SBU demands OGHC to stop cooperation with Czech company Belanto due to ilmenite supplies to occupied Crimea
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) demands that the state-owned United Mining and Chemical Company (OGHC) stop shipping ilmenite to the Czech company Belanto on suspicion of supplying Ukrainian raw materials to Russian-occupied Crimea. Despite the SBU's request, OGHC chairman Artur Somov maintained the shipment of ilmenite to Belanto.
This is stated in a letter from the OGHC security service addressed to the Deputy Chairman of the Board of the state company Tetyana Gogenko, which is available to the "Ministry of Industry".
"To prevent preconditions for damage to state security, encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, I ask you to stop shipping any products in favour of Belanto under this contract until all the circumstances are clarified", - the letter reads.
Letter from the OGHC security service. Source: Ministry of Industry
This time the ship Bogdan went for a batch of ilmenite concentrate of 10 thousand tons. It arrived in the port of the Black Sea (Odesa region) on November 27. At this time, the ship is waiting for the load on the raid.
The vessel tracking system showed that the Syrian ship Souria with the first batch of ilmenite from the Czech Belanto was unloaded in the port of Kerch in occupied Crimea on November 25.
Source: vessel finder
The Syrian ship has already arrived in the Bulgarian port of Varna, where the second batch of ilmenite may be transhipped to the ship Bogdan. This ship will meet it after loading in the Black Sea.
Source: vessel finder
It is also likely that both vessels may meet for transhipment in the neighbouring port of Constanta, as was the case when sending the first batch of ilmenite to occupied Crimea via Belanto.
Thus, the second batch of ilmenite will be shipped under a contract with Belanto to Russia, and then to Dmitry Firtash's Krymsky Titan.
The Crimean plant for the production of titanium dioxide will receive 20 thousand tons of ilmenite out of 50 thousand tons provided for Czechs under the agreement with the OGHC.
What is known
- The contract with Czechs replaced the contract with the German ITS, which in August this year sent 25,000 tons of Irshan ilmenite to the Krymsky Titan plant. An agreement with Czechs was signed on October 13, 2020, by Somov to reorient the shipment of ilmenite to Crimea.
- The first batch of ilmenite - 10 thousand tons, Czechs loaded on the ship Salvania in the port of Black Sea on November 11. And then it was transhipped to Souria in the port of Constanta on November 12.
