Zaporizhzhya titanium and magnesium plant, which is part of the Group DF titanium business, has been certified by one of the largest Chinese consumers of titanium sponge, GoldSky concern. ZTMK received the right to supply a titanium sponge to a Chinese company after the completion of a comprehensive audit conducted by authorized GoldSky specialists.
GoldSky Concern is a titanium division of the Chinese state financial and industrial group XiangTou Holding Group. The company has been operating on the market for more than 10 years and is among TOP-5 largest consumers of titanium sponge in China with assets of almost $700 million. The enterprise specializes in the production of titanium ingots and titanium rolled products of various nomenclature. In addition to being a supplier to large global consumers, GoldSky is also one of the few suppliers of titanium rolled products for the Chinese state aviation corporation AVIC.
The special certification of ZTMK consisted of several stages. At the first stage, the plant’s products passed a qualitative audit in the laboratories of the GoldSky concern in China. After that, authorized experts of GoldSky visited ZTMK personally and conducted a comprehensive audit of the work of all departments at the plant, including the company’s compliance with international environmental and safety requirements.
“We got interested in the Ukrainian company a few years ago, as soon as ZTMС products passed international certification by Bureau Veritas. But we’ve got very strict requirements for the quality of the product, that’s why we requested the samples of ZTMK titanium sponge for testing several times in order to test it directly in our laboratories in China. Based on the results of the research, we are convinced that the quality of the Ukrainian ZTMK sponge is not inferior to that of the world leaders and fully meets our demand”, Leroy Vang, Purchasing Director of GoldSky commented.
According to the Director of ZTMC Vladimir Sivak, GoldSky isn’t the first serious world player Zaporizhzhya titanium and magnesium plant works with.
“Since 2015, ZTMC has entered an entirely new niche. The company began supplying titanium sponge to the largest consumers from the US, Europe and China for its further use in the aerospace industry. Cooperation with these companies became possible after a private investor came to the enterprise and modernized the plant’s facilities, Director of ZTMC Vladimir Sivak added. – In just a few years, we purchased modern equipment, established quality control of the products we produce, completely changed the management system and business processes. As a result, the company began producing products that fully comply with international standards, and in quality can compete with the products of major global giants”.
The certification of the plant by the largest international buyers of titanium products is part of ZTMC Program for Market Expansion. The program was developed in 2013 after Tolexis Trading Limited company, which is part of Group DF titanium business, become one of the investors of the plant.
Audits of the major global buyers of titanium products became possible after the successful certification of ZTMC by Bureau Veritas and after getting a certificate of compliance (Standard EN 9100: 2009, Aerospace Standards Series, Quality Management Systems Requirements). This allowed ZTMC to register in a special database of aerospace suppliers OASIS (Online Aerospace Supplier Information System). As a result, global companies began approaching ZTMC for conducting their certification and signing contracts for supplies. International companies inspect their suppliers according to their own internal regulations and procedures.
Due to ZTMC entered international market, Ukraine has got a chance to become a powerful player in the so-called “titanium club”, which includes China, Japan, America, Russia and Kazakhstan.
According to Group DF estimates, the global titanium market consumes 160-170 thousand tons of titanium sponge pea year. According to analysts’ forecasts, the titanium sponge market continues to grow, and by 2025 the consumption growth will be about 40%. Most of all, titanium will be demanded in the aerospace industry, which, according to experts’ forecasts, will increase the consumption of this metal by 60% in less than ten years.