In 2023, Astarta Agricultural Holding produced 39 thousand tons of sugar beet, up 20% year-on-year, thanks to a record yield of 58 tons/ha compared to 56 tons/ha in 2022, the company said in its annual report on Wednesday evening.
According to the agricultural holding, the record high sugar beet harvest extended the processing period until the end of January 2024. In total, the sugar production campaign in 2023 lasted 130 days, compared to 111 days a year earlier.
“In the 2023-2024 marketing year, Astarta increased sugar production by 34% year-on-year to 377 thousand tons. At the same time, the volume of sugar beet processing in 2023 increased by 37% compared to the same period last year and reached 2.7 million tons. The market share remained unchanged at 21% in 2023, the document says.
The agroholding has engaged more than 100 independent sugar beet producers in eight regions of Ukraine to supply its sugar factories with raw materials. In 2023, they increased the supply of raw materials to 26% of the total volume of this crop processed by the company (18% a year earlier) – up to 707 thousand tons of the crop.
Astarta’s share in Ukraine’s total sugar exports amounted to 12%, or about 50 thousand tons in 2023. Italy and Romania became the key export destinations for the agricultural holding, accounting for 29% and 25% of the company’s exports, respectively. Hungary, Spain and Bulgaria were also among the top five buyers of Astarta’s sugar.
99% of Astarta’s sugar was exported by land, mainly by road (67%) and rail.
Half of the sugar produced was supplied to processing companies, primarily in the food industry, including confectionery, bakery and beverage production.
Astarta also produces by-products such as pressed pulp, dry granulated pulp and molasses from its sugar beet processing and sells them domestically as ingredients for animal feed production for use in its own livestock farming or for biogas production.
The volumes of by-products produced depend on the amount of sugar beet processed, so in 2023 their production volumes increased significantly, the agricultural holding explained. The production of molasses increased by 1.5 times to 98 thousand tons, and pressed pulp – to 1.7 million tons against 1.5 million tons in 2022. Production of granulated beet pulp amounted to 28 thousand tons.
In 2023, Astarta’s bioenergy complex used 145 thousand tons, or 9% of the produced pressed pulp, to produce biogas for its facilities. In addition, 223 tons (approximately 1%) of the produced granulated sugar beet pulp was used as alternative energy at one of the agricultural holding’s sugar plants.
Sugar sales volumes increased by 26% year-on-year to 284 thousand tons in 2023, while the average selling price increased by 3% to EUR 665/ton. Realized prices increased by 18% year-on-year to 26 thousand UAH/ton (excluding VAT).
Dnipro Metallurgical Plant (DMZ, formerly Dneprokoks), a part of DCH Steel of businessman Aleksandr Yaroslavsky’s DCH Group, cut rolled steel production by 61% year-on-year in January-March this year, down to 11.5 thousand tons from 29.4 thousand tons.
According to a report in DCH Steel’s corporate newspaper on Thursday, coke output for the period increased by 52.4% to 69.8 thousand tons from 45.8 thousand tons.
At the same time, in March of this year, DMZ reduced rolled steel output by 41.3% year-on-year to 6.2 thousand tons. However, metallurgical coke production increased by 52.3% to 24.4 thousand tons.
“In March, rolled steel production increased by 17.9% compared to February and metallurgical coke production by 7.8%,” the publication states.
DMZ employees made a unique mine skip for the group’s Sukha Balka mine. It is specified that this lifting mechanism is unique because there are no other such mine skips in the world with a volume of 25 cubic meters and a lifting capacity of 53 tons from a depth of 1500 meters, usually miners use smaller units of 20 cubic meters.
The skip was transported to the mine, where it was covered with an anti-corrosion coating, galvanized and painted, and a lining made in Sweden was installed. Currently, the skip is being installed at Yubileynaya mine.
“The project to manufacture a mine roof was implemented as part of DMZ’s vertical integration with Sukha Balka mine. The work was done perfectly, so we decided to entrust DMZ specialists with the production of the next important unit – a three-storey mine cage,” said Vitaly Bash, CEO of DCH Steel.
As reported, in 2023, the plant increased its rolled metal output by 86.2% compared to 2022, up to 105.6 thousand tons, and coke by 38.5%, up to 292.7 thousand tons.
In 2022, the plant reduced rolled steel production by 74.2% compared to 2021, to 58.4 thousand tons, and coke production by 56.3%, to 211.3 thousand tons.
DMZ specializes in the production of steel, pig iron, rolled products and products made from them. On March 1, 2018, DCH Group signed an agreement to buy Dnipro Metallurgical Plant from Evraz.
