Romania, Hungary and Slovakia will not limit the transit of agricultural products from Ukraine, but negotiations continue on the issue of imports into the countries’ territory. Imports into Poland in transit mode will resume with a T1 declaration, with the use of the SENT system to track the movement of cargo through Poland and cargo seals, said Agrarian Policy Minister Mykola Solsky at an extraordinary meeting of the Coordinating Council under the Agrarian Policy Ministry on Tuesday evening.
According to him, shipments of agricultural products, which will be delivered to Poland in transit, will continue to move across the country’s territory at 00:00 on April 21, accompanied by Polish customs officers.
The issue of transit by rail with the transshipment from wide-rail wagons (for tracks 1520 mm) to narrow-rail (for tracks 1435 mm) is still open. Market participants are expected to receive details of the procedure tomorrow at the Coordinating Council of the Ministry of Agriculture, which is scheduled for 10:30 a.m.
The ban on imports of agricultural products in accordance with the list in the annex to the order of the Minister of Development and Technology of Poland Waldemar Buda from April 15, 2023 has not been canceled.
Earlier it was reported that Ukraine and Poland agreed on the resumption of transit of banned for importation agricultural products: it will work at night from April 20 to April 21, 2023. Additional control measures will be applied to the transit. According to the Ministry of Agriculture of Poland, customs, tax and other services will accompany the transport to its destination. In addition, the SENT mechanism and electronic seals will be applied, by means of which each consignment of goods will be tracked.
Poland on April 15, after the farmers’ congress, made a unilateral decision to temporarily prohibit the import of any agricultural products from Ukraine until June 30, 2023. This happened despite the fact that on July 7, a bilateral agreement was reached with Ukraine on the temporary suspension of exports of only four crops – wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower, while transit continued, but with stricter conditions, which the parties planned to agree on quickly.
Hungary and Slovakia made similar decisions afterwards.
Ukraine and Poland have agreed on the resumption of transit of Ukrainian agricultural products. It will work at night from April 20 to 21, 2023, according to the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
Additional control measures will be applied to the transit, of which market participants will be notified publicly and in working order in the near future.
Gas transit through Ukraine increased again after completing the usual weekend decline – to the standard level.
UKRAINIAN TRANSIT
“Ukraine’s GTS Operator (OGTSU) accepted a 42.4 million cubic meters transit request from Gazprom for Tuesday, the Ukrainian company said. The nomination for Monday was 40 million cubic meters. The capacity is claimed for only one of the two entry points into the country’s GTS, the Sudzha gas metering station. No bid was accepted for the corridor through the Sohranovka gas metering station.
EUROPEAN MARKET
Electricity generation from wind turbines in Europe last week already accounted for 21% of the region’s needs. Monday’s figure is roughly the same (20.8 percent), according to the WindEurope Association.
On Monday the price of gas rose by 4%. The day-ahead contract at the TTF hub in the Netherlands closed at $481 per thousand cubic meters.
The gap in LNG prices in Asia compared to Europe is noticeable. The May JKM Platts futures (Japan Korea Marker, reflecting the spot market value of cargoes shipped to Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan) traded at $447; the North West Europe LNG futures (LNG North West Europe Marker) was $426.
RESERVES IN EUROPE
Europe’s current gas reserve level is 56.02%, 22 percentage points above the average for the same dates over the past five years, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).
Gas reserves rose by a symbolic 0.05 percentage points on the weekend of March 26. The inventory build-up has continued for five days in a row.
European LNG receiving terminals operated at an average capacity of 63 percent in February and have been showing 66 percent utilization since early March. US STORAGE STOCK.
The state of U.S. UGS inventories is becoming increasingly important to the global market as the country actively ramps up exports.
During the next reporting week, reserves dropped by 2 bln cubic meters – a noticeable increase (60%) from the normal level at that time.
The current inventory level is 39%, 23 percentage points above the average for the last five years, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Freeport LNG, the largest U.S. LNG plant, has restarted all three liquefaction lines. This reduces the surplus gas in the U.S. market and increases global supply.
Gazprom’s bid for gas transit through Ukraine has increased to the maximum for the last month (since January 15).
“The operator of Ukraine’s gas transmission system (OGTSU) said it had accepted a transit request from Gazprom for Wednesday in the amount of 35.8 million cubic meters. The figure on Tuesday was 30.8 million cubic meters. The capacity is claimed for only one of the two entry points into the country’s GTS, the Suja gas metering station. No application has been accepted for the corridor through the Sohranovka gas metering station.
The current level of gas reserves in Europe has fallen to 65.66 percent, 20 percentage points above the average for the same date in the last five years, according to the Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) association. During the Feb. 13 gas day, inventories were down 0.45 percentage points.
Warm weather in October, November and January as well as austerity measures have resulted in UGS reserve levels now at their highest ever recorded. This strengthens confidence of the authorities in the successful passing of the winter.
