The association of international pharmaceutical manufacturers AIPM Ukraine has asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to organize a Green Route at customs checkpoints to speed up supplies of medicines in the conditions of panic of the population rushing to buy medicines over the spread of the coronavirus disease COVID-19.
“Manufacturers and importers of medicines, under the current conditions, are trying to meet the demand in full for the appropriate medicines,” the association said in a letter sent to the president.
AIPM Ukraine said that, according to information available from AIPM Ukraine member companies, queues at customs, in particular at the Yahodyn customs post, lead to a significant slowdown in the supply of necessary medicines.
“We ask you to contribute to solving this problem and ensure priority customs clearance of medicines by introducing an official” green corridor “for these categories of goods, as has already been done in the European Union in accordance with the recommendations of the European Commission,” AIPM Ukraine asked President Zelensky .
The association also pointed out the need to establish working interaction on this issue with the customs authorities of neighboring countries, such as Poland, to ensure a similar priority for the customs clearance of medicines at their customs posts to ensure imports to Ukraine.
The RDS group of road construction companies will continue road work during the quarantine established due to the spread of coronavirus, and plans to continue to fully fulfill its obligations, RDS co-owner Yuriy Shumakher has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“We express support for the decision of the Ukravtodor management not to curtail the planned projects. The development of infrastructure in the country is the key to Ukraine’s competitiveness and success,” he said.
“The group of RDS road construction companies minimized attendance at work for the staff, but we continue to fully implement all of our road construction projects,” Shumakher added.
According to him, contractors and suppliers in all regions of the presence of RDS Group are working smoothly, there are no problems with the provision of construction materials.
Ukravtodor on March 17 announced its support for the government’s initiatives to prevent the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 in Ukraine and continuation of all roadwork as usual.
“Ukravtodor supports the government’s initiatives to prevent the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 in Ukraine. Therefore, we strongly recommend that everyone who can work remotely take this opportunity. At the same time, we want to emphasize that the deceleration of the season of road works is not yet expected. All construction and repair work continues as normal,” the state agency said.
The Ukrainian group of companies RDS includes Kyivshliakhbud and Rostdorstroy. Its core business is construction, modernization and maintenance of roads and bridges, construction of airfield complexes.
The company is building concrete road H-14 Kropyvnytsky-Mykolaiv. As part of the reconstruction of the H-31 Dnipro-Reshetylivka highway in Poltava region, RDS is building an overpass over the railway and the section of the first concrete road in Ukraine. In 2019, the company won a World Bank tender for work on the first category highway M-03 Kyiv-Kharkiv-Dovzhansky.
As of January 2020, the company operates in seven regions of Ukraine and has ten production facilities.
The ultimate beneficial owners of RDS are Ukrainian citizens Yuriy Shumakher and Yevhen Konovalov. The charter capital of the company is UAH 5.13 million.
QUARANTINE, RDS, ROAD CONSTRUCTION, ROSTDORSTROY, SHUMAKHER, UKRAVTODOR
Ferrexpo mining company, with the main assets in Ukraine, increased its share in the international market of pellet suppliers to 8% in 2019 compared to 7% in 2018.
According to the company’s annual report released on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday, March 17, Ferrexpo maintained its third position in the world ranking of pellet exporters with 10.3 million tonnes (10.2 million tonnes in 2018). Vale-group (Brazil-Oman) with the volume of 32.7 million tonnes takes the first place according to the results of the year, and the Swedish LKAB with 16.3 million tonnes takes the second place.
The Metalloinvest group (Russia) takes the sixth place with export deliveries of 7.2 million tonnes (4.2 million tonnes in 2018), the Metinvest group (Ukraine) takes the tenth place with supplies of 5 million tonnes (5.4 million tonnes in 2018), the Severstal Group (Russia) takes the eleventh place with supplies of 3.8 million tonnes (5.5 million tons in 2018).
In general, the international market for global pellet exporters at the end of 2019 is estimated at 135 million tonnes, decreased by 3% compared to 2018 (139.6 million tonnes).
The company predicted that, high barriers to entry, especially given relatively low pellet premiums, are unlikely to incentivise new pellet supply in 2020. Incumbent producers can balance supply by switching production from blast furnace to direct reduction pellets or from international export to domestic consumption. In 2020, pellet seaborne supply should not increase due to international prices moderating to historical levels and continued supply issues from Brazil. An extended period of low pellet premiums could result in some capacity reduction for producers with high pellet conversion costs. At the end of 2019, industry levels of pellet stocks were higher than the historical average and it may take some time for the market to absorb these, especially taking into account the impact of the COVID-19 virus. This could prevent pellet premiums from rising in the short term, the company said.
