(25 km up-river from Montreal),declaring a lock-out of the 320employees there. This followed a 93%vote to reject the company’s plan torecruit more contract workers.Unionised employees at Varennesclaim that implementation of the planwould mean a reduction of thepermanent workforce by about 33%.The dispute had not been resolved bythe end of July, by which time sevenweeks’ production had been lost.There are two TiO2 plants atVarennes: an 86,000 tonnes/ychloride-route facility and an 18,000tonnes/y sulfate-route facility.

Original Source: TiO2 Worldwide Update, Aug 2013,21 (2), 22 (Website: http://www.artikol.com) © Artikol2013

China & India: Schulman – plasticsmasterbatch

A Schulman Inc (headquartered inCopley, OH) started up a 10,000tonnes/y plastics masterbatch plant atVadodara/Baroda (Gujarat province,India) during April 2013. The plantprovides employment for 30 peopleand caters for the expanding flexiblepackaging, appliance, and consumerproduct markets in this region. TheVadodara plant representsSchulman’s first manufacturinginvestment in India and its fifth in theAsia/Pacific region as a whole.

Schulman has also declared itsintention to expand its Dongguan(Guangdong province, China)complex. Towards the end of 2012,the company installed a plant atDongguan for making 30,000 tonnes/yof engineering plastic compounds andmasterbatches. Over the next 18months, it will raise total capacity hereto 69,000 tonnes/y.

Original Source: European Plastics News, 23 May2013, (Website:http://www.europeanplasticsnews.com/) © CrainCommunications Inc 2013

China: Connect Wilson – colour formersfor thermal & carbonless papers

Connect Chemicals GmbH(headquartered in Ratingen,Germany) is spending $30 M to builda new facility at Penglai (Shandongprovince, 280 km north of Qingdao)for the manufacture of more than4000 tonnes/y of WinCon colour-formers for use in thermal and

carbonless papers. The companystates that a new type of technologywill be employed here. ConnectWilson, the wholly-owned subsidiaryresponsible for operating this plant,already produces about 3000tonnes/y of colour-formers at Penglai.It foresees continued strong demandgrowth in China, South Korea, Braziland other ‘emerging markets.’ Thecompany also produces variouschemical intermediates at this site,including aminobenzene derivativessuitable for the textile dye andpharmaceutical sectors. ConnectWilson employs about 200 people atthe Penglai complex.

Original Source: Speciality Chemicals, Jun 2013, 33(6), (Website: http://www.specchemonline.com) © Quartz Business Media Ltd 2013

China: DyStar – indigo

DyStar (now based in Singapore andpart of the Zhejiang Longshenggroup) has opened a secondproduction line at its synthetic indigoplant in Nanjing (Jiangsu province).The new line has a capacity of 12,000tonnes/y, presumably doubling totalcapacity here. Design improvements,stemming from experience at both theexisting Nanjing and Ludwigshafenfacilities, were fully incorporated intothe design of the new line.

Original Source: Chemical and Engineering News, 22Apr 2013, 91 (16), 18 (Website: http://www.cen-online.org) © American Chemical Society 2013

Europe: Gabriel – masterbatch

In our May issue, we reported onGabriel Chemie’s project to establishits seventh plastics masterbatch plant– a new facility at Alabuga in theTatarstan region of Russia – and weidentified the locations of the existingsix plants in Austria, Czech Republic,Germany, Hungary, Russia and theUK. (See ‘Focus on Pigments’, May2013, 6). It has subsequently beenrevealed that the company’s totalmasterbatch capacity is now 30,000tonnes/y

Gabriel’s business is structuredinto several business segments:Building & Agriculture, CosmeticsPackaging, Food & BeveragePackaging, Packaging for Industrial &Consumer Goods, Home & Lifestyleand Medical. Its products pipelineconsists mainly of Maxithen grades

with polymer-specific carrier materialsand Unimax products based onuniversal carriers.

