VSMPO-Avisma boosts share of output for aerospace industry to 85%
YEKATERINBURG. July 9 (Interfax) - VSMPO-Avisma has increased the share of output for the aerospace industry to 85% of total output from 70% in 2014, Director General Mikhail Voevodin told journalists at the Innoprom-2015 trade fair in Yekaterinburg on Wednesday.
"Today our production is 30,000 tonnes a year. By 2020 we plan to raise that to 40,000 tonnes. Currently 85% is going to aerospace; it was 70% last year. That is due to increased consumption on the part of aviation manufacturing on the one hand and, on the other, the decline in the market for industrial titanium, which was never a core market for us," Voevodin said.
There are no problems with deliveries of ilmenite, he said, noting that Ukraine supplies about 40% of the ilmenite VSMPO-Avisma uses.
Meanwhile, the company has received the license to the Tsentralnoye field in Tambov region, but a decision on its development has not been made yet.
"The Tambov region field has many subsurface resource reserves that remain in the tailings. When we began technological design work, it became clear that major spending would be requited to extract these compounds from the tailings. Plus, compared with 2007-2011, ilmenite prices have fallen and the feasibility study for the project is a little worse. For that reason, we are not developing it," he said.
According to its investment program, VSMPO-Avisma plans to begin developing the Tambov deposit no earlier than 2019. Previously it planned to begin mining titanium ore in the region in 2016.
