How "Crimean Titan" was reorganized to work in Russia. Why the authorities will close the Crimean Titanium Plant Titanium Chemical Plant in Crimea

PJSC "Crimean TITAN"

PJSC "Crimean TITAN" Armyansk, Crimea, Ukraine - founded in 1969 The main commercial product is rutile titanium dioxide pigment produced by the sulphate process. The company also manufactures other types chemical products: iron oxide pigments, mineral fertilizers, sulfuric acid, aluminum sulfate, liquid glass, iron vitriol.

All products of CJSC "Crimean Titan" are produced under the trademark CRIMEA TITAN.

Titanium dioxide CRIMEA complies with TU.U 24.1-05762329-001-2003

TITANIUM DIOXIDE

APPLICATION

TiOx - 220 (GAK TITAN (Ukraine)
Main properties: White pigment treated with silicon oxide and aluminum hydroxide, not treated with organic additives.

Recommended Uses: Used in the production of decorative papers, as well as in solvent-based systems used as industrial coatings, as well as used for painting architectural structures.

TiOx - 230 (GAK TITAN (Ukraine)

TiOx - 280 (GAK TITAN (Ukraine)
Basic properties:. To improve light resistance and weather resistance, the pigment is treated with zirconium and aluminum hydroxides, and also treated with a special organic surface modifier to improve dispersibility in various dispersion systems. Coatings based on it are less susceptible to chalking and retain their gloss for a long time.

The specified application is informative, manufacturers recommend that a proof test be always carried out.

PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL INDICATORS

Indicators	TiOx-220	TiOx-230	TiOx-270	TiOx-280
Mass fraction of TiO2, % not less than	94	93	93,5	93,5
Mass fraction of rutile form, %, not less than	98	98	98	98
Mass fraction of volatile substances, %, no more	0,2	0,25	0,3	0,2
Mass fraction of water-soluble substances, %, no more	0,2	0,2	0,1	0,2
pH of aqueous suspension	7,3	7,3	7,1	7,7
The rest on a sieve with a grid 0045, %, no more	0,004	0,0034	0,003	0,003
Whitening ability, arb. unit, not less than	1950	1960	1980	1990
Covering capacity, g/sq.m., no more	25	25	25	25
Dispersibility, microns, no more	12	12	11,5	11
Whiteness, arb. unit, not less than	95,5	96,2	96,1	96,4

Package

The product is packed in paper or polypropylene valve bags of 25 kg.

Pigmented titanium dioxide

One of the main directions of Himton LLC is the supply of pigment titanium dioxide to all enterprises that are engaged in the chemical industry. The employees of our company are certified and highly qualified chemical engineers, the best specialists in the market of chemical raw materials.

Our company Khimton LLC offers you to purchase pigment titanium dioxide in a large assortment of affordable price. It is a white powder, chemically and thermally stable, turns yellow when heated. Pigmented titanium dioxide is packed with polyethylene liners in polypropylene bags, which are placed in soft special disposable containers.

TiOx - 220 is a white pigment that has been treated with aluminum oxide and silicon hydroxide, not treated with organic additives. Such a pigment is used for the production of laminated decorative paper.

TiOx is a 280 high brightness white pigment that has a wide range of applications in the production of paints and varnishes based on water and organic solvents. In order to make it even more light-resistant and weather-resistant, it is treated with aluminum and zirconium hydroxides. It is necessary to store TiOx - 280 in a closed warehouse.

With the help of our store, now purchase titanium dioxide at an affordable price in online mode simply and easily. Titanium dioxide is a synthetic inorganic white pigment that does not have toxic irritating effects, which you can buy right now in our company.

The Crimean Titan plant, located on the Russian-annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, has completely stopped production. This became known on Sunday, September 9. In recent weeks, harmful emissions from the enterprise have caused chemical air pollution in the north of the peninsula and in the neighboring Kherson region, which has caused health problems for local residents. As a result, children had to be evacuated from Armyansk, where the plant is located, as well as from the adjacent territories of mainland Ukraine. Why did this environmental disaster happen and will it be possible to carry out a much-needed modernization of the enterprise?

