Main characteristics and development trend of titanium industry
(1) Industry overview
Titanium elements mainly exist in the form of ilmenite and rutile, including natural rutile, artificial rutile, white rutile, titanium concentrate, etc. After the preparation of the titanium raw materials, the main products include titanium dioxide, titanium, etc.
The world titanium dioxide industry was born in 1916 respectively in the United States and Norway, the production process is sulfuric acid process. After 1959, sulfuric acid process and chlorination process became the two main production processes of titanium dioxide. At present, the world titanium dioxide industrial process is mature, product variety is complete, the application involves various industrial fields and People's Daily life, become the market value only second to synthetic ammonia and phosphorus chemical industry's third largest inorganic chemical products. The development of titanium dioxide industry has a close relationship with the development of the whole national economy, its consumption can be used to measure the level of national economic development and living standards of a country, so the development of titanium dioxide industry has been the attention of industrial developed countries.
Titanium dioxide is an important inorganic chemical pigment, according to the relevant data statistics, in 2019-2021 and the first half of 2022, domestic titanium dioxide production reached about 3.18 million tons, 3.48 million tons, 3.8 million tons and 2.07 million tons respectively. Since 2009, China's production scale of titanium dioxide has been ranked first in the world, sulfuric acid titanium dioxide main enterprises compared with international counterparts, whether the production process, production equipment and product quality gap has been very small. Titanium dioxide by Chinese chlorination process started late, but the development is rapid. The production of titanium dioxide in 2020 has exceeded 300,000 tons, and by the end of 2021 the production capacity has reached more than 900,000 tons/year. With the improvement of domestic titanium dioxide technology level, and the product quality has been significantly improved, the export volume of titanium white in our country has gradually narrowed the gap with international titanium dioxide giants.
(2) Product segmentation
① Titanium concentrate
Titanium concentrate is a chemical raw material extracted from ilmenite or titanium-magnetite, mainly used for titanium dioxide, titanium slag production, is the basic raw material of titanium industry.
② Titanium slag
Titanium slag refers to the enrichment material with high content of titanium dioxide obtained after melting titanium concentrate by electric furnace and melting and separating titanium dioxide and iron in titanium ore. Titanium slag is a high quality raw material for producing titanium tetrachloride, titanium dioxide and titanium sponge.
③ Titanium dioxide
Titanium dioxide chemical name for titanium dioxide, chemical formula for TiO2, is the world's best performance of the white pigment, accounting for about 80% of all white pigment use. The stable physical and chemical properties of titanium dioxide, excellent optical properties determine its superior pigment performance, including excellent hiding power, coloring power, whiteness and weather resistance, so that as an important inorganic chemical products, widely used in coatings, plastics, paper, ink, chemical fiber, rubber and other fields, terminal products used in real estate, automobile industry, decorative paper and other industries. In recent years, with the development of science and technology, titanium dioxide consumption has been expanded to new energy, high-end equipment, environmental protection, medical and other fields, the application prospect is very broad.
④ Titanium materials
Titanium refers to titanium metal and its alloy materials, like titanium tubes, titanium plates, titanium bars, with low density, high melting point, high specific strength, corrosion resistance, high and low temperature performance, non-magnetic, non-toxic, good biocompatibility and other characteristics, based on the above advantages, it is widely used in chemical industry, ocean engineering, aerospace, military, metallurgy, medical, sports and leisure fields.
(3) Market supply pattern
① Supply pattern of titanium slag industry
By the end of June 2022, there are more than 60 titanium slag production enterprises in China, with a total capacity of about 2 million tons/year, and the overall situation of the industry is the same as that at the end of 2021. Our country's titanium slag production capacity is relatively dispersed, mainly concentrated in Sichuan, Yunnan, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia etc., annual production of titanium slag of more than 100,000 tons of scale enterprises only vanadium titanium share and Longbai Group.
② Pattern of titanium dioxide supply
Titanium concentrate, titanium slag and other titanium materials are the main raw materials for titanium dioxide production. By the end of 2021, there are more than 40 full-process producers with normal production conditions and above scale in China titanium dioxide industry, with an effective total production capacity of about 4.2 million tons/year and relatively concentrated production capacity. In terms of new capacity, the domestic sulfuric acid process is mainly for the production line upgrading brought about by the increase in capacity, and the chloride process titanium dioxide has been planned to increase the capacity of 450,000 tons. From the perspective of the global market competition pattern, the market concentration of titanium dioxide industry is high, and the main titanium dioxide production enterprises continue to enhance the market concentration through mergers and acquisitions in recent years. Under this background, the scale of titanium dioxide production enterprises tends to be large and intensive, and the production capacity is increasingly concentrated to the leading manufacturers in the industry. It is expected that this kind of company will be the leading player in the titanium dioxide industry in the future, to a large extent leading the global titanium dioxide supply, price and quality trend.
