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Martinswerk and its Austrian affiliates were sold to Albemarle Corp for $44 M. (See also 'Focus on Pigments ', Jun 2001, 5).
More recently, Alcan has declared that it will quit the ATH industry and will shut down its 100,000 tonnes/y plant at Burntisland in Scotland. (See 'Focus on Pigments ', Oct 2002, 5).
This has set the scene for Albemarle to announce a 10% expansion in Martinswerk's ATH plant at Bergheim (Germany) by early 2003. The plant is already the largest ATH plant in the world and after this expansion its capacity will be of the order of 100,000 tonnes/y. The expansion will focus on fine precipitated grades, though Martinswerk also produces ground, free-flowing and low viscosity grades of ATH. Further expansion at Bergheim will be completed by 2006.
Flame retardant applications currently account for about 55% of world ATH demand and this sector is growing at 4-6% per annum. Fine ATH slurries and powders are also quite widely used as pigments for the paper industry.
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