Original Source: Compounding World, Jun 2013, 70(Website: http://www.amiplastics.com/mags) © Applied Market Information Ltd 2013

India: KMML – TiO2

Kerala Minerals & Metals Ltd (KMML)has revived a two-stage project toraise its TiO2 pigment capacity from40,000 tonnes/y to 100,000 tonnes/y.KMML’s TiO2 pigment plant is locatedin the Sankaramangalam district ofChavara and it was originallycommissioned in 1986, employingchloride-route technology supplied byKerr-McGee (now Tronox). At aboutthe same time, a 30,000 tonnes/yBenilite-type synrutile plant wasinstalled at the same site, the ilmeniteinput for which is mined captively fromnearby beach sands. The company’smineral separation plant is sited onthe coast, about 2 km west of theSankaramangalam chemical complex.

The project to raise pigmentcapacity to 100,000 tonnes/y was firstannounced in mid-2004. During thefollowing year, contracts wereawarded to Mecon Ltd (the State-controlled project consultancycompany, headquartered in Ranchi)for overall engineering and designwork and to Outotec (of Finland) forthe design and engineering of a130,000 tonnes/y synrutile plant. (See‘Focus on Pigments’, Dec 2005, 4 &May 2006, 3). However, there seemsto have been little or no progresssince then.

Meanwhile, KMML’s focus shiftedtowards the establishment of atitanium sponge metal plant atSankaramangalam. This plant wasdesigned by the Government’sDefence Metallurgical ResearchLaboratory (DMRL), based inHyderabad. Construction work beganin December 2006 and the plant cameon-stream in mid-2010, with an initialcapacity for making 500 tonnes/y oftitanium sponge metal. Within the nexttwo years, KML intends to doublecapacity to 1000 tonnes/y. It will alsogenerate 2000 tonnes/y of by-productmagnesium chloride, which would besuitable for the welding materialssector.

The drive to move ahead with theTiO2 pigment plant expansion has

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received fresh support from MrMichael Vetha Siromony, who will takeover as Managing Director from MrTom Jose, effective 19 July 2013.

Original Source: Business Line, 22 Jun 2013, 20(173), 15 (Website:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/) © The HinduBusiness Line 2013

India: UPL – ultramarine, bismuthvanadate, cobalt aluminate &surfactants

Ultramarine & Pigments Ltd (UPL)plans to establish a third chemicalcomplex on a greenfields site at Dahej(Gujarat province). The companyalready has two chemical complexesin Tamil Nadu province, one in theAmbattur district of Chennai, the otherin the Sipcot district of Ranipet. Bothsites house ultramarine pigmentplants and the Ranipet site also hasplants making bismuth vanadateyellow and cobalt aluminate blue. Thecompany moved into the surfactantsbusiness in 1973 and this has nowbecome the major focus of thecompany’s activities. UPL reportedtotal sales revenue at around $23 Mfor the latest fiscal year, with therevenue breakdown as: 50% fromsurfactants, 25% from pigments and25% from other activities, includingwind-power generation andinformation technology services.

The first facilities to be established atthe new Dahej complex will be for themanufacture of speciality surfactants,designed for use in shampoos,toothpastes and liquid detergents.These facilities should come on-streamin 2015. Hindustan Unilever is already amajor customer for UPL’s surfactantsproduced in Tamil Nadu and thiscompany is expected to account forabout 30% of the surfactants outputgenerated at Dahej. Initial investment inthe Dahej project has been budgeted atRup 420 M (equivalent to $7.1 M),which will be financed from internalreserves and debt. Mr RangaswamySampath (Managing Director of UPL)said: “Our company has an unusedland bank of more than 150 acres (61hectares) in Tamil Nadu, part of whichcould be monetised to repay theborrowings by the time the Dahejproject commissions.”

