The construction of an entire titanium production cycle is a good opportunity for Ukraine to reach the top of the leading high-tech products for aviation and rocketry for a long time.
The titanium industry can become one of the most powerful drivers of economic growth in Ukraine. Stimulating the development of titanium ore and concentrate production and titanium products domestically could improve the business climate.
Today only seven countries produce titanium metal, and Ukraine is one of them. In Ukraine, there are significant reserves of ilmenite ores — raw materials for the production of titanium.
According to experts, Ukraine ranks third in terms of reserves of titanium raw materials with an indicator of 94 million tons (11%). In front of us are Australia and China, with reserves of 279 million tons (34.1%) and 230 million tons (28.2%), respectively.
Ukraine produces all titanium products per year (concentrate, pigment, sponge, titanium products) for $350-400 million, but it could be many times more with the use of resources.
Titanium strategy of Ukraine
The experts of the Ukrainian Institute of the Future, based on the analysis of the current state, trends and prospects of the global and Ukrainian titanium market, have developed three scenarios for the development of the titanium industry in Ukraine:
• Stagnation and growth of environmental threats;
• Government incentives;
• Technological breakthrough + government incentives.
The current problem of the Ukrainian titanium industry is a high share of raw materials exports and a low level of processing into finished products. At the same time, there are certainly prospects for producing end products with high added value, the availability of resources and production facilities, albeit outdated.
