DuPont Finalizing Installation of Purification Unit at Tennessee Titanium Dioxide Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company (NYSE:DD) (DuPont) (Wilmington, Delaware) is finalizing the installation of a new $30 million purification unit at its New Johnsonville, Tennessee, titanium dioxide plant. The unit will produce an estimated 100 million pounds per year of high-purity titanium tetrachloride.

Construction on the project began in May 2007 with BE&K Incorporated (Birmingham, Alabama) providing engineering services and Washington Group International (Boise, Idaho), the resident contractor for the New Johnsonville plant, providing construction support. After a year of construction the new unit is expected to be complete within the month.

DuPont recently announced a contract to supply the 100 million pounds of titanium tetrachloride annually to Allegheny Technologies Incorporated's (NYSE:ATI) (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) specialty metals plant, planned to be located in North Skull Valley, Utah. This new plant will produce an estimated 10,000 tons of titanium metal annually for the production of titanium sponge. The plant is expected to be online at the beginning of 2009.

Tronox LLC (NYSE:TRX) (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), another producer in this market, has announced plans for its own expansion of titanium tetrachloride with plans for investing $50 million at its titanium dioxide plant in Hamilton, Mississippi. The expansion, which will increase capacity to produce 225,000 metric tons per year of titanium tetrachloride, is scheduled to be complete in the third quarter of 2009.

Tronox recently announced an agreement with RTI International Metals Incorporated (NYSE:RTI) (Niles, Ohio) to supply an undetermined amount of titanium tetrachloride to produce titanium sponge. The new plant, being built next to the Tronox facility, is expected to be operational in 2010.

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