German authorities are planning to allocate another EUR12 billion for military support to Ukraine, Bloomberg reported, citing sources on Wednesday.
The Bundestag budget committee is expected to approve the plans of German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Wednesday. Thus, in case of approval of such a step, the total amount of funds, directed by Berlin for military aid to Kiev, will increase up to EUR14.2 billion.
In particular, the amount planned for 2023 will more than double and reach EUR5.4 billion. The rest of the funds – EUR8.8 billion – will be available if necessary in the coming years. The money will not come from the Defense Ministry’s budget or the special EUR100 billion fund for the modernization of the Bundeswehr.
In addition, on Wednesday, the Bundestag budget committee is expected to approve the purchase of 10 self-propelled rapid-fire howitzers from Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co KG worth EUR 185 million; these guns are to replace the howitzers transferred by Germany to Ukraine.
Representative of the Scottish National Party Humza Yousaf took the oath of office as Scotland’s first minister on Wednesday, Sky News reported.
“Humza Yousaf took the oath of office as Scotland’s first minister,” the channel reports.
He accepted the post from Nicola Sturgeon, who had been Scotland’s first minister for a long time. She announced her resignation from the post earlier this year.
Yousaf won Monday’s election as leader of the ruling Scottish National Party. Normally, the first minister becomes the ruling party’s nominee.
Yousaf is 37 years old, making him the youngest leader of the Scottish National Party and the first Scottish minister. In addition, he is the first leader of this region of Great Britain with roots in South Asia, and the first to practice Islam. He was born in Glasgow and graduated from university in that city. His father was born in Pakistan and immigrated to Scotland in the 1960s with his family. Yousaf’s mother was born in Kenya to a family of South Asian origin.
The Western media noted that Humza Yousaf had pledged to continue campaigning for Scottish independence.
Cement production in Ukraine in 2022 decreased by 51% compared to 2021 – to 5.4 million tons, while its consumption was 35% of the indicator of the previous year, according to the association “Ukrcement”.
“Eight enterprises of the Association in 2022 produced cement strategically important for the country, which was primarily used on important construction sites of defense value. The decline in cement consumption led, respectively, to a decrease in production. At the same time, January 2022 was a record for cement production in the last six years”, – said Liudmila Krypka, executive director-head of the scientific and technical information department of the association “Ukrcement”.
According to her, export of products to the European Union helped slow down production decline. For example, cement exports for the year decreased by only 3.7% and amounted to 935 thousand tons, while imports decreased 14.8 times to 39 thousand tons.
In the structure of imports last year, 46.5% were ordinary cements, 41.6% – white cements, 10.9% – other hydraulic cements, 1% – alumina.
“The dynamics of cement exports 2022 indicates that the Ukrainian producers have fully provided the domestic market and continued to support their production with deliveries to other countries, mainly to the EU,” – said the expert.
In turn, Ukrainian companies in 2022 produced 16 types of cement, among which the most popular were cements with slag. At the same time manufacturers continue searching for ways to increase the efficiency of Portland cement while reducing the share of clinker, which is one of the main factors of reducing CO2 emissions, emphasizes Krypka.
The association is also considering using shredded construction waste from demolished buildings (linoleum, carpets, polyethylene, rubber, wood, plastic, roofing felt etc.) to burn in cement kilns as an alternative fuel, which can reduce the need for energy.
Last year “Ukrcement” in cooperation with SE “GosdorNII” published “Album of standard designs of rigid road clothes”, which contains information on variants of road clothes taking into account the category of roads, region, soil, technology.
“Road construction is a material-intensive production with a high proportion of the cost of raw and basic materials. Lack of bitumen forces us to switch to the best practices and domestic construction materials. Detailed characteristics of each construction are collected in the album, as well as technologies of restoration or strengthening of road with cement concrete”, – points out the executive director of the association.
Association “Ukrcement” was created in January 2004 by reorganization of Ukrainian concern of enterprises and organizations of cement and asbestos cement industry “Ukrcement”.
