The sulfate-route TiO2 plant wasretained and subsequently expandedto 30,000 tonnes/y. The titaniumtetrachloride plant was also retainedand subsequently expanded to 10,000tonnes/y.

By the early 1970s, both PPC andThann & Mulhouse had becomesubsidiaries within the Rhône Poulencgroup. PPC was sold to Ethyl Corp (aforerunner of Albemarle Corp) in1993. Thann & Mulhouse was sold toMillennium (a forerunner of CristalGlobal) at the end of 1997.

In April 2006, Albemarleannounced that it intended to shutdown PPC’s operations at Thann, butin fact the company was reprievedthanks to its acquisition byWeylChem, the fine chemicalssubsidiary of International ChemicalInvestors Group (ICIG). ICIG is aprivately owned Luxembourg- basedindustrial holding company, focusingon mid-sized chemical andpharmaceutical companies. IncludingPPC, ICIG owns 19 separateoperating companies with sites inGermany, France, Italy, Switzerland,Poland, Eire and the United States.Altogether, ICIG has more than 3400employees and generates annualsales revenues of around €800 M.

One of the main features of the €53M programme will be the conversion ofthe electrolytic facilities from mercury-based to membrane technology. Thisproject should be accomplished within28 months. Another feature will be themodernisation and expansion of thebromine chemicals facilities, includingimprovements in bromine recovery,which should lead to significant costsavings. This project should becompleted within 24 months. Chemie-anlagenbau Chemnitz has beenawarded engineering contracts for bothprojects.

Chlorine will continue to besupplied to Cristal for making titaniumtetrachloride and chlorosulfates, whichare important components of Cristal’soperations at Thann.

Original Source: Chimie Pharma Hebdo, 2 Apr 2013,(628), (Website: http://www.industrie.com/chimie/) (inFrench) © ETAI Information 2013

Germany: Dorfner – calcined kaolin

Gebr Dorfner has completed therefurbishment and upgrading of theolder of its two kaolin calcination

facilities at Hirschau (85 km east ofNuremberg). The project entailed aninvestment of more than €1 M and itwas completed within eight weeks.During that time, customerrequirements were fully met from thecompany’s second calcination facility,which continued to operate on athree-shift basis, seven days perweek. The second calciner wascommissioned in 2009. (See alsoFocus on Pigments, Apr 2009, 7). Nodetails were disclosed as to thecapacity of either of the two calciners.

Ing Christian Meindl (ProjectManager at Gebr Dorfner)commented: “The project wasscheduled to coincide with the onsetof cold weather. Experience showsthat the demand for fillers used inarchitectural paint tends to drop off atthat time of year. Despite the extent ofthe work carried out, we were able toguarantee security of supply to ourcustomers at all times. It was anamazing logistical feat when youconsider that a new rotary kiln shell,more than 33 metres in length andweighing 60 tonnes had to beinstalled on the existing line. Despitesnow and high winds, the XXL-sizekiln shell was delivered by large truckunder police escort and it wasinstalled as the core piece ofequipment on the line. The kiln thenhad to be relined with refractorybricks. We also installed a new andmore energy-efficient burner.”

Dorfner is a medium-sized, family-owned business, which traces itshistory back to 1895. The companymines kaolin and quartz in easternBavaria, processing these mineralsinto a range of functional fillerssupplied to the paint, plastics, paper,adhesive, ceramic, glass andcomposite material sectors. Recently,the company launched a new range ofsilanised products for water-repellentpaints and wood coatings, marketedunder the brandname Dorvalit.

Original Source: Gebrüder Dorfner GmbH & Co,Scharhof 1, 92242 Hirschau, Germany, tel: +49 9622820, website: http://www.dorfner.com (13 Jan & 26Feb 2013) © Gebr Dorfner 2013

Germany: Lanxess & Sachtleben –inorganic pigments

As part of a drive towards moreefficient usage of energy, ChemieparkKrefeld-Uerdingen has decided to

install a 1200 MW combined gas-and-steam power generation facilityinstead of the 750 MW coal-firedfacility that had been previouslyplanned. Proposals for the 1200 MWproject were duly approved by theregional authority in February 2013.The utility company Trianel (ofAachen) has been awarded thecontract for this project. The newpower plant will presumably cater forthe requirements of all Chemieparktenants, including the iron oxide andchromium oxide green pigment plantsof Lanxess and the sulfate-route TiO2plant of Sachtleben.