Officially, the causes of chemical air pollution have not yet been established. From the side of the Russian media and officials there are accusations against Ukraine: they say that air pollution is associated with the drying up of the acid accumulator near the plant, which was the result of the blocking of the North Crimean Canal by Kiev.

Prior to annexation, this canal provided a significant amount of water for the needs of the arid regions in the north of the peninsula. Toxic production wastes are dumped into the acid accumulator at the Crimean Titanium plant. Due to the partial drying of the reservoir, toxic substances, according to this version, began to spread in the air along with dust. The Ukrainian side, meanwhile, is placing security responsibility on the Russian authorities, who control Crimea after the annexation, and have asked international organizations to look into the situation.

Representatives of the plant and officials reassure that the situation will soon return to normal. However, the risk of a repeat of the ecological disaster in the north of Crimea remains high, experts say. The fact is that the environmental safety of production in Armyansk, obviously, does not meet modern environmental standards.

"In Germany, titanium production does not use open accumulators. After the production of titanium dioxide, the so-called dilute acid remains. 20 years ago it was disposed of in the North Sea, but then it was banned. Today it is processed," said German chemist professor in an interview with DW. Axel Klein.

The prospects for the modernization of production in Armyansk, however, look rather illusory. After all, Crimean Titan, after the annexation of the peninsula, actually operates in a legal vacuum. The company is formed into two parallel structures. Formally, the plant is still owned by Ukrainian Chemical Products, a joint-stock company registered in Kyiv, which is part of Dmitry Firtash's chemical holding Ostchem.

Firtash controls the plant through the German Ostchem Germany, the Austrian Ostchem Holding GmbH and the Cypriot Fleori Enterprises Ltd.

The founder of Ukrainian Chemical Products is the German company Ostchem Germany, which belongs to the Austrian Ostchem Holding GmbH. The ultimate owner is the Cypriot Fleori Enterprises Ltd. Thus, the Ukrainian Chemical Products company, through a number of firms in Germany, Austria and Cyprus, is controlled by billionaire Dmitry Firtash and Yulia Lyovochkina, the sister of the former head of the Presidential Administration under Viktor Yanukovych. However, legally the Ukrainian company this moment does not manage Crimean Titan. In the summer of 2014, the plant was transferred "for rent" to the newly created Moscow company Titanium Investments.

According to the Russian Register of Legal Entities (EGRLE), this company is owned by the Cypriot company Letan Investments Limited. Its founder, according to the Cypriot registry, is CEO"Crimean Titan" Alexander Emelin. At the same time, the beneficiary is Dmitry Firtash.

At least this is indicated by the data of the US Department of Justice, which also mentions the company Letan Investments Limited. The American Department of Justice studied the assets of the oligarch as part of a criminal investigation into corruption. Firtash himself has been in Austria since 2014 on bail, awaiting extradition to the United States.

Export via Switzerland

Obviously, a new parallel structure was created to work under sanctions. The fact is that for the export of finished products of the plant, Ukrainian certificates of origin are needed. And get them Russian legal entity impossible. Nevertheless, the export of titanium dioxide produced in Armyansk to Western countries continues after the annexation.

According to DW, the distributor of Crimean Titan products in the West is Tolexis Enterprises AG, a Swiss company controlled by Firtash and registered in the canton of Zug. It sells products listed as "Ukrainian Chemical Products". According to the holding Group DF, which includes this company, titanium dioxide is exported to more than 60 countries. However, according to the accounts of Ukrainian Chemical Products, its export earnings are constantly declining, while losses are growing.

One of the reasons for this is logistical difficulties. The supply of raw materials from mainland Ukraine to Crimea is prohibited by the sanctions imposed by Kiev. In addition, Western sanctions prohibit ships from entering the ports of Crimea, while there is no railway connection between the peninsula and the mainland. As the investigation of the Ukrainian program "Our Money" published in the spring showed, raw materials are sent from Ukrainian ports by ships. Destinations on paper are ports in Russia. However, in the Kerch Strait, raw materials are overloaded and Russian ships taken to the Crimea.

In order to reduce logistics costs, the management of Titanium Investments, a company registered in Russia, according to Russian media, plans to build a railway line at its own expense by the end of 2019, which will connect the enterprise with the railway lines, which by that time should connect the peninsula with Russia through the Kerch bridge. At the same time, the financing of this construction is in question. After all financial position"Titanium investments" - disappointing: the company is unprofitable, reports in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities testify.

