Belarusian Sea Shipping Company is planning to ship steel goods made by Belarus Steel Works (BSW) to Europe via Ukrainian and Serbian ports.
The shipping company is willing to organize “experimental shipments of metal goods to Europe via the ports of Odessa in Ukraine and Semderovo in Serbia with loading in Mozyr,” the Belarusian Transport Ministry said following a meeting between its head, Alexei Avramenko, and BSW management.
The ministry said the shipments would be a promising area for the shipping company’s development and make water transport more appealing or Belarusian industry in general.
OJSC Belarusian Sea Shipping Company was established in 2009 and carries export, import and transit cargo to and from CIS and non-CIS countries using river-sea ships.
Belarus is landlocked but most of its exports are carried out by sea, via the Baltic States. The shipping company had earlier been in favor of building a deep-water port on the Dnieper River in the Gomel region, 5 km from the border with Ukraine, then shipping cargo by sea from Odesa.
BSW produces steel, roll, tubular goods and hardware and exports to 66 countries.
BELARUSIAN SEA SHIPPING COMPANY, EUROPE, SERBIAN PORT, SHIP, STEEL
According to the results of January-March 2021, NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy received a net profit of UAH 12.6 billion, which is almost four times more than in the first quarter of last year (UAH 3.2 billion), said the Group’s Chief Financial Officer Peter van Driel. “We previously stated that we expect Naftogaz to be profitable in the first quarter. I am pleased to announce that net profit in the first quarter of 2021 is UAH 12.6 billion (unaudited preliminary result, which is subject to further verification),” he wrote on his Facebook page.
The business environment is showing clear signs of recovery with higher prices and greater demand than last year, he said.
“The expected result shows our resilience: profitability has improved for three quarters in a row. Our transformation efforts are paying off. The Naftogaz team has stepped up this quarter and showed an outstanding result! I want to thank everyone for their great contribution,” he said.
In 2020, the KSG Agro agricultural holding reduced its net profit by 3.2 times compared to 2019 – to $1.27 million, while increasing EBITDA by 3.1 times – $6.532.
According to an unaudited report of the holding on the website of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, its revenue over the past year decreased by 11% – to $21.34 million.
At the end of 2020, KSG Agro increased its gross profit by 2.6 times – up to $6.59 million, and operating profit by 11.8 times – up to $4.87 million.
Pharmaceutical company Darnitsa is studying the prospects of entering Asian markets, can present competitive products there.
“We are looking at the Asian market, South Asia. These are quite large markets, where we are faced with a powerful Indian and Chinese form, behind which is state protectionism. But we have products with which we can compete,” the press service said citing head of the board of directors of Darnitsa Group Dmytro Shymkiv.
He said that in 2020 the company introduced ten new products to the market, which it represents, including in international markets.
Shymkiv also stressed that Darnitsa supports the initiative of leading Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies to “promote the idea of introducing into the agreement with the EU of the issue of mutual recognition of GMP certificates of pharmaceutical plants.”
“This would make it possible to significantly accelerate the export of Ukrainian pharmaceutical products to European countries. Ukrainian pharmaceutical production meets all European standards, the requirements that are prescribed for Ukrainian companies fully meet European standards,” he said.
Shymkiv noted that Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies in 2020 during the lockdown were able to maintain and increase their presence in European markets.
Commenting on the possibility of launching vaccine production in Ukraine, he noted that Darnitsa studied the issue of investment in the vaccine business in 2018-2019.
“The business of vaccines is different from the business of drugs. In all developed countries, vaccine production is a production where, first of all, the state is the largest buyer,” he said.
Commenting on the possibility of launching the production of vaccines against COVID-19, Shymkiv noted that “the Ukrainian pharma industry can build a plant, invest about $ 10-15 million in it, it will take about 2-2.5 years, but with small volumes it will have to compete with global companies which are already making vaccines.”
“At the end of the year, we will have on the world market about 50 vaccines against COVID-19, which will pass all stages of clinical trials. Therefore, the question is how to integrate into this process,” he said, stressing that the negotiation process with Western and Eastern companies continues.
Darnitsa pharmaceutical company is the leader of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market in natural terms. The company was founded in 1930. The portfolio’s strategic directions are cardiology, neurology and pain management. The beneficiaries of the company are the Zahoriy family.
Land reform in Ukraine without the timely adoption and high-quality functioning of the judicial reform, as well as without the development of infrastructure will have negative consequences for the Ukrainian statehood, director of the Ukrainian Barometer sociological service Viktor Nebozhenko believes.
“Ukraine needs land reform, but it must be complemented by a judicial reform that would regulate possible conflicts. This is important. There is a risk of banditry with landlessness in the future. For example, there is a farmer who owns fertile land, and tomorrow he is shown documents that the land is no longer his. And with the judicial system that is now in Ukraine, it will end badly,” Nebozhenko said at an online conference at the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on the topic “Hot April 2021. Is Ukrainian politics entering perfect storm zone?”
Also, according to the political scientist, “in Ukraine it is necessary to develop a system of roads so that people and equipment can be brought or taken away to the fields.”
“Whatever land potential Ukraine has, it will not be realized without roads,” Nebozhenko added.
He noted that “an additional guarantee of a successful land reform would be the creation of land banks and land exchanges.”
“The figure of the prime minister, who would understand the issues of agrarian policy, is also important,” the expert said.
Political analyst Valentyn Hladkykh, in turn, noted that “there is a danger of excessive concentration of land in transnational companies or land oligarchs.”
“Land in no case should become an object of financial speculation. Conventionally, such an asset is bought with the hope of resale in case of a rise in its price, but it is not interesting as a resource for exploitation. I am a supporter of land reform from the point of view that land should be in the hands of private owners who will directly work on it. Since the land begins to be worth something only when human work is added to it,” he said.
“The Verkhovna Rada lifted the moratorium on the sale of land, but it is necessary to develop infrastructure so that everything can function in a civilized way. Otherwise, very negative consequences could occur not only for the Ukrainian government, but also for the Ukrainian statehood,” the political analyst added.
Passengers carried in Jan of 2021, IN MLN
