Ukraine exported 8.652 million tonnes of grain from July 1, 2018 (the beginning of the 2018/2019 marketing year, MY July-June) to September 26, 2018, which was 8.6% less than by the same date of the previous MY. As of today, farmers exported about 5.06 million tonnes of wheat, 1.93 million tonnes of barley, 1.5 million tonnes of maize, Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food said on Wednesday.
In addition, 45,200 tonnes of flour was sold on foreign markets over the period under review.
The ministry also said that the volume of forecast wheat exports remained at the level that was recorded in the Memorandum of Understanding for 2018/2019 MY, signed by the ministry and grain market players on August 10, i.e. 8 million tonnes of food wheat and 8 million tonnes of coarse wheat.
National joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy has accumulated enough volumes of natural gas in its underground gas storage facilities to steadily pass the autumn and winter period, Naftogaz Chief Commercial Officer Yuriy Vitrenko said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“Now there are some 16 billion cubic meters of gas in underground gas storage facilities. This is enough to pass winter with comfort,” he said.
Vitrenko said that there is a strong likelihood that after the completion of the heating season the company would have a good gas reserve in the storage facilities.
Seven locomotives General Electric (GE) TE33AC Trident (Tryzub) arrived in Chornomorsk (Odesa region), and the arrival of the next batch is expected in two weeks, acting Board Chairman of Ukrzaliznytsia Yevhen Kravtsov has said. “Another seven GE diesel locomotives arrived in Chornomorsk at night. They left the United States about a month ago and in a few days they will be sent for installation of the remained equipment in Ukraine,” Kravtsov wrote on Tuesday on his Facebook page and posted a short video from the port.
According to Kravtsov, in November, eight GE Evolution locomotives will operate in the railway: “We plan to use them for transportation on southern routes.”
He expressed hope that Ukraine will be able to receive the first 30 diesel locomotives before the end of this year.
“We are waiting for the next batch in two weeks,” he added.
As reported, in the beginning of August General Electric Transportation sent the first of 30 locomotives GE TE33AC to Ukraine. On September 11, it arrived in Ukraine.
The framework agreement between Ukrzaliznytsia and GE envisages a 15-year partnership in updating and modernizing traction rolling stock, the first stage of which is the delivery of 30 new diesel locomotives GE TE33AC to Ukrzaliznytsia under leasing terms with a localization level of 10%.
GE Transportation and Kriukov Car Building Works early June signed an agreement on the localization of production of 30 locomotives TE33A of the Evolution series. It was planned that Ukrzaliznytsia will receive the first locomotives late 2018.
Touchstone Capital Group (the U.K.) is interested in a project to build an offshore combined solar and wind power plant in Ukraine, the press service of Ukraine’s Energy and Coal Industry Ministry has reported after a meeting of profile specialists of the ministry with a delegation of the company. “At the meeting, representatives of the company presented a project for the offshore combined solar and wind power plant with a gigawatt power capacity, which is unique not only for Ukraine, but also for the nearest neighboring countries. Its additional advantage is the availability of its own balancing capacities, which will ensure a more even schedule of electricity production. The project also envisages the use of a significant (more than 30%) share of components of Ukrainian production,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said that it is important that the implementation of these large projects occur in accordance with the actual state and the plan for the development of the electricity transmission system, and does not lead to deterioration in the operational security of the country’s power grid.
In turn, representatives of Ukrenergo at the meeting reminded: 70-80% of the projects for the construction of “green generation” is being implemented in the southern region of Ukraine (Zaporizhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions), which is energy-efficient and simultaneously lacks maneuvering capacities.
Touchstone Capital Group is engaged in property management, development of projects in the field of renewable energy. The group operates funds from Chinese and other international investors.
Original Ukrainian medicines are not available in the markets of the United States and the European Union (EU) over the absence of state support for research in Ukraine, Director General of Research and Industrial Center Borschahivka chemical and pharmaceutical plant (Kyiv) Yulia Zdarevska has said. “Original Ukrainians medicines are not usually introduced in the United States and the EU, not because of their low efficiency, but because of the lack of state support in Ukraine for the development of original drugs at the state or regional levels,” she told Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on the results of research on the market for drugs with insufficient evidence base, initiated by Anti Corruption Action Centre (AntAC) with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.
Zdarevska said that the lack of registration in the United States or Europe is not proof of the inefficiency of medicines.
“Throughout the world, the registration of the drug in the FDA and EMA is a voluntary decision, not an obligation. Therefore, the substitution of concepts is clearly visible, therefore we believe that the group of drugs mistakenly described in the report as “Medicines Without Proven Effectiveness” should be referred to as” Medicines, the Use of which in the United States or the EU was not Envisaged by the Developer,” she said.
The general director of the plant said that the cost of a full cycle of developing and approving a new original drug in the United States could reach $2 billion.
“These costs today are unaffordable for the Ukrainian pharmaceutical industry,” she said.
Zdarevska said that the studies that pharmaceutical companies conduct to register their own drugs include safety and efficiency studies in accordance with established requirements.
“If these studies are not conducted, the drug cannot be registered. Thus, while demanding the prohibition of drugs not registered in the FDA and EMA, the authors of the research, in the first place, call into question the activities of state (and not only Ukrainian) regulatory authorities,” she said.
At the same time, Zdarevska said that the use of medicines in only one or several countries is a global practice, and the only necessary confirmation of the quality, effectiveness and safety of the drug is the availability of public registration.
She also recalled that in Ukraine for many years there is a pharmacovigilance system that allows the continuous collection, analysis and use of all information on side effects and the experience of clinical use of medicines.
Zdarevska said that Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies also export their medicines to more than 60 countries.
Research and Industrial Center Borschahivka chemical and pharmaceutical plant is among top 20 largest pharmaceutical manufacturers in Ukraine. It is a member of the Association Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine (AMMU).
Crude oil production in Ukraine in January-August 2018 grew by 2.7% year-over-year, to 1.004 million tonnes. The Energy and Coal Industry Ministry of Ukraine told Interfax-Ukraine that gas condensate production grew by 0.8%, to 441,936 tonnes.
Naftogaz Ukrainy’s enterprises increased oil production by 2.9% in January-August 2018, to 976,820 tonnes, but decreased gas condensate output by 7.1%, to 278,330 tonnes. A 2.9% rise was seen in oil production by Ukrnafta, to 926,300 tonnes and a 16.1% fall in production of gas condensate, to 33,400 tonnes, while Ukrgazvydobuvannia cut oil production by 9%, to 50,520 tonnes and gas condensate by 5.7%, to 244,930 tonnes.
Other oil producing companies in January-August 2018 increased crude oil production by 26.3%, to 26,684 tonnes and condensate – by 17.7%, to 163,606 tonnes.
As reported, in 2017, Ukraine cut oil and gas condensate production by 4.2%, to 2.098 million tonnes.
