Coatings World - July 2012

facilities. They want to take advantage of the high TiO2 prices to make up for a lengthy period of low profitability.

TiO2 producers perceive specialities as having more enduring margins because of their added value and the opportunities they provide to exploit niche segments.

Europe is particularly suitable for making speciality TiO2 because of the predominance of the sulphate as opposed to the chloride process for the production of the pigment in the region.

The sulphate process, which accounts for around two-thirds of the region’s TiO2 annual capacity of about 1.5 million tons, produces the pigment in both the rutile and anatase chrystal forms, with the latter being preferable for coatings and anatase for specialities like cosmetics, personal care products, foods and pharmaceutical excipients. The chloride process produces only the rutile form.

Sachtleben, which became a joint venture four years ago with Rockwood having the majority ownership, makes TiO2 for textiles, packaging films and inks, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food, liquid chromatography as well as the major uses of TiO2—coatings, plastics and paper. But even for these three sectors it makes mainly high-grade specialty grades.

Last year Rockwood reported that its titanium dioxide business comprising Sachtleben recorded a 23 percent increase in sales to $930 million with a 99 percent rise in earning before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to $258 million—equivalent to a margin of 28 percent.

Crenox, which has annual sales of around €170 million ($217 million) with staff of 550 all of whom will be retained after the merger, says that it does not expect any objections from the competition authorities to the takeover because the two entities operate in different sectors of TiO2 market.

“At the moment 50-60 percent of our output goes into coatings, 25 percent plastics and the rest to paper production and specialities, such as catalysts for vehicle exhaust and chemicals and petrochemicals production,” said Berendt Koehler, crenox’s marketing director.

“Specialities are appealing to a sulphate
TiO2 producer because of their margins,”
Koehler said. “But a lot depends on de-
mand. The volumes of speciality grades are
pretty small. On the other hand there are
segments where there is little competition.”
Sachtleben now plans to optimize pro-
duction between its three plants in order
to exploit market openings. The addition
of the crenox unit “provides us with a fi-
nancially attractive capacity expansion to
meet the growing needs of customers in all
market segments,” said Vernon Sumner,
Sachtleben’s chief executive.

Use grind gages more consistently.

Little Joe Industries offers the ADM Automatic Draw-Down Machine for use with grind gages. The ADM automates the draw down process controlling scraper angle, speed, and force. Since these aspects are no longer operator dependent your grind gage draw-downs will be more consistent while requiring less operator training and supervision.