The Health Ministry of Ukraine proposes to oblige all unvaccinated persons entering Ukraine to go through 14 days of self-isolation or 7 days if after this period they receive a negative PCR test, the President’s Office has said following the results of a traditional weekly teleconference held on Monday.
“The Ministry of Health proposes to strengthen control when crossing the state border in connection with the increase in the incidence of COVID-19 in certain regions of the world and Europe, in particular due to the Delta strain,” it stressed.
The report says that only Ukrainians under 18 years of age and persons who left the country before this requirement came into force are proposed to be released from this obligation.
In addition, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal pointed out the need to create vaccination points at border checkpoints so that everyone can be vaccinated.
Health Minister Viktor Liashko said that over the past week, for the first time in several months, the number of newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients increased – up to 3,460, which is 253 more than a week earlier.
As reported, at present, foreigners who arrive in Ukraine (regardless of which country) need to have a negative PCR result or express test conducted no more than 72 hours before crossing the border, or a document confirming that they have received a full course of vaccination against COVID-19 with vaccines included by the WHO on the list of approved for use in emergencies.
At the beginning of 2021, the number of regular Internet buyers increased to 42%, while in the third quarter of 2020 their number was 33%, according to the analytics of the online platform OLX.
According to the OLX press service, about 11 million people in the country buy online. The most common categories for them remain clothing, appliances and cosmetics. At the same time, in April-May 2021, from 5 to 20 purchases were made by almost 60% of online shoppers, while in the fall of 2020 – every second.
According to the OLX analytics, the core of consumers (56%) is concentrated in settlements with up to 100,000 inhabitants. Among all online shoppers, 55% are women and 45% are men. Most often they have complete higher education and work. The income of Ukrainians who shop online is 38% higher than that of those who choose offline, OLX analysts say.
Among the barriers to shopping on the Internet on local platforms, Ukrainians name the need to try on, the lack of a need for a product and confidence in its quality. If to talk about orders in social networks, mistrust is added to these reasons.
According to the service OLX Delivery, electronics became the most popular among buyers from November to April. Sales in this category for the six months increased by 40%, and this is 635,000 orders. Clothing was in second place in terms of the number of transactions – 441,000. Sales of children’s goods increased by 84% (almost 378,000 orders). In addition, the purchasing activity of goods for leisure, hobby and sports increased by 55%, and goods for home and garden by 75%.
At the same time, OLX notes that despite the growth of online orders, the expenses of Ukrainians remained at the same level as in the period from May to October 2020. The average bill has hardly changed: electronics – UAH 1,587, clothes – UAH 671, baby products – UAH 552, hobby, recreation and sports – UAH 814, home and garden – UAH 754, spare parts for transport – UAH 775.
According to the study, the most popular way to get a purchase is pickup from the post office: in 87% of cases it was Nova Poshta, another 25% took the order through Ukrposhta.
OLX notes that Ukrainians make purchases using a smartphone in 71% of cases, a laptop in 42% of cases.
Metinvest, an international vertically integrated group of mining and metals companies, signed a memorandum of cooperation with K1-MET, a leading Austrian research center in metallurgy, to implement joint projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the steel industry in line with the European Green Deal.
As part of its long-term vision to develop emissions-free steelmaking, Metinvest plans to increase the sustainability of its production facilities and is interested in gaining experience of leading technologies aimed at reducing environmental footprint. Meanwhile, К1-МЕТ has profound experience and expertise regarding the implementation of research and development projects focusing on energy efficiency, the circular economy, carbon capture, storage and usage, climate-neutral metal production and other related areas in collaboration with leading industrial players, research organizations and institutes.
Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest, pointed to the group’s awareness of the urgent need to reduce the negative impact of metallurgical production on the environment.
“Metinvest is constantly looking at various technological solutions to reduce its emissions today and in the future. The partnership with K1-MET represents an important part of a comprehensive approach to decarbonizing the steel industry in the long run, and we will continue to actively explore this and other areas,” he said.
