Picture-perfect wisps of white smoke puff from the striped smokestacks, trucks shunt busily back and forth and all appears serene in the land of Soviet utopia.

Inside the plant the scene is no less striking, with the workers who tend the glowing, red-hot pits of molten minerals heavily bundled in drab overalls and windbreakers against the sub-zero wind which whistles through the cavernous halls.

Giant conveyors haul great steel barrels of the bubbling brew, destined ultimately to become the grey titanium sponge which is the plant's main product, uncomfortably close to bystanders' heads.

The factory is one of just a handful of producers of the sponge, which is in turn the main component of titanium, the super-lightweight metal used extensively in the aerospace industry.

For Ust Kamenogorsk --founded in the 1960s at the zenith of the superpower race to conquer the cosmos -- as for so many industrial enterprises in this former Soviet republic, the dream of a Soviet utopia faded long ago.

But the factory, one of a select few firms in which the government plans to sell small stakes through the fledgling Kazakh stock exchange later this year, has started to adapt to the new order in this region of harsh northern steppeland.

These days company management is turning also to the West for clients and new business.

Sitting in his light and spacious office, chief executive Bagdat Shayakhmetov seems the perfect candidate to lead the titianium plant's post-Soviet charm offensive.

A spare, soft-spoken man in a crisp tailored dark suit, Shayakhmetov talks enthusiastically about the company's new Western clients.

Pulling a shiny exhibit case from the wall behind his desk, he proudly shows guests a product sample and quality certificate which aeroengine-maker Pratt & Whitney of the United Statesrecently awarded his plant.

Raising product quality is one of the key issues facing producers in the former Soviet Union as they strengthen their position on the world market, said Moscow-based Pioneer Securities metals analyst Tatyana Nikolskaya.

"Service is the main question and quality is the second, although the price is very competitive," Nikolskaya said, citing low labour and electricity costs in the region.

Ust Kamenogorsk's attention to foreign standards seems symptomatic of the changes seeping through the company, which recently signed a 10-year supply contract with US titanium producer Titanium Metals Corp (TIMET).

Belgium's Specialty Metals Company has managed the strategic titanium producer, which still jealously guards production figures, since 1995 and now owns a controlling 65-per cent stake.

Using investment from Specialty Metals, Ust Kamenogorsk has built its own facility for producing magnesium, a key element in titanium sponge production. A part of the output will be also sold onthe market, Shayakhmetov said.

Keenly aware of competition from producers in former Soviet ally Russia, Kazakhstan is also developing its own supply of raw materials.

At another corner of its sprawling site, the plant is busy completing a Soviet-era furnace to smelt locally produced ores for use in production.

To listen to Shayakhmetov, few clouds mar the distant horizon of the company's future.

1997 Titanium sponge production was 18,509 tonnes, a rise of 48.6 per cent over 1996, according to figures from Kazakhstan's State Statistics Committee. Net profit rose to 668.43 million tenge ($8.71 million) in 1997 from 348.51 million tenge in 1996. The results were audited by Deloitte and Touche from figures provided by the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange.

Kazakhstan will sell 16.5 per cent of the firm to portfolio investors on the local stock exchange later this year as part of a programme to sell companies seen as future "blue chips" which will help raise $585 million for the budget.

But titanium is aspeciality product with a highly specialised market, and the company is well aware that it will take hard work and well-laid plans to achieve desired growth.

A couple of the world's already small number of titanium sponge plants have gone under in recent memory to stand as a testament to the industry's cut-throat competition, Shayakhmetov said.

Company representatives were regulars at industry conferences on innovative uses of titanium, he added.

But with supplies tightening and Western customers starting to look east for new sources of the metal, things were not looking too gloomy.

"Titanium has a big future," Shayakhmetov smiled. "We are looking at the future with optimism."