- Email: [email protected]
Mexico: Chemours – TiO2
FOCUS Counting-in the Hannover plant, Birla Carbon currently operates 16 carbon black plants in 13 different countries. It also has two state-of-the-art research centres at Marietta (United States) and at Taloja (India). Meanwhile, the company is on the point of opening its latest carbon black plant at Jining (Shandong province, China). This plant is being built as a joint venture between Birla and Jining Carbon, which operates a coal tar distillation plant on the adjacent site. The carbon black plant will have an initial capacity of 120,000 tonnes/y, which will be doubled during 2018/19. The total capital investment requirement for this plant is budgeted at $190 M, which works out at $792 per tonne/y of capacity (See also 'Focus on Pigments;. Jul 2015, 5). Birla Carbon, 18 Mar 2016 (1800 West Oak Commons Court, Marietta, GA 30062-2253, USA, Website: http://www.birlacarbon.com) © Birla Carbon 2016
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nearly treble its capacity for producing dyes and intermediates at three locations in Gujarat province (Ahmedabad, Panoli and Vadodara). Total capacity will rise from 26,400 tonnes/y to 72,000 tonnes/y. The company also plans to install a 5 MW co-generation power unit at the Ahmedabad site. Bodal Chemicals was founded as JK Pharma in 1989. It changed its name to Dintex Chemicals in the 1990s and then changed its name again to Bodal Chemicals in 2006. Mr Suresh Patel (Chairman & Managing Director) was one of the company's founders and he has always been the main driving force over the past 25 years. For the year to end-March 2015, Bodal's sales revenues passed the Rup 100 M mark for the first time. Pre-tax profits were reported as Rup 9.2 M on sales revenues of Rup 105 M. Original Source: Chemical Weekly, 19 Apr 2016, 144 (Website: http://www. chemicalweekly.com) © Sevak Publications & Chemical Weekly Database P Ltd 2016
China: Domo – plastic compounds At the end of April 2016, Domo Chemicals GmbH (headquartered in Leuna, Germany) started-up a new 10,000 tonnes/y polyamide plastics compounding plant at Jiaxing in northern Zhejiang province (100 km southwest of Shanghai). The plant has been designed to facilitate expansion to 15,000 tonnes/y in 2017 and to 20,000 tonnes/y by 2019. From this plant, Domo will be able to offer a fastresponse colour matching service for pre-coloured polyamide compounds. It will also supply Domamid PA-66, PA-6 and high-temperature functionalised compounds for electrical, automotive and consumer good sectors, as well as Domo's Econamid polymers based on post-industrial waste feedstock. Domo Chemicals is a multinational specialist in nylon and engineering plastics, with plants in Germany, Italy and the US. The company is owned by Domo Investments (headquartered in Zwijnaarde, Belgium). Original Source: Compounding World, May 2016, 12 (Website: http://www.amiplastics. com/mags) © Applied Market Information Ltd 2016
India: KMML – TiO2 Kerala Minerals & Metals Ltd (KMML) operates one of the few fully integrated TiO2 complexes in the world at its Sankaramangalam site (120 km south of Kochi city-centre). The company is owned by the Kerala provincial government and its currently installed capacity was recently reported as: 40,000 tonnes/y of chloride-route TiO2 pigment; 500 tonnes/y of titanium sponge metal; 50,000 tonnes/y of synrutile; 62,000 tonnes/y of ilmenite; 4400 tonnes/y of rutile; and 6500 tonnes/y of zircon. Output for the year to end-March 2016 was reported as: 33,625 tonnes of pigment (versus 26,500 tonnes in the previous year); 39,075 tonnes of synrutile; 65,630 tonnes of ilmenite and 5346 tonnes of zircon. In addition to producing titanium tetrachloride for its own captive needs for making pigment and metal, KMML also sold 5088 tonnes of titanium tetrachloride to third party customers. Original Source: Chemical Weekly, 19 Apr 2016, 146 (Website: http://www. chemicalweekly.com) © Sevak Publications & Chemical Weekly Database P Ltd 2016
India: Bodal – dyes & intermediates Bodal Chemicals Ltd (headquartered in Ahmedabad) has received the necessary approvals from the Federal Environment Ministry for its plan to
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Mexico: Chemours – TiO2 Chemours Co announced in mid-May that it had begun the commercial