Europe’s LNG receiving terminals operated at 62 percent capacity in January, nearly the same in the first days of February. At the same time the level of LNG inventories in the tanks of receiving terminals is decreasing more and more. This suggests that the inflow of new LNG cargoes to the region is falling amid low prices and competition from Asia.
The day-ahead contract at the TTF hub in the Netherlands added just over a percent in the past 24 hours, closing at $592 per thousand cubic meters.
The “Asian premium” is stable. – gap between gas prices in Asia and the price of LNG supplies to Europe. March futures for JKM Platts (Japan Korea Marker, reflecting the spot market price for cargoes supplied to Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan) traded at $639; futures for LNG supplied to North West Europe (LNG North West Europe Marker) traded at $582.
The state of U.S. UGS reserves is becoming increasingly important to the global market as the country is actively ramping up exports.
In the regular reporting week (ended Feb. 3), reserves fell by 6.1 bcm. For the first time since the beginning of the year, weekly withdrawals exceeded the average for the last five years.
The current reserve level is 49%, 5 percentage points above the five-year average, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA).
February promises to be a cold month in the country, which will lead to an increase in energy spending for heating. On the other hand – America’s largest LNG plant, Freeport LNG, is still delaying its restart after an accident, leaving gas that was supposed to go to exports in the domestic market.
So far, the EIA has projected that storage inventories will fall by 60 billion cubic meters this winter (the average for the last five years). At the end of March, natural gas volumes in storage are projected to be 40 billion cubic meters. This is 8% below the five-year average.
The leaders of Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia have supported the “Grain from Ukraine” initiative announced by the president of Ukraine and announced further efforts to increase existing and create new transit corridors for the export of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products.
“Since the beginning of the war, 8.4 million tons of grains and oilseeds from Ukraine have been transited (through Romania) to consumers in the world. We expect transit exports from Ukraine to increase in the coming months,” Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said in a video message at the international food security summit in Kiev on Saturday.
He noted that Romania has acted very strongly in support of Ukrainian grain exports through Romanian ports and will continue working to increase connectivity between the countries by land and rail, including the recent opening of a new border crossing.
Ciuche also stressed that Romania has and will not back down from supporting Ukraine and Moldova in the energy sphere. “We will not allow Russia to plunge the region into darkness,” he said.
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said at the summit that Bulgaria has managed to transport about 200,000 tons of grain from Ukraine across the Danube in recent months, and the country intends to continue this transportation project.
“Unfortunately, the loss of power in Ukrainian ports due to Russian shelling has made this process difficult for Bulgarian vessels,” he said.
Radev also said Bulgaria is providing fuel to Ukraine so the country can support the agricultural and transportation sectors.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrea Plenkovic also supported work on new corridors for the supply of Ukrainian products as part of the EU’s Solidarity Routes project.
“Croatia is actively joining, and will attract other ports on the Adriatic and there are opportunities for corridors along the Danube River,” said the Croatian government head.
The three leaders welcomed the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative for another 120 days, and the Bulgarian president urged the search for stable long-term solutions.
The Convention on the Joint Transit Procedure (CCTP) or the so-called “customs visa-free” for Ukraine came into force on Saturday: goods are already flowing into and out of the country under such a procedure, the Ministry of Finance reported.
“Today, October 1, Ukraine entered into force and business opened up the possibility of international movement of goods with 35 other participating countries under one transit document,” the press release says.
The Ministry of Finance clarified that the first country from which the cargo was sent for delivery to Ukraine under the joint transit procedure was Germany: Ukrainian customs officers already see the T1 transit declaration in the NCTS electronic transit system and are waiting for the truck to arrive.
In Ukraine, the first transit declaration for leaving the country was also issued: according to it, the cargo now follows through Poland to Germany.
Currently, the system is also awaiting the arrival of goods at the customs office of departure and other declarations, according to which the goods will be placed under the joint transit procedure and delivered to the customs offices of destination on the territory of the countries participating in the Convention, the report says.
The Ministry of Finance recalled that in accordance with the “customs visa-free” for the delivery of goods from one country to another, a single transit document is submitted: from the customs office of departure to the customs office of destination. This speeds up the passage of customs formalities at the border and reduces the associated costs for businesses. According to the forecast of the Directorate General for Taxation and Customs Union of the European Commission (DG TAXUD), Ukraine can enter the top ten countries in terms of the number of transit declarations.
“Customs is responsible for controlling the goods. We in the EU are striving to spend less time for control at the border, and more inside the country. In Ukraine, so far, most goods travel without checking inside the country – all control work takes place directly at the border. Therefore, queues form at the border. NCTS solves most of this problem: it is possible to submit a declaration to the system in advance, after checking inside the country, to put the necessary seals that are recognized in the EU. Then at the border, you only need time to read the barcode number, as it is done in a supermarket,” summed up the international expert of the Program for Public Financial Management in Ukraine (EU4PFM) Vytenis Alishauskas.
Ališauskas, CUSTOMS, customs visa-free, MINISTRY OF FINANCE, TRANSIT
