Australian titanium dioxide producer Iluka Resources (Perth; www.iluka.com) has offered to pay GBP 215m (about EUR 249m) to acquire Sierra Rutile (Freetown / Sierra Leone; www.sierra-rutile.com) – another mineral sands specialist. The purchase is conditional upon the agreement of Sierra Rutile’s shareholders, who are due to meet and discuss the matter on 1 September. If all goes as planned, the acquisition could be wrapped up by 9 September, the two companies said.

Iluka plans to merge Sierra Rutile with a new company, to be called Iluka Investments, which in turn will become a subsidiary operated by Iluka International (West Africa).

The news comes as the latest shakeup in the global TiO₂ market, which until recently had been comparatively quiet since 2013. Before that, producers had suffered a slump in sales and many scaled back or delayed their expansion projects in response (see Plasteurope.com of 26.02.2013). Following some consolidation in the market – including DuPont’s (Wilmington, Delaware / USA; www.dupont.com) decision to spin off its TiO₂ activities in Chemours (see Plasteurope.com of 22.12.2014) and Huntsman's (The Woodlands, Texas / USA; www.huntsman.com) numerous plant shutdowns ahead of a proposed divestiture (for most recent coverage, see Plasteurope.com of 02.08.2016) – prices for the white pigment have been rising of late, taking a number of polymers, such as dry PVC blends (see Plasteurope.com of 02.08.2016), along for the ride.