Titanium dioxide producer Tronox has swooped for a Norwegian smelting facility as it bolsters supply to European operations.
The US giant, a year on from acquiring its largest facility in the region from Cristal, on the South Humber Bank, has bought TiZir Titanium and Iron, for $300 million (£246m).
It was owned by Eramet SA, a publicly traded French multinational mining and metallurgy company.
Located in Tyssedal, south west of Bergen - bv a fjord - it upgrades ilmenite to produce high-grade titanium slag and high-purity pig iron with an annual capacity of approximately 320,000 tonnes across both.
Jeffry N Quinn, chairman and chief executive of Tronox, said: “This highly strategic acquisition represents the next step in advancing our vertical integration strategy, providing Tronox with increased titanium feedstock capacity to better fulfill our internal requirements, and in turn, better serve our pigment customers with a low-cost, secure source of supply.
“The site is ideally situated to supply feedstock to our European pigment facilities.
“The technology and manufacturing capabilities acquired will lower our cost of obtaining the feedstocks we need to run our pigment plants.
“TTI is a great complement to Tronox because of a shared focus on operational excellence, safety and sustainability. We are excited about the opportunities created by the addition of this well-established, high-quality asset to the Tronox portfolio.”
As part of the transaction, Tronox will enter a supply agreement with Eramet’s Grande Côte Operations mineral sands mine in Senegal to receive ilmenite. For the first two years, Tronox expects the Grand Côte mine will supply substantially all of TTI’s requirements, but the volumes sold reduces throughout the term of the agreement, allowing Tronox the flexibility to supply TTI from its own mineral sands assets or other sources.
Mr Quinn said the deal also improved the likelihood of a successful commissioning, ramp up, and eventual acquisition of the Jazan smelter, a 500,000 tonne slag operation in Saudi Arabia, which it has an agreement on with Tasnee, the Saudi national industrialisation company, which owns Cristal.
As well as Stallingborough, Tronox operates at Botlek, Holland and Thann, France.
It comes after the business reported first quarter revenues consistent with April's release of preliminary results, at $722 million (£591m).
