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China: DuPont – TiO2
FOCUS Within the architectural paints segment, water-based paints have continued to gain share, while solvent-based paints have continued to lose share. But the rate of substitution is now proceeding at a very much slower pace than was evident during the 1970s and 1980s. In 2009, 1.9 bn litres of water-based paints for interior or exterior applications accounted for 84% of the architectural paint total. Ten years ago, nearly 2 bn litres of water-based paints accounted for 80% of the architectural paint total. Over the same period, shipments of solventbased architectural paints have fallen from 480 M litres to 320 M litres. The OEM sector is the second largest sector of the market, accounting for 27% of the total last year. During the 1990s, this was the fastest-growing sector, with shipments rising from 1.28 bn litres in 1990 to 1.84 bn litres in 1999. But the peak was reached in 2001, when OEM paint shipments were 1.86 bn litres. They have declined every year since then. Last year’s OEM paint shipments of 1.08 bn litres were lower than any time since the 1980s. Automotive paints, including paints for all types of road vehicle (not only passenger cars), have traditionally been the largest component within the OEM sector. But because last year was such a bad year for the US automotive industry, automotive paint shipments dropped from 192 M litres in 2008 to 139 M litres in 2009, being pushed into second place within the OEM paints league by paints for wood furniture, cabinets, flat stock boards and similar products, which accounted for 14.6% of the total. Can coatings and paints for other types of containers accounted for 12.5% of the OEM segment total. Paints for metal building products, notably aluminium extrusions and sidings, accounted for 12.4%. The third segment of the market, designated special purpose coatings, accounted for just under 15% of total US paint shipments last year. This is about the same percentage as in the late 1990s. At 185 M litres, vehicle refinishes accounted for nearly onethird of the segment total last year. Paints for industrial structures, anticorrosion paints, etc accounted for 32% of the segment total. The only other significant product line in this
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segment was road-marking paints, which accounted for 21% of the segment total last year. The USDC data series shows both volume and value figures, so it is possible to deduce trends on average unit selling prices. For architectural paints, there has been a slow but steady long-term improvement in the average price, from $2.32 per litre in 1990 to $2.72 per litre in 1999 to $3.44 per litre in 2009. Trends in the average annual price for OEM paints have been much more uneven. The price rose from $3.15 per litre in 1990 to $3.70 per litre in 1995, fell back to $3.43 per litre in 1999, increased to $4.39 per litre in 2008 and fell back last year to $4.24 per litre. USDC data for the first quarter of this year indicated a more promising outlook generally. At 902 M litres, total paint shipments for 1Q 2010 were 5.2% up on 1Q 2009, albeit still below the 1.08 bn litres recorded for 1Q 2008. The architectural paints segment looked especially promising, with shipments for 1Q 2010 at 550 M litres, 8.5% up on the 1Q 2009 figure. However, as this year has progressed, the general sentiment within the housing and real estate sector seems to have darkened again. It is doubtful if the year-on-year improvements of 5% and 8.5% indicated by the figures for the first three months can in fact be sustained throughout the remainder of this year. Reg Adams
PLANTS China: BASF & Wenzhou Liucheng – effect pigments BASF has sold its 50% stake in the effect pigments manufacturing operation at Wenzhou (Zhejiang province) to its former joint venture partner, Wenzhou Liucheng Group Co. BASF had inherited its interest in this plant as part of its acquisition of Ciba , which was completed towards the end of 2008. BASF will continue to develop its presence in the Chinese market, but will in future supply highquality effect pigments from its US facilities. China Chemical Reporter, 21 Jul 2010, 21 (14), 10
China: CMP – calcined kaolin China Mineral Processing (CMP) has confirmed its plan to double capacity at the calcined kaolin plant built last year at Tangshan (Hebei province). CMP spent more than Rmb 200 M (or $30 M) to build the Tangshan plant, with an initial capacity of 60,000 tonnes/y. CMP sells its calcined kaolin under the Snowhite brandname, promoting it for reducing the average specific gravity of the final paint product and saving on TiO2 pigment usage. Industrial Minerals, Jul 2010, (514), 62
