Registrations of new passenger cars in Ukraine in October this year increased by 83% compared to October 2022 – up to 5.7 thousand units, and are 0.7% higher than in September 2023, Ukravtoprom reported on its Telegram channel.
According to the association, Toyota continues to hold the lead in the market with a 40% increase in registrations by October last year – up to 929 units, Volkswagen’s second result is 574 cars (three times more), and Skoda (in September – 4th position) took third place, pushing BMW aside, with an increase of 46%, up to 477 units.
BMW’s fourth result is 461 cars (up 3.6 times), and Renault closes the top 5, as it did a month earlier, with 432 cars (+60%).
The top 10 in October 2023 also included: Nissan – 309 units; Hyundai – 240 units; Mercedes-Benz – 224 units; Mazda – 220 units; Peugeot – 200 units.
The title of the month’s bestseller, as in September, went to the Renault Duster with 387 registrations (in October 2022, it was the Toyota RAV4 crossover).
“Ukravtoprom states that in January-October 2023, Ukrainians purchased and registered 49.6 thousand new passenger cars, which is 60% more than in the same period last year.
By the end of this year, metal prices and logistics costs have dropped significantly, which should help the demand
Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine has had a significant impact on the entire economy and the construction industry in particular. However, after a few months of war, some of the customers have already returned to the construction of commercial objects that were frozen at the beginning of the full-scale war or damaged as a result of the hostilities.
Current situation
Rauta is a leading supplier of modern solutions for quickly erected buildings – sandwich panels, ventilated metal facades, steel frames, load-bearing profiles, etc. The company offers services in design, installation of supporting and enclosing structures, as well as general contracting on objects of any complexity. The main focus of the company’s business is the import of Ruukki products for commercial construction projects. We use production facilities located in Poland, Estonia and Ukraine.
After the beginning of the active war phase due to a significant decrease in demand for our products the company’s business was significantly reoriented. We began to be approached by clients with requests to rebuild buildings destroyed in the fighting. Having a deep understanding of the technologies and principles of reconstruction, we began to actively engage in the restoration of buildings and made it a separate line of business. Whereas before February 24 the company was restoring only one building in Kiev, by the end of 2022 we had implemented 7 projects in three cities of Ukraine, and the start of reconstruction of several more is planned for 2023.
Growth against the backdrop of a falling market
In 2021 there was a situation on the market when the demand for Ruukki products greatly exceeded the capacity of production and the factories were not able to fulfill all orders. Starting from 24 February, the number of orders for new construction projects decreased sharply, and the main deliveries were for objects that began construction last year. Fortunately, almost all of our sandwich panel customers continued to build facilities. Among them are low-temperature warehouse and business center in Kiev, dairy farm and dairy plant in Ternopil region. Therefore, in 2022 Rauta has a 40% year-on-year decrease in sales, which is a relatively good indicator against the background of a more than 70% fall in the sandwich panel market. At the same time, thanks to the growth of the construction and general contracting services area, the company’s total revenue increased by 7% compared to 2021.
Price waves
Ruukki products are made only from European rolled steel, the price of which rose to a peak in August 2021 and halved in early 2022. At the same time in the cost of panels, galvanized steel with polymer coating accounts for about 25%.
At the same time, given the substantial increase in the cost of transportation services and the rise in the euro, the price of imported sandwich panels for the year increased by 50% in hryvnia equivalent. Nevertheless now there is a tendency in the market to considerable decrease of transport cost as well as inertial fall of world steel prices that in the nearest perspective can lead to reduction of sandwich-panels prices by 15-20%.
The main method of delivery in the market of metal construction is road transport. In 2021 the cost of delivery by truck from Poland to Kiev was about 65 thousand UAH. In the spring of 2022 delivery from Poland due to rising fuel prices and limited supply of transport has doubled in price, and in December 2022 was back to the prewar level.
In 2021 the peak cost of load-bearing steel reached almost 70 thousand UAH per ton, mainly due to the high cost of rolled steel. At the end of 2022 due to the decline in metal prices by almost half the cost of steel decreased by about 23% – to 54 thousand UAH per ton.
Recovery Opportunities.
In the spring of 2022, when the company had less workload on the main projects, we have developed a technology for the construction of frameless houses made of sandwich panels, which can be used for ultra-fast construction of houses and cottage towns. To demonstrate the benefits of this technology, we plan to install two demonstration frameless houses near Kiev. For this purpose we have already made house sets in Poland for 20 and 40 square meters houses and we are going to install them in spring. Now we can see the interest in this technology on the part of institutional funds and private investors in the segment of cottage building, which will grow rapidly after Ukraine’s victory.
Another innovation of ours is the development of technology for construction of multistoried buildings using sandwich panels as outer walls, which allows a developer to get up to 5% more space.
In general it can be noted that the technology of rapid construction with steel solutions has a great perspective in the reconstruction of commercial real estate – where the investor understands: the sooner the business is built, the sooner it will begin to bring income.
