In order to minimize corruption risks, Ukrzaliznytsia is introducing a system of operational control over the provision of customers’ requests for cargo transportation.
As the company reported on its website on Wednesday, the system is aimed, in particular, at eliminating the possibility of non-receipt or delay in the delivery of freight wagons, as well as eradicating corruption in the freight wagons distribution.
“At the first stage of the system implementation, we already carry out daily operational monitoring of applications for the delivery of freight wagons, consider all problem cases and correct the situation in order to fully meet the needs of customers and timely delivery of freight wagons. After all, each well-developed application is, in the end, the company’s income and its further development,” the Ukrzaliznytsia’s press service said.
According to Ukrzaliznytsia, operational control, monitoring the situation and quick response will significantly improve the quality of rail cargo transportation and strengthen cooperation with market participants.
At the Wednesday meeting, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine expanded the list of goods needed to combat coronavirus (COVID-19), the import and delivery of which to the customs territory are exempt from VAT, test systems and laboratory equipment.
According to the text of the decree, this is about test systems for ELISA testing and antigen testing.
In addition, the government has approved a decree that will simplify the procurement of medicines for the treatment of patients with COVID-19. In particular, the requirements of Cabinet of Ministers decree No.333 some issues of state regulation of prices for medicines and medical products will not apply to the purchase of medicines for the treatment of patients with COVID-19, which will increase the access of medical facilities to medicines.
The gradual approximation of the regulatory environment and digital development of Ukraine to the level of the European Union as part of integration into the EU Digital Single Market will affect the productivity and economic growth of the country, according to a Tuesday statement on the website of the Ministry of Digital Transformation.
The study entitled “Ukraine’s integration into the EU Digital Single Market: potential economic benefits” was carried out by the Trade+ Center for International Trade Analysis at the Kyiv School of Economics and NGO Ukrainian Center for European Policy and was ordered by the Ministry of Digital Transformation.
The results of the study contain expert assessments and real calculations of the potential profit for the country’s economy from integration into the EU Digital Single Market.
According to the study, the gradual approximation of the regulatory environment and digital development of Ukraine to the EU level within the framework of integration into the EU Digital Single Market will influence bilateral trade: an increase in exports of goods from Ukraine to the EU is expected by 11.8%-17% ($2.4-3.4 billion), services – by 7.6%-12.2% ($302.5-485.5 million).
It will also impact the productivity and economic growth of Ukraine: GDP growth in Ukraine is expected at the level of 2.4-12.1% ($3.1-15.8 billion), the welfare of citizens – by 3.6-7.8%.
It is also expected that the export of goods from the EU to Ukraine will grow by 17.7-21.7% ($4.1-5 billion), and services by 5.7-9.1% to ($191-305 million).
According to the study, an increase in the level of digitalization by 1% will lead to an increase in Ukraine’s GDP by 0.42%.
“Various scenarios of integration into the EU Digital Single Market show that the size of potential benefits will depend on the scale of regulatory and digital transformations in Ukraine. The faster and more efficiently we implement the necessary transformations, the faster we will be able to realize the benefits of integration into the EU Digital Single Market,” Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for European Integration Valeria Ionan said.
According to the study, the main economic benefits for Ukraine from integration into the EU Digital Single Market are: reduction of transaction and trade costs in trade in goods and services between the EU and Ukraine; growth of business efficiency, economic productivity and GDP of Ukraine; growing well-being of citizens of Ukraine and the EU: better access and lower prices for digital innovative goods and services, consumer protection; development of innovative products and services of digital infrastructure.
In addition, bringing Ukraine’s legislation and standards closer to EU legislation and standards will reduce regulatory differences between Ukraine and the EU in the digital sphere and accelerate Ukraine’s digital development.
In 2020, Ukrainian agricultural producers harvested 65.4 million tonnes of cereals and legumes from an area of 15.3 million hectares. The operational data of the regions on the results of the harvesting campaign was announced on Tuesday by Minister of Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture Ihor Petrashko.
According to a report on the ministry’s website, in particular, 25.1 million tonnes of wheat from 6.6 million hectares and 29.8 million tonnes of corn from 5.3 million hectares were harvested.
According to the State Statistics Service, in 2019 Ukraine harvested 75.1 million tonnes of cereals and legumes (70.1 million tonnes in 2018), of which 28.3 million tonnes of wheat (24.6 million tonnes) and 35.9 million tonnes of corn (35.8 million tonnes a year earlier).
“This year, the gross grain harvest amounted to 65.4 million tonnes, which is three times more than the needs of the domestic market, and also allows us to maintain a leading position in the export of agricultural products,” Petrashko said, commenting on the harvest results.
The Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture said that the barley harvest this year was tentatively 7.8 million tonnes threshed from 2.4 million hectares (in 2019, according to the State Statistics Service, 8.9 million tonnes from 2.6 million hectares).
In addition, 516,200 tonnes of peas were harvested from an area of 237,700 hectares (573,000 tonnes from 253,400 hectares), 106,500 tonnes of buckwheat from 78,500 hectares (85,000 tonnes from 69,200 hectares), and 244,000 tonnes of millet from 150,400 hectares (169,700 tonnes from 93,300 hectares).