Imports of drugs to Ukraine in 2022, after five years of growth, decreased by 38% compared to the previous year – to $ 1.9 billion from $ 3.1 billion.
This is evidenced by the research conducted by the marketing agency Top Lead together with the pharmaceutical company “Darnitsa”.
According to the study, the largest importers of medicines to Ukraine are Germany with the import volume of about $ 368 million, India ($ 173 million), France ($ 31 million), Italy ($ 125 million) and Slovenia ($ 110 million).
At the same time, export of Ukrainian medicines in 2022 decreased by 24% as compared with 2021, and amounted to $ 238 million.
The biggest buyer of Ukrainian medicines is Uzbekistan, where Ukrainian companies exported products worth almost $52m, which is 36% less than a year earlier.
At the same time, other top three buyers of Ukrainian medicines increased export – Kazakhstan by 12% (to $ 32 million), Lithuania – by 324% ($23 million).
“In 2022, Ukrainian companies stopped selling medicines to Russia and Belarus, export to Lithuania and Latvia increased. But despite this, most of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical export goes to Asia”, – report’s authors emphasize.
They also noted that, although the largest manufacturers of medicines in Ukraine have GMP-certificates issued by Gosleksluzhba, that confirm the production and control of drugs in accordance with international quality standards, the EU does not yet recognize these certificates. “Therefore, to export to the EU, a manufacturer has to undergo an additional check by the regulatory authorities of one or another EU country. The task for Ukraine in the near future is to achieve recognition of Ukrainian certificates in the EU,” the authors of the study stressed.
Beton Complex” LLC, which is a part of industrial and construction group (ICG) “Kovalska”, according to the results of 2021 increased net profit in 2,4 times in comparison with 2020 – up to 34,6 million UAH.
According to the annual report of the company in the system of information disclosure of the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market (NSCSM), released on March 27, 2023, the company’s revenue in 2021 increased by 9.7% to 1.37 billion UAH.
The company’s retained earnings increased fivefold, to UAH 39.4 mln. Over the year, long-term liabilities also increased fivefold and amounted to UAH 439.4 mln, while current liabilities decreased by 26.4% to UAH 254.8 mln.
The value of Beton Complex assets in 2021 increased by 61% and amounted to UAH 774 mln.
In 2021 the company has produced 876.4 thousand tons of concrete mortars for 465.4 million UAH, 194.7 thousand tons of precast elements for 456.9 million UAH, 172.7 thousand tons of tiles, cement, concrete and artificial stone for 379.8 million UAH, 113.3 thousand tons of blocks and bricks for 90 million UAH.
According to the company’s data the company invested 40 mln hryvnias in equipment modernization during the mentioned reporting period.
Concrete Complex has been on the market since 1970. Since 2004 it has been a part of Kovalska group. Annual production capacity of the enterprise is 78 thousand cubic meters of reinforced concrete and 155 thousand cubic meters of paving slabs. The company also produces shaped elements of paving under the brand names “Avenue” and “Avenue Decor”.
According to Opendatabot, the owner of 100% of Beton Complex registered capital is OOO PSG Kovalska (Kiev), beneficiaries – Oleksandr and Serhiy Pylypenko.
The ICE-calculated index showing the U.S. dollar’s performance against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and Swedish krona) is up 0.25% in the morning session.
The euro/dollar pair is trading at $1.0834 as of 9:20 a.m. Q, versus $1.0847 at the close of Tuesday’s session, with the euro losing about 0.1%.
The pound sterling is down 0.15% and is trading at $1.2322 versus $1.2342 at the close of last session.
The dollar-yen exchange rate jumped 0.8% to 131.96 yen against 130.88 yen the day before.
The active growth of the dollar against the yen was due to a decrease in demand for protective assets, including the Japanese currency, on fears weakening on the expansion of the banking crisis and its impact on the global economy, writes Trading Economics.
The Australian dollar fell 0.5% against the U.S. dollar to $0.6676.
As reported, inflation in Australia slowed to 6.8% in February from January’s 7.4%. Analysts had expected a more moderate slowdown to 7.1%. The February figure was the lowest since last June.
