High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell hopes that a decision will be found this week to unlock another tranche of EUR 500 million in military support for Ukraine.
He said this at a press conference after a meeting of the Council at the level of defense ministers of the member countries of the European Union in Brussels on Tuesday.
Borrell said this issue is still under discussion. He said any hurdles to approve this amount will be overcome this week and it was the subject of discussion at the technical meeting of the committee.
As it is known, the allocation of this amount is blocked by Hungary, arguing that one of its banks is on the Ukrainian “black list.”
Yadro Systems was established in Ukraine in 2021 and united specialists in IT industry, artificial intelligence, laboratory management and pathomorphologists to create unique software – medical information system for pathomorphological and molecular genetic laboratories.
Yaroslav Nedashkovsky, one of the creators of the system, notes that the SlidePath program is unparalleled and was developed taking into account all the peculiarities of the pathomorphological laboratory:
“The synergy of our team’s knowledge and experience helped create a really cool product. In close collaboration with the largest Ukrainian pathomorphological laboratory – CSD LAB, we developed SlidePath software that covers all the needs of small, medium and even large pathomorphological laboratories.
Quality control is an extremely important process in every laboratory, and thanks to our program, we are able to track each specimen at different stages of examination and ensure clear compliance with the technological process. Barcoding, synchronization with the laboratory equipment, protocols of conclusions – all this allows the laboratory to significantly improve not only the quality of its work, but also the speed of research.
We saw quite a great perspective in the creation of this program, because not only in Ukraine, but in the world in general, there is a need for significant automation of pathomorphological laboratories. And since our colleagues from CSD LAB have a great competence in this area, from the very beginning we tried to make software that would be suitable for different types of laboratories of different scale and scope of work”.
The IT assistant for pathomorphology laboratories created by Yadro Systems specialists has several modules that can be customized to meet the specific needs of the laboratory. The key functions of the software include: creation of an electronic database of results, the ability to print test result forms, notification of patients about the readiness of results, and quality control of studies, starting from the stage of labeling biomaterials samples to delivery of results.
Among the main advantages of SlidePath connection, Yaroslav Nedashkovsky singles out a user-friendly interface, which allows for easy mastering and quick implementation of the laboratory information system.
“This year we are launching this product in Ukraine and worldwide,” adds Yadro Systems director, “So if you are a pathomorphologist, or a small or medium-sized laboratory, you can contact us today and we will provide digilization of your workflow, because SlidePath is software developed together with pathomorphologists and a clear understanding of their needs to improve their work convenience.
CSD LAB, DIGITALIZATION, LABORATORY DIAGNOSTICS, SLIDEPATH, YADRO SYSTEMS, YAROSLAV NEDASHKOVSKY
Insurance company “Quorum” (Kyiv) in January-March 2023 collected insurance premiums for UAH 10.6 mln, which is 43.04% less than during the same period a year earlier, Standard-Rating RA said in its update to the credit rating/ financial strength rating of the company on the national scale at “uaAA”.
At that, it is specified that the rating has been updated on the basis of the analysis of the company’s results for the mentioned reporting period.
Proceeds from individuals for this period have decreased by 77,52% – to UAH 6,696 m and there were no receipts from reinsurers. The proportion of individuals in gross premiums following the results of Q1 2023 constituted 62,90%, i.e. individuals prevailed in the client portfolio of IC “Quorum”.
The insurance payments sent to reinsurers, in Q1 2023 have constituted UAH 3,588 m, which is more than twice higher than in the same period of 2022. Thus, the ratio of reinsurers’ participation in insurance premiums has grown by 10,19 p.p. – up to 33,71%.
Net premiums of the insurer in the first quarter have increased by 23,98% – up to UAH 7,057 mln, and the earned premiums – by 7,31%, up to UAH 6,884 mln.
The volume of insurance indemnities of the company in the first quarter of 2023 has decreased by 61,09% – down to UAH 1,255 mln, and the level of payments has decreased by 31,55 p.p., compared to the same period of 2022. – to 11.79%.
It is also noted that the operating profit of the company for the first quarter of 2023 increased by 24.74% to UAH 3.136 million, and net profit increased by 71.51% to UAH 3.780 million.
Assets of the company grew by 3.08% to UAH 52.809 mln, shareholders’ equity increased by 8.79% to UAH 46.799 mln, liabilities reduced by 26.81% to UAH 6.010 mln, cash and cash equivalents increased by 4.64% to UAH 31.401 mln.
France is discussing with its partners possible agreements on security guarantees for Ukraine in the face of future threats to the country, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said at a briefing on Tuesday.
“France is ready to agree with Ukraine on agreements aimed at providing security guarantees that will help it protect itself in the long term and prevent possible future aggressions,” the French foreign ministry said.
According to the Foreign Ministry, “France, together with its partners, continues to reflect on how best to support Ukraine in the long term and in all areas.”
The Wall Street Journal wrote that despite the fact that NATO is not currently considering Ukraine’s membership, the alliance’s leading powers are discussing possible security guarantees for Kyiv, which include strengthening the country’s defense capabilities and sovereignty.
The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France could act as guarantors of Ukrainian security, the publication reported.
PJSC ArcelorMittal Krivoy Rog (Dnipropetrovsk Region) ended 2022 with a net loss of UAH 49 billion 9.104 million, while in 2021 it posted a net profit of UAH 25 billion 282.951mn.