EU sanctions ban funding

It is not clear how the losses of Crimean Titan are covered. Dmitry Firtash's holding Group DF did not respond to DW's request for work under sanctions and the necessary investments to modernize the plant. Finding a legal way for parent companies to invest in Crimean businesses will not be easy for Firtash. After all, they are all registered in the EU countries: in Germany, Austria and Cyprus. The funds of these companies, according to the US Department of Justice, are placed in the banks of Cyprus, as well as on accounts in the Swiss division of Gazprombank. The ultimate owner of the Ostchem holding is the offshore Cypriot company Fleori Enterprises Ltd.

In accordance with the 2014 EU sanctions decree, European companies are prohibited from entering into agreements for the provision of loans or credits to structures in Crimea or Sevastopol. In addition, "participation in loan agreements", that is, for example, the provision of guarantees for loans, is also prohibited. And this makes it difficult for Titanium Investments to obtain loans from Russian banks. "We are dealing with a legal gray area. It could be indirect financing, which would probably be illegal," a German lawyer specializing in international sanctions.

Thus, there is no need to talk about large-scale investments in security and the environment in the conditions that have developed after the annexation. Moreover, even ten years before the annexation, which Dmitry Firtash controls "Crimean Titan", the question environmental safety production and without sanctions has not been resolved.

See also:

After passing through passport control at the Dityatki checkpoint, the first stop along the route in the 30-kilometer exclusion zone is the village of Zalesye. Garden trees have grown into a real forest. Overgrown even the central streets. Before the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986, about 3 thousand inhabitants lived here. They were evacuated to the Borodyansky district of the Kyiv region. Over time, several people returned to the village on their own.



One day in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

House of Culture in Zalesye

Located 15 minutes from Chernobyl, Zalesye was a rather large village: with high school, a library, a maternity hospital and the House of Culture built back in 1959. Its premises, by the way, are well preserved - the hall is still decorated with a banner from the times of the USSR, in good condition and stucco framing the stage. But the floor is almost completely rotten, so you need to move with caution.



One day in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Equipment liquidators in Chernobyl

The next stop is Chernobyl. Near the fire station, right under the open sky, there is a museum of equipment involved in the aftermath of the accident. In the early days, the liquidators hoped to clear away especially dangerous rubble with its help. But even the technology could not stand high level radiation.



One day in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Alley of memory of the memorial complex "Star Wormwood"

Alley of memory of the memorial complex "Star Wormwood" in Chernobyl - a symbolic cemetery with 162 names settlements who were razed to the ground after Chernobyl disaster. As Valery Starodumov, a liquidator of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident, recalls, "the method of burial was called" for oneself. "The engineering barrier vehicle (IMR) dug a trench, pushed a house into it and covered it with earth."



One day in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Microsievert? Ber? Microroentgen? Curie?

The next stop is the village of Kopachi, located in a 10-kilometer zone. Its territory was subjected to severe contamination with radionuclides. Tourists measure the level of radiation with dosimeters, which can be obtained for an additional fee (5-10 euros). Accompanying persons should help to orient in units of measurement. In some places, "fonit" and "rolls over", the device beeps loudly.



One day in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

The village of Kopachi is located just 4 kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Due to severe pollution, it was liquidated and covered with earth. One of the few buildings left standing on the surface is kindergarten. To this day, toys, children's furniture, preschool education manuals, and a parent's corner have been preserved intact in it. It's just that there are no children.



One day in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

The site in front of the 4th Chernobyl power unit

The monument to the liquidators of the accident was installed on the site in front of the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Today, this power unit is covered with a new protective confinement (safety arch) and looks quite peaceful. And in April 1986, after the accident, the radiation levels here exceeded the norm by a thousand times. About 600,000 people took part in the liquidation of the consequences of one of the largest man-made disasters.



One day in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Radiological control at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Before entering the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, it is necessary to pass the control of radiological contamination of clothing. Indicators of devices, as a rule, are quite accurate. If they exceed the norm, they try to clean the clothes. If this fails, it will have to be abandoned. According to the organizers of the tours, for a day of stay in the Chernobyl zone, the level of radiation exposure does not exceed the dose received in an hour of flight by plane.



