How big is the market of titanium dioxide industry? From March 30 to April 1, the 2022 National titanium dioxide Industry Annual Conference was held in Chongqing. It was learned from the meeting that in 2022, the output and capacity of titanium dioxide will continue to grow, and the concentration ratio of capacity will further increase; At the same time, the further expansion of existing producers and an increase in non industry investment projects will lead to a shortage of titanium ore supply. In addition, with the rise of new energy battery material industry, the construction or preparation of a large number of iron phosphate or lithium iron phosphate projects will lead to a surge in production capacity of titanium dioxide and aggravate the contradiction between supply and demand of titanium ore. At that time, the market prospects and industry outlook are worrying, and all parties should pay high attention and make timely adjustments.
Titanium dioxide is an important inorganic chemical pigment, the main component is titanium dioxide. There are two production processes of titanium dioxide: sulfuric acid process and chlorination process. It has important applications in industries such as coatings, ink, papermaking, plastic rubber, chemical fiber, ceramics, etc. The major domestic titanium dioxide enterprises set off a new round of price rise of titanium dioxide products, including more than 20 titanium dioxide enterprises such as Jinpu Titanium, Tianyuan Group, Shandong Dawn, CITIC Titanium, Chengdu Vanadium Titanium, Haifengxin, Ningbo Xinfu, and so on. The price range is between 300-2000 tons. This round of price rise has come.
The first enterprises to lead the price rise appeared on the second day of the New Year. The price of titanium dioxide in Panzhihua Taihai was increased by 500 yuan/ton, the price of titanium dioxide in Panzhihua Haifeng Xin was increased by 300 yuan/ton, and the price of titanium dioxide in Chuangda Jade Rabbit was increased by 400 yuan/ton. Subsequently, all major titanium dioxide production enterprises successively adjusted their prices, which was different from the centralized price increase mode of several times this year. This price rise was led by small and medium-sized enterprises in the off-season of the industry.
Market Analysis of titanium dioxide Industry
It is reported that titanium dioxide, whose scientific name is titanium dioxide, is mainly used in coatings, plastics, paper making, printing ink and other fields. Coating is its largest application field, accounting for about 58%. According to the statistics of the Titanium Dioxide Sub center of the National Chemical Productivity Promotion Center, in 2022, the total output of rutile and anatase titanium dioxide and other related products produced in China will reach 3.861 million tons, a record high; But the increase was only 1.87%, a new low in the past five years. Among them, Longbai Group has the largest production scale, followed by CNNC Titanium White.
The cost of overseas titanium dioxide is under pressure, and the overall production capacity has shrunk. Compared with domestic enterprises, overseas titanium dioxide production enterprises have higher costs of raw materials, energy and power, labor, etc., and are also facing stricter environmental protection regulatory policies. Against this background, the overall capacity of overseas titanium dioxide has shrunk in recent years. Since 2022, with the continuous fermentation of the energy crisis, a variety of chemicals in Europe have faced the situation of production reduction and shutdown, and the capacity of titanium dioxide industry has dropped to the lowest 20% of the total load. Since 2022, the export volume of domestic titanium dioxide has continued to maintain a rapid growth. From January to November, the cumulative export volume was 1.2791 million tons, with a year-on-year growth of 8.58%. In terms of regional distribution, Asian countries are the main export destinations of domestic titanium dioxide. In 2021, China's titanium dioxide exports will total 1.31 million tons, of which India, Brazil, South Korea, Türkiye, Vietnam and Indonesia will account for 13%, 7%, 6%, 6%, 5% and 5% respectively. On the whole, Asian countries are the main export destinations of domestic titanium dioxide.
According to the statistics of the titanium dioxide industry technology innovation strategic alliance secretariat and the titanium dioxide sub center of the chemical industry productivity promotion center, in 2022, China's titanium dioxide industry will have 43 full process manufacturers with normal production conditions, except for shutdown. Among them, there are 2 companies with pure chlorination process (CITIC Titanium Industry, Yibin Tianyuan Haifeng and Tai), 3 companies with sulfuric acid process and chlorination process (Longbai, Pangang Vanadium Titanium, Lubei Chemical), and the remaining 38 companies with sulfuric acid process.
In 2022, the comprehensive output of 43 full process titanium dioxide enterprises will be 3.914 million tons, an increase of 124 thousand tons over the previous year, or 3.27%. Among them, the rutile type is 3.261 million tons, accounting for 83.32%; The sharp titanium type is 486000 tons, accounting for 12.42%; Non pigment grade and other products account for 167000 tons, accounting for 4.26%.
In 2022, the total effective capacity of titanium dioxide in the whole industry will be 4.7 million tons/year, the total output will be 3.914 million tons, and the capacity utilization rate will be 83.28%.
At that time, the comprehensive production of the top 11 manufacturers in the industry was 2.786 million tons, accounting for 71.18% of the total industry production that year; The comprehensive output of 7 medium-sized enterprises is 5500000 tons, accounting for 14.05%; The comprehensive output of the other 25 small and micro enterprises is 578000 tons, accounting for 14.77%. Among the full process production enterprises, there were 17 with an increase in output compared to the previous year, accounting for 39.53%; 25 companies decreased, accounting for 58.14%; One company remained unchanged, accounting for 2.33%.
