Oct 31 2006
DuPont has announced that it will supply up to 100 million pounds of high purity titanium tetrachloride annually to Allegheny Titanium's new titanium metal plant in Toole County, Utah. The new facility will make approximately 10,000 tons of titanium metal per year. Allegheny Titanium is a subsidiary of Allegheny Technologies, Inc.
DuPont will invest $30 million at its New Johnsonville, Tenn., titanium dioxide plant to install a new purification unit to make titanium tetrachloride. The new unit is expected to begin operations in the summer of 2008. DuPont's unique titanium dioxide manufacturing technology allows the company to increase titanium tetrachloride production without affecting the company's capacity to produce titanium dioxide at New Johnsonville. DuPont is the world's largest manufacturer of titanium dioxide, a white pigment widely used in the coatings, plastics and paper industries.
"This is a real milestone for our new and growing titanium tetrachloride business and a boost for America's capability to make vital strategic material," said Rick Olson, vice president and general manager of DuPont Titanium Technologies. "While we're focused on titanium dioxide as our core business, we are aggressively expanding into a number of related technologies such as this."
Titanium tetrachloride is an intermediate chemical produced during the early steps of the chloride process of manufacturing titanium dioxide. In addition to its use in titanium metal manufacturing, it is essential to the production of certain plastics as well as films used in shopping bags and a broad spectrum of consumer products. The chemical also has specialized applications in pearlescent and metallic pigments used in products ranging from cars and cosmetics to bicycle helmets. Titanium metal is being used increasingly in everything from airplanes to sporting goods and chemical processing equipment.
"Our agreement with Allegheny Titanium is an example of the growth strategy we announced earlier this year," said Gerry Colamarino, manager of DuPont's titanium tetrachloride business. "The value of titanium tetrachloride continues to grow with the expansion of its applications globally and that's very exciting."
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