Shurma: We to unlock financing for renewable energy, green steel metallurgy projects
Ukraine has an abundance of natural resources for the generation of solar energy, wind energy and hydrogen generation, the only limitation for this is the availability of funding, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office of Ukraine Rostyslav Shurma said at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin.
The issue of financing also affects the capital-intensive steel industry, he said.
"I do not see any problems. We can simply unlock tools for financing renewable energy projects, we will definitely unlock projects in the metallurgical industry, and this will not be a bottleneck for the implementation of green steel projects," Shurma said.
At the same time, he assured representatives of the metallurgy industry that within the framework of Ukraine's negotiations with the EU, the country's position "on all key products in which we see Ukraine's fundamental competitive advantage will be absolutely fundamental, in particular, for steel products this is the absolute cornerstone that we need for full free access to the European market."
The Presidential Office deputy head noted the presence in Ukraine of good opportunities for the development of metallurgy. According to him, in the world it is hardly possible to find projects with a yield above 10%, while in Ukraine there are strong fundamental factors, almost every project will have double-digit figures.
"So, you will not find these business opportunities in the steel and mining sector anywhere in the world. Therefore, the only question is how to find financing for this," the Presidential Office deputy head said. However, he added that financing will not be available on the required scale until the war ends and security guarantees are provided and commercial financing is received.
The civil servant said if to look at the structure of the main part of a project, equipment will account for up to 70% of its cost. At the same time, equipment for "green" metallurgical projects is produced and supplied from some countries, since there are few technological solutions on a global scale. In particular, this is equipment from Danieli (Italy), SMS group in Germany, Primetals in Austria, several Korean and Japanese suppliers, but three European suppliers are key.
At the same time, Shurma called on Ukrainian companies to start the "green" transformation earlier, to agree in advance on the supply of appropriate equipment.
In his opinion, credit institutions need to change their policies in the direction of risks in order to allow the implementation of projects in Ukraine.
"I think that in the coming months we will see fundamental changes in this segment. This could be a good first step," the civil servant believes.