Ukraine’s exports of titanium-containing ores and concentrate in physical terms decreased by 95.2% year-on-year to 277 tonnes in January-October this year.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS) on Wednesday, in monetary terms exports of titanium-containing ores and concentrate decreased by 94.7% to $496 thousand. The main exports were to Uzbekistan (35.61% of shipments in monetary terms), Turkey (35.01%) and Egypt (29.38%).
In addition, Ukraine imported 78 tonnes of titanium-containing ore worth $117 thousand from China (98.29%, shipments took place in January) and Kazakhstan (1.71%, shipments were in May) in the first 10 months of 2025.
During this period, Ukraine exported 2,466,000 tonnes of niobium, tantalum, vanadium and zirconium ores and concentrates worth $3.954m to Spain (48.90%), Germany (24.53%) and Italy (17.19%). At the same time, the country imported 417 tonnes of such ores worth $1.068m from Spain (72.38%), Czech Republic (12.73%) and China (12.45%).
As reported, Ukraine in 2024 reduced exports of titanium-containing ores in physical terms by 37.5% compared to the previous year – to 7.284 thousand tonnes. In monetary terms, exports of titanium-containing ores and concentrate decreased by 40% to $11.654m. The main exports were to Turkey (62.82% of shipments in monetary terms), Egypt (7.38%) and Poland (6.93%).
Last year Ukraine imported 314 tonnes of titanium-containing ore worth $492 thousand from China (87.78%), Vietnam (6.11%) and Senegal (also 6.11%).
At the same time, experts pointed to the inconsistency of statistics on exports of titanium-containing ores. However, when asked by Interfax-Ukraine, the State Customs Service (SCS) of Ukraine said that full data on exports of titanium raw materials is not provided due to restrictions on the volume of export-import operations with military and dual-use goods, which are reflected in aggregate form with the indication “other goods”. At the same time explained that, in particular, the supply of titanium-containing ores from the companies differ from the data HMS.
“We inform that these shipments are included in the statistical exports from Ukraine, but are not reflected in the published by the State Customs Service statistics of foreign trade (…) in the commodity position UKTVED 2614″ ores and concentrates titanium” given the following (…) According to the regulations (…) In data protection for confidentiality purposes, any information considered confidential is reported in full at the next, higher level of aggregation of data on the goods”, – explained HMS in a response to the agency.
It was specified that information on customs clearance and movement of goods subject to export control across the customs border of Ukraine is included in the list of information containing proprietary information in the HMS, according to the relevant order.
In Ukraine, titanium-bearing ores are currently mined mainly by the United Mining and Chemical Company (UGCC), which manages the Volnogorsk Mining and Metallurgical Combine (VGMK, Dnipropetrovsk region) and the Irshansk Mining and Processing Combine (IGOK, Zhytomyr region), as well as by the Mezhdurechinskiy GOK LLC and Valki – Ilmenit LLC (both Irshansk, Zhytomyr region). In addition, Production and Commercial Firm “Velta” (Dnipro) built a mining and processing plant at Birzulovskoye deposit with a capacity of 240 thousand tonnes of ilmenite concentrate per year.