The European Commission has given its conditional approval to Huntsman’s (The Woodlands, Texas / USA; www.huntsman.com) acquisition of Rockwood Holdings’ (Princeton, New Jersey / USA; www.rockwoodspecialties.com) Performance Additives and Titanium Dioxide businesses – for previous coverage, see Plasteurope.com of 20.09.2013. The Commission’s permission is subject to Huntsman divesting its 30,000 t/y “TR52” TiO₂ business, mainly used in inks applications.

To meet this requirement, Huntsman said it has entered into a definite agreement to sell the TR52 business to Henan Billions Chemicals (Jiaozuo City, Henan / China; www.billionschem.com) for an undisclosed amount. If the EU approves this latest sale, Huntsman says it expects the Rockwood acquisition to be wrapped up in the coming weeks.