Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha restarts Yokkaichi TiO2

18 July 2008 12:19  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Japan’s Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha (ISK) has restarted its 160,000 tonne/year titanium dioxide (TiO2) facility at Yokkaichi and hopes to achieve full production by next week, a company source said on Friday.

“We are in the process of ramping up the plant’s operating rates to 100% as demand for TiO2 is quite strong in Asia,” the source said.

The plant was shut down at the end of June due to technical problems, the source added.

Global supply of TiO2 has been tight due to outages in Asia, including at Sichuan Lomon after the earthquake in the southwestern Chinese region, and a force majeure at Cristal’s facility in Australia.

Intensifying supply constraints have left buyers with little negotiating power when confronted with consecutive price rises, traders and end users said.

Asia TiO2 has risen up to $75/tonne in the past two weeks to $2,200-2,550/tonne CFR (cost and freight) Asia, according to the most recent price assessment by global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing.

For more on TiO2 visit ICIS chemical intelligence
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By: Prema Viswanathan
+65 6780 4359

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