Chlorine supply loss last straw for the Botlek plant on top of Chinese competition for markets.

On 17 March, Tronox Holdings, a leading integrated producer of titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigments, announced that it intended to idle its 90ktpy TiO2 pigment plant in Botlek, the Netherlands, following a strategic review of its assets.

The Botlek plant is currently not in operation, following an outage at the site’s chlorine supplier, which began on 6 March 2025. Chlorine is an essential raw material input for producing chloride-route TiO2 pigment. The group’s Botlek plant is part of the closely cooperating chlorine cluster in the Port of Rotterdam, and the group noted consultations with the works council found the site was unlikely to come back online.

Botlek is one of three TiO2 pigment plants operated by Tronox in Europe, alongside the 165ktpy chloride-route plant in Stallingborough, UK, and the 32ktpy sulphate-route plant in Alsace, France. Globally, the Botlek site accounted for 8% of Tronox’s TiO2 capacity in 2024.

In its announcement, Tronox’s CEO, John D. Romano, noted the sector faced ongoing global supply imbalances caused by Chinese competition, in addition to an “increasingly challenged operating environment” over the last two and a half years. Romano noted the group would optimize its existing plants to ensure TiO2 pigment supplies to clients would be uninterrupted.

Chinese producers have significantly expanded their TiO2 production capacity in recent years, with similar rises in export volumes. Chinese TiO2 exports increased from 271kt in 2011 to over 1.5Mt in 2024.

This rapid rise in Chinese exports has been met with anti-dumping investigations in various regions and countries, including Europe, Brazil and India. In January 2025, the European Commission imposed anti-dumping duties on Chinese TiO2 imports for an initial period of five years until January 2030. The duties range from €0.25/kg to €0.74/kg.