The European Union may provide Ukraine with a grant to modernize the Shepit-Izvoarele Sucevei border crossing point on the border with Romania as part of the Interreg VI-A NEXT Romania-Ukraine 2021-2027 program, according to the press service of the Recovery Agency. According to the report, the program’s governing body has approved the selection of the BOND – Border Operations and National Development project. The project has been recommended for funding and may receive a grant of up to €690,900, which is 90% of the total project budget.
The Recovery Agency noted that BOND is the next stage of comprehensive work on opening the Shepit-Izvoarele Sucevei border crossing point, provided for by an intergovernmental agreement between Ukraine and Romania. Earlier, as part of the Romania-Ukraine 2014-2020 program, mirror infrastructure projects were implemented on both sides of the border – bridges and access roads were built, and flood protection measures were carried out on a 2 km section on the Ukrainian side and a 3 km section on the Romanian side.
As specified, the BOND project provides for the technical equipment of the checkpoint on both sides of the border, in particular the purchase and installation of specialized equipment for the safe and efficient operation of the checkpoint, as well as the development of a joint cross-border strategy for the development of border areas.
The Interreg NEXT “Romania-Ukraine” program for the period 2021-2027 is aimed at supporting cross-border cooperation and covers the border counties of Romania and the Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, and Odesa regions of Ukraine.
BORDER, CHECKPOINT, EUROPEAN UNION, GRANT, MODERNIZATION, ROMANIA
Kernel, one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural holdings and elevator operators, is focusing its current investment activities on specific technological solutions for the development of its elevator network and will implement its own engineering developments at these facilities, said Sergey Shcherban, head of Kernel’s storage department, at the Grain Storage Forum in Kyiv on Friday.
The expert noted that the construction of new large facilities in the format of “sand elevators” (projects “from scratch” – IF-U) currently requires a long investment cycle – from 8 to 10 years. In this regard, the company is directing its available capital budget (CAPEX) toward improving the efficiency of existing assets.
“Our budget is specifically targeted at specific technological solutions. In particular, we have developed our own grain recuperator, which we plan to install at least at two elevators in cooperation with the Sokol company. This development will save 20% of energy when drying grain in certain types of dryers,” Shcherban explained.
According to him, Kernel will soon begin producing its own cleaning equipment. The agricultural holding’s specialists have developed a machine for cleaning, calibrating, and sorting grain, which allows working with raw materials of any quality.
“We have acquired the technology, and now this equipment is being put into practice. The recuperator and cleaning machine are our own designs. We need to approach the solution of non-standard problems of agricultural producers through process optimization,” emphasized the head of the department.
Kernel is the world’s largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil, the largest exporter of grain from Ukraine, and a leading producer of grain and oilseeds in Ukraine. It is one of the largest producers and sellers of bottled oil in Ukraine. It is engaged in the cultivation and sale of agricultural products.
Kernel is the largest operator in the grain storage market in Ukraine. It has a network of more than 60 elevators with a one-time storage capacity of about 3.5 million tons. Its main assets are concentrated in the Poltava, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Kirovohrad regions. The agricultural holding’s logistics infrastructure is supported by assets in the ports of Chornomorsk, including the powerful Transbalkterminal grain terminal (over 190,000 tons of storage capacity) and a stake in the Olymp terminal.
In fiscal year 2025 (FY, July 2024 – June 2025), Kernel supplied 8 million tons of agricultural products to the global market. The agricultural holding company earned $238 million in net profit, which is 42% more than in FY 2024. Kernel’s consolidated revenue in FY 2025 reached $4.115 billion, which is 15% more than in the previous financial year.
The company’s debt obligations at the end of September amounted to $726 million, including bank credit lines of $104.5 million compared to $146.7 million at the beginning of the year.
JSC Ukrenergomashiny, more than 75.22% of whose shares are owned by the state, has planned capital investments of UAH 125 million for the current year, in particular for the organization and costs of relocating part of its production facilities to the Zakarpattia region, according to the company’s interim financial report for the first half of 2025.
“The total volume of planned capital investments for 2025 is UAH 125 million, including the organization of events and expenses for the relocation of part of the production facilities to the Zakarpattia region, which are planned to be covered by funds from the budget reserve fund in accordance with the relevant resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers,” the published report states.
As reported, in April 2024, the company announced without details its decision to establish branches in the western regions of Ukraine: Lviv, Zakarpattia, and Chernivtsi. However, the press service clarified at the time that the company would remain in Kharkiv, and the branches would be created to speed up the production of electric traction equipment and logistics processes in order to quickly deliver equipment under export contracts.
