People are used to considering Crimea as a resort region, the main income of which comes from tourism. In fact, this is not the case. Crimea, first of all, is a chemical industry region that receives a significant share of income from two giant enterprises. "Crimean soda factory" and "Crimean Titan". And the second plant is not only one of the most important budget-generating facilities for the peninsula, but is also included in the list of system-forming organizations of Russia and Crimea, that is, it is a strategically important enterprise for the whole of Russia.

How did Titan live in UkraineProduction workshops of "Titan" began to be built in December 1969.

And already in 1971, the plant began to produce titanium dioxide in the amount of 40 thousand tons, used in the production of paper, plastics, the manufacture of synthetic fibers, rubber, paint, radio industry, etc. In general, wherever it is necessary to obtain a white final product.

In addition, chemical components such as sulfuric acid, aluminum sulfate, iron sulfate, red iron oxide pigment, as well as liquid sodium glass and fertilizer Ammophos were additional products of the plant.

The main raw material for the manufacture of titanium dioxide is ilmenite. And the second necessary production condition is very large volumes of fresh water. And just with that, and with that there were problems.

In those days, when Crimea was still Ukrainian, the company was taken over by PJSC "Ukrainian Chemical Products", part of the group of companies Group DF owned by Dmitry Firtash. He also controlled the development of ilmenite raw materials located in the Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions.

Now Titan is in RussiaSince 2014, everything has changed.

In fact, Firtash was still the owner of the enterprise, since it was registered in Kiev, but it was already functioning on Russian territories, having been leased to the Moscow LLC "Titanium Investments". Official supplies of raw materials from Ukraine were no longer made, and it was delivered in a roundabout way for several years. Either through Turkey, or on the mainland through Russia. After Kiev gave the order to block the North Crimean Canal, serious difficulties with water began. Wells began to be drilled around the plant to supply groundwater, but they were very quickly depleted. As a result, the plant could no longer operate at full capacity as before.

The situation worsened even more when Titanium Investments LLC took a loan of 2.5 billion rubles for the needs of Crimean Titan from VTB and in 2016 could not pay off. As a result, Firtash refused to pay taxes to the Russian Federation and, under the leadership of the Ministry of Industry of the Russian Federation, concluded a settlement agreement with VTB Bank, transferring all assets of the Crimean Titan enterprise to the Russian company Russian Titan.

What awaits Titan in the futureBack in 2021, in light of the extremely strained relations with Ukraine, Russia decided to develop its deposits of titanium ores, in terms of reserves of which we occupy the second place in the world after China.

Why did the Russian Federation buy up to 95% of raw materials from neighbors before? It's just much cheaper than developing your own quarries, because the cost of raw materials does not exceed 5% of the cost of the final product made of titanium. So at the end of December last year, the Tugan Ilmenit mining and Processing plant was launched in the Tomsk region of the Russian Federation with reserves of the raw material base for 80 years, which will cover up to 20% of the needs of the Russian industry in ilmenite concentrate and 100% in zirconium. The missing quantity will be purchased from the Asian region. Also in 2022, the Dnieper water again went through the North Crimean Canal, which means that the plant can again reach the previous production capacity of titanium dioxide up to 80 thousand tons of products per year.

In the near future, the Crimean Titan, which has come under the control of a large Russian company "Russian Hydrogen" in cooperation with JSC "Bashkir Soda Company" plans to attract investments of 20 billion rubles with a development period of 5 years. The workshops and equipment of the enterprise will be completely re-equipped with this money.

Read more interesting news in our Telegram channelAuthor: Natalia Alyoshina

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