Group DF will build a new high-quality titanium dioxide production facility at Crimea TITAN. It will have an initial production capacity of 80 thousand tons per year, which will later be increased to 120 thousand tons. The capacity of Crimea TITAN’s current titanium dioxide production facilities will also be increased to 120 thousand tons per year.
“We are starting the construction of this new facility already this year, and by 2015 we will have invested around US$300 million in this project,” said Chairman of the Group Supervisory Council of Group DF, Dmitry Firtash. “Our plan is to produce 240 thousand tons per year at Crimea TITAN, which is around 4 per cent of the global market.”
In 2012, Group DF launched a new and advanced sulfuric acid production at Crimea TITAN with production capacity of 600 thousand tons per year. Sulfuric acid is used as the raw material in titanium dioxide production using sulfate technology. The new sulfuric acid workshop has enough capacity to support the planned increase in titanium dioxide production with sufficient amounts of feedstock.
“We are going to install modern European equipment, which will allow us – in terms of product quality – to overtake China, which is the fastest growing country in terms of developing its titanium production,” said Head of the Titanium Business at Group DF, Aleksandr Votintsev. “We export around 80 per cent of our production output.”