China: DuPont – TiO2 In March 2005, DuPont surprised the world TiO2 industry by announcing that it had begun negotiations with Chinese Government authorities about a project to build a TiO2 pigment plant on an industrial estate at Dongying (290 km northwest of Qingdao in Shandong province). Dongying is one of the busiest ports in northern China, being at the mouth of the Huang He/Yellow River, where it flows into the Bohai Sea. The surprise heightened when further details on the project were revealed. The initial scale of the plant was going to be 200,000 tonnes/y, which would be larger than all but two of the world’s seventy or eighty TiO2 plants. The only two plants larger than Dongying would be two plants in the southern US (DeLisle, MS and New Johnsonville, TN) owned by DuPont itself. DuPont was committing itself to capital expenditure of around $1 bn in the Dongying TiO2 project, the largest ever offshore investment by DuPont. Shrugging off concerns about intellectual property protection, DuPont declared that the Dongying plant would be designed to use stateof-the-art chloride-route technology. At that time – and still today – there was only one operating chloride-route TiO2 plant in China, a 30,000 tonnes/y plant at Jinzhou (Liaoning province) employing the old and inefficient molten-salt process. Several competitors and industry observers claimed that it would be impossible for DuPont to prevent local Chinese companies copying or reverseengineering key elements of its Dongying plant design and then
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FOCUS establishing chloride-route TiO2 plants of their own in China and abroad. (See ‘Focus on Pigments’, Apr 2005, 4 & Aug 2005, 6). Site clearance work for the TiO2 plant commenced and long-term supplies were arranged for chlorine from a new chloralkali plant, also in Dongying, to be built and operated by the Huatai group. DuPont’s TiO2 project was originally scheduled for completion at the end of 2009. However, it gradually became clear that the central Government’s Ministry for Land & Resources was concerned about the environmental impact of the project. The commencement of construction work has been delayed and delayed, pending guaranteed final approval of the planned plant operating and waste disposal measures. DuPont’s most recent announcement about further delays on the Donying project was issued on 2 September 2009 and there has been no fresh news since then. Evidently, DuPont was planning to use ilmenite feedstock (with a TiO2 content of 60% or less), rather than higher-grade slag or rutile (with a TiO2 content of 87% or more). The use of lower-grade feedstock means a higher requirement for chlorine and petroleum coke and the generation of a higher volume of acidic metal chloride effluent. At DeLisle, the company discharges this effluent by injecting it into specially constructed deep underground wells and it was proposing to adopt a similar waste disposal strategy at Dongying. To demonstrate the safety of deep-well disposal, DuPont has constructed a test facility at Dongying. The Chinese Government has already highlighted the TiO2 industry as a ‘2H1R1 industry’, associated with high pollution, high energy consumption and high consumption of the country’s indigenous natural mineral resources. Foreign investment in a ‘2H1R industry’ faces particularly intensive scrutiny. But the paradox here is that DuPont is offering to bring modern chloride-route technology to China, with the prospect of highquality TiO2 pigments from its Donying plant displacing low-quality TiO2 pigments produced by sulfate-route plants generating substantial quantities of spent sulfuric acid and iron sulfate wastes. Nevertheless, ‘CCR’ (the publication of the State
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agency, China National Chemical Information Centre, CNCIC) comments: “Multinational chemical companies that want to build plants in China need to think more about environmental protection, social responsibility and the industrial chain, in addition to the huge market here.” China Chemical Reporter, 6 Jul 2010, 21 (13), 9
China: Gulang XinMiao – calcium carbonate Gulang XinMiao Fine Chemical Co Ltd is currently extending its calcium chemicals complex at Gulang in the Wuwei region (220 km north of Lanzhou, Gansu province). A 600,000 tonnes/y calcium carbide plant is under construction here at a cost of Rmb 553 M. The new plant is expected to create 1000 new jobs and should generate sales revenues of around Rmb 2.28 bn. Gulang XinMiao already operates a 150,000 tonnes/y calcium carbonate plant here, as well as a 60,000 tonnes/y calcium cyanmide unit and a 50,000 tonnes/y calcium dicyanamide unit. China Chemical Reporter, 6 Jul 2010, 21 (13), 15
China: Jinan Yuxing – TiO2 On 20 June, Jinan Yuxing Chemical Co Ltd, a wholly-owned enterprise within the China National Bluestar group, started up a new 100,000 tonnes/y sulfate-route TiO2 plant at the Chemical Industry Park on the outskirts of Jinan (Shandong province). The plant has been designed to produce mostly rutile grades of pigment and it is capable of being readily expanded to 200,000 tonnes/y. As well as the TiO2 plant, Jinan Yuxing operates a 300,000 tonnes/y brimstone-based sulfuric acid plant at the new site. Total investment in these two plants was reported as Rmb 1.7 bn (about $250 M). Jinan Yuxing was the first company in China to begin producing TiO2 in 1950 at its site in the central Tianqiao district of Jinan city. It became part of the Bluestar group in February 2002. Because of excessive pollution of the Xiaoqing River, Jinan Chemical was obliged to temporarily suspend production at times, first in 2006 and then again in October 2009. (See also ‘Focus on Pigments’, Aug 2008, 6).
