Ukraine increased exports of semi-finished carbon steel in physical terms by 14.9%, to 3.509 million tonnes in January-June 2018 year-on-year.
Ukraine’s State Fiscal Service said in a customs statistics report that exports of semi-finished carbon steel in monetary terms grew by 45.1%, to $1.573 billion.
The bulk of semi-finished carbon steel was exported to Italy (34.84% of total exports in monetary terms), Turkey (18.27%), and Egypt (14.08%).
During the first six months of the year Ukraine imported 22,588 tonnes of semi-finished carbon steel, which is 73% up year-on-year. Imports in monetary terms grew by 76.2%, to $13.648 million.
Semi-finished carbon steel imports originated from Russia (96.07%), Kazakhstan (2.78%) and the United States (0.96%).
In 2017 Ukraine cut semi-finished carbon steel exports in physical terms by 18.8% from 2016, to 6.292 million tonnes, while exports in monetary terms increased by 14.9%, to $2.542 billion.
Italy accounted for 30.61% of exports in monetary terms, while the share of Turkey was 17.02% and that of Egypt – 16.28%.
Semi-finished carbon steel imports in 2017 totaled 22,038 tonnes, which was 20.1% up from 2016. Imports in monetary terms grew by 85.4%, to $12.091 million.
Most of semi-finished carbon steel was imported from Russia (95.48% of total imports), Kazakhstan (4.03%), and Bulgaria (0.25%).
The Social Insurance Fund of Ukraine in H1 2018 sent 16,500 insured persons for rehabilitation treatment, which is 34% more than a year ago. The press service of the fund reported that the figure was made possible thanks to the introduction of the targeted medical rehabilitation mechanism from January 1, 2018. The fund said that since early 2018, the fund covers all working Ukrainians with targeted rehabilitation treatment, which is financed using the money of the fund. At present, 51 health and spa establishments joined the program providing rehabilitation treating using the fund’s money.
Currently the fund is taking care of over 12 million people.
As reported, since January 1, 2018, the number of health institutions sending patients to rehabilitation using the fund’s money almost tripled. Before January 1, 2018, a total of 456 institutions had agreements signed with the fund.
There are around 1,600 health establishments in Ukraine today.
Ukraine and India are expanding military technical cooperation in the area of military shipbuilding and are creating a joint venture to restore power-generating equipment on Indian Navy vessels, Indian Defense News has reported. The report said there plans are to create a joint venture in India to overhaul gas turbines of Indian warships with the participation of Indian Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) and Ukraine’s state-owned Zorya-Mashproekt enterprise (Mykolaiv).
The creation of a joint venture in India is designed to optimize the current logistics of the growing Ukrainian-Indian military-technical cooperation in the field of military shipbuilding and to ensure a reduction in costs for the transportation of energy equipment to Ukraine for restoration. The turbine which is used by the Indian Navy requires overhauling after running 30,000 hours. At the same time, Indian BHEL is already cooperating with Siemens and General Electric and expects to expand the order portfolio within the new format of cooperation with the Ukrainian enterprise, the report said.
The details of the investments and figures will be reviled at the time of signing the deal.
According to Indian Defense News, the Indian Navy will soon have 34 warships using Ukrainian power equipment. Zorya turbines are extensively used in major Indian naval warships which includes five Rajput class destroyers, three Delhi class destroyers and 16 fast missile corvettes of the 1241RE class.
Zorya-Mashproekt declined to comment to the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency about cooperation plans with India, citing the confidentiality of the negotiations in progress.
Zorya-Mashproekt is a world-famous developer and manufacturer of gas turbine equipment and has been a part of Ukraine’s state-owned Ukroboronprom concern since 2011.
The National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and National Joint-Stock Insurance Company (NJSIC) Oranta (Kyiv) on June 26 signed an agreement on compulsory insurance of vehicle owners’ civil liability for 96 vehicles.
The bid was expected at UAH 110,000; Oranta’s actual bid was UAH 55,155, according to an announcement in the ProZorro electronic procurement system.
BROKBUSINESS Insurance Company and U.S.I Insurance Company also took part in the bidding; their bids were UAH 60,165 and UAH 94,806, respectively.
Oranta is the legal successor of Ukrgosstrakh, founded on November 25, 1921. In 1993, Ukrgosstrakh was reorganized into OJSC NJSIC Oranta.
Sweden has signed a cooperation agreement with the Swedish-Ukrainian non-profit organization, Beetroot Academy, on a three-year support program, which will allow the organization to double the number of IT schools in Ukraine. “Beetroot Academy will be able to double the number of IT schools and expand the network to 20 locations across the country, as well as develop new IT courses to master technical and communication skills,” the Swedish Embassy in Ukraine said.
Now Beetroot Academy offers six IT courses in 10 different cities of Ukraine: from Mariupol in the east to Ivano-Frankivsk in the west. Many of these schools will open in small towns, also in the east of Ukraine, which will help to enhance economic potential and competitiveness of the small municipalities in Ukraine, the Embassy said. Beetroot Academy is a non-profit organization working in the field of professional IT education, it was founded in 2014. Its courses are based on mixed teaching methods and professionally teach English.
The growth of Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 will slow to 3% from 3.2% in 2018, but then it will accelerate to 3.8% in 2020 and 4.1% in 2021, such a base-case scenario is proposed by Ukraine’s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade for approval by the government. The ministry’s draft forecast of the economic and social development of Ukraine for 2019-2021, which is available to Interfax-Ukraine and is put on the agenda of a government meeting on Wednesday, the base-case scenario is also based on a slowdown in inflation from 13.7% in 2017 to 9.9% in 2018, further to 7.4% in 2019, 5.6% in 2020 and 5% in 2021.
The ministry has also developed two other scenarios. According to the more optimistic scenario, the growth of the Ukrainian economy will accelerate 4.1% in 2019, 5% in 2020 and 5.4% in 2021, but inflation will be higher: 8.7%, 7% and 5.2%, respectively.
The low-case scenario implies a slowdown in the country’s GDP growth next year to 1.1%, followed by a slight acceleration to 1.6% and 2.1% in 2020 and 2021, respectively. At the same time, inflation under this scenario is expected to accelerate to 12.4% next year, followed by a slowdown to 8.6% and 6.7% in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
