Ukraine's UMCC Titanium resumes ilmenite exports to Europe from Irshansk mine

MOSCOW. Oct 10 (Interfax) - Ukraine's UMCC Titanium has resumed shipping titanium raw material to the European market from its Irshansk Mining and Processing Plant (IMPP).

UMCC began shipping ilmenite concentrate from IMPP to the Czech Republic in October, Ukrainian media reported, citing a press release from the State Property Fund of Ukraine. These are the first ilmenite shipments from IMPP this year.

Under the contract, UMCC is supposed to supply 30,000 tonnes of product to the customer, which is a company that makes TiO2 titanium pigment.

Due to martial law in Ukraine and the destruction of logistics infrastructure, accumulated inventories of product were stored at the mine for about a year and this was an obstacle to resuming ore mining, the release said.

"One of the main objectives that the State Property Fund set for UMCC's new management team was to establish exports and expand the geography of contracts for direct shipments. Our company plans to ship about another 105,000 tonnes of ilmenite concentrate to the European and American markets before the end of the year," UMCC first deputy CEO Yegor Perelygin was quoted as saying.

UMCC Titanium resumed mining and processing of ilmenite concentrate at IMPP, which had been shut down since last October, in July 2023.

UMCC began actual operations in August 2014, when the Ukrainian government decided to give it control of the assets of the Volnogorsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant in the Dnepropetrovsk region and IMPP. They were previously leased by businessman Dmitry Firtash.

UMCC previously sold its products to more than 30 countries and was one of the world's largest producers of titanium raw materials, with a 4% share of the global market.