Original Source: Chemical Weekly, 28 May 2013, 150(Website: http://www.chemicalweekly.com/) © SevakPublications & Chemical Weekly Database P Ltd 2013

Malaysia: Cabot – carbon black

Cabot Malaysia Sdn Bhd (CMSB) willshut down its 80,000 tonnes/y carbonblack plant at Port Dickson at the endof July 2013. The plant is owned 51%by Cabot Corp (of the US) and 49%by the Malaysian Government andvarious Malaysian private investors. Itis located in Negeri Simbilan provinceon the west coast of Malaysia.Production inefficiencies and risingraw material costs were cited as themajor reasons for the closuredecision, which will entail the loss of90 jobs. The cost of shutting down thisplant has been assessed at $28 M,which will be booked as a $13 M cashcharge plus a $15 M non-cash chargeagainst 2013 profits. Savings resultingfrom this move are estimated at $7 Mper year. Meanwhile, Cabot willcontinue to operate a separate plantat the Port Dickson site, producingelastomer composites.

Cabot’s carbon black customers inthe Asia/Pacific region will continue tobe supplied from the company’s otherseven plants in the region, two inIndonesia, two in China, two in Japanand one in India.

Original Source: Chimie Pharma Hebdo, 7 May 2013,(633), (Website: http://www.industrie.com/chimie) (in French) © ETAI Information 2013

Russia: NorthWestern Ecotechnologies– carbon black from scrap tyres

NorthWestern Ecotechnologies plansto set up a network of tyre recyclingplants across Russia. The first ofthese plants will be sited in theVyborgsky district of Leningrad oblast.About Rbl 100 M (roughly $3 M) willbe invested in the installation of aplant here, employing a pyrolysisprocess designed to process 6000tonnes/y of scrap tyres to producepyrolysis oil and carbon black asmarketable products.

Original Source: RCCnews, 30 Apr 2013, (Website:http://www.rccnews.ru/eng) © RCCnews.ru 2013

Saudi Arabia: Al-Jazeera Paints & Al-Sorayai – calcium carbonate

Al-Jazeera Paints Co (of KhamisMushayt, 670 km southeast ofJeddah) and the Al-Sorayai grouphave signed a memorandum ofunderstanding for a joint venture tobuild and operate a calcium carbonateplant in Jeddah. The plant is expected

to come on-stream in 3Q 2014. Asyet, no details have been released asto the scale of the plant or as to thebudgeted capital cost.

Original Source: Al-Jazeera Paints Co, PO Box 1900,Khamis Mushayt, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, tel: +9667221 1111 (5 Jul 2013) © Al-Jazeera Paints Co 2013

Ukraine: Krymsky Titan – TiO2

In November 2011, Mr Dmitry Firtash(Chairman of Group DF) announcedthat he planned to invest $250 M todouble the capacity of the ArmyanskTiO2 pigment plant of Krymsky Titan.The budget for this project has nowbeen raised to $300 M. Mr Firtashrecently confirmed that a feasibilitystudy for the expansion is nearingcompletion and construction workshould begin during the second half ofthis year, with the additional capacitycoming on-stream during 2015. HatchEngineering (of Canada) and TZMI (ofAustralia) were the main consultantsfor the feasibility study. Mr Firtashsaid: “We are planning to produce240,000 tonnes/y of TiO2, which willbe about 4% of the total globalmarket.” To cater for the anticipatedadditional acid requirements, KrymskyTitan has already increased itssulfuric acid capacity at Armyansk to600,000 tonnes/y. Construction workon the acid expansion project wascommenced in September 2008 andcompletion was marked by an officialinauguration ceremony on 27 April2012, attended by the PresidentViktor Yanukovych.

In 2012, Krymsky Titan produced106,330 tonnes of TiO2 pigment,compared against 108,069 tonnes in2011 and 105,681 tonnes in 2010.The second producer in Ukraine –Khimpromy Sumy – reported output at39,310 tonnes for 2012, versus45,700 tonnes for 2011. TotalUkrainian output was 145,640 tonnesin 2012, representing a drop of 5.5%on the previous year.

Ukraine’s TiO2 pigment exportsdropped from 138,000 tonnes in 2011to 135,000 tonnes in 2012. Russia,Germany and Turkey were once againthe main destinations for Ukrainianexports. Imports into the Ukraine fellfrom 7150 tonnes in 2011 to 6500tonnes in 2012. Domestic TiO2pigment sales fell by 25% to reach16,400 tonnes in 2012.

Prior to December 2012, GroupDF’s shareholding in Krymsky Titan

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