Ukraine shuts down key titanium plants over war risks

Andriy Brodskyi, founder of the titanium company Velta, spoke about this in an interview with Espreso TV.

“Titanium processing in Ukraine is represented by two enterprises: Sumykhimprom, which produced titanium dioxide pigment before the war, and the Zaporizhzhia Titanium-Magnesium Plant, which produced metallic titanium, or titanium sponge. I don’t know what the security situation will be like after the war, but for now, I don’t see a possibility of resuming operations at these two enterprises,” said Andriy Brodskyi.

According to him, work at these enterprises has been halted, including for environmental safety reasons.

“Any drone or guided bomb strike, or anything else… You understand that the front line is unfortunately close to both Zaporizhzhia and Sumy. Any hit on an active facility would cause an environmental disaster in the region. That’s why they are shut down, and I don’t know when they will be able to resume operations,” he explained.

Titanium ore extraction also falls significantly short of the levels before the full-scale invasion.

“I don’t want to speak about my colleagues in the mining sector, but I have the impression that it won’t be possible to quickly restore the volumes we had before the large-scale war,” says Andriy Brodskyi.

• On September 14, the Ukrainian side, together with a U.S. International Development Finance Corporation delegation, visited sites in Kirovohrad region to assess investment opportunities in titanium extraction and processing in the area.