According to the official information of the company, the net loss per share reached 12.7 UAH. At that, based on the results of the last year AMKR assets amounted to 52 billion 682.761 million UAH, shareholders’ equity – 28 billion 212.939 million UAH, and long-term liabilities – 6 billion 46.354 million UAH.
Commenting on the results of activities in 2022, Mauro Longobardo, the general director of AMKR, stated that the main conclusion that can be made now is that the enterprise has survived and has not stopped working in spite of the full-scale war.
“The question of survival and resistance to all adverse factors has become the main task of the entire mining and metallurgical industry throughout 2022. Now ArcelorMittal Krivoy Rog continues to fight for survival, having survived last year’s difficulties related to the blockade of major seaports, as well as power outages and even a missile strike. We manage to maintain a satisfactory state of the company’s liquidity, including by attracting credit funds under ArcelorMittal group guarantees,” the top manager noted.
He also added that the support of the parent company, as well as the heroic work of the employees, made it possible to maintain the pulse of production in Kryvyi Rih.
“Now we are concentrating on gradually resuming more and more production processes at the combine and we expect to move to positive EBITDA as early as the second half of this year,” Longobardo said.
According to him, according to international financial reporting standards, in 2022 the company recognized UAH 36 billion of losses from a decrease in the usefulness of its non-current assets as a result of negative changes in the economic environment caused by Russian military aggression. Under the conditions of full-scale war in 2022 the level of AMKR capacity utilization did not exceed 20-25%. In spite of this, the company retained its staff, and all employees receive their salaries on time.
The company does not stop investing even in the extremely difficult wartime conditions. Now those investment projects are being implemented, without implementation of which the production of steel and ore may stop completely. Among such projects is the construction of the new tailing pond “The Third Map”, which is necessary for the continuation of production and safe storage of the production wastes.
It is also reported that in 2022 AMKR invested $181.4 million in production development, of which operating costs amounted to $68.6 million and capital – $112.8 million. During the 17 years of work in Ukraine ArcelorMittal invested $10.6 billion (including $4.8 billion – the amount of purchase at privatization + $5.8 billion – investment in production development).
“ArcelorMittal Krivoy Rog is the largest producer of rolled steel in Ukraine. It specializes in the production of long products, particularly rebars and wire rod.
ArcelorMittal owns in Ukraine the largest mining and metallurgical plant “ArcelorMittal Krivoy Rog” and a number of small companies, in particular PJSC “ArcelorMittal Beryslav”.
Metallurgical enterprises of Ukraine in April this year increased steel production by 2.04 times compared to the same period last year – up to 574 thousand tons from 281 thousand tons.
In March 2023 it was smelted 527 thousand tons of steel.
In this case, Ukraine took 22nd place in the ranking of 63 countries – the world’s main producers of these products, compiled by the World Steel Association (Worldsteel).
According to Worldsteel, in April 2023 recorded a decline in steel production to April 2022 in most of the top ten countries, except India, South Korea, Russia and Iran.
The top ten steel-producing countries in April are as follows: China (92.640 million tons, down 1.5% on April-2022), India (10.721 million tons, up 3.2%), Japan (7.239 million tons, “minus” 3.1%), USA (6.586 million tons, “minus” 5.3%), RF (6.380 million tons, “plus” 1.9%), South Korea (5,689 mln tons, more by 3%), Germany (3,197 mln tons, decreasing by 3,8%), Iran (3,063 mln tons, increasing by 5,9%), Brazil (2,773 mln tons, minus 5,9%) and Turkey (2,678 mln tons, less by 20,6%).
Overall, steel production in April this year decreased by 2.4% compared to the same period last year to 161.377 million tons.
For the four months of 2023, the top ten steel-producing countries are as follows: China (354.390 million tons, up 4.1%), India (43.897 million tons, up 3%), Japan (28.861 million tons, down 5.3%), USA (26.061 million tons, down 4.1%), Russia (25.094 million tons, down 0.6%), South Korea (22.355 million tons, minus 0.4%), Germany (12.354 million tons, down 5.9%), Brazil (10.585 million tons, minus 8.8%), Turkey (10.1 million tons, down 21.3%) and Iran (9.710 million tons, up 0.1%).
A total of 63 countries produced 622.736 million tons of steel in January-April, which is 0.3% less than during the same period in 2022.
In this case, Ukraine produced 1.809 million tons of steel, which is 2.2 times, or 54% less than in January-April 2022. Is in 25th place at the end of four months-2023.
As reported, at the end of 2022, the top ten steel producing countries were as follows: China (1.013 billion tons, down 2.1%), India (124.720 million tons, up 5.5%), Japan (89.235 million tons, down 7.4%), USA (80.715 million tons, down 5.9%), Russia (71.5 million tons, down 7.2%), South Korea (65, 865 million tons, down 6.5%), Germany (36.849 million tons, down 8.4%), Turkey (35.134 million tons, down 12.9%), Brazil (33.972 million tons, down 5.8%) and Iran (30.593 million tons, up 8%).
In 2022, Ukraine ranked 23rd with the production of 6.263 million tons of steel (“minus” 70.7%).
In total, 64 countries produced 1 billion 831.467 million tons of steel in 2022, which is 4.3% less than in 2021.
