Business news from Ukraine

FOREIGN COMPANIES STORE 2.8 BCM OF NATURAL GAS IN UKRAINE

The volume of natural gas stored by foreign companies in Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities (UGS) in the “customs warehouse” mode as of mid-June is 2.8 billion cubic meters (bcm), which is three times more than the same figure of the previous year, the press service of Ukrtransgaz said on Facebook.
Some 54 companies are currently using Ukrainian capacities, while a year earlier their number was seven.
Earlier, the company informed that as of June 1, non-residents stored 2 billion cubic meters in the “customs warehouse” mode, which is four times more than in the same period in 2019.
As reported, according to the estimates of head of Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) Serhiy Makogon, the capacity of Ukrainian underground storage facilities that may be available to European companies at the end of the third quarter of this year will amount to about 10 billion cubic meters

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INSURANCE COMPANIES OF UKRAINE REDUCE VOLUME OF REINSURANCE BY 37% IN Q1

Insurance companies of Ukraine in January-March 2020 paid insurance premiums in the amount of UAH 2.78 billion under insurance risk reinsurance contracts, which is 37.4% or UAH 1.66 billion less than in the same period in 2019, member of the National Commission for the State Regulation of Financial Services Markets Oleksandr Zaletov has told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, despite the fact that in the first quarter of 2020, net insurance premiums compared to the same period in 2019 increased by a mere 1.8%, to UAH 9.85 billion, the situation in the reinsurance market has changed.
Firstly, cooperation with international reinsurers has intensified. So non-resident reinsurers were paid UAH 884 million, which is 12.6% or UAH 98.9 million more than in the same period in 2019 (UAH 785.3 million for the first quarter of 2019). In the first quarter of 2020, as before, predominantly reinsurance is carried out in the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The most actively cooperating with Ukraine in the field of reinsurance were insurers and specialized reinsurers from Germany, which accounted for 19.7% of the premiums in this segment, as well as Austria (19.4%), the UK (14.6%), and Poland (12.4%), France (7.2%), Switzerland (5.6%), Italy (3.9%), the Czech Republic (3.8%), the United States (3%) and Belgium (2.4%), and the rest accounted for less than 2%.
In January-March 2020, non-resident reinsurers made insurance payments in the amount of UAH 473 million, which is 62.2% or UAH 181 million more than in the same period in 2019 (UAH 292 million for the first quarter of 2019). A significant share was held by reinsurers from the Czech Republic (31.2%), Germany (24.3%), Poland (17.6%), Great Britain (9%), Austria (7.6%), France (2.4%), and Italy (2.4%), the rest less than 2%.
Secondly, there were significant reductions in operations in the domestic reinsurance market. So, in the first quarter of 2020, resident reinsurers were paid insurance premiums in the amount of UAH 1.89 billion, which is 48.3% less compared to the same period in 2019 (UAH 3.65 billion for the first quarter of 2019).

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COMPANIES FROM GERMANY, POLAND, NETHERLANDS, AUSTRIA AND TURKEY WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN WASTE RECYCLING PLANT CONSTRUCTION IN UKRAINE

Four companies filed documents to participate in the tender for the construction of a waste recycling complex in Lviv, Mayor of the city Andriy Sadovy has written on his Facebook page. “Lviv-based municipal enterprise Zelene Misto Green City received technical proposals from four participants (due to pandemic the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development approved that this may be online),” the mayor of Lviv said.
According to him, the documents were submitted by the following companies: Eggersmann Anlagenbau GmbH (Germany), Control Process S.A. (Poland), consortium of two companies WTT (Netherlands) and Axis (Lithuania), consortium of two companies MUT (Austria) and Dogusan (Turkey).
“Each of these companies has implemented at least four similar projects. Such experience is a guarantee of quality for us. The plant must be environmentally safe, this is the main criterion when choosing a contractor,” Sadovy said.
According to the mayor of Lviv, preparatory work is currently underway on the site allocated for the construction of the plant.
According to the City Council, the design capacity of the plant should be 240,000 tonnes of waste per year when working on a double-shift basis.

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UKRAINIAN PHARMA COMPANIES READY TO SATISFY DEMAND FOR PCR TESTS IN FULL

Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies are ready to produce around 1,000 PCR tests per day, which will allow them to satisfy the demand for PCR tests in Ukraine in full, Deputy Health Minister, chief sanitary doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko has said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Monday.
“We expect to receive 22,000 PCR test systems from Ukrainian producers, which will allow carrying out around 2 million tests. The systems are expected to be ready next week. Ukrainian producers are ready to make around 1,000 PCR tests per day, which will allow satisfying the demand for testing in Ukraine in full,” he said.
The deputy minister said that currently Ukraine has around 250,000 PCR test systems in stock and added that Ukraine carries out not less tests than other European countries during the epidemic.
“We should realize that Europe is 15-20 days ahead in terms of the epidemic development. We monitor the dynamics and developments in Spain, Italy and France. If we look at the number of tests, Ukraine carries out not less of them than other countries. Thus, the testing issue is not a problem. Ukraine is ready to carry out tests,” he said.
Liashko also said that the Health Ministry will open a hotline for the patients whose requests for coronavirus (COVID-19) testing were rejected.

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FIVE UKRAINIAN COMPANIES READY TO PRODUCE MEDICINES IN COMBATING COVID-19

Five Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies are ready to produce medicines that have been proved to be effective in combating the symptoms of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Head of the parliamentary committee for health of the nation and medical insurance Mykhailo Radutsky has said.
“Now all legal grounds are being made for Ukrainian pharmaceutical manufacturers to start producing medicines that are used in other countries, but there is great shortage and high cost of such medicines. Today, this is a problem not only in Ukraine,” Radutsky said on the Ukraine 24 television channel on Thursday.
The MP said that there are already pharmaceutical companies capable of producing such medicines, for these companies the Health Ministry is preparing legal grounds for the production of such medicines.
“In Ukraine, five plants have already agreed to produce these medicines, but before that they need legal support. Now, the Verkhovna Rada along with the Cabinet of Ministers is preparing resolutions and legislative acts to allow these medicines production,” the head of the parliamentary committee said.

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UKRAINIAN COMPANIES TRYING TO EXPLAIN ORDINARY PROBLEMS WITH FORCE MAJEURE – UCCI

The Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI) has pointed out a large growth in addresses of enterprises, which are trying to explain their ordinary problems and the non-performance of obligations by force majeure, although after analyzing documents the Chamber decides not to issue force majeure evidence certificates to them.
“We consider unacceptable attempts by a large number of entrepreneurs and enterprises that try to invoke force majeure circumstances to avoid obligations to partners – be it a Ukrainian or foreign business or individuals. In these cases, we refuse to issue force majeure evidence certificates,” the press service of the UCCI said, citing President of the UCCI Hennadiy Chyzhykov.
According to the press release, the UCCI analyzes the terms of the contracts in relation to liability for failure to meet obligations and the grounds for exemption from them, in particular, in the event of force majeure.

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