Analysis on supply and demand status and development trend of titanium dioxide in China in 2022

Titanium dioxide has always been the product with the highest supply and demand in the titanium industry, and its scale has been increasing in recent ten years. However, from the perspective of supply and demand, the growth rate of output is significantly higher than that of apparent consumption, mainly due to the significant growth of exports and the diffusion of global titanium dioxide production to developing countries. With the continuous maturity of titanium dioxide production technology in China, it is expected that the output of titanium dioxide will continue to increase in the future.

The export volume of titanium dioxide continued to grow, and the trade surplus increased

As the global titanium dioxide industry chain becomes more and more mature, leading enterprises with earlier development take the lead in occupying high-end titanium dioxide products, and a large number of low-end output demand flows to developing countries. As the developing country with the most explosive output of titanium dioxide, China's export volume has maintained a high growth in the past five years.

From 2015 to 2020, the export volume of titanium dioxide in China showed a continuous growth trend, and the growth rate fluctuated. In 2016, the export volume of titanium dioxide increased significantly, reaching 721000 tons, with a year-on-year increase of 33.81%, which is the highest increase in recent years. As a major exporter of titanium dioxide in the world, China's export of titanium dioxide was greatly promoted by the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike, the UK's brexit and the continuous decline of RMB exchange rate. In 2020, China's export volume of titanium dioxide reached a new high, reaching 1.214 million tons, with a year-on-year increase of 21.0%.

As the output of titanium dioxide in China is sufficient to meet domestic demand, the import is mainly high-end products. In recent five years, the import of titanium dioxide has shown a fluctuating downward trend. In addition to the continuous growth of titanium dioxide export, the decline of import has also led to the increase of trade surplus. In 2016, the trade surplus of titanium dioxide products in China was US $543 million, which increased to US $1.686 billion in 2020, an increase of more than twice.

In the past five years, the output of titanium dioxide has continued to grow, and the products are mainly rutile

With the continuous maturity of titanium dioxide production technology and equipment in China, the output of titanium dioxide in China basically shows a rising trend, and only the output in 2015 has declined in the past decade. According to the statistics of the titanium dioxide sub center of the National Chemical Industry Productivity Promotion Center and the Secretariat of the titanium dioxide industry technological innovation strategic alliance, the comprehensive output of various titanium dioxide and related products of all process titanium dioxide production enterprises in China jumped from 1.47 million tons in 2010 to 3.51 million tons in 2020, more than doubling.

In terms of the proportion of titanium dioxide subdivided products in 2020, in the total output of 3.51 million tons, rutile titanium dioxide is 2.856 million tons, accounting for 81.31%; Anatase titanium dioxide is 538000 tons, accounting for 15.33%; Non pigment titanium dioxide is 60000 tons, accounting for 1.71%; The catalytic and functional material titanium dioxide is 58000 tons, accounting for 1.65%.

In 2020, the apparent consumption of titanium dioxide will reach 2.47 million tons

In recent years, the apparent consumption of titanium dioxide in China has shown a fluctuating growth trend. In 2011, the apparent consumption was 1.64 million tons. In 2012, affected by the decline of titanium concentrate production, the growth rate of titanium dioxide production in China decreased, and the apparent consumption reached about 1.8 million tons, an increase of 9.76% over 2011. From 2016 to 2020, the apparent consumption of titanium dioxide in China's titanium dioxide market showed a continuous upward trend. The apparent consumption of titanium dioxide in 2020 was 2.47 million tons, an increase of 5.32% over 2019.

The output growth of titanium dioxide is higher than the demand growth

Affected by the migration of global titanium dioxide production capacity to China, the growth rate of titanium dioxide production in China is generally higher than that of apparent consumption. According to the formula (difference between supply and demand growth rate = titanium dioxide output growth rate - titanium dioxide apparent consumption growth rate), from 2013 to 2020, China's titanium dioxide output growth rate was only lower than the demand growth rate in 2018, and the difference in other years was positive, of which the difference in 2016 was the largest. As the titanium dioxide industry has been in the stage of oversupply, the output is higher than the apparent consumption, and the output growth rate is higher than the apparent consumption growth rate for a long time, which is increasing the oversupply of the industry.