Tasnee starts trial operation at titanium ilmenite smelter plant

Logo of National Industrialization Co.

National Industrialization Co. (Tasnee) announced today, Dec. 5, the start of trial operation of its ilmenite smelter project to produce titanium slag and the first batch of pig iron, according to a bourse filing.

On Oct. 30, 2021, the mechanical completion was followed by start-up preparations and heat-up of the furnace following the implementation of all required modifications by Metso Outotec and the relevant contractors.

Tasnee also stated that the furnace load will ramp up from 18 megawatts (MW) to 30 MW by mid-January 2022.

This is the first holding point planned to last 90 days, aiming to optimise the furnace's operating parameters.

The success of the operation run at the first holding point will be followed by ramping the load up gradually to around 45 MW (70% of design capacity) by the end of Q2 2022, the target load for the execution of the sustainable operation test.

The company has targeted to achieve this milestone in Q4 2022. After that, the furnace load be increased to a design capacity of 60 MW.

Tasnee said it has targeted achieving sustainable operation in the fourth quarter of 2022 since it takes a long time to reach the sustainability of operation and production.

Furthermore, the company noted that the financial impact of this project on its consolidated results could not be determined at this stage.

Any further developments will be announced in due course.

The company announced on Oct. 29, 2018, delaying the start-up operations of its titanium ilmenite smelter plant due to a technical issue. To fully assess the technical issue and ensure the safety of the employees, Furnace 1 in the plant was shut down, according to Argaam's data.

In November 2020, Tasnee delayed the restart of operations of its titanium ilmenite smelter plant to Q3 2021, citing precautionary lockdown measures

due to COVID-19. Last September, it expected to restart operations in Q4 2021.

The project, located in Jazan Economic City, aims at producing (titanium slag) with an initial capacity of 500,000 tons a year, expected to reach one million tons, in addition to the production of pig iron as a by-product sold to iron producers.

Tasnee owns 50% of the project, while the remaining stake is owned by Cristal, which is 79% owned by Tasnee.