One day in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

After passing through radiological control, a full meal is offered in the Chernobyl canteen: borscht or soup, meat with a side dish and salad, compote, juice and bread. Vegetarians can also eat here: instead of meat, you can take, for example, watermelon and peach. All products were brought to the exclusion zone from the "mainland". Lunch price - 100 hryvnia (slightly more than three euros). Coffee can be taken separately from the machine.



One day in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

"White House" in Pripyat

The city of Pripyat is the pride of socialist urban planning. Founded in 1970. Before the accident, Pripyat, located two kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, had about 50,000 inhabitants. In the photo - the "white house" where the city elite and Chernobyl director Viktor Bryukhanov lived, later sentenced to 10 years in prison. On the ground floor there is a shop "Rainbow", after the accident it served as a furniture warehouse.



One day in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

These machines, installed near the Pripyat cafe, were an integral part of the urban landscape in Soviet times. They stood on the streets and in parks. This AT-101SK model was produced by the Kievtorgmash production association. Soda with syrup cost three kopecks, without syrup - one kopeck. In the machine on the right (pictured), a faceted glass remained standing.



One day in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Unique stained-glass window in the cafe "Pripyat"

Cafe "Pripyat" in the 70-80s was a favorite place for young people to relax. It was located at the river station, where the ships "Rocket" came from Kyiv. A feature of the interior is a stained-glass window, most likely by the team of the famous muralist Ivan Litovchenko. Made using labor-intensive and costly technology: the drawing is assembled from fragments of colored glass.



One day in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Pripyat was considered an exemplary elite city. The level of provision of power engineers was compared with Moscow, the deficit familiar to the USSR was a rarity here. There were 25 stores in Pripyat, including a department store that opened in early 1986. On the first floor there was a grocery department, on the second - furniture. Refrigerated display cases are still preserved here, although marauders have long since sold all the "stuffing" for scrap.



One day in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Loot of Marauders

Most traces of marauders are visible in the abandoned houses of Pripyat residents. Some things that were not contaminated with radiation, the residents of the city were able to subsequently pick up and take away, and some of the property was disposed of. The rest became the prey of marauders. They even removed the batteries. Now most of the apartments are completely empty, but in some places you can still find old furniture and remnants kitchen utensils.



One day in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Secret object - radar station "Duga"

She is also "Chernobyl-2", she is also a "Russian woodpecker", she is also a "brain blower". The last stop of the route is a secret facility built near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It was part of the Soviet air defense system for detecting the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Since 1976, "Duga" spoiled the nerves of radio amateurs with constant noise on the air, for which it was dubbed "woodpecker".



One day in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Meet the fox Semyon

In the vicinity of Pripyat, you can often meet a fox named Semyon. He became something of a local celebrity. Semyon loves tourists, because they often feed him. But ironing is not recommended. And not only because there could theoretically be radioactive particles on his fur. This handsome man is a wild animal, and despite frequent meetings with people, he has not forgotten how to bite.

The Crimean Titan has been an environmental threat since its launch in 1971. News from the Northern Crimea does not bring joy.
The occupying administration of Crimea, having finally acknowledged the fact of a man-made environmental catastrophe and taking measures to evacuate the population, has not yet announced a clear program for the localization and elimination of atmospheric pollution with sulfur dioxide. Not only that: at first, the very source of the appearance of this very sulfur dioxide in the air was not clearly identified. And only when the evacuation of children from suffocating Armyansk had already begun, the occupiers almost in a whisper admitted that the “unknown gas” that posed a threat to the population was most likely sulfur dioxide (SO2), and the dry sump of the titanium dioxide plant was “to blame” for the release, now PrJSC "Crimean Titan" (a branch of the company "Ukrainian Chemical Products"), located eight kilometers north of Armyansk, near the border with the Kherson region.

