Astarta, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, plans to invest over $21 million in 2025 to upgrade its agricultural machinery fleet, the company’s press service reports.
According to the report, 150 units of new equipment have already been contracted, including heavy tractors, sprayers, self-propelled beet harvesters, sowing complexes, precision seeders, tillage machines and other equipment. Some of the equipment has been delivered to the agro-industrial holding’s production facilities and will be actively used in the spring field work. This will help increase the efficiency of agricultural production and optimize tillage and harvesting processes, as well as preserve soil health.
“The purchase of modern machinery is one of the elements of our decarbonization strategy, which involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions through more fuel-efficient equipment and the use of precision and regenerative farming practices. In order to reduce the impact of agricultural production on climate change, Astarta continues to scale up such practices, in particular, reducing the number and depth of tillage and increasing the area under cover crops,” said Andriy Zagorulko, Director of Crop Production, Logistics and Mechanization.
According to him, in 2024, the agricultural holding increased the area under no-till tillage and green manure. It has expanded the differentiated and local application of mineral fertilizers, which provides for their optimal use. In addition, local fertilization simultaneously with main tillage significantly reduces fuel consumption due to fewer technological operations.
“The updated machinery fleet will allow us to respond more quickly to changing weather conditions, be much more cost-effective and reduce dependence on third-party services,” the agricultural holding is convinced.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It includes six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In 2023, the agricultural holding reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR 61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR 145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR 618.93 million.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will invest $1.4 trillion in the US economy over the next 10 years, the White House said in a statement. The investment plans were announced after US President Donald Trump met with UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan this week.
“The new plan envisages a significant increase in the UAE’s current investments in the US economy, particularly in AI infrastructure, semiconductor and energy industries, as well as in the US industrial sector,” the statement said.
Norway, in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), has committed a total of NOK 1.1 billion ($105 million) in financial support to rebuild Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, build backup capacity and accelerate Ukraine’s transition to a more diversified and sustainable energy mix.
“This partnership will ensure the restoration of energy generating capacity in Ukraine, providing direct support to important regions of Ukraine. This contribution will significantly mitigate the impact of the ongoing shelling of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. As part of this enhanced partnership, solar panels will be installed to provide backup power to schools and hospitals, and a recent agreement will provide an additional 80 MW of power to the national grid this winter,” the UN press service reports.
It is noted that thanks to the UNDP Energy Recovery Program, the provision of heat and water will meet the needs of more than a million people and industrial consumers.
“Russia’s constant attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have led to an urgent need to increase electricity production. There is a shortage of this type of equipment on the market. Therefore, the agreement with UNDP is very important to support Ukraine this winter,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a government press release.
The production, transportation and installation of energy equipment are complex and risky processes that are carried out by reliable partners, as this is vital assistance that will enable Ukraine to survive the coming winter.
“We are committed to supporting Ukraine in its efforts to build a more resilient and sustainable energy system by restoring critical energy infrastructure and generation capacity, and advancing strategic initiatives to accelerate the transition to green energy. We are committed to supporting Ukraine in its efforts to build a more resilient and sustainable energy system. Rehabilitating critical energy infrastructure is essential as people living in multi-storey buildings in major cities have no alternative means of heating and water supply. UNDP’s Renewable Energy Program, through which we are supporting Ukraine’s energy recovery, is a testament to our commitment to promoting green recovery and energy security for all Ukrainians. We are grateful to our partners for their continued support,” said UNDP Resident Representative Jaco Silje.
“DTEK will build energy storage facilities in Ukraine with a total capacity of 200 MW, the company’s press service said on Thursday.
According to it, investments in the project will amount to EUR140 million, making the company the largest investor in this area in the country.
The batteries will be commissioned in a number of regions of the country no later than September 2025.
The press service reminded that on August 22, DTEK Group companies, together with other energy industry players, won a competitive auction held by NPC Ukrenergo for the provision of ancillary services.
“Despite the war and limited access to the external capital market, we continue to invest in Ukraine. This includes not only the restoration of the destroyed facilities but also the construction of new ones as part of our long-term development strategy. Our priority remains unchanged – it is the development of green energy in Ukraine, the accelerated integration of our energy system into Europe and the improvement of our country’s energy security,” said DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko.
