DuPont details TiO_2 capacity increases

摘要

DuPont has disclosed that, despite its best efforts, its TiO_2 plant at Kuan Yin in Taiwan had only reached an operating rate of 16,000 tpa towards the end of 1994. Some 44,000 tpa out of the total of 185,000 tpa of capacity debottlenecking recently announced by the company (IM November '94, p.17) will be accounted for by bringing the unit up to its rated capacity of 60,000 tpa. The remaining capacity increases will be concentrated at DuPont's US plants at New Johnsonville, Tennessee (current capacity 305,000 tpa) and De Lisle, Mississippi (245,000 tpa). A small increase will also be realised at the company's 90,000 tpa operation at Altamira, near Tampico in Mexico. According to DuPont, the combined 141,000 tpa debottlenecking of the US and Mexican plants will be achieve/d through an investment of only 90m dollars. This works out at a remarkably low 640 dollars/tonne of new capacity.