AUGUSTA, GA – Global chemical company Huntsman announced the start up of operations at its new color pigments facility in Augusta, GA.

Huntsman has invested more than $172 million in the development of the new production plant, the first of its kind to be built in North America for more than 35 years. A showcase for pigments manufacturing technology, the new site has the capacity to produce 30,000 metric tons of yellow, red and black iron oxide pigments per annum.

The new facility will serve as the North American hub for Huntsman’s global pigments and additives business, which employs more than 4,500 people worldwide.

Featuring a high level of automation in process operations and in packaging, the plant represents a step change in iron oxide manufacturing. It is innovative in its use of raw materials. With sustainability high on Huntsman’s corporate agenda, the site’s raw material supply chain has been closely integrated with Huntsman’s wider pigments and additives business. This enables the business to use iron sources obtained from waste streams at other plants as inputs at Augusta. Careful infrastructure and asset planning has also eliminated a drying step that is normally present at a stand-alone pigments production plant.