start-up phase of operations at its second 200,000 tonnes/y production line at its chloride-route TiO2 pigment plant at Altamira (Tamaulipas province), about 15 km north of the port of Tampico. Mechanical completion had been achieved before the end of December 2015 and plant commissioning trials have been taking place during the first four months of this year. The company is now running the second line to produce Ti-Pure pigments for customer qualification. Total nameplate capacity at the Altamira plant is now 400,000 tonnes/ y. Chemours also has two 375,000 tonnes/y plants in the southern US – one at New Johnsonville, TN and one at DeLisle, MS – and a 150,000 tonnes/y plant at KuanYin (Taiwan). Altogether, the company's TiO2 pigment capacity is now 1.3 M tonnes/y, which is more than 70% higher than either of its closest rivals (Cristal and Huntsman). The project to install a second line at Altamira had been first announced back in May 2011. At that time, budgeted capital investment had been in excess of $500 M, indicating $2500 per tonne/y of capacity. (See also 'Focus on Pigments', Jun 2011, 5). Originally, the plant was due to be ready for operation by the end of 2014, but it seems that the project was deliberately delayed because of global TiO2 market conditions. Commenting on the start-up of the second line at Altamira, Mr Mark Vergnano (President & CEO) said: "Production on the new line is expected to ramp up steadily with full nameplate capacity of 200,000 tonnes/y being achieved over a few years. As this happens, we will balance capacity utilisation across our four plants to align with our customers' needs. The commercial start-up at Altamira will help us achieve the near-term cost reduction objectives and future growth in our fivepoint transformation plan. We will leverage the facility's low-cost capability to supply the high-quality products that our customers expect from our global manufacturing network. We have the lowest sustainable TiO2 production costs in the world due to the scale of our facilities, our proprietary manufacturing processes and knowhow, and our ability to use a wide variety of TiO2 feedstocks. We are now working towards the goal of reducing our overall costs of TiO2 pigment manufacture by $20 M per annum.'' For 1Q 2016, Chemours Titanium Technologies reported profits (adjusted earnings before interest, tax, June 2016
FOCUS depreciation and amortisation) at $54 M on sales revenues of $521 M. Both figures were 4% lower than pro forma figures for 1Q 2015, at a time when the TiO2 business was still part of the DuPont group. The 4% drop in sales revenue was attributable to a 16% fall in average realised selling prices and a 1% adverse movement of foreign exchange rates, offset by a 13% increase in sales volume. Chemours reported that TiO2 sales volumes were higher in all market regions except China and Latin America. Although average prices for TiO2 pigment are much lower than they were a year ago, Chemours indicated that they had shown a modest increase between end-December 2015 and end-March 2016. Original Source: Chemours Co, 2 & 17 May 2016 (1007 Market Street, PO Box 2047, Wilmington, DE 19899, USA, Website: http:// www.chemours.com) © Chemours 2016
Saudi Arabia: Cristal – TiO2 feedstock In November 2011, Cristal Global (aka National Titanium Dioxide Co, headquartered in Jeddah) declared its intention to build one of the world's largest ilmenite smelters, with an initial capacity for processing about 800,000 tonnes/y of ilmenite to make 500,000 tonnes/y of TiO2 slag (containing at least 85% TiO2) and 235,000 tonnes/y of pig iron. The TiO2 slag would become the exclusive feedstock for Cristal's 200,000 tonnes/y chloride-route TiO2 pigment plant at Yanbu (more than 1000 km north along the Red Sea coast from Jazan). Outotec was awarded a lump-sum turnkey contract worth more than €350 M to design, build and commission the smelter. Originally, the smelter was going to be built at Cristal's Yanbu complex, but the location was switched at a fairly early stage to Jazan (725 km south of Jeddah and 80 km from the Saudi/Yemeni border). Construction work began in June 2012, with commercial production due to begin during the second half of 2014. (See also 'Focus on Pigments', Mar 2015, 6). However, in March 2015, a fire broke out at the unfinished ilmenite smelter. In July 2015, Cristal announced that its project had been delayed as a result of various technical problems and the need to carry out repairs. On 16 January 2016, Base Resources announced that it had received a notice of force majeure from Cristal, seeking to
June 2016
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suspend its obligations under a four year contract, whereby Base Resources was due to ship 100,000 tonnes/y of ilmenite from its Kenyan mine to Cristal's smelter at Jazan. In that notice, Cristal stated that it could not estimate how long it would take to rectify and repair the smelter. Three months later, Cristal announced that it was aiming to commence commercial-scale production at the ilmenite smelter during the first quarter of 2017. Original Source: TiO2 Worldwide Update, May/ Jun 2016, 24 (1) 16 (Website: http://www. artikol.com) © Artikol 2016. Original Source: Chemical Business, 11-17 Apr 2016, 289 (13), 8 (Website: http://www.icis.com) © Reed Business Information Limited 2016.