Now that the company’s facilities at the Chemical Industry Park are fully operational, the old site in the central district has been completely shut down. Besides Jinan Yuxing, the Bluestar group has another TiO2 producing affiliate, Guangxi Dahua Chemical, which joined the group in November 2006. Guangxi Dahua is a whollyowned subsidiary of Bluestar New Materials Ltd, which in turn is owned 54% by the Bluestar group. Guangxi Dahua operates a 30,000 tonnes/y sulfate-route plant at Baise-Huahong in Guangxi province. China Chemical Reporter, 6 Jul 2010, 21 (13), 27
China: Nippon Kayaku – dyes Wuxi Advanced Kayaku Chemical, an affiliate of Nippon Kayaku (of Tokyo), is on the point of expanding its dyestuffs manufacturing complex at Xibei in the Xishan district of Wuxi region (Jiangsu province). By the end of September 2010, capacity for making water-soluble dyes will have been raised from 2000 tonnes/y to 4250 tonnes/y. The company is also raising its capacity for making disperse dyes from 1200 tonnes/y to 2000 tonnes/y. Japan Chemical Web, 16 Jul 2010, (Website: http://www.japanchemicalweb.jp)
India: Bodal Chemicals - dyes Bodal Chemicals (headquartered at Ahmedabad, Gujarat) recently increased its dyestuffs capacity at Padra (Gujarat) from 12,000 tonnes/y to 17,000 tonnes/y at a cost of Rup 530 M. The company now claims to be the largest manufacturer of dyes in India, with a portfolio of about 150 finished products and over 25 intermediates. For the year to endMarch 2010, Bodal reported net pretax profit at Rup 204 M on sales revenues of Rup 4.8 bn. On 25 July 2010, the company started-up a new 165,000 tonnes/y sulfuric acid plant at Padra, built at a cost of $16 M. This represents another step in achieving full integration from raw materials through to finished products. Bodal’s captive consumption will account for about 70% of the acid produced at Padra;
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segment was road-marking paints, which accounted for 21% of the segment total last year. The USDC data series shows both volume and value figures, so it is possible to deduce trends on average unit selling prices. For architectural paints, there has been a slow but steady long-term improvement in the average price, from $2.32 per litre in 1990 to $2.72 per litre in 1999 to $3.44 per litre in 2009. Trends in the average annual price for OEM paints have been much more uneven. The price rose from $3.15 per litre in 1990 to $3.70 per litre in 1995, fell back to $3.43 per litre in 1999, increased to $4.39 per litre in 2008 and fell back last year to $4.24 per litre. USDC data for the first quarter of this year indicated a more promising outlook generally. At 902 M litres, total paint shipments for 1Q 2010 were 5.2% up on 1Q 2009, albeit still below the 1.08 bn litres recorded for 1Q 2008. The architectural paints segment looked especially promising, with shipments for 1Q 2010 at 550 M litres, 8.5% up on the 1Q 2009 figure. However, as this year has progressed, the general sentiment within the housing and real estate sector seems to have darkened again. It is doubtful if the year-on-year improvements of 5% and 8.5% indicated by the figures for the first three months can in fact be sustained throughout the remainder of this year. Reg Adams
PLANTS China: BASF & Wenzhou Liucheng – effect pigments BASF has sold its 50% stake in the effect pigments manufacturing operation at Wenzhou (Zhejiang province) to its former joint venture partner, Wenzhou Liucheng Group Co. BASF had inherited its interest in this plant as part of its acquisition of Ciba , which was completed towards the end of 2008. BASF will continue to develop its presence in the Chinese market, but will in future supply highquality effect pigments from its US facilities. China Chemical Reporter, 21 Jul 2010, 21 (14), 10