CONSTRUCTION, DEMAND, galvanized steel, RAUTA, STEEL, STEEL CONSTRUCTION
The number of applicants for apartment rental in Kyiv in September for the first time during the full-scale war exceeded pre-war figures, the press service of the LUN new buildings portal reported.
According to data from the apartment rental app Bird, as of September 20, the number of applicants for apartments rental has reached 120% of the pre-war level. A month ago, in mid-August, demand reached the February level, and in July it was 90%.
According to the press service of LUN, in September, housing prices halted growth compared to the previous month. The median price for renting a one-room apartment in Kyiv fixed at UAH 9,000 in September, which is the same as in August. In July, the figure was UAH 8,000, while at the end of February, the median price for renting one-room apartments was UAH 13,000 per month.
The median price for renting two-room apartments in September slightly decreased compared to August – from UAH 15,000 to UAH 14,000. In July this figure was UAH 12,500, before the war – UAH 21,600.
At the same time, the median price for renting three-room apartments decreased from UAH 24,900 in August to UAH 20,200 in September, which is the same as in July. Until February 24, such housing cost UAH 46,100.
Primary registrations of new commercial vehicles (including trucks and special vehicles) in Ukraine in July increased by 38% compared to June of this year, to 593 units, Ukravtoprom reports.
According to a message on the Association’s Telegram channel, at the same time, compared to July last year, the market has decreased by 65%.
As reported, in June this year, this market decreased by 7% by May 2022 and by 3.4 times by June 2021 to 429 units.
According to Ukravtoprom, Volkswagen showed the best result in July with the registration of 66 cars (in July last year, the brand was in fifth place in the rating with 110 cars, in May 2022 it sold only 45 cars).
Second place belongs to Volvo – 65 registrations, third – to MAN with 64 cars.
Renault, the leader of last year’s July and May of this year, dropped to fourth position with 45 cars (against 417 a year earlier), and Hyundai closes the TOP-5, in the standings of which there are 43 cars.
According to Ukravtoprom, in January-July 2022, 3.8 thousand new commercial vehicles were registered in Ukraine, which is 2.2 times less than in the same period last year.
In turn, the AUTO-Consulting information and analytical group, analyzing separately the market for light commercial vehicles (gross weight up to 3.5 tons) and the truck market, notes that the first in July sharply (by 81%) decreased by July last year – to 289 units ., while the second “demonstrated record sales.”
In a message on the website, experts note that the position of the new market leader in light commercial vehicles (LCV) Volkswagen is significantly strengthening – in July it occupied 25% of this market segment with sales growth of 55% by July 2021.
Hyundai came in second place, ahead of Renault by one car.
At the same time, according to the group’s assessment, after the departure of Belarusian MAZ and Russian KAMAZ, the market for heavy-duty vehicles began to transform and European trucks seized the leadership.
In particular, Volvo Trucks became the leader with a share of 18.8%, MAN became the second with a share of 18.5%, and Scania was the third.
“In general, over seven months, the truck market in Ukraine decreased by 43.6%, but in July it was possible to minimize the fall to 33.6%. The market is recovering and recovering and showing the best recovery rates among the entire car market,” AUTO-Consulting notes.
Demand for eggs quadrupled in March in the LotOK convenience store chain, demand for pet products tripled, for groceries doubled, and for tobacco products and drinks and non-alcoholic beverages almost doubled. Demand for confectionery grew 1.5 times, but demand for vegetables and bakery products remained at the same level.
Such data was given in a commentary to Interfax-Ukraine by marketing director of the LotOK store chain Olha Momchylovych.
At the same time, she said that the demand structure of large supermarkets and convenience stores is significantly different.
“If in peacetime for small stores located in residential buildings and residential complexes, the top categories of demand are tobacco products, soft drinks, confectionery, dairy products and groceries, then in the first days of the war, groceries took the top position in demand, and eggs joined the top categories,” Momchylovych said.
At the same time, demand for dairy products temporarily decreased in March, which, the expert emphasized, was the result of a disruption in supply chains.
“In April, we see almost the full recovery of milk sales,” Momchylovych said.
At the same time, she predicts, April results in terms of the structure of demand will differ from March due to the lifting of restrictions on the sale of alcohol and alcoholic beverages, as well as the resumption of operation of a number of enterprises.
“During the first ten days of April, the demand for alcohol increased almost 2.5 times, the level of demand for eggs is still at the level of March, and the demand for groceries has returned to pre-war levels,” she said.
Global demand for steel in 2022 will increase by only 0.4% and amount to 1.84 billion tons (1.834 billion tons in 2021), the World Steel Association predicts.
In 2023, according to WSA expectations, steel demand will increase by 2.2%, to 1.881 billion tons.
The total demand for steel in the Russian Federation, CIS countries and Ukraine this year, according to WSA forecasts, will fall by 23.6% to 44.6 million tons (58.5 million tons in 2021). In 2023, an increase of 1.1% is expected, to 45.1 million tons. At the same time, steel consumption in Russia will fall by 20%, to 35.1 million tons against 43.9 million tons in 2021.
CIS COUNTRIES, DEMAND, RUSSIA, STEEL, WORLD STEEL ASSOCIATION