Plant "Crimean Titan" and its sump on the map of the Perekop Isthmus of Crimea
(according to Wikimapia)

One glance at the map is enough to understand that with any wind, except for the north, the inhabitants of the Kherson, Nikolaev and Zaporozhye regions will be able to enjoy the aromas of sulfur dioxide (and with it refreshing acid rains), and with a steady north wind, almost the entire Crimea, which is also ours, no matter what the invaders mutter. I hope there will not be enough for more distant emissions of fumes from the sump, but even without that there will be enough headaches for the citizens of Ukraine.

"Titan" occupied

The section of the North Crimean Canal, located in the zone of occupation, from which the Russian authorities could try to pump water into the dried-up waste collector, is empty. Rains that can fill an open sump area of ​​\u200b\u200babout 42 square kilometers can not wait - to cover the dried bottom at least thin layer water, millions of cubic meters are needed. For the same reason, the statement of the pro-Russian Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov about his intention to build a water conduit for pumping water from the Karkinit Bay to the reservoir does not add optimism in two months: “60 thousand cubic meters per day, despite the fact that we need to supply 15 million cubic meters of water to this reservoir . Within a month - 1.8 million cubic meters. So far at this pace. Maybe there will be two threads, ”Interfax quotes Aksenov.

And this despite the fact that, according to the words of the so-called "Minister of Ecology and natural resources Crimea" by Gennady Naraev "Crimean Titan" in normal mode consumes 49 thousand cubic meters of water per day, which, after the blocking of the North Crimean Canal, are taken, apparently, from artesian wells. A simple calculation shows that even without taking into account the constant evaporation of water from an open sump, its filling will require at least six months.

At the same time, although Armyansk is being evacuated and the plant is stopped, there is no real solution to the problem with the already accumulated toxic waste.
Russian officials habitually blame Ukraine for the current situation (well, how could it be without it!), stating that "... the release of a hazardous substance in the north of Crimea happened due to the fact that Ukraine cut off the water supply through the North Crimean Canal." Kyiv, reasonably expecting a gas attack and acid rains on the Kherson region with an east wind, lays the responsibility on the Russian occupation authorities. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine accused the Russian army of releasing chemicals on the territory of the annexed Crimea, and the journalist of the Russian TV channel found the perpetrators among the Ukrainian oligarchs, who by their actions “... led to the release of chemicals into the atmosphere at the Crimean Titan plant in Armyansk and the subsequent environmental disaster in the north of the peninsula ". (It remains only to decide whether to consider the main owner of the Crimean Titan shares, Dmitry, as a Ukrainian oligarch - or is it still Russian?)
Soviet past

Taking into account the fact that for the entire period of Ukraine's independence, no one seriously bothered to solve the problem of Titan's waste, the prerequisites for the trouble are indeed older than the Russian occupation. An ecological catastrophe in the north of Crimea would have occurred in any case and with any incompetent government. What happened is not the result of the intrigues of the invaders or a conspiracy against the invaders. And not even the result of indifference and carelessness (although no one has canceled the responsibility of the relevant control departments for the disaster). It's just that the time has come for the explosion of a time bomb planted by the still stubborn builders of communism. And this environmental bomb could not have exploded - simply by definition. And the big question is whether it was possible to neutralize it in advance at all.

The builders of the Crimean Titanium Dioxide Plant probably felt their responsibility to the future, but not to us. The Soviet government, which considered itself to have no alternative, was not particularly willing to look more than five years ahead. That is, it was always about either an unthinkably distant future with flights to Alpha Centauri, or about “decisive, defining and final” - this is how the newspapers called the third, fourth and fifth years of the five-year plans according to which the USSR lived. What fell outside the limits of the nearest time period, in the mind of a Soviet person, was automatically equated in relevance with intergalactic flights. That is, it was felt as something not from the reality they were interested in. It would never have occurred to anyone to bother about some vague future problem, which, of course, the next generations will somehow sort out, and to disrupt the grandiose plans for building socialism because of it. The party said - it is necessary, the people said - yeah, but the future will somehow resolve itself.

KGPO "Titan" produced the first products in 1971: ammophos, aluminum sulphate, water glass, red ferric pigments and, most importantly, pigment titanium dioxide. The initial capacity of the enterprise is 40 thousand tons per year, since 2002 - 80 thousand tons. This is 2% of the world production of titanium dioxide. Top Buyer- Russia.