China: CMP – calcined kaolin China Mineral Processing (CMP) has confirmed its plan to double capacity at the calcined kaolin plant built last year at Tangshan (Hebei province). CMP spent more than Rmb 200 M (or $30 M) to build the Tangshan plant, with an initial capacity of 60,000 tonnes/y. CMP sells its calcined kaolin under the Snowhite brandname, promoting it for reducing the average specific gravity of the final paint product and saving on TiO2 pigment usage. Industrial Minerals, Jul 2010, (514), 62
China: DuPont – TiO2 In March 2005, DuPont surprised the world TiO2 industry by announcing that it had begun negotiations with Chinese Government authorities about a project to build a TiO2 pigment plant on an industrial estate at Dongying (290 km northwest of Qingdao in Shandong province). Dongying is one of the busiest ports in northern China, being at the mouth of the Huang He/Yellow River, where it flows into the Bohai Sea. The surprise heightened when further details on the project were revealed. The initial scale of the plant was going to be 200,000 tonnes/y, which would be larger than all but two of the world’s seventy or eighty TiO2 plants. The only two plants larger than Dongying would be two plants in the southern US (DeLisle, MS and New Johnsonville, TN) owned by DuPont itself. DuPont was committing itself to capital expenditure of around $1 bn in the Dongying TiO2 project, the largest ever offshore investment by DuPont. Shrugging off concerns about intellectual property protection, DuPont declared that the Dongying plant would be designed to use stateof-the-art chloride-route technology. At that time – and still today – there was only one operating chloride-route TiO2 plant in China, a 30,000 tonnes/y plant at Jinzhou (Liaoning province) employing the old and inefficient molten-salt process. Several competitors and industry observers claimed that it would be impossible for DuPont to prevent local Chinese companies copying or reverseengineering key elements of its Dongying plant design and then
SEPTEMBER 2010
FOCUS establishing chloride-route TiO2 plants of their own in China and abroad. (See ‘Focus on Pigments’, Apr 2005, 4 & Aug 2005, 6). Site clearance work for the TiO2 plant commenced and long-term supplies were arranged for chlorine from a new chloralkali plant, also in Dongying, to be built and operated by the Huatai group. DuPont’s TiO2 project was originally scheduled for completion at the end of 2009. However, it gradually became clear that the central Government’s Ministry for Land & Resources was concerned about the environmental impact of the project. The commencement of construction work has been delayed and delayed, pending guaranteed final approval of the planned plant operating and waste disposal measures. DuPont’s most recent announcement about further delays on the Donying project was issued on 2 September 2009 and there has been no fresh news since then. Evidently, DuPont was planning to use ilmenite feedstock (with a TiO2 content of 60% or less), rather than higher-grade slag or rutile (with a TiO2 content of 87% or more). The use of lower-grade feedstock means a higher requirement for chlorine and petroleum coke and the generation of a higher volume of acidic metal chloride effluent. At DeLisle, the company discharges this effluent by injecting it into specially constructed deep underground wells and it was proposing to adopt a similar waste disposal strategy at Dongying. To demonstrate the safety of deep-well disposal, DuPont has constructed a test facility at Dongying. The Chinese Government has already highlighted the TiO2 industry as a ‘2H1R1 industry’, associated with high pollution, high energy consumption and high consumption of the country’s indigenous natural mineral resources. Foreign investment in a ‘2H1R industry’ faces particularly intensive scrutiny. But the paradox here is that DuPont is offering to bring modern chloride-route technology to China, with the prospect of highquality TiO2 pigments from its Donying plant displacing low-quality TiO2 pigments produced by sulfate-route plants generating substantial quantities of spent sulfuric acid and iron sulfate wastes. Nevertheless, ‘CCR’ (the publication of the State