As reported, DTEK is also a participant in the construction of the first large-scale electricity storage project in Poland. The goal is to create a pan-European energy system designed to unite Ukraine and the EU.
DTEK was established in 2005 to manage the energy assets of Rinat Akhmetov’s System Capital Management (SCM, Donetsk). The corporation has been delegated the functions of strategic management of the group’s enterprises, which make up a vertically integrated chain of coal mining and enrichment, electricity generation and sales.
DTEK is committed to transforming into a more efficient, environmentally friendly and technologically advanced business, guided by ESG principles. The group plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040.
Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group plans to carry out a large-scale green transformation of its Ukrainian assets – GOKs, Kametstal and Zaporizhstal – worth about $9 billion within 5-10 years after the end of the war.
According to a report by dsnews.ua, this will require external financing.
It is specified that as soon as the hostilities end, the group will increase production (currently, its enterprises are 65-70% utilized), so the equipment needs to be prepared for operation in advance, which is being done now.
At the same time, the strategy remains unchanged: to create a global company with Ukrainian roots based on green and digital transformation of production facilities. This requires high-quality raw materials, semi-finished products and sufficient clean energy sources.
Meanwhile, the large-scale green modernization of enterprises in Ukraine has been put on hold due to an acute shortage of electricity of any origin. However, Metinvest can help develop Ukrainian assets by investing in cleaner production. For example, the construction of a green rolling plant in Italy with a capacity of about 3 million tons of products per year will increase the utilization of the group’s Ukrainian iron and steel plants, which can no longer sell products in Ukraine after the occupation of Mariupol’s steel mills. The Italian plant is to be built jointly with partners in three to four years with up to $2 billion of credit and partnership funds.
In addition, the GOKs that receive orders will be able to modernize their production to produce high-quality pellets. In particular, Northern GOK is currently competing in the European market thanks to its upgraded production of pellets with improved characteristics.
Metinvest’s strategy for transitioning to green steel production long before the war included the conversion of blast furnaces at its steelmaking facilities to DRI (direct reduction of iron) technology. This process requires improved pellets as raw materials. Successful tests of the production of such DRI pellets were carried out at Central GOK at the beginning of the war.
The war has put major strategic projects on hold, but the Group is responding quickly to adapt its investment program to maintain efficient production, primarily by investing in existing facilities that need to be modernized. Since the beginning of the war, Metinvest has invested over $300 million annually.
In 2023, Zaporizhstal and Kametstal overhauled blast furnaces. In addition, Zaporizhstal overhauled its rolling mill equipment and Kametstal overhauled its coke oven batteries. In total, UAH 23 billion has been invested in the modernization of these two enterprises over the past two years.
“Metinvest is also consistently launching new coking coal longwalls at Pokrovskoye Coal Group. At the beginning of the year, the 11th longwall for coking coal production in Block 10 of the Pokrovskoye Mine Administration was launched.
In addition, targeted investments are important. For example, the modernization of the roasting machine in the pellet production shop at Pivdennyi GOK in 2023 helped to establish the production of homogeneous pellets with an iron content of 65%, which allowed the GOK to maintain a competitive position in the European iron ore market.
This year, the company plans to invest $320 million in capital and about $350 million in operating investments in equipment and work sites. The priority is to repair blast furnaces and sintering machines, maintain the GOK’s equipment and develop the mine management department in Pokrovsk.
Ukrtransgaz plans to invest UAH 998.277 million in the development of natural gas storage facilities in 2024 in accordance with the gas storage development plan for 2024-2033 approved by the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC) at a meeting on Tuesday.
“We are moving towards 100% fulfillment of investment programs in general,” said Roman Malyutin, Ukrtransgaz CEO, at the meeting.
According to him, the approved plan provides for the reconstruction and construction of fixed assets of technological processes in the gas storage system, the development of critical infrastructure security facilities, including cybersecurity, and information technology.
According to the document, the company intends to invest UAH 472.355 million this year in the operation of gas storage facilities, UAH 415.988 million in the development of underground gas storage facilities, UAH 66.442 million in the modernization and purchase of vehicles, special machines and mechanisms, UAH 27.413 million in the purchase of diagnostic and inspection equipment and other devices, and UAH 16.079 million in industrial and administrative buildings.
In total, Ukrtransgaz’s gas storage development plan for 2024-2033 envisages an investment of UAH 14 billion 534.148 million.
