Central bank official rates of banking metals as of August 25
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
The Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) has authorized the movement of five more vessels carrying more than 85,000 tonnes of grain and other food from Ukrainian ports, the UN has reported.
“JCC has authorized the movement of five ships carrying a total of 85,110 tonnes of grain and food under the Black Sea Grain Initiative,” the report says.
The UN said that the Ascanios ship with 58,500 tonnes of corn is destined for Germany, the Mohamad Y ships carrying 11,000 tonnes of wheat and the Bellis carrying 6,000 tonnes of soybeans will travel to Israel. Two more vessels – Oris Sofi and Zelek Star – is transporting 5,900 tonnes of sunflower oil and 3,700 tonnes of peas to Turkey, respectively.
In addition, on Wednesday, the JCC completed the inspection of six vessels following to Ukrainian ports – Canopus, Helga, Lady Zehma, Melina, Michalis and Sealock, as well as three vessels from Ukraine – Kubrosli, Maranta, Great Arsena.
They all were confirmed to sail, the UN said.
The joint inspection teams are scheduled to conduct the following inspections on Thursday: five inbound vessels moving to Ukrainian ports – Golden Yara, Irmgard, Simas, Lady Aillar, Queen Sara, and one outbound vessel – Kafkametler.
“As of August 24, the total tonnage of grain and other foodstuffs exported from three Ukrainian ports is 769,986 tonnes,” the report says.
On July 22, in Istanbul, with the participation of the UN, Ukraine, Turkey and Russia, two documents were signed on the creation of a corridor for the export of grain from three Ukrainian sea trade ports – Chornomorsk, Odesa and Pivdenny.
Ukraine’s pharmaceutical market in the first half of 2022 fell by 27% in volume and 20% in value due to the war compared to the same period last year, the relevant data are given in the report of the SMD company “Ukraine’s pharmaceutical market in the first half 2022. The market in the flames of war.”
At the same time, the company does not provide absolute indicators in the document.
According to the company, the main market drop during this period occurred in April and amounted to 50% in volume and 51% in value compared to April 2021.
At the same time, SMD experts note the significant impact of migration and population decline on the situation in the pharmaceutical market.
At the same time, the company pays attention to some stabilization of the situation in May, as well as to a slight market growth in monetary terms over the past months, which reflects the increase in drug prices.
In addition, the company’s experts emphasize that in the first half of this year, the actual consumption of medicines was higher than the monitoring showed due to the significant amount of humanitarian aid transferred.
At the same time, the share of public procurement was stable in terms of volume – 21% versus 20% in the first half of 2021, but increased from 25% to 30% in value terms due to a larger share of centralized purchases of high-priced products.
In addition, the company notes significant changes in the regional distribution. In particular, the largest reduction in consumption and market share is noted in Kharkiv, Kyiv region (without Kyiv city), as well as in Chernihiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Sumy regions.
The largest increase in market share during the war was demonstrated by Lviv region, Kyiv city, Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Volyn, Zakarpattia, Ternopil and other western regions.
At the same time, in Odesa and central regions of Ukraine, there was a slight increase in market share (0.5-0.6%).
“The change in the share of regional markets was influenced not only by internal migration of the population, but also by the work of large military clinics that consumed a significant amount of drugs in certain regions,” the company emphasizes.
Experts also note an increase in the share of domestically produced drugs despite serious damage to some capacities – 38.4% in January-June of this year versus 37% in 2021 as a whole.
According to the study, Sinovac became the leader of the pharmaceutical market during the analyzed period thanks to the purchase of a vaccine against COVID-19.
Without taking this company into account, the position of the market leader, despite a significant reduction in sales, is maintained by Farmak, the second place is taken by the pharmaceutical company Darnitsa, and the third by Yuria-Pharm.
Sanofi and Arterium, respectively, took fourth and fifth positions in the ranking of pharmaceutical market leaders for the first half of the year.
Ukraine and the UK are planning to conclude an agreement on digital trade, which will remove barriers to trade and provide support to Ukrainian businesses, the UK has previously concluded such an agreement only with Singapore, the Ukrainian Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Digital Transformation report.
The Ministry of Economy in a press release on Wednesday clarified that the day before, First Deputy Prime Minister, Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov discussed this document – Digital Economy Agreement – with Secretary of State for International Trade of Great Britain Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
“The Digital Economy Agreement is a new type of trade agreement that will open up new opportunities for Ukrainian and British businesses through the use of modern technologies that will reduce bureaucratic procedures and promote the use of electronic payments, digital signatures and electronic contracts,” Svyrydenko said.
According to the release of the Ministry of Economy, the agreements involve the creation of digital infrastructure to level restrictions on cross-border data transfer, the opening of a single window for traders and government agencies, the growth of trade in services, proper protection of personal data and improved access to public resources.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation added that among the main areas of cooperation were financial technologies and payment systems, open digital markets and technical cooperation.
The Ministry of Economy clarified that the agreement on digital trade would supplement the agreement on political cooperation, free trade and strategic partnership between Ukraine and the UK, concluded on October 8, 2020.
President of the state enterprise NNEGC Energoatom Petr Kotin said that the company is preparing for corporatization and that the Ukrainian government has already submitted the relevant draft law on the specifics of the formation of the National Nuclear Energy Generating Company Energoatom to the Parliament.
As reported in the Energoatom Telegram channel, he informed the ambassadors of the G7 countries and other officials of foreign diplomatic missions about this during a meeting in Kyiv on Wednesday, August 24.
In addition, Kotin outlined plans for the development of Energoatom and the state of implementation of joint projects with the American company Westinghouse.
“We have put an end to any dependence on Russia, first of all, it concerns the rejection of its nuclear fuel, technologies, services and components. At the same time, we are strengthening cooperation with our long-term partner Westinghouse: we will purchase nuclear fuel for all Ukrainian nuclear power plants and build 9 new power units based on AP1000 technology,” he said.
As reported, in September 2021, Energoatom and Westinghouse signed a memorandum on the construction of five nuclear power units in Ukraine. At the beginning of June 2022, the companies signed agreements to increase the number of nuclear power units to be built using AP 1000 technology in Ukraine from five to nine units, and to establish the Westinghouse Engineering and Technology Center in the country.
Energoatom is the operator of all four operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine. Operates Zaporozhye, South-Ukrainian, Rivne and Khmelnytsky stations with 15 power units equipped with water-cooled power reactors, with a total installed electrical capacity of 13.8 GW.
A number of EU regions will experience an unprecedented drought for another three months, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday, citing an EU report.
Drought and high air temperatures are expected in the western Mediterranean until November 2022, the report says.
It is noted that in particular this will affect Portugal and Spain.
Nearly half of the EU countries currently have a drought warning in place. In addition, the deterioration of the situation is observed in Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg and others.
Earlier it was reported that, according to the Joint Research Center of the European Commission, the current drought seems to be perhaps the worst in the last 500 years. Final data at the end of the season may confirm this preliminary estimate.
The countries of Europe, which this summer are suffering from wildfires associated with abnormal heat and drought, broke a sad record in 2022: 662.8 thousand hectares were devastated by fire.
Among the states most affected by fires this year are Spain (246 thousand hectares of burned forests), Romania (150 thousand hectares), Portugal (75 thousand hectares) and France (61 thousand hectares).
