Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of October 06
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
The seaports of Ukraine in January-September 2020 handled, according to recent data, 118.78 million tonnes of cargo, which is 3.7% more compared to the same period in 2019.
According to the latest information on the website of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, transshipment of exported cargo increased to 91.1 million tonnes (5.6% more), cabotage cargo to 1.8 million tonnes (31% more), and transshipment of imported goods decreased to 18 million tonnes (3.1% less), transit to 7.7 million tonnes (5.5% less).
The leaders in terms of transshipment volumes are ore and grain. During this period, the first place was occupied by grain cargo, the transshipment of which amounted to 35.3 million tonnes.
Ore ranked second with the amount of 33.8 million tonnes, which is 25.5% more than the same indicator of the previous year.
Transshipment of ferrous metals increased by 8.9%, to 12.86 million tonnes, oil by 5.6% in the volume of 4.49 million tonnes, and oil by 2.8 times, with a processing volume of 1.6 million tonnes.
Transshipment of containers reached 772,900 TEU and exceeded the last year’s figure by 8.3%.
SkyUp (Kyiv) for the period from December 23, 2020 to January 30, 2021, will launch a flight on the Kyiv-Sofia (Bulgaria)-Kyiv route.
According to the company’s website, flights will be operated twice a week: on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Ticket prices for the Kyiv-Sofia flights start from UAH 1,248 without luggage, Sofia-Kyiv from UAH 1,062 without luggage.
SkyUp notes that from October 1 to November 30, 2020, Bulgaria canceled mandatory self-isolation for Ukrainian citizens who arrive in the country. To cross the border, one must have a negative PCR test done no later than 72 hours before travel.
The company also added that the requirements for winter travel are still unknown, so it is necessary to additionally check the current rules of entry and rest on the eve of departure.
The Synevo medical laboratory plans to launch innovative rapid tests for detecting the COVID-19 antigen declared by WHO in Ukraine in the coming weeks.
Mykola Butenko, the director of development at Synevo, told Interfax-Ukraine that at present, the company has brought an experimental batch of Austrian-made tests to Ukraine and is finishing their “internal” testing.
“Next week, we are already waiting for the delivery of these tests to launch testing for customers. The first delivery will be about 8,000 systems. If necessary, the manufacturer is ready to fully cover the needs of our network for these test systems, so tests will be performed across the entire Synevo network in Ukraine,” he said.
According to Butenko, the test manufacturer is a well-known Austrian company that specializes in the production of rapid tests for laboratory diagnostics. The test systems have passed clinical trials and are certified according to international standards.
“The huge advantage of these rapid tests is that their sensitivity is 97%, and the result will be ready in 15-30 minutes. Therefore, the use of such test systems for the COVID-19 antigen allows mass screening testing in a short time, which is very valuable in the conditions of uncontrolled growth of the epidemic,” he added.
The cost of the declared express tests for COVID-19 antigen in the Synevo network is about UAH 800.
The 22nd Ukraine-EU summit will be the first bilateral EU summit with a third country held physically in Brussels since the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The European Council said on Friday that the EU side will be represented by Presidents of the European Council Charles Michel and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. Ukraine will be represented by President Volodymyr Zelensky. High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell will also participate.
During the meeting, the leaders will review bilateral relations, including the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the EU support to Ukraine; the next steps in the implementation of the Association Agreement, including its Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area; the state of reforms in Ukraine.
Leaders will also discuss the conflict in eastern Ukraine, recent developments in Belarus and further regional and foreign policy issues.
It is expected that at 15:30 Brussels (16:30 Kyiv time) on Tuesday, EU leaders will meet the Ukrainian president, and at 17:50 Brussels time (18:50 Kyiv time) a press conference is scheduled to be held in the virtual mode.
