Operating and capital investment at United Mining and Chemical Company (UMCC, UMCC Titanium) has exceeded UAH 2 billion since its privatization in October 2024, and a two-year investment plan agreed with the supervisory board envisages drawing about $70 million more from owner NEQSOL Holding B.V.
Implementation of this investment plan, which would allow UMCC to reach breakeven by 2028, depends on decisions to lift export controls on rutile and zirconium concentrates, company management told journalists.
Rishad Aliyev, NEQSOL Holding B.V.'s head of investor relations and UMCC's first deputy general director, said the company increased production this year after privatization and operational stabilization last year: output in the first half of 2026 exceeded 84% of the company's entire 2025 output, and it managed to win back customers in the U.S., Mexico and EU countries.
However, the company faces a number of challenges affecting its operations, particularly export restrictions: it currently cannot fully sell its main products, which account for about 50% of gross value, on external markets, referring to restrictions on rutile and zircon exports introduced after privatization.
UMCC lost out on about $35 million in foreign currency revenue since privatization was completed due to its inability to sell its products, according to Aliyev.
"The company could have earned this money and invested it both in modernizing production and increasing output volumes," he said.
Lifting restrictions on the sale of rutile and zircon concentrate would also positively affect NEQSOL Holding's ability to participate in the auction for the sale of the Demurinsky mining and processing plant (Dnipropetrovsk region), scheduled by the State Property Fund for Oct 20, since there is currently no final decision on the matter, Aliyev said.
State Property Fund head Dmytro Nataluha, for his part, said the introduction of new forms of control over the company's products after privatization negatively affects its investment appeal, since the investor purchased it under different conditions.
The fund said it is ready to work together with business and relevant state bodies to find balanced solutions to the issue.
UMCC also faces logistics difficulties exporting products from its Vilnohirsk mining and metallurgical plant (VMMP) to the U.S. Due to shelling and problems with the Odesa route, the company is considering alternative shipping routes by rail to Romania or Poland, with subsequent loading onto vessels. The company spends millions of dollars a year on such shipments, according to UMCC operations director Valeriy Zakharenko.
"So this is a big problem for us. Doubling the cost of transporting one tonne of product, for example, reduces our margin to zero," Zakharenko said.
Other factors affecting the company's operations cited included a shortage of workers, proximity to the front line, and electricity costs.
UMCC CEO Dimitri Kalandadze said the company currently needs to stabilize production and reach planned capacity, carry out modernization, and subsequently move from exporting raw materials to deeper processing and producing higher value-added products in Ukraine.
The company plans to soon begin extracting raw materials at the "Phase II" section of the Yurske deposit in Zhytomyr region, while three quarries are currently operating at "Phase I," according to the operations director. The company is also considering the Bukynske site as another prospective extraction area.
As previously reported, UMCC's net loss grew 2.5-fold year-on-year in January-June this year, to UAH 745.4 million, while revenue for the period rose 34.8% to UAH 1.1171 billion.
UMCC posted a net loss of UAH 2.1182 billion in 2025, compared with a net profit of UAH 17.1 million a year earlier, while its revenue fell 47% to UAH 1.5108 billion.
"The 2025 financial results were negative, a loss, but this was largely due to the company's transition to international financial accounting standards, and to writing off liabilities that were on the company's books," Aliyev explained.
In October 2024, Tsemin Ukraine LLC, part of the NEQSOL Holding group, acquired UMCC at a privatization auction for nearly UAH 4 billion. After completing the necessary regulatory procedures, the company officially passed into the new investor's ownership in June 2025. UMCC has since operated as part of the international NEQSOL Holding group, which has businesses in several countries and industries.
UMCC has two branches — the Vilnohirsk mining and metallurgical plant (VMMP, Dnipropetrovsk region) and the Irshansk mining and processing plant (IMPP, Zhytomyr region). UMCC's core business is open-pit titanium ore mining, along with the production and wholesale trade of titanium ore concentrates (zircon, ilmenite, rutile, kyanite-sillimanite, staurolite and quartz sand).
