FTC tries to block Tronox’s acquisition of Cristal titanium dioxide business
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a administrative complaint with the target to block Tronox’s plan to acquire the TiO2 business of Saudi Arabia-based Cristal.
In a press release from December 6 Tronox stated its “extreme disappointment” with the FTCs decision to combat the acquisition and stated that the lawsuit is based on a “narrow and flawed view” of the size of the TiO2 market.
The FTC is arguing that a combination of both companies’ TiO2 business would increase the risk of coordinated action among the remaining competitors, and increase the risk of future anticompetitive output reductions by Tronox.
Tronox on the other hand argues that the acquisition would lead towards lower prices and that the government body is only looking at TiO2 that is produced via the chloride process and thus ignoring nearly half of the words production which is obtained by the sulphate process.
At the moment TiO2 prices are rocketing and many experts believe that the situation will remain fierce for the foreseeable future.
Event tip:
On January 9 experts from all over the globe will meet at the EC TiO2 Forum in Berlin, Germany, to discuss the latest developments on the important pigment and ways to use it more efficiently.
