Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

UKRAINE RECORDS 2,208 NEW COVID CASES PER DAY

As of Tuesday morning, 2,208 new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) disease were recorded in Ukraine, 8,617 people recovered and 119 people died, Minister of Health of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov has said.
“Some 2,208 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in Ukraine as of May 11, 2021. In particular, 89 children and 34 health workers fell ill. Also, over the past day, 1,084 people were hospitalized, 119 people died and 8,617 people recovered,” Stepanov said on his Facebook page on Tuesday morning.
A day earlier, on May 10, some 2,817 new COVID-19 cases were reported, on May 9, some 5,372 new cases of COVID-19 infection were recorded, on May 8, there were 8,710 new cases of COVID-19 infection, on May 7, some 8,404 new cases of COVID-19 were reported, 6,038 new cases of COVID-19 infection were recorded on May 6, some 2,576 new COVID-19 cases were reported on May 5, and some 2,472 new cases of COVID-19 infection were reported on May 4.
The number of infected since the beginning of the pandemic on Tuesday morning was 2.125 million people, 46,631 patients died, and 1.777 million people recovered.
Over the past day, the largest number of confirmed cases was registered in Donetsk (325), Kharkiv (213), Dnipropetrovsk (191), Zaporizhia (169) and Mykolaiv (132) regions.
Over May 10, 2021, some 2,194 people were vaccinated in Ukraine and 865,590 people were vaccinated since the beginning of the vaccination campaign. Some 695 people have completed vaccination (received two shots) (of which two people received one shot abroad).

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UKRAINE INCREASES ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION IN JAN-APRIL

Electricity consumption in Ukraine, taking into account in-process losses in power grids, increased by 7.4% in January-April 2021 (by 3.742 billion kWh) compared to the same period in 2020, to 56.647 billion kWh, according to data from the Energy Ministry.
According to the calculations of Interfax-Ukraine, excluding in-process losses, electricity consumption for the specified period increased by 7.8% (by 3.203 billion kWh), to 44.27 billion kWh.
The country’s industry, excluding in-process losses, boosted electricity consumption by 6.2%, to 17.319 billion kWh. In particular, metallurgical industry consumed 9.355 billion kWh (3.8% more compared to January-April 2020), the fuel industry some 1.122 billion kWh (1.6% more), machine-building industry some 1.346 billion kWh (16.5% more), chemical and petrochemical some 1.463 billion kWh (10.5% more), food and processing some 1.406 billion kWh (0.7% more), building materials some 770.9 million kWh (18.2% more), others some 1.860 billion kWh (11.8% more).
In addition, agricultural enterprises consumed 1.211 billion kWh (6.1% more), transport some 2.176 million kWh (5.6% more), construction some 434 million kWh (25.4% more).
In January-April 2021, the country’s population consumed 14.593 billion kWh (9.3% more), households some 5.304 billion kWh (5.8% more), other non-industrial consumers some 2.990 billion (14.8% more).
According to the results of the first three months, the share of industry in the total volume of electricity consumption decreased from 40% to 39.3%, while the share of the population increased from 32.7% to 33.1%.
In April 2021, electricity consumption, taking into account in-process losses, increased by 9.7% (by 1. 89 billion kWh) compared to the same month of 2020, to 12.27 billion kWh, excluding in-process losses, by 12.2% (by 1.109 billion kWh), to 10.191 billion kWh.

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UKRAINE IS ONE AMONG FIRST COUNTRIES TO RECEIVE INDIAN VACCINE AFTER RESTORATION OF ITS EXPORT

Founder and owner of the Serum Institute of India, Cyrus Poonawalla, during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, assured that Ukraine will be among the priority countries that will receive the contracted vaccine as soon as the Indian government restores its export.
CoviShield company’s vaccine against coronavirus disease was the first that Ukraine received for vaccinations. The owner of the Serum Institute noted that India had already supplied Ukraine with half a million doses of the vaccine, the website of the President’s Office reported on Friday.
In turn, Zelensky invited Poonawalla to explore the possibilities of cooperation between his company and Ukrainian partners in order to jointly develop and produce medicines, medical products and vaccines in Ukraine, including those from COVID-19.
As reported, the incidence rate of COVID-19 in India has led to delays in the supply of up to 90 million doses of vaccines from that country. The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, is a key supplier of vaccines to the international COVAX vaccine distribution program.

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UKRAINE AND INDIAN MANUFACTURER AGREE TO INCREASE SUPPLY OF VACCINES AGAINST CORONAVIRUS TO 15 MLN DOSES

Ukraine has agreed with the Indian manufacturer Serum Institute to increase the supply of vaccines against coronavirus (COVID-19) disease to 15 million doses, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has said.
“During negotiations with the owner of the Serum Institute, Mr. Cyrus Poonawalla, an agreement was reached to increase the supply from 10 million to 15 million doses of vaccine,” he said at a briefing on Tuesday.
Stepanov also said that “there is a proposal from the Chinese company Sinovac.”
“We have reached an agreement with them to increase supplies and additional contracting,” he said.
Stepanov said that Ukraine currently has contacts for the supply of 42 million doses, but intends to increase the agreement to 48 million doses in 2021, which will allow 70% of the adult population to be vaccinated.

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PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE WELCOMES COOPERATION BETWEEN UKRZALIZNYTSIA AND STADLER

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation between JSC Ukrzaliznytsia and Stadler on May 7 following talks with representatives of the Office of the President of Ukraine, the Ministry of Strategic Industries and the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.
Currently, Stadler will be looking for a site for the construction of a plant for the production of suburban trains and city trams. The next steps will be technology transfer and employee training to ensure product quality that meets the company’s standards. This plant will focus on domestic Ukrainian consumers, participation in tenders, as well as on the export of products to other countries, the President’s Office said on its website on Friday.
“We fully support such investments in our country. Ukraine is interested in such cooperation, and we discussed such opportunities during the official visit of the President of the Swiss Confederation to Ukraine,” Zelensky said at a meeting with Peter Christoph Spuhler, President of the Board of Directors of one of the world’s leading rolling stock manufacturers – the Swiss company Stadler CIS AG, and Alexander Luft, CEO of Stadler CIS AG.
Cooperation with Stadler will also contribute to the implementation of the project of high-quality suburban railway service City Express, the first stage of which is to be implemented in Kyiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv, the message reads.

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METINVEST TO INCREASE INCOME TAX PAYMENTS BY 7.4 TIMES IN JANUARY-JUNE 2021

Metinvest Group, taking into account associated companies and joint ventures, is expected to increase the payment of income tax by more than seven times in January-June 2021, year-over-year, to UAH 10.2 billion, a source in the tax authorities told Interfax-Ukraine.
In turn, Metinvest confirmed to the agency information about a significant increase in income tax payments in the first half of 2021.
“Enterprises of the Metinvest group will pay income tax in the first half of 2021, replenishing the national budget by UAH 10.2 billion (compared to the first half of 2020, the income tax paid was about UAH 1.4 billion). Thus, according to the results of the first half of the year, income tax payments increased by 7.4 times. This unprecedented increase in tax payments during coronavirus pandemic will help support the cities where Metinvest enterprises operate, pay salaries in full and on time communal and medical workers,” the company told the agency.
At the same time, the group said that Metinvest is one of the largest taxpayers in Ukraine. Thus, in 2020, the company increased its tax payments by 5%, to UAH 22.1 billion year-over-year. Earlier, the group said that over 15 years of its work, it transferred UAH 165 billion to the budgets of all levels.

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