Titanium dioxide producer Tronox (Stamford, Connecticut / USA; www.tronox.com) has received final approval from the European Commission to close its acquisition of competitor Cristal Global (Jeddah / Saudi Arabia; www.cristal.com). The commission gave conditional approval to the transaction in July 2018 – see Plasteurope.com of 11.07.2018.

One requirement was that Tronox divest its "8120" paper-laminate grade business. The company soon submitted a definitive agreement with Venator (Stockton on Tees / UK; www.venatorcorp.com) as a buyer – see Plasteurope.com of 20.07.2018. The EU commission had concluded that Venator is a suitable purchaser of Tronox’s paper-laminate grade, which is currently supplied to European customers from the Stamford-based company's facility in Botlek / The Netherlands.

Approval from the final regulatory authority, the US Federal Trade Commission, is still pending. In addition to the European Commission, Australia, China, New Zealand, Turkey, South Korea, Colombia and Saudi Arabia have approved the proposed acquisition.