"We're still in the process of developing our brownfield expansion plans," CEO Dennis Wanlass said in a quarterly conference call. The company has neither formally announced expansion plans nor the exact magnitude of the planned capacity increases.
However, Wanlass did say debottlenecking and technical advances could take its 90,000 tonne/year Botlek plant in the Netherlands to about 115,000 tonnes/year, with smaller expansions at Hamilton, Mississippi, and at its joint venture Tiwest at Kwinana, Australia.
In the meantime, prices will continue to rise.
With demand growing by 2-3%/year and no significant new capacity until 2014, Tronox said supply would remain constrained, bringing "opportunities" for pricing to go up.
Company officials acknowledged customers' shock when the price run-up of the past two years began, but said buyers understand the supply and feedstock situation.
"Customers were hit with a double whammy - tight TiO2 supply and ore shortages," Wanlass said. " think the key to any growth, going forward, is feedstock."
Tronox has a strategic advantage in Tiwest, which is the world's largest integrated producer of ilmenite and TiO2.
After recent price gains of 15 cents/lb ($331/tonne, ?2/tonne), North American TiO2 contract prices are $1.55-1.69/lb, as assessed by ICIS.
Tronox's first-quarter 2011 sales increased by 34.4% from the same period a year earlier, driven primarily by higher TiO2 pricing and sales volumes.
Tronox emerged from bankruptcy in mid February, and the company said it was anticipating a re-listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) later this year.
The NYSE suspended the company's stock listing, just three months before Tronox filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Other North American TiO2 producers include DuPont, Cristal, Kronos and Huntsman.
($1 = ?70)
