19 February 1998: An evaporated salt facility is to be built by the American company DuPont at its titanium dioxide facility in New Johnsonville, Tennessee. Distribution of salt output will be underta…
19 February 1998: An evaporated salt facility is to be built by the American company DuPont at its titanium dioxide facility in New Johnsonville, Tennessee. Distribution of salt output will be undertaken by North American Salt Co., a subsidiary of Harris Chemical Group Inc. In mid-1996, a 700,000 ton per year soda ash facility was brought onstream by FMC Corp., with the majority of output to be supplied to DuPont at New Johnsonville. This has delayed the start-up of the company“s new salt unit, which was originally due onstream in the second quarter of 1996. In December 1997, IMC Global Inc. paid US$ 1.4 billion for Harris Chemical, and the deal included North American Salt. Soda ash requirements for the new salt facility are expected to be 250,000 tons per year. It will be used to remove non-sodium salts from the chloride-rich coproduct resulting from titanium dioxide production. Meanwhile, economic problems in Asia are expected to lower soda ash demand in the region by up to 100,000 tonnes. Forecasts had anticipated a demand of up to 2.1 million tonnes for 1998. However, it is expected that new demand for soda ash will commence when DuPont and North American Salt Co. begin production from the new plant.