Original Source: ICIS Chemical Business, 4 Mar 2013,(Website: http://icischemicalbusiness.com) © ReedBusiness Information Ltd 2013

Indonesia & Thailand: JSR/Elastomix –carbon black masterbatch

Japan Synthetic Rubber Corp (JSR)and its subsidiary Elastomix Co areplanning to expand their jointly ownedcarbon black masterbatch businessserving the rubber industry inThailand and Indonesia.

The capacity of the plant at Rayong(Thailand) will be raised from 24,000tonnes/y to 39,000 tonnes/y, mainly tocater for rapidly growing demand frommanufacturers of automotivecomponents affiliated to Japanese carmanufacturers. Two years ago, JSR/Elastomix upgraded its Banbury No 9mixer at Rayong to process 9000tonnes/y. Then, towards the end oflast year, the company upgraded itsBanbury No 11 mixer to process15,000 tonnes/y. In June 2013,another 15,000 tonnes/y Banbury No11 mixer will be installed here. With acapacity of 39,000 tonnes/y, theRayong plant will be the largestsource of carbon black rubbermasterbatch in the ASEAN region.

JSR/Elastomix has also committedto the establishment of a new 9000tonnes/y carbon black rubbermasterbatch plant in Indonesia. Theplant will be located at Karawang(about 80 km southeast of Jakarta) inWest Java province. It will be built andoperated by a joint venture company,PT Elastomix Indonesia, owned 75%by JSR and 25% by PT ProspectMotor (of Bekasi, 30 km southeast ofJakarta). The joint venture iscapitalised at Rupiah 90 bn

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(equivalent to about $9.2 M). The newplant is scheduled to start-up in April2014.

Original Source: Japan Synthetic Rubber Corp, 1-9-2Higashi Shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, website:http://www.jsr.co.jp (14 Feb & 4 Mar 2013) © JSRCorp 2013

Russia: Gabriel – masterbatches

Gabriel Chemie plans to build a newmasterbatch plant at a 5 hectares sitein the Alabuga Special EconomicZone within Tatarstan republic/province (about 200 km east of Kazanand 1000 km east of Moscow).Construction work will commencelater this year and the plant should befully on-stream by 2015. It will have aninitial capacity for producing 4000tonnes/y of additive and colourmasterbatches, which will eventuallybe raised to 14,000 tonnes/y and willinclude black and whitemasterbatches. As well as themanufacturing plant, there will also bea laboratory and warehouse facilitieson the Alabuga site. Gabriel alreadyhas a masterbatch plant, laboratoryand warehouse at Ruzsky, anorthwestern suburb of Moscow.These facilities will remain here,together with the company’s Russiansales headquarters.

Gabriel Chemie is an independentprivately owned company, founded inAustria in 1950. It now employs 461people and it has six plants, namelyat: Moscow-Ruzsky (Russia); LazneBohdanec (10 km northwest ofPardubice, Czech Republic);Nyireghaza (50 km north ofDebrecen, Hungary); WeitnauOberallgäu (150 km southwest ofMunich, Germany); Paddock Wood(15 km southwest of Maidstone, UK);and Gumpoldskirchen (25 km south-southwest of Vienna, Austria). Lastyear, the company reported salesrevenue at €85.6 M, of which 25%was accounted for by sales tocustomers outside Europe.

Original Source: RCCnews, 20 Mar 2013, (Website:http://www.rccnews.ru/eng) © RCCnews.ru 2013

Saudi Arabia: PolyOne & Juffali –plastics masterbatch

The new $14 M coloured masterbatchplant at Jeddah on the Red Sea coastof Saudi Arabia recently commenced

production. It was built and will beoperated by Juffali PolyOneMasterbatch Co Ltd, which wasregistered in October 2011 and isowned 51% by PolyOne Corp (of AvonLake, OH) and 49% by EA Juffali &Brothers Co Ltd (headquartered inJeddah). The joint venture wasdescribed as the logical extension of 30years of cooperation between the twocompanies. (See also ‘Focus onPigments’, Dec 2011, 7).