SEPTEMBER 2010
ON
PIGMENTS
agency, China National Chemical Information Centre, CNCIC) comments: “Multinational chemical companies that want to build plants in China need to think more about environmental protection, social responsibility and the industrial chain, in addition to the huge market here.” China Chemical Reporter, 6 Jul 2010, 21 (13), 9
China: Gulang XinMiao – calcium carbonate Gulang XinMiao Fine Chemical Co Ltd is currently extending its calcium chemicals complex at Gulang in the Wuwei region (220 km north of Lanzhou, Gansu province). A 600,000 tonnes/y calcium carbide plant is under construction here at a cost of Rmb 553 M. The new plant is expected to create 1000 new jobs and should generate sales revenues of around Rmb 2.28 bn. Gulang XinMiao already operates a 150,000 tonnes/y calcium carbonate plant here, as well as a 60,000 tonnes/y calcium cyanmide unit and a 50,000 tonnes/y calcium dicyanamide unit. China Chemical Reporter, 6 Jul 2010, 21 (13), 15
China: Jinan Yuxing – TiO2 On 20 June, Jinan Yuxing Chemical Co Ltd, a wholly-owned enterprise within the China National Bluestar group, started up a new 100,000 tonnes/y sulfate-route TiO2 plant at the Chemical Industry Park on the outskirts of Jinan (Shandong province). The plant has been designed to produce mostly rutile grades of pigment and it is capable of being readily expanded to 200,000 tonnes/y. As well as the TiO2 plant, Jinan Yuxing operates a 300,000 tonnes/y brimstone-based sulfuric acid plant at the new site. Total investment in these two plants was reported as Rmb 1.7 bn (about $250 M). Jinan Yuxing was the first company in China to begin producing TiO2 in 1950 at its site in the central Tianqiao district of Jinan city. It became part of the Bluestar group in February 2002. Because of excessive pollution of the Xiaoqing River, Jinan Chemical was obliged to temporarily suspend production at times, first in 2006 and then again in October 2009. (See also ‘Focus on Pigments’, Aug 2008, 6).
Now that the company’s facilities at the Chemical Industry Park are fully operational, the old site in the central district has been completely shut down. Besides Jinan Yuxing, the Bluestar group has another TiO2 producing affiliate, Guangxi Dahua Chemical, which joined the group in November 2006. Guangxi Dahua is a whollyowned subsidiary of Bluestar New Materials Ltd, which in turn is owned 54% by the Bluestar group. Guangxi Dahua operates a 30,000 tonnes/y sulfate-route plant at Baise-Huahong in Guangxi province. China Chemical Reporter, 6 Jul 2010, 21 (13), 27
China: Nippon Kayaku – dyes Wuxi Advanced Kayaku Chemical, an affiliate of Nippon Kayaku (of Tokyo), is on the point of expanding its dyestuffs manufacturing complex at Xibei in the Xishan district of Wuxi region (Jiangsu province). By the end of September 2010, capacity for making water-soluble dyes will have been raised from 2000 tonnes/y to 4250 tonnes/y. The company is also raising its capacity for making disperse dyes from 1200 tonnes/y to 2000 tonnes/y. Japan Chemical Web, 16 Jul 2010, (Website: http://www.japanchemicalweb.jp)
India: Bodal Chemicals - dyes Bodal Chemicals (headquartered at Ahmedabad, Gujarat) recently increased its dyestuffs capacity at Padra (Gujarat) from 12,000 tonnes/y to 17,000 tonnes/y at a cost of Rup 530 M. The company now claims to be the largest manufacturer of dyes in India, with a portfolio of about 150 finished products and over 25 intermediates. For the year to endMarch 2010, Bodal reported net pretax profit at Rup 204 M on sales revenues of Rup 4.8 bn. On 25 July 2010, the company started-up a new 165,000 tonnes/y sulfuric acid plant at Padra, built at a cost of $16 M. This represents another step in achieving full integration from raw materials through to finished products. Bodal’s captive consumption will account for about 70% of the acid produced at Padra;
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