US: Huntsman – iron oxide pigments Huntsman Pigments & Additives held an inauguration ceremony on 17 May 2016 to mark the opening of its new iron oxide pigments plant at Augusta in Richmond County, GA. This is the first synthetic iron oxide pigments plant to be built in the US since the 1970s. The plant has been designed to produce a range of red, yellow and black pigments. Total nameplate capacity is quoted as 30,000 tonnes/y. This is significantly lower than the estimate of 100,000 tonnes/y that figured in earlier reports. (See 'Focus on Pigments', Jul 2015, 5). Total capital investment in the project exceeded $172 M, indicating more than $5730 per tonne/y of pigment capacity. The plant was built on a 48.5 hectares (120 acres) site near the regional airport, 15 km south of the citycentre. now provides employment for just over 100 people. The decision to build the new iron oxide pigments plant was first announced by Rockwood back in December 2011. At that time, the cost of the project was estimated at $115 M. Rockwood had intended to bring the plant on-stream before the end of 2014 and had declared that, once the new plant was up and running, it would shut down its St Louis, MO iron oxide pigments plant and would retrench some of its capacity at Beltsville, MD. The schedule was disrupted by unusually bad weather conditions, including heavy rain for three months during early 2014. There had already been a hiatus resulting from the announcement in September 2013 that Huntsman had made an acceptable offer to buy Rockwood's entire pigments business. The Huntsman takeover was completed in October 2014. About six
months after that, Huntsman confirmed that it would close the St Louis plant by the end of 2015, as well two other coloured pigment plants at Cartersville, GA and King of Prussia, PA. Meanwhile, the Beltsville plant was unaffected and this plant continues to be a valuable source of iron oxide pigments production. During the past year, Huntsman has been importing into Beltsville iron oxide from the DCW synrutile plant at Sahupuram in southern India. (See also 'Focus on Pigments', Sep 2015, 2). In its press-release announcing the Augusta plant opening, Huntsman declared that the plant represents a "step-change in iron oxide manufacturing'', with a high level of automation in process operations and at the packaging end. Also, "careful infrastructure and asset planning has eliminated a drying step that would normally be present at a stand-alone pigments production plant.'' Huntsman also noted that some of the raw material supplies for the Augusta plant will be sourced from other plants in the group, including perhaps Huntsman's sulfate-route TiO2 plants. Finished iron oxide pigments are mostly shipped to customers in 1000 kilo bulk bags. Mr Jan Buberl (Vice President Sales & Marketing, Color Pigments & Timber Treatment) said: "After years of hard work on site, it is incredibly satisfying to see our new pigments plant up and running. Our new facility in Augusta increases our global manufacturing base and it will enable us to better meet the needs of customers across the Americas. Producing product closer to their operations means we can offer better delivery times and greater security of supply. It also improves the environmental footprint of our supply chain." Mr Simon Turner (President, Pigments & Additives) commented: "The Augusta plant will act as a North American hub for our Pigments division. You can always build these things cheaper somewhere else, but we wanted to be here close to our American customers. We wanted to be in the United States because our customers value local suppliers. Rockwood had decided on the Augusta site because of its proximity to major transportation and utility systems. This was a project that Huntsman was happy to take on and finish.'' Original Source: Huntsman Corp, The Woodlands, TX, USA (17 May 2016) © Huntsman 2016
