TOR Minerals makes synthetic titanium dioxide and color pigments, specialty aluminas, and other high performance mineral fillers. Welding rod flux carpet and carpet backings, billiard balls, and poker chips are commonly manufactured with TOR Minerals products. It offers a series of heat stable colored titanium dioxide hybrid pigments used in various applications, such as engineered plastics, laminates, window profiles, plastic lumber, roofing granules, and ceramic coatings.



The company recently announced that sales totaled $10.5 million in the three months ending June ended June 30, 2011, when compared to the same three months of 2010. This was a 32% increase. Net income was $1.0 million, and earnings per share were $0.30, compared with $0.17 in the second quarter of 2010.

Sales increased in many of the company’s product categories. Sales of titanium dioxide pigments increased 62%, and represented half of the quarterly revenue. The company benefitted from both higher prices and a higher volume of sales. Sales of specialty alumina grew by 18% in the quarter, which the company attributed primarily to increased demand for existing and new products in Europe and North America.



Dr. Olaf Karasch, Chief Executive Officer of TOR Minerals, noted several positive trends for the company when he commented on the quarter’s performance. He said, “Due to the limited supply of commodity titanium dioxide and the successful introduction of our TIOPREM product, market interest in re-formulation with our specialty titanium dioxide pigments is at a record high. Sampling activity has tripled year over year and we have gained new global customers. At the same time our specialty alumina business continues to gain many new customers.”

He continued, “During the past three years, our strategic focus has been to bring new, high-value added products to market, improve efficiency and lower our cost structure. Our hard work has resulted in the best quarterly results in our history. Almost 80% of the growth in our titanium dioxide pigment sales is a result of higher volumes. As a price follower, we have just begun to catch up to the price increases that the commodity titanium dioxide producers have put in place and expect to see increased revenue and margin contribution from increasing prices during the balance of the year. The outlook for our alumina business remains strong. We expect to complete our Netherlands alumina plant expansion during the current quarter, which will effectively double our alumina production capacity and help us to meet increasing demand from current and new customers.”

The stock of TOR Minerals has more than doubled in the past year and now trades at price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of about 23, in line with the P/E ratio of small cap growth indexes.