Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises in January 2019 reduced steel production by 4.9% compared to the same period in 2018, to 1.850 million tonnes, moving from the 12th to 13th place in the ranking of 64 countries, the major global manufacturers of these products, compiled by the World Steel Association (Worldsteel).
A decrease in steel production in most of the top ten countries, except for China, the United States and Brazil was recorded in January.
The top ten producer countries in January are as follows: China (75.013 million tonnes, an increase of 4.3%), India (9.180 million tonnes, a fall of 1.9%), Japan (8.141 million tonnes, a drop of 9.8%), the United States (7.647 million tonnes, an increase of 11%), South Korea (6.211 million tonnes, a fall of 1.5%), the Russian Federation (5.790 million tonnes, a fall of 4.5%), Germany (3.410 million tonnes, a decrease of 7.2%), Brazil (2.933 million tonnes, an increase of 2.3%), Turkey (2.565 million tonnes, a drop of 19.5%), and Iran (2.230 million tonnes, a fall of 2.6%).
They are followed by Taiwan (2.010 million tonnes, an increase of 10.4%), Italy (1.959 million tonnes, a decrease of 3.6%), and Ukraine (1.850 million tonnes, a fall of 4.9%).
Ukrzaliznytsia is currently considering the possibility of entering foreign markets for the purchase of diesel fuel from direct producers, according to a press release from the company.
“In addition to expanding the circle of suppliers, this will allow removing significant pressure on domestic prices in Ukraine, which often takes place when the company purchases diesel fuel,” chairman of the board Yevhen Kravtsov said.
He noted that Ukrzaliznytsia consumes 10% of the total volume of this oil product, currently sold in Ukraine.
Kravtsov stressed that in order to avoid sharp price fluctuations in the domestic market of petroleum products, Ukrzaliznytsia should have foreign alternative supply channels, in particular, for diesel fuel.
“Our purchase of even 100,000 or 200,000 tonnes is not so decisive to cause price fluctuations [in the external market] as it is happening in Ukraine now,” he said.
Ukraine’s Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry has revised upwards its forecast for exports of grain from Ukraine for 2018/19 agricultural year (July-June) from 47.2 million tonnes to 49 million tonnes, the press service of the ministry has reported. “This agricultural year we expect that grain exports from Ukraine would reach 49 million tonnes,” Deputy Minister Olha Kovaleva said.
As reported, Ukraine since the beginning of the 2018/2019 agri-year as of February 20, 2019 had exported 31.31 million tonnes of grain and leguminous plants, which is 21.5% more than on the same date of the previous agri-year. On the specified date, 164,000 tonnes of flour had been also exported.
The gross grain harvest in Ukraine in 2018 amounted to about 70.1 million tonnes compared to 62 million tonnes in 2017.
The flow of health tourists from Ukraine to Germany grows by some 15-20% every year, and the sharp growth was seen after the introduction of visa-free regime, Director of DeutschMedic GmbH Anna Weegen (Essen, Germany) has told Interfax-Ukraine. “In 2019, it will be the 21st year, as I organize the arrival of patients from the countries of the former USSR for treatment in Germany. According to my observations and according to the press, the flow from Ukraine is increasing annually by 15-20%. A significant jump occurred after the abolition of the entry visas to the countries of the Schengen legislation of the European Union for holders of Ukrainian biometric passports, “she said.
The cheapening of air links between Ukraine and Germany contributes to the increase in the flow of medical tourists, according to the expert. Weegen said that foreign patients can receive almost all the services that modern medicine has in its arsenal in German hospitals, with the exception of only legally regulated features in transplantation and artificial insemination.
In particular, for patients from Ukraine, requests for treatment of oncology are currently the most relevant. Neurology is second, outperforming traditionally high-demand cardiac interventions (electrophysiology, stenting, valve replacement, and aortocoronary shunting), orthopedics is in fourth place, including total joint replacement.
“Practically each of the patients who receive medical services in the above-mentioned disciplines necessarily uses the services of related specialists, and at the end of the treatment – some types of rehabilitation,” the expert said, noting the growing popularity of preventive annual check-ups.
Weegen said that currently there are no legislative acts in Germany prescribing medical institutions to report to any authorities on the number of foreign patients. However, those institutions that have not some foreign patients, “but dozens and hundreds, keep their own internal statistics, which is sometimes shared with the press or economic authorities.”
“In Germany there are almost 2,000 hospitals with a total fund of about 500,000 beds, and 20 million inpatients per year. At the same time, there are hospitals where there have never been foreign patients, but in some clinics the proportion of medical tourists can approach 10% of the total number of patients,” she said.
In this case, medical tourists receive not only inpatient, but also outpatient treatment in Germany, using the services of medical practices, which in Germany are more than 75,000.
“Many foreign patients receive outpatient services in clinics where statistics is not collected by anyone. The same applies to numerous sanatoriums, rehabilitation centers, prosthetic institutes and other institutions,” she said.