The sunflower harvest this year preliminary amounted to 13.1 million tonnes from 6.4 million hectares (15.3 million tonnes from almost 6 million hectares), rapeseed – 2.6 million tonnes from 1.1 million hectares (3.3 million tonnes from 1.3 million hectares) and soybeans – 2.8 million tonnes from 1.3 million hectares (3.7 million tonnes from 1.6 million hectares).
Farmers also harvested 9.2 million tonnes of sugar beet from 216,000 hectares, compared with 10.2 million tonnes from 221,000 hectares last year.
The minister explained the decline in the harvest of most crops by atypical weather conditions, but stressed that traditionally agricultural production in Ukraine has a surplus.
The national postal operator Ukrposhta begins cooperation with the Kasta marketplace.
As reported by Ukrposhta on Tuesday, in December, the companies opened 50 partner offices.
Fitting rooms will be installed in co-branded post offices, where customers can check if the goods ordered on the Kasta marketplace fit them.
Partner offices will operate in Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Kharkiv, Poltava, Lutsk, Vinnytsia, Mariupol, Kramatorsk, Mykolaiv, Severodonetsk, Kryvy Rih, Nikopol, Khmelnytsky, Zhytomyr and other cities.
Delivery of goods purchased on the Kasta website to Ukrposhta partner offices will be free for holders of KastaBlack loyalty program cards, and in the absence of a card, the delivery will cost UAH 25 regardless of the amount and size of the order.
“According to payment systems, in Ukraine in the first quarter of 2020, the volume of e-commerce increased significantly, and merchants began to use digital channels for sales even more actively: the number of online payments in grocery retail increased by 12%, and in certain categories, such as appliances and electronics, the number of purchases on the Internet increased by 44%. We see this tendency in accordance with the increase in the volume of parcels. Therefore, we continue to expand the circle of our cooperation with the largest online stores,” Deputy Director General for business development of Ukrposhta Olena Stopina said.
“For our customers, the coverage and, accordingly, the delivery speed will expand. We do not plan to stop at 50 offices, we will actively develop this area of cooperation,” Head of the delivery service and the network of KastaPost offices Oleksandr Bilousov.
Ukrposhta has the largest office network in Ukraine, almost 11,000 post offices. The national postal operator delivers items even to the most remote settlements and covers 100% of the territory of Ukraine.
Kasta is a marketplace for clothes, shoes and accessories in Ukraine.
Interpipe, the international vertically integrated pipe and wheel company, in January-September 2020 received $ 216.394 million in EBITDA, which is 8% more than in the same period last year.
According to a press release of the company, based on the unaudited IFRS consolidated financial statements for the nine months of 2020, in January-September revenue fell by 23%, to $ 660 million, capital investments by 34%, to $ 27 million.
The press release emphasizes that the company’s net debt has reached a de-minimis level of $ 12 million with a net leverage ratio (net debt to EBITDA) that has dropped to almost zero (0.05x).
In the third quarter of 2020, the company’s revenue decreased by 12% compared to the previous quarter, to $ 192 million, EBITDA increased by 7%, to $ 67 million, the amount of capital investments increased by 12%, to $ 9 million.
“In Q3 2020 Interpipe operated in a quite challenging environment across all markets. The COVID-19 pandemic as well as oil and gas prices downturn led to the global decline in demand for pipes, particularly, OCTG products. Moreover, lockdowns and reduction of freight turnover hit global railway wheel market,” the report says.
“In the first nine months of 2020, Interpipe’s overall revenue declined by 23% y-o-y to $ 660 million primarily due to a decline in pipe sales volumes and prices. Revenue from pipes shrank by 35% y-o-y to $ 349 million whereas the railway product revenue decreased by 6% y-o-y to $ 216 million,” according to the document.
“Nevertheless, Interpipe managed to achieve а sound nine-month 2020 EBITDA which amounted to $ 216 million, up by 8% y-o-y. On the back of the COVID-19 pandemic and reinstatement of the anti-dumping duty in the Customs Union the railway product segment was the main contributor to the EBITDA growth: its pass-through EBITDA went up by 24% y-o-y to $ 161 million and comprised 75% of the total EBITDA for the nine months of 2020,” it said.
“At the same time, the pipe segment EBITDA for the first nine months of 2020 drastically dropped by 79% y-o-y to $ 10 million despite stable sales of linepipes and some recovery of OCTG in Q3 2020,” it said.
“As of September 30, 2020, gross debt went down substantially to $ 122 million following the partial redemption of the notes in amount of $ 97 million in August 2020. In addition, net debt achieved an unprecedently low level of $ 12 million bringing down consolidated net leverage ratio (net debt to EBITDA) almost to zero (0.05x),” the report says.
“Despite extremely harsh business environment in Q3 and the first nine months of 2020 Interpipe kept showing a solid financial performance. The company retrieved its full financial stability and flexibility having achieved effectively a zero net leverage. Our progress and substantially improved credit profile have been also appreciated and confirmed by international credit rating agencies – Fitch Ratings and S&P Global – assigning to Interpipe ‘B’ rating with stable outlook,” CEO at Interpipe Fadi Hraibi commented on the results.
