The Ukrainian government could reverse its position on creating a titanium holding, Economic Development and Trade Minister of Ukraine Aivaras Abromavicius has said.

"At this stage we are sticking to the opinion that it is not necessary to create the titanium holding, enterprises can operate separately," he said after a cabinet meeting in Kyiv on Wednesday.

The minister said that there are examples of titanium enterprises which operate both as vertically integrated structures and separately operating companies.

As reported, top managers of United Mining-Chemical Company state enterprise, which manages Vilnohirsk state mining and metallurgical plant (Dnipropetrovsk region) and Irshansk state mining and processing plant (Zhytomyr region), had criticized the idea of creating the titanium holding.

First Deputy Director General of United Mining-Chemical Company Oleksandr Hladushko said that the issue of creating a large titanium holding is complicated, taking into account the unsatisfactory state of the Ukrainian economy and the titanium market crisis. He doubts the appropriateness of including Zaporizhia Titanium and Magnesium Plant and Sumykhimprom in potential holding.

Commenting on the possibility of the effective functioning of different sector-oriented companies in one holding – chemical and metal sectors, he pointed out some examples of the cooperation of mining companies on the titanium ore market. Many companies are involved in extraction and production, for example, chemical or metal products, and many mergers have taken place.

Hladushko said that the uniting of mining assets and finished goods producers with a large added value is inefficient as this allows for the development of processing at the expense of extraction.