In February 2024, Vitalii Koval, the Head of the Ukrainian State Property Fund, travelled to Tokyo for discussions with JICA and Toho Titanium representatives regarding potential Japanese investment in Ukraine’s titanium industry. Ukraine possesses significant heavy mineral sand mines and its titanium sponge producer, ZTMP, making it an attractive investment opportunity. Koval emphasised the need for investment and technological advancement to safeguard the industry from Russian influence. Previously, Toho Titanium had invested in titanium operations, such as a joint venture in Saudi Arabia.
Outside of China, Japan and Russia represent the largest titanium sponge producers, however, since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, Russian sponge production has been diminished. This is driven by a lack of access to raw material feedstocks that it used to source from Ukraine. Furthermore, the Russian titanium industry is also a large-scale producer of aerospace-grade titanium, with companies like VSMPO-Avisma producing both sponge and metal that has been supplied to Airbus and Boeing. Given that titanium demand in the aerospace sector is set to more than double its 2023 volume by 2034, and the ongoing Russian-Ukraine conflict, this investment may have the potential to develop new supply chains of titanium. This will secure titanium alloys for the aerospace industry as air travel recovers beyond its 2018 peak towards the latter half of the decade.