In turn, Thomas Buergler, CEO of K1-MET, said that the decision of the 2015 climate conference in Paris to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100 compared with the pre-industrial period, and the EU Green Deal 2019, which aims to make Europe a carbon-neutral continent in 2050, highlight great challenges for resource-intensive industry.
“The focus of the research and development programme at the K1-MET metallurgical competence centre is aligned with the climate targets, sustainable development goals and needs of our industrial partners,” the General Director said.
The projects combine carbon-neutral technologies, the circular economy and digitalization for sustainable steelmaking. Strategic research will also be increasingly considered to gain a deeper understanding of process flows. At K1-MET, the interaction of industrial and scientific partners helps to ensure that results from applied research can be transferred to industrial applications. The partnership with Metinvest based on the memorandum signed sets the course for this.
K1-MET (Austria) is one of the leading and internationally renowned metallurgical competence centres for ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy. It cooperates with established national and international partners from the sector to cover issues such as energy efficiency, the circular economy and carbon-neutral metal production. K1-MET and its partners are working on process solutions to advance the transformation of the European metallurgical industry.
AUSTRIAN RESEARCH CENTER, CARBON FOOTPRINT, COOPERATION, METINVEST
NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED IN UKRAINE AND JOB OPPORTUNITIES, FEB 20 – MAY 21
According to the results of June 2021, Sikorsky Kyiv International Airport served 117,545 passengers, which is over 2 times less than in the pre-crisis June 2019 (some 248,500 passengers).
At the same time, the infographics on the airport’s website indicate that in June this year, the largest passenger traffic was recorded since March 2020, when 78,900 passengers were served (in June 2020, Kyiv airport began operating international passenger flights only on June 17 due to quarantine restrictions).
In just six months of 2021, the airport served 337,340 passengers, which is almost 4 times less than in the same period in 2019 (some 1.332 million): international routes – 320,600 passengers, and domestic – 16,700 passengers.
KSG Agro in 2020 cut its net profit by 68.8% compared to 2019, to $1.27 million, while increasing EBITDA by 2.9 times, to $6.02 million.
According to the audited report of the holding, published on Friday evening on the website of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, its revenue over the past year decreased 11%, to $21.34 million.
At the end of 2020, KSG Agro increased its gross profit 2.4 times, to $6.25 million, and operating profit 10.5 times, to $4.35 million.
The company said that the crop yield in 2020 increased by 5.2% compared to 2019 – up to 40,000 tonnes, while the wheat crop increased by a quarter, to 17,900 tonnes, rapeseed – 2.4 times, to 2,730 tonnes, sunflower harvest decreased by 9.7% – to 11,700 tonnes.
“The total area of agricultural land used by the group as at 31 December 2020 is 21,000 hectares, of which 10,000 hectares are currently under winter crops and are expected to yield a total of 23,60 tonnes of wheat, barley and rapeseed at harvest. The group manages to maintain crop farming revenue at comparable levels to pig breeding, but because crops are exposed to weather conditions, revenues from pig breeding are still considered by management to be more reliable and remain the key strategic focus,” KSG Agro said in the report.
According to the agricultural holding, its revenue from the livestock segment in 2020 decreased by 8% compared to 2019 reaching $10.3 million, while the food processing segment brought the company 22% less, and amounted to $8.4 million. The total marketable pig number of the company as of December 31, 2020 increased by 7.8% compared to December 31, 2019, to 41,416 heads.
“Current year harvest was comparable to the previous year, so the relative decrease in sales is mostly attributable to the general slowing down in business when the first coronavirus prevention measures were introduced, and people were beginning to adapt to the new reality. After that, demand for crops and pork, as well as other goods used to manufacture food products, returned to the previous levels,” the company said in the report.
According to the company, there had been no significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the group’s profitability position so far. The pandemic is not expected to have an immediate material impact on business operations.
