port and increase the capacity of storage by 105,000 tonnes, to 257,000 tonnes on average (depending on the crops). “This month, the installation of eight new silos begins. The volume of storage will be 105,000 tonnes more. The supplier of silos is AGI, the leading global manufacturer of equipment. It is planned to compete the installation work by the end of 2019,” the group said on Facebook.
Risoil S.A. was established in Geneva (Switzerland) in 2000. Its core business is logistics of oil, bulk and general cargo in the ports of the Black Sea, the sale and production of vegetable oils, trade in grains and oilseeds in containers, storage and processing of agro-industrial products.
The grain terminal Risoil Terminal in Chornomorsk port was put into operation in 2016.

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