In 2022, the comprehensive output of chlorination titanium dioxide of five chlorination enterprises in China will be 497000 tons, an increase of 120000 tons over the previous year, or 3.19%. In 2022, the output of chlorinated titanium dioxide will account for 12.70% of the total output of titanium dioxide in China that year; It accounted for 15.24% of the output of rutile titanium dioxide in that year, which was significantly higher than that of the previous year.
In 2022, the domestic output of titanium dioxide will be 3.914 million tons, the import volume will be 12.3 million tons, the export volume will be 1.406 million tons, and the apparent market demand will be 2.631 million tons, 1.88 kg per capita, about 55% of the per capita level in developed countries.
Recently, the country has successively introduced multiple policies to support the development of new infrastructure. The new infrastructure is expected to drive the traditional infrastructure industry into a new round of prosperity. As an upstream product of the traditional infrastructure supply chain, driven by new and old infrastructure, the demand for titanium dioxide is expected to further increase in the future. In 2023, the domestic economy may continue to improve and support the market demand for titanium dioxide. China is still the most stable export country. With the increase of international market share, the domestic market driven by exports will continue to rise; Bears believe that the domestic real estate industry is sluggish, and macroeconomic expectations are cautious under global inflation expectations. Against this backdrop, it is difficult for the global demand side to experience significant growth in the short term. The rapidly growing production capacity will increase the trend of oversupply, leading to weak domestic and external demand, which will have a negative impact on prices.
Analysis on the development trend of China's titanium dioxide industry in 2023
At present, the titanium dioxide industry deserves more attention. With the rise of the new energy battery material industry, a large number of iron phosphate or lithium iron phosphate projects inside and outside the industry are under construction or planning, most of which start from iron sources. The most convenient and economical source of iron is ferrous sulfate, which is the main by-product in the production of titanium dioxide by sulfuric acid process. In this way, ferrous sulfate has changed from the heavy burden of the sulfuric acid titanium dioxide enterprises to the "sweet cake".
As a result, a large number of new energy projects are being launched or planned around the country (including non titanium dioxide enterprises), which has overturned the previous understanding of the industry and created an industry chain where the main product is ferrous sulfate and the by-product is titanium dioxide. This actually avoids the policy bottleneck of the restriction of titanium dioxide produced by sulfuric acid process. Five listed companies with titanium dioxide as the main business, including CNNC Titanium, Anada Titanium, Longbai Group, Jinpu Titanium and Huiyun Titanium, are all planning to build iron phosphate new energy material projects. In the titanium dioxide industry, more and more unlisted enterprises and non titanium dioxide enterprises have taken such measures.
The market concentration ratio of titanium dioxide industry is relatively high. In addition, major titanium dioxide manufacturers in the world are still further improving the market concentration ratio through mergers and acquisitions. Benefiting from the guidance of industrial policies, especially under the guidance of the supply side structural reform in recent years, the titanium dioxide industry is accelerating the elimination of the production capacity of backward enterprises, optimizing the competitive environment in the industry, returning the price of titanium dioxide to a reasonable range, and helping to enhance the overall competitiveness of China's titanium dioxide industry. The domestic production technology has made significant progress, and the product quality has improved, so the proportion of replacing foreign products has increased year by year, The export proportion has also been increasing year by year.
In March of each year, the demand of titanium dioxide industry turns better, and the downstream hoarding and taking of goods are more concentrated, so the manufacturers are in a high mood for price increase. Once the demand turns weaker from April to May, it will be difficult for manufacturers to implement price increase again. At present, the profit space of titanium dioxide industry is not large, especially anatase titanium dioxide, which has been in a loss state. Although the market price of titanium dioxide has risen by 200-500 yuan/ton, it is just back to the break even line or slightly profitable. The profits of large production enterprises will be relatively high, but not too high.
The main downstream industries of titanium dioxide include coating, plastics, printing ink, paper making and other industries. With the optimization and adjustment of epidemic prevention and control policies and the implementation of relevant support policies, combined with the recovery of domestic and foreign terminal demand, the coating industry will face a retaliatory rebound in 2023. In addition, the demand for titanium dioxide in the fields of plastics, cosmetics, medicine, new energy, nano and other fields will also highlight, and the consumption will also grow at a high speed.
With the development of the global economy, the improvement of people's living standards, and the development of industrialization and urbanization in developing countries with a large population, the demand for titanium dioxide products is constantly growing, so the market situation of collective price rise of titanium dioxide enterprises appears. At present, the global demand for coatings and paints is growing. The huge stock and renovation demand of the domestic real estate industry have also driven the growth of coatings, especially the demand, which has become an additional driving force for the growth of the titanium dioxide market. In the future, with the improvement of the prosperity of real estate, it is expected to further stimulate the demand for titanium dioxide and drive the price of titanium dioxide to rise, so the market situation of collective price rise of titanium dioxide enterprises will appear.
In 2023, the price of titanium dioxide will run at a high level due to the release of new capacity of titanium dioxide and the relative shortage of titanium resources. In 2023, the trend of the overall economic environment will pick up, and the superposition of real estate policies will benefit many parties. The downstream demand of titanium dioxide is expected to reach the bottom and recover, and the industry may gradually recover. In 2025, the global apparent consumption of titanium dioxide may reach 8.9 million tons.