With the sulphate (sulfite) method of processing ilmenite, from which titanium dioxide is obtained, as it is written in a university textbook from those times (!), For 1 ton of finished products there is in the form of waste “... up to 4 tons of ferrous sulfate and up to 5 cubic meters of hydrolytic acid containing 20% ​​sulfuric acid, 10% iron sulfate ... and sulfate impurities. The disposal of this waste in large factories is a major problem ”(emphasis mine - Auth.)”

So: this problem has not been solved, even after doubling production volumes. "Titan" to the last worked "in the Soviet way", in the calculation that the next generations will figure something out, or in blissful dreams that all this chemistry will somehow resolve itself. And he could work because then, in 1969, the wise Soviet leaders, when designing the Crimean Titan, chose a place equipped with a natural acid accumulator for its construction.

Chemical future

After all, why was the plant built on Perekop? After all, the raw materials for it were brought from the Irshansky and Volnogorsky GOKs (both - Zhytomyr region), 700 km away. And the products were generally sent to Russia. Labor resources also had to be brought in - in fact, this is how Armyansk, the city of Crimean chemists, appeared. Electricity supply, water supply, a railway line to the chemical plant - all this was built due to the fact that a huge acid trap did not have to be built at all - they simply fenced off the Sivash Bay with a dam (fortunately, nothing flows into the Rotten Sea and nothing flows out of it) - and voila ! Please dump the infernal mixture here in unlimited quantities! There is a lot of water in Sivash, the concentration of chemistry can remain harmless for a long time, and before that the acid will not start to “soar”.

In those days, Sivash seemed eternal, like the same Aral, the fourth largest lake in the world. But only the Aral was completely destroyed in some fifty years. Destroyed without malicious intent - cotton is needed, but the fact that the Syr Darya and Amu Darya were used for irrigation of vast territories, reducing the water balance by 25 times, the Politburo did not care much. Descendants will come up with something anyway.

The result is visible on satellite images with the naked eye: the Aral is no more. And independent Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are reaping this result.

And we are reaping the drop in the water level in the Sivash and the abruptly increased concentration of waste in the Titan's sump. Thanks to the once beloved and forever prudent Politburo. And to the enterprising Firtash. Well, to all of us who have not done anything in the sense of forethought in the decades since the collapse of the USSR. Didn't think. Didn't insist. Didn't demand. Our fault, our trouble.

USSR in mind

By the way, about trouble. About the one that has not yet arrived, but is already knocking.

In Ukraine, there is another producer of titanium dioxide, also using sulfite technology - Sumykhimprom. It is smaller in power than the Crimean Titan, but it also works with an open acid accumulator. And local residents, like residents of Armyansk in previous years, periodically complain about emissions - apparently, emissions of the same sulfur dioxide. They complained in 2015, then in 2016, and then in 2017.

It is good that the climate in the Sumy region is more humid than in the Sivash region, and the acid accumulator has not yet dried up, but the moment when the concentration of waste exceeds the calculated maximum will inevitably come. Maybe even in our lifetime. And then what?

Maybe it's time to get rid of the USSR in our heads - and start to seriously worry about the future of our children?

Employees of Crimea's largest employer, Krymsky Titan in the city of Armyansk, created a page on the plant's life on the VKontakte social network. Now she has 976 subscribers, and one of the main topics for discussion is low salaries. As employees told Vedomosti, workers receive no more than 16,000 rubles, and engineers - about 22,500 rubles. per month. According to factory workers, this is 25-30% less than at chemical enterprises in other regions of Russia. Employees say many are quitting and looking for a better life leaving little Armyansk. The plant now employs 4,400 workers.

The main problems were related to the fact that before Crimea became part of Russia, Crimean Titan received raw materials - ilmenite - from Ukraine. It came from the Irshansky Mining and Processing Plant (GOK), which the owner of Crimean Titan, Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, rented from the Ukrainian state. In September 2014, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine transferred the plant to the management of the United Mining and Chemical Company (UMCC), and the plant was left without raw materials. The press service of Firtash's holding company DF Group International, as well as plant director Andrey Akulov, declined to comment on changes in the raw material supply chain.