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nearly treble its capacity for producing dyes and intermediates at three locations in Gujarat province (Ahmedabad, Panoli and Vadodara). Total capacity will rise from 26,400 tonnes/y to 72,000 tonnes/y. The company also plans to install a 5 MW co-generation power unit at the Ahmedabad site. Bodal Chemicals was founded as JK Pharma in 1989. It changed its name to Dintex Chemicals in the 1990s and then changed its name again to Bodal Chemicals in 2006. Mr Suresh Patel (Chairman & Managing Director) was one of the company's founders and he has always been the main driving force over the past 25 years. For the year to end-March 2015, Bodal's sales revenues passed the Rup 100 M mark for the first time. Pre-tax profits were reported as Rup 9.2 M on sales revenues of Rup 105 M. Original Source: Chemical Weekly, 19 Apr 2016, 144 (Website: http://www. chemicalweekly.com) © Sevak Publications & Chemical Weekly Database P Ltd 2016
China: Domo – plastic compounds At the end of April 2016, Domo Chemicals GmbH (headquartered in Leuna, Germany) started-up a new 10,000 tonnes/y polyamide plastics compounding plant at Jiaxing in northern Zhejiang province (100 km southwest of Shanghai). The plant has been designed to facilitate expansion to 15,000 tonnes/y in 2017 and to 20,000 tonnes/y by 2019. From this plant, Domo will be able to offer a fastresponse colour matching service for pre-coloured polyamide compounds. It will also supply Domamid PA-66, PA-6 and high-temperature functionalised compounds for electrical, automotive and consumer good sectors, as well as Domo's Econamid polymers based on post-industrial waste feedstock. Domo Chemicals is a multinational specialist in nylon and engineering plastics, with plants in Germany, Italy and the US. The company is owned by Domo Investments (headquartered in Zwijnaarde, Belgium). Original Source: Compounding World, May 2016, 12 (Website: http://www.amiplastics. com/mags) © Applied Market Information Ltd 2016
India: KMML – TiO2 Kerala Minerals & Metals Ltd (KMML) operates one of the few fully integrated TiO2 complexes in the world at its Sankaramangalam site (120 km south of Kochi city-centre). The company is owned by the Kerala provincial government and its currently installed capacity was recently reported as: 40,000 tonnes/y of chloride-route TiO2 pigment; 500 tonnes/y of titanium sponge metal; 50,000 tonnes/y of synrutile; 62,000 tonnes/y of ilmenite; 4400 tonnes/y of rutile; and 6500 tonnes/y of zircon. Output for the year to end-March 2016 was reported as: 33,625 tonnes of pigment (versus 26,500 tonnes in the previous year); 39,075 tonnes of synrutile; 65,630 tonnes of ilmenite and 5346 tonnes of zircon. In addition to producing titanium tetrachloride for its own captive needs for making pigment and metal, KMML also sold 5088 tonnes of titanium tetrachloride to third party customers. Original Source: Chemical Weekly, 19 Apr 2016, 146 (Website: http://www. chemicalweekly.com) © Sevak Publications & Chemical Weekly Database P Ltd 2016
India: Bodal – dyes & intermediates Bodal Chemicals Ltd (headquartered in Ahmedabad) has received the necessary approvals from the Federal Environment Ministry for its plan to
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Mexico: Chemours – TiO2 Chemours Co announced in mid-May that it had begun the commercial
start-up phase of operations at its second 200,000 tonnes/y production line at its chloride-route TiO2 pigment plant at Altamira (Tamaulipas province), about 15 km north of the port of Tampico. Mechanical completion had been achieved before the end of December 2015 and plant commissioning trials have been taking place during the first four months of this year. The company is now running the second line to produce Ti-Pure pigments for customer qualification. Total nameplate capacity at the Altamira plant is now 400,000 tonnes/ y. Chemours also has two 375,000 tonnes/y plants in the southern US – one at New Johnsonville, TN and one at DeLisle, MS – and a 150,000 tonnes/y plant at KuanYin (Taiwan). Altogether, the company's TiO2 pigment capacity is now 1.3 M tonnes/y, which is more than 70% higher than either of its closest rivals (Cristal and Huntsman). The project to install a second line at Altamira had been first announced back in May 2011. At that time, budgeted capital investment had been in excess of $500 M, indicating $2500 per tonne/y of capacity. (See also 'Focus on Pigments', Jun 2011, 5). Originally, the plant was due to