Ukrainian enterprises increased imports of copper and copper products in terms of money by 17.9% in 2019 compared with similar period of 2018, to $124.36 million.
Exports of copper and copper products decreased 42.9% over the year to $79.668 million, according to customs statistics released by the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine.
In December, copper and copper products were imported to the tune of $9.995 million, and copper exports were estimated at $6.831 million.
In addition, in 2019, Ukraine decreased imports of nickel and products made of it by 11.5%, to $83.27 million (imports in December were estimated at $5.429 million), while imports of aluminum and products made of it increased 9%, to $401.814 million ($32.729 million). Imports of lead and products made of it decreased by 4.6%, to $15.484 million ($1.07 million) and imports of tin and products made of it decreased 18%, to $3.928 million ($0.353 million). Imports of zinc and zinc goods decreased 8.5%, to $75.631 million ($6.805 million).
Exports of aluminum and products made of it decreased 23.8% in 2019, to $100.554 million ($7.422 million in December alone), while shipments of lead abroad decreased 20%, to $27.075 million ($1.98 million). Exports of nickel fell by 44.6%, to $4.505 million ($0.272 million in December).
Zinc exports in 2019 amounted to $0.467 million ($0.001 million in December) compared to $0.363 in 2018. Exports of tin and products made of it in 2019 were estimated at $0.045 million ($0.008 million in December) compared to $0.313 million in 2018.
Nova Poshta group of companies plans to invest $100 million in infrastructure development in 2020, co-owner of the company Volodymyr Popereshniuk wrote on his Facebook page. “We plan $100 million investment in the development of Nova Poshta for 2020. For us, this is an unprecedented amount, but we need to start sometime. I already said that Nova Poshta had not yet developed, but only trained. Now we are starting!” he declared.
This year, the company plans to launch the second phase of Kyiv Innovation Center, increasing the capacity to 50,000 parcels per hour (with a prospect of up to 60,000).
It is also planned to build four large innovation centers with an automated sorting system in Brovary, Dnipro, Odesa, and Kharkiv.
“The capacity of each will be up to 20,000 parcels per hour. We will also build, update and equip dozens of other terminals in Ukrainian cities with modern equipment,” he said.
In addition, Nova Poshta plans to build the first cargo terminal with a robotic system for sorting pallets and bulky goods, to modernize branches and introduce new equipment to increase the speed of customer service.
“We plan to purchase scooters, pickups, minibuses and intercity containers,” the co-owner of the company said.
According to him, most of the investment will be used for information technology and the development of mobile services.
Within the framework of a working visit to Switzerland, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with President of the Swiss Confederation Simonetta Sommaruga and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte.
According to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, the head of state will also hold meetings with the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva and President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Suma Chakrabarti.
In addition, Zelensky will meet with Chairman of the Board and CEO of Cargill (U.S.) David MacLennan, President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev, founder and head of the Indian Adani Group Gautam Adani.
The timely reaction to the avian influenza outbreak in Ukraine allowed the country not to halt imports of poultry from the European Union (EU) and Ukrainian counts on uninterrupted authorization to export Ukrainian poultry to the EU, Deputy Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Minister, Ukraine’s Trade Representative Taras Kachka has said. “Over the past month, a number of EU Member States have recorded cases of avian influenza. But a timely decision on zoning and a well-functioning communication mechanism allowed Ukraine to not stop the import of poultry meat from the EU for this reason. Therefore, we immediately informed the competent authorities of the EU about the detected case of bird flu in Vinnytsia region,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.
In addition, Ukraine has suspended certification of exporter capacity in a 30 km zone, while the EU sets requirements for the 10 km zone.
“All these measures are being taken to prove to the whole world that trust allows us to maintain trade in such sensitive situations,” Kachka said.
The deputy minister expects that in such conditions the EU will retain a permit for the import of poultry meat from Ukraine.
“If we were hostile to each other, the EU would have taken this opportunity and tried to close imports from Ukraine in general. This would trigger a chain mechanism of mutual restrictions. (Both sides want to avoid this scenario). In the meantime, we are actively cooperating with EU regulatory authorities so that the reaction is friendly and adequate,” Kachka said.
Тhe State Expert Center of the Health Ministry of Ukraine gave positive conclusions regarding conducting 248 clinical trials of medicines in 2019, which is 19.23% more than in 2018, the center has reported on its website. According to the report, 210 studies were conducted by foreign manufacturers as part of international multicenter clinical studies, and 38 – by domestic manufacturers.
According to the center, an analysis of clinical trials materials in recent years has shown that the most commonly used drugs are used to treat diseases in the field of oncology, psychiatry, neurology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, rheumatology, and other diseases.
Most clinical trials were carried out in Kyiv – 21%. Kharkiv – 13%, Vinnytsia – 10%, Dnipro – 7%, Zaporizhia – 6%, Ivano-Frankivsk – 6%, Lviv – 6%, and Odesa – 5%.
Ukrainian authorities want to pass JSC Ukrzaliznytsia to management of Deutsche Bahn AG (DB), Germany’s operator of railways, for 10 years, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk has said. “Yes, we want to pass our railways to the Germans to manage it for 10 years,” Honcharuk said at the Ukrainian Breakfast in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday morning.
He added that the authorities of Ukraine associate not only expectations about the development of Ukrzaliznytsia with this decision. “This is ecosystem-based issue, which should show that Ukraine is unprecedentedly open for investment, for the world, for new standards,” the prime minister said.
Honcharuk said that, despite the fact that it is still necessary to negotiate and agree on the details of the decision and documents, “a political decision on this has already been taken and this is a huge step.”
Later, at a briefing on the sidelines of the Ukrainian Breakfast, the prime minister said that the relevant agreement with DB will be “early February.”
As reported, on January 22, 2020, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine and Deutsche Bahn in Davos, Switzerland, signed a memorandum of understanding on strategic partnership in the industry and the development of Ukrzaliznytsia.
“This memorandum is not yet about privatization, and not about concession, but about strategic partnership. That’s great news,” Honcharuk said, when opening a meeting of the National Investment Council under the president of Ukraine in Davos.
He said that the country needs such assistance to improve the situation on the country’s railway and realize its logistics potential.
At the same time, speaking about the memorandum, in his Twitter account, Honcharuk said that German specialists will reform the management mechanisms of Ukrzaliznytsia, and Ukraine will retain full control over the enterprise.
“I hope that German operational efficiency and zero tolerance for corruption will become the basis for changing the situation in Ukrzaliznytsia,” the prime minister wrote.
According to the text of the memorandum, the parties will study the possibilities of creating a strategic partnership between Ukrzaliznytsia and DB.