Russian titanium giant VSMPO-Avisma”(part of Rostec) did not want to buy the Crimean Titan, as the media predicted. A company representative said that his company had never received offers to buy Crimean Titan. He added that the technologies are different: VSMPO-Avisma produces titanium metal, and Crimean Titanium produces titanium dioxide.

In August 2014, at the request of the prosecutor's office, the management of the plant was forced to pay off wage arrears for 33.4 million rubles. Later in the press there were reports of prolonged downtime at the plant. Revenue fell fourfold - from about $ 300 million in 2013 to 5.08 billion rubles. ($86.2 million) in 2015, according to SPARK-Interfax. In comments to Vedomosti, Akulov said that in 2017 the plant's capacities were 75% loaded.

Vedomosti decided to find out how things are in reality with one of the largest employers in Crimea.

From Ukraine to Sri Lanka

The plant had to rebuild the raw material supply scheme. A representative of VSMPO-Avisma said that Krymsky Titan still uses ilmenite from the Irshansky GOK. And Ukrainian journalists found out that, despite the blockade of the Crimea, ilmenite comes from Kharkov to Novorossiysk via railway, and from there it is delivered by ferry to the peninsula. According to Ukrainian customs declarations, in 2015, Irshansky GOK exported 33,886 tons of ilmenite, and Russia was the main buyer. Moreover, VSMPO-Avisma purchased raw materials not from Irshansky GOK, but from another Ukrainian plant - Volnogorsky (owned by OGCC). The ore, as the journalists found out, is loaded into the sea from Ukrainian to Russian ships and transported to Kerch. At the end of 2015, Andrey Bezsalov, Minister of Transport of Crimea, said that ilmenite ore for Crimean Titan was being delivered to the Kerch port.

Why do you need

Titanium dioxide is used in the production of varnishes and paints, plastics, glass, rubber, cosmetics and food products. Demand for it, according to the Chemical Industry Bulletin, is 67,000–82,000 tons per year. Until 2014, all demand in Russia was covered by imports, primarily from the USA and Germany. Krymsky Titan is the only titanium dioxide producer in Russia. In 2016, it produced 75,000 tons of titanium dioxide.

The plant also began to receive ilmenite from Sri Lanka, which was confirmed by Firtash in November 2016. One of the traders of Krymsky Titan said that titanium dioxide produced from Sri Lankan ore is not inferior in quality to titanium dioxide from Ukrainian ilmenite, but costs cheaper, as Ukraine has recently raised the price of ore.

All the same distributors

The plant both supplied Russia with titanium dioxide and continues to do so. Dmitry Solovyov, head of the procurement department of the Russian Paints plant (a large consumer of titanium dioxide), estimates the current share of Crimean Titanium at Russian market in 20%. In terms of quality, Crimean products are slightly inferior to imported ones, Solovyov believes. His plant monthly purchases about 62 tons of titanium dioxide from the giant of the world industry, the Kemur company, and another 55 tons of titanium dioxide from the Crimean plant. Products from the Crimea are used only for the production of road marking paint, industrial paint and paint for windows, doors, and ceilings. About half of Crimean Titan's production is still exported, only in a roundabout way, Solovyov says.

Aleksey Bezborodov, director of the Infranews agency, suggests that the plant exports titanium dioxide from the peninsula by truck through the Kerch ferry. Solovyov says that truck transportation is more expensive than by rail, but there are no other options. Prices for Krymsky Titan's products are still 20-30% lower than for European and American products, but are gradually rising, Solovyov says. Major manufacturers of varnishes and paints, including Russian Paints, Solovyov says, buy titanium dioxide directly from the plant or its distributor, the Center for Optimum Technologies. Smaller consumers, he adds, make purchases from 5-6 intermediary companies.

At the end of 2016, according to the Crimean Ministry of Economic Development, chemical industry peninsula showed growth - index chemical production amounted to 112%. In many respects, it was achieved due to the increase in production at the Crimean Titan.

For medical reasons

The director of the employment center of Armyansk, Tatyana Vechera, says that now only 84 people are idle at the enterprise. According to her, in the small Armyansk, where the Crimean Titan is located, any reductions in large enterprise immediately hit the employment of the population - almost half of the 10,000 employed residents of the city work at the plant.

