It’s a very complicated industry from my understanding.
It ultimately depends on who is receiving the feedstock.
You’ve got global suppliers of pigment that either have their own technology (pigment plants) to create their pigment recipes so they only require the feedstock and then you’ve got suppliers of pigment that don’t have their own technology to produce pigment, so they require pigment to be produced and delivered to them.
As it currently stands, it has taken TNG a number of years to lock down the TIVAN and pigment plant flow sheet which has allowed them to advance a Ti pigment offtake for a certain recipe requirement. TNGs description in the latest announcement suggest that the offtaker will be providing some form of pre-production funding which makes sense for the BOOT model for the pigment plant.
It is a very tight market and I suspect Iluka is content with their margins on producing feedstock only.
TNG Price at posting:
13.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held