MOSCOW, July 29 (RIA Novosti) – Eastern Europe’s major chemical producers in Crimea are looking for new export markets in mainland Russia, China and India in the wake of EU sanctions, a senior local official told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
“North Crimean chemical-making giants – Crimea Titan and Soda Plant – have survived and found new export markets and contacts despite all kinds of European and American sanctions, and also considering their loss of certain logistics links with Ukraine,” said Rustam Temirgaliev, economic adviser to the acting chairman of the Crimean Council of Ministers.
He added India and China are among the target markets, in addition to the Russian home market.
Crimea Titan is the largest titanium dioxide producer in Eastern Europe. The company also makes iron oxide pigments, mineral fertilizers, sulphuric acid, and aluminum sulphate, among other chemical products.
Crimean Soda Plant is the leading manufacture of technical soda ash in the region. Until Crimea’s re-unification with Russia, it was Ukraine’s sole soda ash producer, catering for almost 80 percent of the local market needs and over 2 percent of the global soda ash demand.
On Monday, the European Union Council’s Committee of Permanent Representatives agreed fresh economic sanctions amid the ongoing Ukrainian crisis, an EU source told RIA Novosti.
The European Council previously announced it would impose a ban on all imports from the Crimean peninsula and the city of Sevastopol if goods did not carry Ukrainian certification.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Crimea is Russia’s territory, rejecting any possibility for talks regarding its status. Lavrov added that “there has been no negotiations with anyone on Crimea, there are none now and there won’t be any."
The Russian Foreign Ministry previously called the “language of sanctions” counterproductive and said these measures would have a boomerang effect on European economies.