Akulov explains that since 2015, two auxiliary shops have been idle - a railway one and one for the production of mineral fertilizers. Some specialists of these divisions were redistributed to other workshops of the plant, while others receive 2/3 of their salaries according to the law. The enterprise almost did not reduce the staff, only the paramilitary guard of 200 people was abolished, Akulov said. But the Minister of Labor and social protection Crimea, Elena Romanovskaya told Vedomosti that the logistics of production and sales have not been fully restored, and therefore some of the personnel continue to work "in flexible employment modes."

Your own tenant

In June 2014, Titanium Investments LLC was registered in Moscow with the same founder as DF Group International (according to according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and the Austrian catalog Firmen ABC) - Letan Investment Limited. "Titanium Investments" lease the property of "Crimean Titan" from Firtash's structures and pay taxes to the Russian treasury.

Employees of the plant said that the management once said that 2000-2500 people would be enough for the enterprise in the future. They also told Vedomosti about the increased activity of the medical board, which regularly examines workers in the chemical industry. Like, she became more meticulous about their health. Employees believe that the administration of the plant is trying in this way to find legal grounds for reducing staff for health reasons.

Both the plant management and the local city ​​Hospital declined to comment on the topic. Sergey Saurin, head of the legal department of the Center for Social and Labor Rights, says layoffs for health reasons are legal after termination employment contract with an employee who has not passed a medical examination, the employer makes changes to staffing and reduces the position that the employee held. But Ivan Milykh, a council member of the Russian Confederation of Labor, doubts that 1,000-2,000 people can be laid off in this way. The employer can be accused of the fact that working conditions at work do not meet the norm, so people get sick en masse. According to Milykh, only a few dozen people can be fired this way.

On the road

Meanwhile, Crimean Titan specialists are gradually moving around the country. They can count on quick employment on the mainland, says Vladislav Bykhanov, partner at CornerStone recruiting company. According to him, the chemical industry has recently become a real locomotive of the Russian economy. Companies open many vacancies, looking for good specialists and are ready to pay them 70,000–80,000 rubles each. per month, which is three to four times higher than the Crimeans earn on the "Crimean Titan" now, according to employees.

Production

The raw material for the production of titanium dioxide is ilmenite ore, which is supplied by the Irshansky Mining and Processing Plant in the village of Irshansk. Ilmenite is crushed, dried, and then decomposed in concentrated sulfuric acid. The resulting melt of titanyl sulfate is cooled and diluted with water to a certain concentration. Then ferric iron is reduced in a solution of titanyl sulfate to ferrous iron. The resulting solution is settled and fed to black filtration. Ferrous vitriol is crystallized in the filtered solution upon cooling and separated from the mother liquor in centrifuges. Next, the solution of titanyl sulfate is evaporated to a standard concentration and sent for hydrolysis.

During the next process, hydrolysis, amorphous flakes of titanium dioxide hydrate are released. The resulting pulp of titanium dioxide hydrate is subjected to filtration in two stages, at which it is washed from chromophore impurities and bleached. After adding the necessary components, the titanium dioxide hydrate paste is calcined in calcining furnaces. In the process of calcination, hydrated moisture is split off and pigment properties are imparted to the resulting titanium dioxide. The calcined product is crushed in two stages and transferred to surface treatment. Surface treatment is carried out with certain chemicals to give pigment titanium dioxide certain consumer properties. The treated titanium dioxide pigment is dried and transferred to micro-grinding. crushed finished product packed and transferred to the warehouse.

Products

The main activity of the company is the production of titanium dioxide titanium grades Crimea TiOx-220, Crimea TiOx-230, used in the paint and varnish, rubber industry, in the production of plastics and in many other industries; Crimea TiOx-270 brand, which is used in the production of paints and varnishes for coatings with high weather resistance and good decorative properties, in the production of printing inks; Crimea TiOx-271 brand, widely used in the production of varnishes and paints based on organic solvents and water, powder paints and plastics; as well as the TiOx-280 grade, which has improved quality characteristics in terms of light fastness and weather resistance, is used as a universal pigment in the production of industrial coatings and paints. Titanium dioxide accounts for about 90% of total exports. The company also produces other types of chemical products: red iron oxide pigment, mineral fertilizers,