The 374,000 Tonnes Nobody Replaced
A 340,000 tonne chlor-alkali plant was supposed to start up inside Chemours' DeLisle fence in 2028. The supply agreement died in March, the two sides are in arbitration, and the investor deck Chemours filed on September 9 names Olin as the replacement. The chlorine gets sorted out. The 374,000 tonnes of caustic soda that came attached to it does not.
In the investor presentation Chemours filed with the SEC on September 9, under Operational Excellence, there is one line about chlorine:
"Executed a long-term chlorine supply agreement with Olin Corporation, supporting the long-term competitiveness of the DeLisle TiO2 site."
That sentence closes a story that started two Decembers ago, and it closes the smaller half of it.
In December 2024, Chemours and PCC SE announced that PCC would build and operate a chlor-alkali plant on the grounds of the DeLisle TiO2 plant in Mississippi. Membrane cells, nameplate 340,000 metric tons of chlorine a year, construction beginning in early 2026, operational in 2028. The project company had a name, PCC GulfChem Corporation, and the deal had the feature Denise Dignam led with in the release: "no up-front financial commitment from Chemours."
It is not being built. Chemours' first-quarter 10-Q puts it in one sentence: "In March 2026, the CSA was terminated, and the project to build the chlor-alkali facility is not proceeding."
So DeLisle needs chlorine from somewhere, and now it has a contract. The part nobody has written down is what happened to everything else the plant was going to make.
What March Took Off the Board
The sequence in the filings is short and unfriendly.
- December 10, 2024: PCC GulfChem signs the chlorine supply agreement, subject to conditions precedent.
- During project development: the parties discuss "the projected cost and timeline to build the chlor-alkali facility."
- March 2026: the CSA is terminated.
- April 2026: Chemours files for arbitration, seeking a break-up fee from PCC and a declaration that it owes PCC nothing.
- June 2026: PCC answers, denies everything, and counterclaims for its own break-up fee plus lost profits.
PCC's own project page is blunter than either filing. Under the DeLisle entry it now says: "The development of this project was terminated in May 2026."
Neither side has published a number. Both 10-Qs say the accrual "does not materially affect results of operations," which is filing language for a fight that is expensive in lawyers and cheap in tonnes.
The tonnes are the interesting part.
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