Chemical & Engineering
NEWS APRIL 24, 1967
The Chemical World This Week Sherbro readies first rutile shipment from Sierra Leone Next month Sherbro Minerals, Ltd., will ship the first rutile from its mining and processing operation in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Situated in the rainy African bush country atop the world's largest proven reserves of the titanium-dioxide-bearing ore, Sherbro's $15 million plant will add significantly to world production of rutile. Sherbro is owned by Pittsburgh Plate Glass (80%) and British Titan Products, Ltd. ( 2 0 % ) . Presently, world production of rutile (refined to 95 to 98% titanium dioxide) is about 275,000 tons annually. About 90% of it is recovered from Australian beach sands. U.S. production is limited to M&T Chemical's mining of rutile in Virginia. When Sherbro is operating at full capacity by the end of this year, according to president George L. Cobb, it will be producing 100,000 tons per year—a 36% addition to the present world supply. As production is being committed to various European and U.S. customers, the company is already considering on-site expansion. Mr. Cobb estimates that world demand for rutile could reach 500,000 tons per year by 1972, if the ore continues to be offered at its current price of $80 per ton, f .o.b. Australia and Sierra Leone. Rutile is used in making titanium dioxide pigment by the chloride process, welding rod coatings, and titanium metal. Of the 275,000 tons of rutile produced in 1966, 77,000 tons were imported by European countries for all three uses. About 23,000 tons were imported by Japan to make welding rod coatings and titanium metal. The remainder went to the U.S. The major use of rutile in the U.S. is in the production of chloride-process pigment; this use alone consumed 135,000 tons last year. (Total titanium dioxide pigment production exceeded 600,000 tons in 1966, largely by the sulfate process, in which titanium is extracted from ilmenite, an iron-bearing ore.) The chloride process is clearly the more favored one since the process has lower plant and production costs, causes no pollution
Pond area at Sierra Leone Atop proven rutile reserves in African bush country
problems, and produces a finer grade of pigment in terms of whiteness and capacity. All plants built in the past five years are based on the chloride process. PPG, which makes its own chlorine, is building its first pigment plant at Natrium, W.Va. About 20,000 tons of rutile went directly into welding rod coatings last year. The ore is applied with binding materials on the surface of the rods. Another 20,000 tons were used to produce titanium metal. Last year, about 54% of the metal went to jet engines, 2 3 % to airframes, 17% to missiles and space uses, and 6% to chemicals and other uses.
Ribicoff not hopeful on Kennedy round chemicals pact Prospects for a chemicals agreement at the Kennedy round trade talks in Geneva look dim. This assessment was given in New York City to a luncheon gathering of the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association by Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D.-Conn.). The particular stumbling block is no
secret. It's the American Selling Price technique of valuating duties on certain benzenoid imports. Right now, U.S. negotiators in Geneva have said they would be willing to bargain separately on ASP. Sen. Ribicoff sees things differently though. "American Selling Price cannot be, should not be, and has no business in the Kennedy round negotiations." He also pointed out that this opinion is shared by the overwhelming majority of the U.S. Senate. Part of the Senate's dismay is caused by the fact that it sees its role being downgraded in trade agreements. Historically such agreements have been reached in the context of Congressional grants of authority to the executive branch made in advance of negotiations. Now, Sen. Ribicoff points out, "If we are presented with a side agreement—a separate package—the pattern will have been broken, and the great concept of the Kennedy round significantly reduced. The prospects of future Congressional-executive cooperation in the field of trade would be gravely threatened." Sen. Ribicoff went on to say that APRIL 24, 1967 C&EN
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