According to Weegen, in the coming years, medical tourists will come to Germany, mainly to receive high-tech medical care, in particular, complex surgical or catheter interventions, robot-assisted surgeries, radiation, that is, all that domestic medicine, due to the high cost of technology, has not yet implemented everywhere.”
At the same time, according to the expert, “primary diagnosis is made in the country of residence,” and the patient receives the second opinion in Germany. Then the patient has a surgery in the country of residence. He or she comes to Germany for radiation and chemotherapy, and then continues chemotherapy at the place of residence.
“This approach saves the patient’s time and money and gives him or her access to all the achievements of medical progress without a complete separation from the domestic system,” she said.
Weegen said that the share of health care in Germany is about 11% of GDP, and the share of medical tourism in health care is less than 0.04% of GDP.
According to Weegen, according to very rough estimates, approximately 250,000 foreign patients are treated in Germany annually. At the same time, about half of all medical tourists come from the countries of the former USSR.
Candidate to the post of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and members of his team have made an arrangement on the possible further cooperation with representatives of the World Bank to ensure rule of law, independence of anti-corruption agencies, the creation of independent Anti-Corruption Court, the launch of the land market, healthcare and fiscal reforms, the real gas sector reform and the launch of affordable lending in Ukraine.
According to the press service of the politician, this was discussed on February 23 at a meeting of Zelensky with a delegation of the World Bank headed by World Bank Country Director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine Satu Kahkonen. The event was also attended by ex-Minister of Finance Oleksandr Danyliuk and former Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Aivaras Abromavicius.
The meeting participants discussed the main objectives of Zelensky’s electoral program and his first steps if elected head of state.
“In addition, Zelensky stressed the need to minimize the influence of oligarchs on politics,” the press service said.
As reported, on February 21, Zelensky met with Danyliuk and Abromavicius to discuss the issues of building a liberal economy, Ukraine’s cooperation with the IMF and the issue of PrivatBank.
Capital investments in Ukraine for 2018 increased by 16.4%, while for 2017 by 22.1%, the State Statistics Service has said. The agency said that during the past year, growth has slowed: if in the first quarter they reached 37.4%, then after the first half of the year they dropped to 26.5%, and in the first three quarters – to 19.9%.
In 2017, the growth pace were different: capital investments grew at a steady pace: 21.4% after the first three months, 22.5% – by the middle of the year, 20.7% – by the end of nine months with an acceleration of up to 22.1% in general for the year.
The own funds of enterprises and organizations remained the main source of financing of capital investments, and thanks to which 71.3% of the total volume was used (69.9% a year earlier). The share of banking and other loan financing last year increased from 5.3% to 6.7%, the national budget – from 3.5% to 4%, while local budgets decreased from 9.2% to 8.7%.
The agency said that the share of foreign investors fell from 1.4% to 0.3%, and the population’s funds for housing construction – from 7.8% to 6.4%.
According to the State Statistics Service, some UAH 526.3 billion of capital investments were used in 2018. The largest increase in capital investments in 2018 compared with 2017 was recorded in Donetsk (by 54.6%), Vinnytsia (by 37.8%), Cherkasy (by 32.4%), Dnipropetrovsk (by 29.4%), Chernihiv (by 17.7%), Zakarpattia (by 17.3%), Volyn (by 12.1%), Kyiv (by 9.8%), Kharkiv (by 9.3%), Rivne (by 8.7%), Sumy (by 8.5%) regions and Kyiv city (by 30.6%).
According to statistics, capital investments for the reporting period decreased in Ivano-Frankivsk (by 15.3%), Mykolaiv (by 12.6%), and Zaporizhia (by 12%) regions.
In terms of industry, the largest increase in capital investment this year was recorded in retail trade, except for trade in motor vehicles and motorcycles (more than 2 times), in the field of art, sports and entertainment (by 85.8%), wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (by 49.1%), computer programming (by 49%), in the field of information and telecommunications (by 41.9%), air transport (by 35.9%), publishing, film and video production, television programs, sound recording, radio and television broadcasting activities (by 34%), wholesale trade, except trade in motor vehicles and motorcycles (by 32.8%), financial and insurance activities (by 30.4%), provision with food and beverages (by 29.8%), advertising and market research (by 27.8%), land and pipeline transport (by 24.3%), industry (by 22.2%), at the enterprises of transport, warehousing, postal and courier activities (by 21.9%), in forestry and logging (by 15.5%), in state administration, defense and compulsory social insurance (by 15.3%), in real estate operations (by 14.4%), in agriculture, forestry, fishing and education (by 8.4%).
At the same time, in the area of administrative and support services, the drop in investment was 22.2%, in the provision of other types of services – 21.4%, in the field of water transport and construction – 15.5% and 13.9%, respectively.
A significant share of capital investments was used in machinery, equipment and vehicles – 45.2%, and in buildings and structures – 44.2% of all investments.
