31 August 2022, Wednesday, 18:04 248

Group DF Titanium Business Cuts Ilmenite Concentrate Production By 5.7% To 62,000 Tons In H1, 2022

Редактор: Tetiana Herasimova

In January-June 2022, compared to the 1st half of 2021, the titanium business of Group DF reduced the production of ilmenite concentrate by 5.7% to 62,000 tons.

The press service of Group DF has said this in a statement, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

In the first half of the year, production of ilmenite ore decreased by 25% compared to the same period last year to 1.07 million cubic meters.

The key supply market in 2022 is the Czech Republic.

"At our mills, ore production fell by almost a quarter, this drop is logical and associated with two key factors. The first - the war significantly affected the logistics supply chains of finished products. They are damaged, so there are certain delivery problems, part of the products are in the warehouses. The second factor is falling demand for titanium dioxide in global markets. In early 2022, the titanium dioxide market began to significantly narrow. Rising energy prices and inflation have created the basis for the beginning of a recession in many industries that consume titanium dioxide: the paint and varnish industry, construction, paper and cosmetic. Only the beginning of the growth of the world's largest economies can give a boost to the industry and, accordingly, the growth of ore production worldwide. We believe that such an increase will occur immediately after the end of the war," Oleh Arestarkhov, head of the corporate communications department at Group DF, was quoted as saying.

He stressed that titanium business enterprises continue to pay wages.

The average salary of employees is UAH 15,500.

"Of course it is difficult for us, as well as for all businesses. At a difficult time for the country, we must save jobs and tax deductions. We have to do everything we can to help the army. The titanium industry must withstand this blow. Our mining and processing plants are city-forming enterprises on which communities depend. We have kept production, saved jobs and continue to help residents of cities, IDPs, as well as the army and territorial defense," Arestarkhov emphasized.

For the first half of this year, the amount of taxes and fees paid to budgets of all levels increased by 57% to UAH 85.7 million.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in 2020, the Mezhyrichensk Mining and Concentration Plant and Valki Ilmenite enterprises (both in Zhytomyr region), which are part of the Group DF, decreased the production of ilmenite concentrate by 21.3% or 32,000 tons to 118,000 tons year over year.

The Group DF titanium mining business includes two operating mining and processing enterprises (the Mezhyrichensk Mining and Concentration Plant and Valki Ilmenite) and two mining and processing plants under construction - Stremyhorodskyi Mining and Processing Plant (Zhytomyr region) and Motronivskyi Mining and Processing Plant (Dnipropetrovsk region).

The maximum design capacity of the Mezhyrichensk Mining and Processing Plant is 180,000 tons of ilmenite concentrate per year, and of Valki Ilmenite – 65,000 tons.

Group DF is a diversified international group of companies with businesses in 11 countries in Europe and Asia.

The main activities of the group are nitrogen, titanium and gas businesses.

Businessman Dmytro Firtash is the founder and owner of Group DF.

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