British-based Ferrexpo Plc, which in Ukraine, in particular, controls Poltava and Yeristovo ore mining and processing plants (Poltava GOK and Yeristovo GOK), in January-November of this year, according to recent data, increased the total production of pellets by 5% compared to the same the period of 2019, to 10.16 million tonnes.
A representative of the company informed Interfax-Ukraine that during this period the output of concentrate increased by 4.8%, to 12.7 million tonnes.
In November, the company produced 980,000 tonnes of pellets and 1.2 million tonnes of concentrate.
According to the company, Ferrexpo in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 increased its total pellet production by 7.4%, to 2.725 million tonnes. In particular, the production of pellets with a 65% iron content was 2.652 million tonnes (an increase of 9.1%), with a 62% iron content some 73,330 tonnes (a decrease of 31.8%).
In the second quarter of this year, Ferrexpo increased its pellet production by 5.4% from the previous quarter, to 2.873 million tonnes, in particular it produced 2.848 million tonnes of pellets with a 65% iron content (an increase of 7.4%), 24,700 tonnes with a 62% iron content (a decrease of 66.3%).
In the third quarter of 2020, total pellet production decreased by 12% compared to the second quarter, to 2.537 million tonnes from 2.873 million tonnes, while no pellets with a 62% iron were produced.
Ferrexpo is an iron ore company with assets in Ukraine.
Ferrexpo owns 100% of shares in Poltava GOK, 100% in Yeristovo GOK and 99.9% in Belanovo GOK.
More than 70% of beds allocated for patients with COVID-19 are provided with oxygen today in Ukraine, Deputy Minister of Health, Chief Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko said.
“Today, more than 70% of all beds allocated for COVID-19 are provided with oxygen. Now 55-60% of those hospitalized need oxygen treatment,” Liashko wrote on his Facebook page.
He said that 64,349 beds have been redesigned in hospitals to provide medical care for people with COVID-19, of which 44,436 are oxygen beds, which is almost 70% of all allocated beds.
“Today in hospitals we have 29,487 free beds with oxygen. On average, 55-60% of those hospitalized with COVID-19 need oxygen support,” he said.
Structure of import of services in the first half of 2020 (graphically).
The neighboring countries of Ukraine, in addition to Poland, Belarus and the Russian Federation, are in the “red” zone for COVID-19, according to data published on the website of the Ministry of Health as of December 24.
The “red” zone includes countries with an incidence rate per 100,000 population over the past 14 days higher than in Ukraine (374). There are 45 countries in total.
Of the closest neighbors of Ukraine, the “red” zone includes Slovakia (634,900 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population), Moldova (460,400), Romania (400,300) and Hungary (521,700).
Lithuania, Georgia, Slovenia, U.S., Montenegro, Sweden, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Great Britain, Turkey, Austria, Germany are also among the countries of the “red” zone.
The list of countries of the “green” zone includes, in particular, Italy, Israel, Belgium, France, Canada, Spain, Greece, Japan, India, and Egypt.
Of the closest neighbors of Ukraine, the “green” zone includes Belarus (279 cases per 100,000 of the population), the Russian Federation (206,900) and Poland (366,700).
According to preliminary results, Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) carried 1.787 million passengers from January to December 2020, which is four times less than the result for 2019 (about 8 million passengers).
The press service of the company reported that during the specified period, UIA operated about 17,000 regular and code-share flights, which is 72% less compared to the same indicator for 2019. The percentage of transit passengers amounted to 43% of the total traffic (486,000 passengers, 86% less).
The company also noted that in 2020 it transported more than 4,800 tonnes of cargo (15,000 tonnes in 2019) and 1,350 tonnes of mail (4,400 tonnes in 2019).
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and government decisions to ban flights, the airline was forced to cancel thousands of flights and, as a result, the airline received thousands of requests for refunds. In the period from April to November 2020, some 85,861 passenger requests and returns in the amount of almost $ 22 million were processed. By this time, about 56,000 unprocessed applications for refunds were recorded. UIA employees carefully record each appeal and process them in turn,” UIA added.
The airline noted that during the lockdown, UIA optimized its work: it reduced its expenditures by three times, optimized its fleet and proportionally cut its staff by about 1,000 people.
Head of the Servant of the People faction David Arakhamia predicts that in February the Verkhovna Rada will be able to adopt draft law No. 3613 on democracy through a referendum at the second reading.
“We wanted to vote on the draft law on the referendum in December, but since there are 2,000 amendments, we need to work with their authors so that they either withdraw them or not insist on their consideration too much, that is, do not block the adoption of the law. Since it could be voted on in December according to the level of preparedness. I think we will accept it in February,” the politician told Interfax-Ukraine.
After this law, according to him, there will be more initiatives on electronic referendum, about local referendums, as well as the entire package of bills on democracy.
Arakhamia also believes that the Rada needs to develop an electronic voting model by the end of 2021, at least at the local level.
