Spanish farmers from the association Unión de Uniones held a rally in front of the European Commission building in Madrid on Monday demanding action against excessive grain imports from Ukraine, uniondeuniones.org reported.
According to the report, the association also denounced the speculation on feed prices that livestock farmers are suffering from.
“Unión de Uniones held a rally in front of the European Commission building in Madrid to protest against excessive imports of agri-food products that create unfair competition with European production, especially grain from Ukraine, which cause prices to fall for farmers while ranchers continue to pay for expensive feed,” the report said.
The association has registered a letter to the president of the European Commission with its demands and proposals to resolve the situation.
Unión de Uniones will unite about thirty producers representing the main producing regions of Spain.
In January-August this year, Ukrainian companies increased imports of copper and copper products by 20.1% in value terms compared to the same period last year, to $92.824 million.
According to customs statistics released by the State Customs Service of Ukraine on Friday, exports of copper and copper products increased by 16% to $58.224 million over the period under review.
In August, copper was imported for $8.304 million and exported for $8.878 million.
In addition, in January-August 2024, Ukraine increased imports of nickel and products by 68.5% compared to the same period in 2023 to $18.6 million (in August – $1.620 million), aluminum and aluminum products by 20% to $292.701 million (in August – $42.649 million).
At the same time, the country reduced imports of lead and lead products by 14.8% to $615 thousand (in August – $5 thousand), imports of tin and tin products increased by 7.8% to $1.842 million (in August – $307 thousand), and increased imports of zinc and zinc products by 32.9% to $38.242 million (in August – $4.882 million).
Exports of aluminum and aluminum products in the first eight months of 2024 increased by 31.1% compared to the same period a year earlier to $82.966 million (in August – $11.901 million), lead and lead products decreased by 25.9% to $7.315 million (in August – $823 thousand), nickel and nickel products amounted to $508 thousand (in August – $85 thousand), while in January-August 2023 it was $201 thousand.
Zinc exports for the first eight months of this year amounted to $201 thousand (in August – $79 thousand), while in January-August 2023 it was $88 thousand. Exports of tin and products amounted to $344 thousand (in August – $2 thousand) against $53 thousand in the same period a year earlier.
As reported, in 2023, Ukraine increased imports of copper and copper products by 2.2 times compared to 2022 – up to $140.795 million, while exports decreased by 20.1% to $72.078 million.
In addition, in 2023, Ukraine decreased imports of nickel and products by 74.2% compared to 2022, to $15.391 million, and increased imports of aluminum and aluminum products by 7.7%, to $366.463 million.
At the same time, imports of lead and lead products decreased by 65.2% to $989 thousand, tin and tin products by 23% to $2.728 million, but imports of zinc and zinc products increased by 18.8% to $45.966 million.
Exports of aluminum and aluminum products in 2023 increased by 0.7% compared to 2022 to $97.616 million, lead and lead products increased by 23.5% to $14.778 million, and nickel and nickel products amounted to $532 thousand, while in 2022 it was $1.268 million.
In 2023, the company exported $130 thousand worth of zinc, compared to $1.331 million in 2022. Exports of tin and tin products amounted to $159 thousand against $424 thousand in 2022.
India imported $3.13 billion worth of gold in July 2024, the country’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry said. This is 11% less than in July last year, but 2% more than in June this year.
Demand for gold in India both this year (the season of purchases – August-December), and in the long term can grow significantly due to the reduction of customs duties, says World Gold Council analyst Kavita Chako. Duties on gold have been reduced from 15% to 6%, on gold doré – from 14.35% to 5.35% – such a sharp decline has never been. Moreover, for almost 11 years the duties have never fallen below 10%. The changes came into force on July 24.
In total for 7 months of the year gold imports to India amounted to $22.234 billion, which is 12% more than the result of the corresponding period last year. India is one of the largest consumers of gold in the world, practically not producing it itself.
Ukraine in January-July this year increased imports of coke and semi-coke in physical terms three times compared to the same period last year – up to 343.678 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS) on Friday, imports of coke in monetary terms for this period increased 2.25 times to $124.520 million.
Imports were mainly from Poland (87.67% of shipments in monetary terms), Hungary (4.25%) and China (3.08%).
