PPG Seeks To Secure White Pigment Titanium Dioxide

PPG Industries wants to work with other companies to secure its supply of titanium dioxide, a white pigment that the company uses in paint. Like TiO₂ producers Tronox and Cristal, which have taken steps to further back-integrate their businesses into titanium-bearing ores, PPG is reacting to increasingly tight supplies in the TiO₂ supply chain. Similarly, paint rival AkzoNobel is investing in a Chinese TiO₂ plant with a local partner. “Escalating and volatile pricing for titanium dioxide has been an important issue for PPG,” says Charles F. Kahle II, PPG’s chief technology officer. PPG is prepared to share TiO₂ technology with partners, he says, and is open to technical collaborations, joint ventures, licensing, and other arrangements. PPG once made TiO₂ in Natrium, W.Va., but closed the plant in 1971 after two and a half years of operation.