According to the financial report for the first half of this year, in 2025, the largest investments are planned for the development of existing production facilities, in particular, the purchase of new equipment, overhaul, and modernization of existing equipment. In particular, UAH 38.4 million is planned to be allocated to provide production with the necessary organizational and technical equipment and tools, and UAH 7.4 million to develop auxiliary production and a laboratory and experimental base.
“These measures are partially financed from our own funds and from funds attracted from the budget reserve fund,” the company said.
Ukrenergomashini reports that in the second quarter of this year, UAH 1.76 million was spent, including UAH 675,000 on the purchase of new equipment.
At the same time, it is emphasized that in order to preserve the production capacities of a strategic enterprise that is of particular importance for Ukraine’s energy sector, work is underway to relocate part of the equipment to western regions.
JSC Ukrenergomashyny reminds that it is one of the largest enterprises in the world and the only designer and manufacturer in Ukraine of a wide range of equipment for the energy sector, but during the war, it has mastered the production of a wide range of other special products, in particular, for urban transport (customer: Tatra-YUG LLC), an electric motor has been designed and launched into serial production. A number of products have also been mastered for Friendly Wind Technologies LLC.
In addition, the design of an automatic reversing switch and switch for trams and trolleybuses is being completed, a control unit for diesel locomotives has been developed, and the production of traction units has been established.
As reported, the company ended January-June of this year with a net profit of UAH 0.49 million, while for the same period last year it was UAH 20.81 million, with a slight decrease in net income to UAH 468.85 million.
According to the report, sales in the second quarter amounted to UAH 243.55 million, of which UAH 132.255 million were export deliveries (54.3% of sales), with products exported to Kazakhstan, India, Armenia, Bulgaria, and Hungary.
The main customers (more than 5% of total revenue) include Ukrhydroenergo, NAEK Energoatom, Centrenergo, Mykolaiv Locomotive Repair Plant, Kryukiv Railway Car Building Works, DTRZ, Tatra-Yug, as well as Kozloduy NPP (Bulgaria), Paks NPP (Hungary), AAEK (Armenia), and KBI Energy (Kazakhstan).
At the same time, the value of concluded but not yet executed agreements (contracts) as of the end of the second quarter of 2025 exceeds UAH 8 billion, and the total amount of payments remaining to be paid under these contracts is UAH 2.86 billion.
Ukrenergomashyny JSC names foreign companies Andritz (Austria), Voith (Germany), General Electric (USA), and Bharat Heavy Electric Ltd. (India) as its main competitors and assesses competition in the markets as high.
JSC Ukrenergomashiny is the only manufacturer of turbine equipment for hydro, thermal, and nuclear power plants in Ukraine. It also produces electric motors for rail and urban transport.
As of July 1, 2025, the company employed nearly 2,600 people.
The PRAVIO group of companies is investing in the construction and modernization of the recently acquired bankrupt cheese factory Gadyachsyru (Poltava region) to transform it into a modern export-oriented enterprise producing soft cheeses, sour milk cheese, and other products, said RAVIO founder and president Valentin Zaporoshchuk in a comment to BusinessCensor.
He noted that he acquired Gadyachsyir in February 2025.
“All of these products are in demand on the European market today. The plans include the construction of a plant with a processing capacity of up to 1,000 tons of milk per day, with an investment of EUR180 million. These will be funds raised from European banks. We have partners from Europe who are ready to join us in the project,” Zaporoshchuk said.
According to him, an audit is currently being conducted at the enterprise, which has been idle for almost five years. The company’s problems began in 2013–2014, when Gadyachsyir remained almost the only Ukrainian dairy plant that exported products to Russia and had no other stable partners. Later, the plant tried to participate in international exhibitions, but financial difficulties became inevitable.
Zaporoshchuk is convinced that the site and the region are promising for the development of a new enterprise.
“The Poltava region is one of the largest in terms of milk production and large farms. At its peak, the enterprise processed more than 2,000 tons of milk per day. And that’s not a bad volume. Of course, other enterprises have now taken over these volumes. But when we build a new enterprise with a strategic set of solutions on this site, it will be competitive, and milk producers will return to us,” added Zaporoshchuk.
The PRAVIO Group of Companies unites the Ichnia Milk Canning Plant, which specializes in milk processing and the production of canned dairy products, the Proviant Trading House, and has a raw materials division – the Mayak agricultural company, which specializes in crop production, and the Obmachivski Zirky company, which specializes in animal husbandry and crop production.