In the first seven months of the year, the country exported 1.025 thousand tons of coke worth $231 thousand to Moldova (99.57%) and Latvia (0.43%), while there were no exports in January and March 2024.
As reported, Ukraine in 2023 reduced imports of coke and semi-coke in physical terms by 8.5% compared to 2022 – to 328.697 thousand tons, imports in monetary terms decreased by 25.8% – to $129.472 million.
Ukraine exported 3.383 thousand tons of coke in 2023, down 12.3% from 2022. In monetary terms, it decreased by 22.2% – to $787 thousand. Exports were made to Moldova (100% of shipments in monetary terms), while imports were mainly from Poland (88.47%), Colombia (7.72%) and the Czech Republic (3.15%).
Ukraine is negotiating to maximise possible imports of electricity from European Union countries to compensate for the generation capacity destroyed by the Russian attacks, Ukrainian energy minister said on Friday.
Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector have intensified since March, resulting in significant damage and blackouts in many regions.
The attacks have caused more than $1 billion of damage to the sector, leading to the loss of 8,000 MWh of generating capacity from the energy system, the government says.
Currently, Ukraine can import from the EU states no more than 1,700 Mwh of electricity simultaneously.
“We’re negotiating. Our task is to maximise this figure,” Energy Minister German Galushchenko told parliament.
“Technically, we can receive (import) more than 2,000 Mwh, even 2,400 Mwh. I’m sure a decision will be made,” he added.
Volodymyr Kudrytskiy, the head of Ukraine’s national power grid operator Ukrenergo, told Ukraine’s Telegraf that 1,700 Mwh is “the ceiling for now”.
“Everything will depend on how quickly our European colleagues – energy system operators of neighbouring countries – will be able to implement projects to expand the capacity of their grids,” Kudrytskiy said.
He said that European grid companies need time and money to reinforce some of their substations, install additional transformers or build new transmission lines.
“We think 3,500 to 4,000 Mwh of interstate interconnector capacity is something we can have in the horizon of five years,” Kudrytskiy noted.
IMPORTS
Energy minister Galushchenko did not say exactly how much imports are being discussed now, but Maxim Timchenko, the head of Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said earlier this month that an increase to 2,200 Mwh could significantly improve the situation.
DTEK has lost about 90% of its power generation capacity due to Russian missile attacks in recent months.
DTEK data showed that Ukraine consumed around 13,000 Mwh before the attacks as of March 17 but after a series of Russian attacks on the energy system, consumption fell to 9,100 Mwh.
Due to power shortages, Ukrainian power grid operator Ukrenergo has been forced to introduce regular shutdowns of industrial consumers and households and maintain high import rates.
Problems with power generation can have a “potentially negative impact” on industry, especially the largest electricity consumers, the economy ministry said this week.
According to customs statistics released by the State Customs Service of Ukraine, Ukraine in January-April 2024 increased imports of aluminum and aluminum products – by 26.6% to $136.761 million (in April – $38.235 million). Exports of aluminum and aluminum products for the first four months of 2024 increased by 5% compared to the comparable period a year earlier – to $33.008 million (in April – $9.608 million).
In addition, Ukraine’s imports of aluminum and aluminum products increased by 7.7% to $366.463 million in 2023.
Exports of aluminum and aluminum products last year increased by 0.7% compared to 2022 – to $97.616 million. In addition, Ukraine in 2022 reduced imports of aluminum and aluminum products – by 33.4%, to $340.398 million.
Exports of aluminum and aluminum products in 2022 decreased by 42.7% compared to 2021 – to $96.972 million.
Aluminum is widely used as a structural material. The main advantages of aluminum in this capacity are its lightness, pliability for stamping, corrosion resistance, high thermal conductivity, and the non-poisonous nature of its compounds. In particular, these properties have made aluminum extremely popular in the production of kitchen utensils, aluminum foil in the food industry, and for packaging. The first three properties have also made aluminum a major raw material in the aviation and aerospace industries (recently displaced by composites, primarily carbon fiber). After construction and production of packaging – aluminum cans and foil – the largest industry-consumer of the metal is the energy sector.