be ready for operation by the end of 2014, but it seems that the project was deliberately delayed because of global TiO2 market conditions. Commenting on the start-up of the second line at Altamira, Mr Mark Vergnano (President & CEO) said: "Production on the new line is expected to ramp up steadily with full nameplate capacity of 200,000 tonnes/y being achieved over a few years. As this happens, we will balance capacity utilisation across our four plants to align with our customers' needs. The commercial start-up at Altamira will help us achieve the near-term cost reduction objectives and future growth in our fivepoint transformation plan. We will leverage the facility's low-cost capability to supply the high-quality products that our customers expect from our global manufacturing network. We have the lowest sustainable TiO2 production costs in the world due to the scale of our facilities, our proprietary manufacturing processes and knowhow, and our ability to use a wide variety of TiO2 feedstocks. We are now working towards the goal of reducing our overall costs of TiO2 pigment manufacture by $20 M per annum.'' For 1Q 2016, Chemours Titanium Technologies reported profits (adjusted earnings before interest, tax, June 2016
FOCUS depreciation and amortisation) at $54 M on sales revenues of $521 M. Both figures were 4% lower than pro forma figures for 1Q 2015, at a time when the TiO2 business was still part of the DuPont group. The 4% drop in sales revenue was attributable to a 16% fall in average realised selling prices and a 1% adverse movement of foreign exchange rates, offset by a 13% increase in sales volume. Chemours reported that TiO2 sales volumes were higher in all market regions except China and Latin America. Although average prices for TiO2 pigment are much lower than they were a year ago, Chemours indicated that they had shown a modest increase between end-December 2015 and end-March 2016. Original Source: Chemours Co, 2 & 17 May 2016 (1007 Market Street, PO Box 2047, Wilmington, DE 19899, USA, Website: http:// www.chemours.com) © Chemours 2016
Saudi Arabia: Cristal – TiO2 feedstock In November 2011, Cristal Global (aka National Titanium Dioxide Co, headquartered in Jeddah) declared its intention to build one of the world's largest ilmenite smelters, with an initial capacity for processing about 800,000 tonnes/y of ilmenite to make 500,000 tonnes/y of TiO2 slag (containing at least 85% TiO2) and 235,000 tonnes/y of pig iron. The TiO2 slag would become the exclusive feedstock for Cristal's 200,000 tonnes/y chloride-route TiO2 pigment plant at Yanbu (more than 1000 km north along the Red Sea coast from Jazan). Outotec was awarded a lump-sum turnkey contract worth more than €350 M to design, build and commission the smelter. Originally, the smelter was going to be built at Cristal's Yanbu complex, but the location was switched at a fairly early stage to Jazan (725 km south of Jeddah and 80 km from the Saudi/Yemeni border). Construction work began in June 2012, with commercial production due to begin during the second half of 2014. (See also 'Focus on Pigments', Mar 2015, 6). However, in March 2015, a fire broke out at the unfinished ilmenite smelter. In July 2015, Cristal announced that its project had been delayed as a result of various technical problems and the need to carry out repairs. On 16 January 2016, Base Resources announced that it had received a notice of force majeure from Cristal, seeking to
June 2016
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suspend its obligations under a four year contract, whereby Base Resources was due to ship 100,000 tonnes/y of ilmenite from its Kenyan mine to Cristal's smelter at Jazan. In that notice, Cristal stated that it could not estimate how long it would take to rectify and repair the smelter. Three months later, Cristal announced that it was aiming to commence commercial-scale production at the ilmenite smelter during the first quarter of 2017. Original Source: TiO2 Worldwide Update, May/ Jun 2016, 24 (1) 16 (Website: http://www. artikol.com) © Artikol 2016. Original Source: Chemical Business, 11-17 Apr 2016, 289 (13), 8 (Website: http://www.icis.com) © Reed Business Information Limited 2016.