The group of companies owns the PRAVIO, MamaMilla, Milada, and Ichnia trademarks, whose products are exported to 40 countries worldwide and distributed in Ukraine through its trading house Proviant.
The Kametstal plant, part of the Metinvest mining and metallurgical group (Kamensk, Dnipropetrovsk region), has significantly increased its production of continuously cast steel billets using the stop casting technology due to increased demand.
According to the company, one of the current trends in the metal market is increased demand for continuously cast steel billets using the stop casting technology.
“Thanks to systematic measures, the team at Kametstal’s converter shop exceeded its initial targets for this year and achieved a monthly production of 15,000 tons of high-quality billets at the continuous casting machine (CCM-1), which is twice as much as last year’s monthly production volumes,” the press release states.
At the same time, it is noted that the development and improvement of steel casting technology using stop mechanisms on the continuous casting machine (CCM) No. 1 remains in the focus of the company’s specialists, as it allows them to obtain metal with higher requirements for chemical composition and macrostructure, which yields higher profits than conventional billets. One of the primary goals set by the steelmakers is to increase the production of billets using this technology, and they are persistently pursuing this goal. This year, 58,433 thousand tons of high-quality billets have already been cast on the first machine, thus exceeding the annual production volume for 2024 by more than 5 thousand tons in eight months.
“Among the priority measures for achieving ambitious goals is the development and improvement of the parameters for the automatic start of the machine’s streams during stop casting, which has a positive effect on the quality and productivity of casting by minimizing the human factor in the process. While at the beginning of 2025, successful starts of the continuous casting machine in “Auto Start” mode accounted for almost 80%, today, technologists are already performing more than 90% of successful starts without switching to manual mode,” the plant emphasizes.
Also this year, as part of the program to upgrade the main steelmaking equipment, an investment project was implemented – during the first stage of reconstruction at continuous casting machine No. 1, frequency converters and cable and wire products were replaced, and the software was updated. As a result, the operation of the pulling stoves has improved, and thus the smoothness of pouring and the stability of launches.
After the implementation of this investment project, the first machine achieved a record production of high-quality hot-rolled coils in July – 16,159 thousand tons, while last year the maximum monthly production of such products was 8,256 thousand tons.
An important vector is the increase in the seriality of melts during stop casting of steel. Additional technological measures have made it possible to achieve an average seriality of almost six melts this year, while the average seriality in 2024 was 5.3 melts.
As reported, Metinvest will invest more than UAH 2.5 billion in the modernization of Kametstal in 2025.
Kametstal is part of the Metinvest Group.
According to the results of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, IMC (Industrial Milk Company) is in good financial condition, intends to reduce its debt below $20 million by the end of the year and will return to paying dividends, IMC CEO Alexander Verzhikhovsky said in an interview with the Polish edition of parkiet.com.
He noted that as of the end of March 2025, IMC had $44.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, which is 73% more than a year earlier. This allows the agricultural holding to reduce its financial debt as planned.
According to the CEO of the agricultural holding, IMC’s debt as of the end of 2024 amounted to more than $23 million, compared to $46 million at the end of 2023.
“This year, we are striving to further reduce our debt and plan to bring it down to below $20 million. At the same time, we have returned to paying dividends and are working to share our profits with shareholders in the form of significant dividends next year,” the IMC CEO emphasized.
In addition, he said that in March 2025, IMC completed investments in its own rolling stock. In total, since 2024, the company has invested about $22 million in the purchase of a fleet of 300 grain carriers.
Verzhykhovsky explained that owning grain cars allows the agricultural holding to largely abandon the use of leased cars for grain transportation to ports. “Currently, IMC can transport up to 80% of our annual grain production with its own railcars.
In addition, in 2024, the agricultural holding invested heavily in the renewal and modernization of its fleet, which directly affects the production processes related to soil preparation, sowing campaign, their efficiency and optimization of operations.
“IMC intends to maintain annual investments in equipment, technology and infrastructure modernization at the level of $10-12 million. The company does not plan to issue shares or increase debt. Investments will be made at the expense of own funds,” summarized IMC CEO.
IMC Agroholding is an integrated group of companies operating in Sumy, Poltava and Chernihiv regions (north and center of Ukraine) in the crop production, elevators and warehouses segments. The land bank is 116 thousand hectares, storage capacity is 554 thousand tons, with a harvest of 864 thousand tons in 2024.
IMC ended 2024 with a net profit of $54.54 million compared to a net loss of $21.03 million in 2023. Revenue increased by 52% to $211.29 million, gross profit quadrupled to $109.10 million, and normalized EBITDA increased 25 times to $86.11 million.
