Richard Higgs
EUROPEAN PLASTICS NEWS
Published: May 2, 2014 10:00 am ET
Updated: May 2, 2014 10:03 am ET
European customers of Crimea Titan, a Ukrainian owned chemical company operating in the Crimea region, could see their supply of the feedstock material titanium oxide dry up following the Russian takeover.
Crimea Titan’s titanium oxide plant in Amryansk, Crimea, may be forced to shut down production of its plastics industry intermediate chemical output because of restrictions on its feedstock supplies.
The Ukrainian operation, now isolated in Crimea as a result of Russia’s new border with Ukraine, relies on getting vital feedstocks from inside Ukraine. Its main suppliers of ilmenite concentrate are the Irshansky GOK mining and processing company in Zhytomyr region in the northeast and Volnogorskiy MMC in Dnipropetrovsk in central Ukraine.
Crimea Titan, owned by the DF Group of Ukrainian tycoon Dmitry Firtash, also operates a soda ash facility in Crimea. Eighty percent of the titanium oxide plant’s output is reported normally to be destined for customers in Western Europe.
Crimea Titan, currently Eastern Europe’s biggest TiOx producer, said it raised production in the first three months of 2014 by 6 percent to 26,600 metric tons. Last year output reached 108,000 metric tons while the firm plans to produce 110,000 tonnes in 2014, according to a Russian media report. | 