Original Source: PolyOne Corp, 33587 Walker Road,Avon Lake, OH 44012, website:http://www.polyone.com (9 Apr 2013) © Polyone2013

United Kingdom: Cabot – fumed silica

Cabot Corp recently completed a 25%expansion of its fumed silica plant atBarry (15 km southwest of Cardiff,South Wales). No details were givenon the absolute capacity of the Barryplant, but it is known that Cabot is oneof the world’s two largest suppliers offumed silica.

Cabot has six fumed silica plantsaround the world – at Barry,Rheinfelden (Germany), Tuscola, ILand Midland, MI (United States),Mettur (India) and Jiujiang (Jiangxiprovince, China). The expansion atBarry was part of Cabot’s programmeto raise its worldwide capacity forfumed metal oxides by 35-40%between 2011 and 2014.

At its Barry site, Cabot has aninterdependent relationship with DowCorning, which runs a siliconemonomer plant at the adjacent site.Dow Corning supplies silanes toCabot for conversion to fumed silicaand Cabot supplies fumed silica toDow Corning for the manufacture ofcompounded silicones. Thisinterdependent relationship datesback to 1991.

Thanks to the recent project, Cabotcan now use a wider range of silaneraw materials to make a broaderportfolio of silicones. According toCabot, the world’s consumption offumed silica for making silicones ispoised to rise by 6-9% per annumover the next 10 years. Fumed silicawill also be used more widely in theadhesives, rubber and plasticsindustry.

Original Source: Chimie Pharma Hebdo, 2 Apr 2013,(628) (Website: http://www.industrie.com/chimie/) (inFrench) © ETAI Information 2013

COMPANIESSachtleben buys-out Kemira in order tofacilitate sale of its TiO2 business

Rockwood Holdings Inc has paid€97.5 M to buy out Kemira’s 39%stake in the Sachtleben joint venture.The agreement was signed on 14February and the transaction wasofficially completed within a week. Atthe same time as announcing thisacquisition, Rockwood made it clearthat it is hoping to dispose of its TiO2business later this year. Mr SeifiGhasemi (Chairman & CEO ofRockwood) said: “Given our priorstatements that the TiO2 business isnon-core, it is our key objective thisyear to explore and execute on thebest strategic option for Rockwood.Attaining 100% ownership of the jointventure provides us with the flexibilityto achieve this goal in the timeframeand manner most optimal formaximising shareholder value.” Tofurther facilitate the disposal ofSachtleben, Rockwood has used cashin hand to pay-off Sachtleben’s€394.5 M worth of term loans anddebt assumed under a revolving creditfacility.

Sachtleben Pigments was createdby the pooling of the TiO2 assets ofRockwood and Kemira and it begantrading with effect from 1 September2008. Sachtleben contributed its100,000 tonnes/y sulfate-route TiO2plant at Duisburg (Germany), whileKemira contributed its 130,000tonnes/y sulfate-route TiO2 plant atPori (Finland). The new entity, owned61% by Rockwood and 39% byKemira, had pro forma sales revenuesof €556 M for full-year 2007. (Seealso ‘Focus on Pigments’, Jul 2008,7). In July 2012, Sachtleben furtherexpanded by acquiring the 107,000tonnes/y sulfate-route TiO2 plant ofCrenox (formerly Tronox Deutschland)at Krefeld-Uerdingen (Germany).Sachtleben now employs 2250 people– 1150 at Duisburg, 550 at Krefeldand 550 at Pori.

Thus, Sachtleben became theworld’s sixth largest TiO2 multi-national, with a total TiO2 pigmentcapacity of nearly 340,000 tonnes/y.The company has a long-establishedreputation for supplying high-qualityspecialty grades of anatase TiO2 forthe synthetic fibre, printing ink, food,

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