Kemira seals titanium dioxide joint venture

Kemira is already a major producer of titanium dioxide pigments, supplying some of the world’s largest sun care producers with an ingredient that is said to enhance both UVA and UVB protection.

Rockwood Holdings, which is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, and Kemira say that the deal will lead to the formation of a new joint venture that will be headquartered in Duisberg, Germany.

Titanium dioxide leader​

The US-based business had an annual turnover of €560m in 2007 and Wolf-Dieter Griebler, who is already in charge of the company's titanium dioxide business, will head up the joint venture with Kemira.

The new venture, which was initially announced back in May, will be 61 per cent owned by Rockwood and 39 per cent owned by Kemira, although no specific financial details were given with respect to the value of the deal.

As well as providing specialty titanium dioxide grades for the cosmetics industry, the new venture will supply the food and pharmaceutical, synthetic fibres and packaging industries.

Tapping into synergies​

The two companies say that there are expected to be a number of advantages to the joint venture, namely synergies that will lead to a competitive advantage in the market place.

Likewise it is also expected to lead to enhancements in research and development, specifically in the field of nanotech-developed titanium dioxide pigments, for which both companies have specialty applications.

In the titanium dioxide market, Kemira has been active recently launching a pigment to add brightness and a refractive finish to colour cosmetics in March.

The company released the ingredient around a year after acquiring the titanium dioxide specialist TRI-K, which was fully integrated into the company in January this year.