In 2019, Ferrexpo reduced the volume of pellet deliveries by key market regions to Central and Western Europe, as well as North East Asia (NEA), sharply increasing sales to China and Southeast Asia (SEA).
Thus, the share of pellets sales in tonnes to Central Europe is the largest one and amounted to 36% (47% in 2018). In 2019, the share of sales in Western Europe decreased from 16% to 13%, in Northeast Asia it decreased from 17% to 16%, in Turkey, the Middle East, and India sales decreased from 6% to 5%. Deliveries to China and South East Asia sharply increased from 13% to 30%. There were not any pellet deliveries to North America in 2019, while in 2018 it amounted to 1%.
In total, some 10.312 million tonnes of pellets were sold in 2019, compared with 10.227 million tonnes in 2018.
“Ferrexpo benefits from a diversified sales portfolio with leading steel mills throughout the world, while its logistics routes to customers provide a competitive advantage given Ukraine’s central geographic location. Ferrexpo’s average shipping duration to Asia is 30 days compared to its main pellet-producing competitors in Brazil (40 days), Canada (55 days) and Scandinavia (50 days). Ferrexpo is also very competitively placed in terms of shipment days to Europe and Turkey. This ensures that weakness in one region, can be compensated by sales into other regions,” the company said.
The State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) does not intend to stop road works during the quarantine due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spread.
“Ukravtodor supports government initiatives to prevent COVID-19 spread in Ukraine. Therefore, we strongly recommend that everyone who can work remotely take this opportunity. At the same time, we would like to say that the deceleration of road works season is not yet expected. All construction and repair work continues as usual,” the agency said in a statement posted on its website.
Ukravtodor said that the agency insists that contractors put into place the necessary arrangements for the safe work of employees, in particular, conduct an information campaign on virus diseases prevention, regularly monitor the employees’ state of health, and also make disinfectants available.
The state-owned enterprise Novator (Khmelnytsky), which is part of Ukroboronprom group of companies, urgently reoriented production and launched the sewing of medical gauze masks for the needs of the state concern, the press service of Ukroboronprom has said.
According to the statement, the company is also preparing to launch production of the first domestic valve respirators FFP3. A new production line is being installed at the enterprise, which will produce up to three million of this special equipment every month.
The enterprise plans to produce 100,000 reusable gauze masks, of which 13,500 have already been sewn and handed over to employees of the Khmelnytsky enterprise (ten masks for one employee and his or her family), some 3,000 masks were transferred to the Krasyliv Aggregate Plant. Requests for the supply of gauze masks to other enterprises of Ukroboronprom are being considered.
In addition, by decision of the trade union committee, the enterprise plans to create a reserve of 30,000 gauze masks.
The company transferred 500 masks to the Department of Labor and Social Protection of Khmelnytsky, some 100 to the bank’s office, which services the Novator enterprise.
The enterprise plans to install a line for sterilization of gauze masks, as well as to strengthen the production of ultraviolet devices, which can safely disinfect air and surfaces in large rooms and in crowded places.
In addition, Director General of Ukroboronprom Aivaras Abromavičius said that Zorya-Mashproekt (Mykolaiv) plans to produce a disinfection solution, and about a dozen more enterprises sew medical masks for their employees.
The private port operator Ascet Shipping increased the grain handling in Berdiansk seaport to 1.134 million tonnes in 2019, which is 62% more than in 2018 (700,349 tonnes).
According to the company’s press service reported on Tuesday, March 17, the volume of handling by Ascet Shipping in Berdiansk seaport has already exceeded 3 million tonnes since it has been working as a port operator (2016).
According to the company’s report, the port operator handled 1.134 million tonnes of cargo, servicing 161 vessels in 2019.
“In the status of a port operator in Berdiansk seaport, Ascet Shipping invested about $4.3 million of its own funds in the development of infrastructure providing grain export through the berths of Berdiansk port. In particular, a port warehouse complex with a capacity of about 100,000 tonnes, a convoy, and modern laboratories were created. The port’s berths were equipped with new technological handling equipment, which allows loading five grain vessels at the port’s berths at the same time,” the company said.
According to the statement, Ascet Shipping has created more than 300 jobs over three and a half years of work in the status of a port operator.
Ascet Shipping is included in top 30 of the largest stevedoring companies in Ukraine and is the largest port operator of Berdiansk seaport.
