Leaders of DuPont and the city of Dongying, China signed a project agreement on November 21 toward construction of a world-class titanium dioxide (TiO2) plant representing a total investment of $1 billion in the city's Economic Development Zone, PRNewswire reports. TiO2 is a white pigment widely used in the coatings, plastics and paper industries. The project agreement is a key step toward construction of the new facility because it documents the success of negotiations that began last March between DuPont and Dongying City. Once relevant government approvals are received, the new TiO2 plant is expected to represent a total investment at Dongying of more than $1 billion. That sum includes the initial DuPont investment, facilities installed by the city and integrated suppliers to the plant, and eventual expansion of the original facility. The plant will be wholly-owned by DuPont, and will be the company's largest single investment project outside the United States. With a planned completion date of 2010, the plant will have an initial annual capacity of 200 thousand tons of TiO2 and will employ approximately 350 workers. Most of those workers will be hired in the Dongying area.