Arabia, closed a sulphate unit at Le Havre, France, over a year
ago. But it has recently shown that poor performing chloride
facilities are also under threat when it announced in February
that it would be closing a 150,000 ton-a-year chloride unit at
Stallingborough, England.
The withdrawal of the UK capacity will be offset by Cristal’s
expansion of a chloride facility in Saudi Arabia which has one
of the lowest production costs levels in the world.
Europe’s TiO production capacity for supplies for coatings
2
applications will shrink even further as a result of moves by
some producers to switch more of their output into specialty
applications.
The recently merged TiO activities of Sachtleben Chemie of
2
Germany and Kemira of Finland, under the majority ownership of Rockwood Holdings of the U.S., will accelerate the complete shift of a total of 210,000 tons a year of sulphate capacity
into niche sectors outside coatings. These include printing inks,
fibers, plastics, cosmetics and personal care products.
“We are still supplying the bulk coatings market but we are
now predominantly a maker of specialty TiO products,” said
2
Tim McKenna, Rockwood’s investor relations manager. “The
sulphate process is suitable for certain niche segments because
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EUROPE
the additional control it provides on particle size. We are developing new speciality markets for it.”
TiO producers in Europe are reporting a levelling out of the
2
decline in TiO prices. This has prompted a series of announce-
2
ments of price increases, which are unlikely to be accepted by
customers without a significant rise in downstream demand.
The potential for big price rises will be considerably stronger
when the market recovers because it could coincide with supply shortages. TZ Mineral International (TZMI), the
Australian-based TiO consultancy, is predicting scarcities in
2
2010/11 because of permanent plant closures in Europe, as well
as in the U.S.
“By 2010 TZMI expects some reasonable recovery in the
profitability of the sector on the back of some hard decisions by
major producers to shut high cost assets and a recovery in
product pricing,” said David McCoy, senior partner at TZMI.
“We are entering a period of major change for the titanium
dioxide sector.”
He predicts the impetus behind the resulting TiO price
2
increases will not ease until 2012 onwards when the addition-
al capacity, financed by the higher profits of the TiO produc-
2
ers, will start to come on stream. CW
