Must read explanationHi,
Gladys did give a very useful explanation on the 8020 beaord. Here it is :
Thank you for your question, Arnold. Considering the current and future strong demand for TiO2, we believe there is a lot of potential for licensing our technology, in addition to building our own plant in Canada. In fact, high TiO2 prices are pushing paint producers to look for new alternatives that would allow them to pay a more reasonable price for TiO2 pigments. Argex is preparing its low-cost emerging producer strategy within this favorable environment. This is on one hand. On the other hand, the level of TiO2 consumption was estimated at 6.6 MT/year at the end of 2016. Projections for 2025 are an increase of 40%, to 8.8 MT/y (Source: 2017 TiO2 World Summit). The volume that Argex is planning to produce with its plant is 90,000 MT/year, at term. This is a small portion of the market, considering the new needs that will be created by the annual growth rate and increased demand. Our logic is that Argex could benefit more from this future demand than the 90,000 MT/year we will be able to produce. In this context, licensing (with the royalties that it could generate) would be a nice opportunity to tackle this strong market. In addition to this “market” argument, our technology is innovative, either by the facts that it produces a pigment of high quality, is economically very efficient and environment-friendly. Consequently, we believe it has the potential to be used in many regions of the world where there is a need for those attributes in the TiO2 space. And this is where we will have to be prudent: in the selection of the markets in which we will accept to sign licensing agreements. The specific terms, duration, geographic coverage, etc., will be rigorously negotiated. I hope this will answer properly your question and reduce your concerns with respect to this strategy. Gladys