European Aeronautic and Space Clinches Kazakhstan Titanium Supply

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The European Aeronautic and Space Company (EADS) (Schiphol-Rijk, The Netherlands) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) covering the supply of about $1 billion of titanium with Kazakhstan company UKTMP for the company's Airbus and other EADS divisions.

The MoU covers the supply of titanium and the manufacture of finished and semi-finished products. The French metals and alloys specialists Aubert & Duval, a division of the mining group Eramet (Paris, France), and UKTMP will set up a joint venture, UKAD, to manufacture from the titanium ingots delivered by UKTMP and improve the vertical integration of the titanium supply chain to EADS and Airbus. UKTMP is the only fully integrated titanium producer in the world covering mining, titanium sponge and semi finished titanium products. In addition to the EADS supply, the joint venture will produce and market semi-finished products in the form of titanium ingots and bars.

In the initial phase setting up the project, expected to start operation in 2011, will take an investment of $60 million followed by a further investment of $30 million. The location of the plant is under discussion.

The MoU was signed during a visit to Kazakhstan by the French Prime Minister Francois Fillon. During the visit another MoU was signed with the Kazyna Sustainable Development Fund for a strategic partnership in the development of the aerospace industry and related services in the country.

Titanium is another basic industrial resource metal in tight supply globally. Japanese imports increased by 90% in 2007 over 2006 when imports from China increased by a factor of 5.8 from China which became Japan's largest supplier, displacing Russia.

In a basic process breakthrough for titanium producers, a team of researchers at Leeds University in the United Kingdom under engineering professor Animesh Jha have developed a simpler, cheaper and greener method of extracting higher yields of titanium oxide (TiO2), the base feed product for downstream manufacturing. The newly patented process consists of roasting the mineral ore with alkali to remove contaminants, which are washed and leached with acid to yield valuable byproducts for the electronics industry. The coarse residue left behind is then reacted with 20 times less than the usual amount of chlorine to produce TiO2 powder.

The Leeds process gives an average yield of up to 97% TiO2 compared with the current industry average of 85%. This level of purity will reduce production costs of pigment grade materials and waste disposal costs. In addition the process also recycles waste CO2 and heat. Jha is confident that the process can be further refined to produce 99% pure TiO2.

The $9.6 billion global market will welcome the new process, which avoids the pollution and waste of current processes used to purify the relatively abundant but impure mineral ore.

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