US: Huntsman – iron oxide pigments Huntsman Pigments & Additives held an inauguration ceremony on 17 May 2016 to mark the opening of its new iron oxide pigments plant at Augusta in Richmond County, GA. This is the first synthetic iron oxide pigments plant to be built in the US since the 1970s. The plant has been designed to produce a range of red, yellow and black pigments. Total nameplate capacity is quoted as 30,000 tonnes/y. This is significantly lower than the estimate of 100,000 tonnes/y that figured in earlier reports. (See 'Focus on Pigments', Jul 2015, 5). Total capital investment in the project exceeded $172 M, indicating more than $5730 per tonne/y of pigment capacity. The plant was built on a 48.5 hectares (120 acres) site near the regional airport, 15 km south of the citycentre. now provides employment for just over 100 people. The decision to build the new iron oxide pigments plant was first announced by Rockwood back in December 2011. At that time, the cost of the project was estimated at $115 M. Rockwood had intended to bring the plant on-stream before the end of 2014 and had declared that, once the new plant was up and running, it would shut down its St Louis, MO iron oxide pigments plant and would retrench some of its capacity at Beltsville, MD. The schedule was disrupted by unusually bad weather conditions, including heavy rain for three months during early 2014. There had already been a hiatus resulting from the announcement in September 2013 that Huntsman had made an acceptable offer to buy Rockwood's entire pigments business. The Huntsman takeover was completed in October 2014. About six
months after that, Huntsman confirmed that it would close the St Louis plant by the end of 2015, as well two other coloured pigment plants at Cartersville, GA and King of Prussia, PA. Meanwhile, the Beltsville plant was unaffected and this plant continues to be a valuable source of iron oxide pigments production. During the past year, Huntsman has been importing into Beltsville iron oxide from the DCW synrutile plant at Sahupuram in southern India. (See also 'Focus on Pigments', Sep 2015, 2). In its press-release announcing the Augusta plant opening, Huntsman declared that the plant represents a "step-change in iron oxide manufacturing'', with a high level of automation in process operations and at the packaging end. Also, "careful infrastructure and asset planning has eliminated a drying step that would normally be present at a stand-alone pigments production plant.'' Huntsman also noted that some of the raw material supplies for the Augusta plant will be sourced from other plants in the group, including perhaps Huntsman's sulfate-route TiO2 plants. Finished iron oxide pigments are mostly shipped to customers in 1000 kilo bulk bags. Mr Jan Buberl (Vice President Sales & Marketing, Color Pigments & Timber Treatment) said: "After years of hard work on site, it is incredibly satisfying to see our new pigments plant up and running. Our new facility in Augusta increases our global manufacturing base and it will enable us to better meet the needs of customers across the Americas. Producing product closer to their operations means we can offer better delivery times and greater security of supply. It also improves the environmental footprint of our supply chain." Mr Simon Turner (President, Pigments & Additives) commented: "The Augusta plant will act as a North American hub for our Pigments division. You can always build these things cheaper somewhere else, but we wanted to be here close to our American customers. We wanted to be in the United States because our customers value local suppliers. Rockwood had decided on the Augusta site because of its proximity to major transportation and utility systems. This was a project that Huntsman was happy to take on and finish.'' Original Source: Huntsman Corp, The Woodlands, TX, USA (17 May 2016) © Huntsman 2016
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