The enterprises of Ostchem Holding, which unites the nitrogen enterprises of Dmytro Firtash’s Group DF, produced 2.5 million tonnes of mineral fertilizers in the first nine months of 2020, which is 23.8% more than in the same period last year.
Rivneazot produced 636,300 tonnes (4% more), Severodonetsk Azot 579,600 tonnes (149% more), Cherkasy Azot some 1.29 million tonnes (a rise of 9.9%).
In 9M 2020, enterprises produced a total of 1.2 million tonnes of ammonia (for the nine months of last year – 763,000 tonnes), one million tonnes of ammonium nitrate (992,000 tonnes), 665,000 tonnes of urea (450,000 tonnes), 534,000 tonnes of urea-ammonia mixture (408,000 tonnes in January-September 2019), 176,000 tonnes of lime-ammonium nitrate and 48,000 tonnes of ammonia water.
Ostchem is a nitrogen holding, part of Group DF. It brings together the chemical producers Rivneazot, Severodonetsk Azot, Cherkasy Azot, as well as the retail operator Ostchem Retail.
Group DF also includes other Firtash’s assets in gas distribution, chemical, titanium and port industries. The group also develops businesses in the field of agriculture and media.
During the meeting, Deputy Head of the Office of the President Yulia Kovaliv and British Ambassador to Ukraine Melinda Simmons discussed issues of enhancing trade relations and investments between the countries as part of the implementation of the Agreement on Political Cooperation, Free Trade and Strategic Partnership.
“Today, at a meeting with British Ambassador to Ukraine, Ms. Melinda Simmons, we discussed issues of enhancing trade relations and investments in the framework of the implementation of the Agreement on Political Cooperation, Free Trade and Strategic Partnership,” Kovaliv wrote on her Facebook page.
She also recalled that thanks to the Memorandum with UKEF signed in October 2020, the UK will be able to provide loan guarantees of up to GBP 2.5 billion for British-Ukrainian trade contracts.
“The access of business of both countries to the instrument of loan guarantees will enable to intensify cooperation and stimulate investments in the economy,” Kovaliv added.
State-owned Ukreximbank (Kyiv) plans to reduce its presence in small towns and focus on interaction with large clients, Chairman of the bank’s board Yevhen Metsger said.
“We will focus on the model of optimizing our castes. This is a decrease in presence in small towns. We will remain in regional centers in order to participate and interact only with large clients,” he said during the Ukrainian Investment Roadshow on Tuesday.
As reported with reference to Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Yuriy Heletiy, the Cabinet of Ministers on December 9 plans to approve the strategy of Ukreximbank.
The Japanese company Honda wants to increase its presence in the Ukrainian market, said Ukrainian Ambassador to Japan Serhiy Korsunsky.
“Today, a meeting with representatives of Honda has been held at the embassy. They are striving to increase their presence on the Ukrainian market. Our advice is to support the liberalization of bilateral trade, expand the dealer network, invest in the production of final products, and attract Ukrainian IT companies to create software for cars and motorcycles,” Korsunsky wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
He also noted that the embassy advised the company’s representatives to pay attention to the regions of Ukraine, where there is a high production culture in the field of mechanical engineering.
The Sector X acceleration hub based on the Unit.City innovation park (Kyiv) has reported for the nine months of work with three acceleration areas – MedTech, Logistics and BeautyTech.
The press service of Sector X said that within the framework of acceleration tracks, the partners of the hub became Farmak pharmaceutical company, the Foxtrot group of companies (Kyiv) and the Ukrainian branch of the L’Oréal Ukraine cosmetics company.
As a result, while working with the accelerator startups, Farmak signed a cooperation agreement with two startups: Bicovery startup will receive $50,000 from the pharmaceutical group and another $30,000 from the angel investors of this company, and ComeBack Mobility startup will receive the first tranche of $100,000 from the group, $30,000 from the angels of Farmak, $40,000 from the French company Undisputed Paris SAS Frédéric Delfosse and $75,000 from Dmytro and Oksana Tomchuk, as well as the team will receive another $150,000 from Farmak after KPI is completed.
Bicovery is an ecosystem with web and mobile applications that helps a person with bipolar disorder, his relatives and doctors receive more complete information about the dynamics of the disease, warnings about potential manic or depressive episodes, measure the effectiveness of medications and procedures, reduce the cost and increase the consistency of treatment, aimed at improving the quality of life of the patient and his loved ones.
Using machine learning techniques and deterministic analysis, Bicovery monitors the mental and physical condition of a person with bipolar disorder in real time.
“Bicovery cuts the cost of treating a person with bipolar disorder by 10-30%, significantly reduces the number of visits to the doctor, reduces the need for outpatient treatment and speeds up the process of selecting effective drugs for a particular patient,” the report says.
ComeBack Mobility startup has developed smart attachments for crutches to control the load in the rehabilitation of diseases and injuries of the lower extremities.
Ukraine does not yet have resources for creating its own innovative drugs, the development is demonstrated by generic production, Dmytro Shymkiv, the chairman of the board of directors of Darnitsa Group, has said.
“For the production of innovative drugs, we need appropriate research and development and patent protection of intellectual property not only in Ukraine, but also globally. And we also need the ability to raise from $ 1 billion and have at least 8-10 years of time. The availability of such resources in Ukraine is not yet discussed,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, he noted that “the generic market is also showing development, new combination drugs are being created and the existing lines are actively expanding.”
In addition, Shymkiv believes that “the Ukrainian pharmaceutical sector will not be able to cover all the needs for medicines,” therefore, there can be no talk of 100% import substitution.
“Refusal to import can be considered in those segments where Ukrainian companies can and are already producing drugs,” he said.
Commenting on the possibility of reviving vaccine production in Ukraine, Shymkiv stressed that “vaccine production is, first of all, issues of public-private partnership.”
“We studied the possibility of launching vaccine production. Everything causes the question: who is the customer. If the state guarantees the purchase, then we will have a Ukrainian plant using the best technologies. And Darnitsa is ready to invest in this. Invest where there are no guarantees of public procurement is too risky,” he said.
