Titanium Metals Producers Line Up Expansions to Meet Growing Demand

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Strong demand for titanium products mainly from the commercial airline and military sectors is spurring U.S. titanium producers like Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:ATI) (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) and Titanium Metals Corporation (NYSE:TIE) (Dallas, Texas) to expand. Both companies are actively expanding capacity at existing facilities and are working on new grassroot plant construction.

Allegheny Technologies recently started construction on a new grassroot titanium sponge plant in Rowley, Utah. Contractors are mobilizing on site for construction of the $450 million project, which is scheduled to be completed by late 2008. (Click on report link below for details). The plant will have initial capacity to produce 12,000 tons of titanium sponge per year. Allegheny Technologies is also expanding its titanium sponge plant in Albany, Oregon. Together, the two expansions will increase the company’s titanium sponge capacity to about 22,000 tons per year.

Not to be outdone, Titanium Metals Corporation (Timet) has begun design for a grassroot titanium sponge plant at a yet to be announced site in the U.S. This comes on the heels of a $44 million expansion at Timet’s sponge plant in Henderson, Nevada. The recently completed expansion will boost capacity by 47% up to approximately 12,600 tons per year, utilizing the company’s vacuum distillation process. A related $8 million project is in the works at the site. Construction is expected to begin in August 2007 for the addition of a second titanium sponge crushing line, which will debottleneck throughput to the melt shop, enabling the plant to take full advantage of the capacity expansion.

Both companies are expanding downstream of primary sponge production as well. In Morgantown, Pennsylvania, Timet is constructing a $35 million expansion of its ingot plant to increase electron-beam melting capacity by 8,500 tons per year.

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