Zaporozhkoks, one of Ukraine’s largest coke and chemical producers and part of Metinvest Group, increased its blast furnace coke output by 1% year-on-year to 214.8 thousand tons from 211.3 thousand tons in January-March this year.
According to the company, it produced 74 thousand tons of coke in March.
As reported, Zaporozhkoks increased its blast furnace coke output by 16% in 2023 compared to 2022, up to 856.8 thousand tons from 737.4 thousand tons.
“Zaporozhkoks produces about 10% of coke in Ukraine and has a full technological cycle of coke products processing. It also produces coke oven gas and pitch coke.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated mining group of companies. Its major shareholders are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage the company.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
Ruta, a major Ukrainian manufacturer of sanitary and hygienic paper products, whose management company is VGP JSC (Lutsk), produced products worth UAH 281.3 million in January-February, up 13.8% compared to the same period in 2023.
According to Ukrpapir Association’s statistics provided to Interfax-Ukraine, in physical terms, in particular, the production of toilet paper in rolls increased by 8.4% to 21.15 million units, which remains the third best result in the industry after Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill (42.5 million units) and Kokhava Paper Mill (24.3 million units).
The company produces cellulose-based sanitary products from imported base paper.
VGP’s brand portfolio includes napkins, toilet paper, paper handkerchiefs, and kitchen towels under the Ruta, Ruta Selecta, Fesko, Nosovic, Polotenchko, 100% paper, Servetta, and Ecolo brands. The assortment includes more than 180 items.
As reported, in 2023, the company produced products worth UAH 1 billion 611 million, which is 64.8% more than in 2022.
Cardboard and Paper Company LLC (Lviv), a major Ukrainian producer of cardboard tubes, produced products worth UAH 194 million in January-February 2024, down 3.7% year-on-year.
According to statistics provided to Interfax-Ukraine by UkrPapir Association, the company reduced its output of cardboard products by 13.8% in physical terms to 4.11 thousand tons, while it increased its production of paper base for sanitary products by 65% to 1.58 thousand tons. The production of toilet paper in rolls increased by 13.2 percent to 0.9 million units.
LLC Cardboard and Paper Company produces products and semi-finished products from waste cardboard (cardboard sheets, corners, sleeves), cellulose and recycled waste paper (toilet paper, towels, napkins under Papero brand). The company supplies its products, in particular, to the EU countries.
Among its customers are Biosphere, Arterium, Nestle, Khlibprom, Yarych confectionery, and Galychyna dairy company.
As reported, in 2023, the company increased its production by 7% compared to 2022, to UAH 1.27 billion.
In 2024, the production of oilseeds in Ukraine will increase by 19% compared to 2023 to 2.3 mln ha, which will be a record for the industry, APK-Inform news agency reported based on the results of the survey among farmers.
According to the survey, conducted in February-March 2024, 82% of the respondents, who grow soybeans, plan to keep the area under soybeans unchanged, and 16% intend to increase it. The increase will be due to the reduction of the area under winter crops, as well as sunflower or other spring crops.
The soybean area in 2024 may increase to 2.3 mln ha (+19% by 2023), which will be a new record for the industry. Previously, the maximum for this crop was 2.2 mln hectares in 2015, analysts predict.
They also expect the production of soybeans in Ukraine to reach a record level, which, according to preliminary estimates, could reach 6 mln tons, which is 17% higher than last year.
At the same time, according to experts, the area under sunflower is not likely to change significantly: 87% of the respondents who grow the crop plan to keep the area under it unchanged. Those who plan to reduce or increase the area under sunflower mostly reported that it will be at the expense of rapeseed.
“Our estimate of the sunflower acreage in 2024 is still 5.8 mln ha, which is almost at the level of 2023. Under favorable weather conditions, the oilseed harvest could reach 13.9 mln tonnes (+1% compared to 2023), which is still lower than the pre-war figure,” the analysts emphasized.
The area under rapeseed in 2024 is likely to decrease due to the dry autumn, which led some farmers to abandon the winter oilseed planting.
In the survey, 51% of respondents reported that winter rapeseed crops are in good or excellent condition, 43% – in satisfactory condition, and 5% – in poor condition.
The area under spring rapeseed may also increase in 2024 to the record level due to the price attractiveness of this oilseed, but the total area under winter and spring rapeseed, according to APK-Inform preliminary estimates, will decrease by 6%. This figure will still remain quite high compared to previous years, amounting to about 1.4 mln ha. The harvest of this oilseed may decline by 9% in 2024, to 4.2 mln tonnes, APK-Inform summarized.