On the domestic market competition pattern, benefiting from the guidance of industrial policies, especially under the guidance of the supply-side structural reform in recent years, titanium dioxide industry is accelerating the elimination of backward enterprise production capacity and the competition environment is continuously optimized, and the overall competitiveness of titanium dioxide industry in our country is further enhanced. Although, in recent years, industrial concentration of titanium white powder industry has increased, on the whole, the scale of titanium white production enterprises in our country is still small, the industrial concentration is still on the low side, and product homogeneity is relatively obvious, and the industry competition and price competition are relatively intense, it is expected that the future industry development will continue to concentrate on the head manufacturers in the industry.
(4) Industry development trend
① The titanium industry has a wide coverage of downstream, and the relevant policies are constantly improving
In the downstream of titanium industry, titanium dioxide is an important inorganic coating, titanium is widely used in many high-tech fields, titanium industry widely covers various industries in the national economy, titanium metal is known as the "modern metal" and "strategic metal", in this context, the titanium industry policy is constantly improving. It is clearly pointed out in the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of the Western Region in the New Era and Forming a New Pattern issued by the CPC Central Committee and The State Council that the development of modern manufacturing and strategic emerging industries should be promoted, which plays a huge role in promoting the titanium industry. At the same time, the state promotes the "Made in China 2025" and the construction of Panxi Strategic Resource innovation Pilot Zone, and the policy of encouraging the development of titanium strategic new materials continues to be issued. Sichuan Province and Panzhihua City have also introduced relevant policies to support the titanium industry, opening a huge space for the development of the titanium industry and the product application market. Policies generally require the titanium industry to enhance supply capacity, promote scientific and technological innovation, carry out research and development of efficient smelting technology and high-performance titanium products, and improve the level of green development of the industry.
② Environmental protection requirements are becoming stricter, and the policy level encourages advanced and clean production technology
As the national environmental protection policy becomes increasingly strict and law enforcement becomes stronger, it is difficult for enterprises that fail to meet the environmental protection requirements to start work, and outdated production capacity is eliminated successively, which promotes the high-quality development of titanium industry, promotes industrial transformation and upgrading, and provides a good competitive environment for the sustainable development of titanium industry.
National Development and Reform Commission issued in October 2019 "Industrial structure adjustment guidance Directory (2019 version)" in the development of "limit 'new sulphuric acid titanium dioxide'" industrial policy; "China titanium dioxide industry" 13th Five Year Plan "to encourage the priority development of chlorination, advanced clean production of sulfuric acid process simultaneously route, which sulfuric acid titanium dioxide optimization stock, control incremental innovation process, clean production, limit the construction of sulfuric acid production equipment. Therefore, in addition to the existing product quality to meet international standards, waste acid, ferrous acid can be used comprehensively, and achieve the standard discharge of sulfuric acid process production of titanium dioxide enterprises can ensure the stock of sulfuric acid production line operation, technical improvement and efficiency, environmental policy requirements of new capacity can not use sulfuric acid process production of titanium dioxide.
③ The steady growth of national economy has laid a solid foundation for the stability of titanium dioxide market supply and demand
As the middle class population remains stable or increases slightly, it lays a solid foundation for the stable demand of titanium dioxide. The paint industry is the largest downstream customers of titanium dioxide, and the construction industry is the main downstream customers of the paint industry, therefore, the development of the real estate industry has a greater impact on the market demand for titanium dioxide. In addition to the new house paint, the volume of the stock room to a certain extent will appear the peak of secondary decoration, secondary decoration needs to repaint the building, can increase the demand for titanium dioxide. Considering the huge stock of houses and the secondary decoration market in China, it is expected that the future recoating demand will strongly support the titanium dioxide industry prosperity.
For domestic titanium dioxide production enterprises, the increase of export quota and the expansion of application field also bring incremental demand for titanium dioxide market. On the one hand, domestic titanium dioxide production enterprises to improve technology, has brought the improvement of product quality, can seize part of the foreign high-end market; On the other hand, the continuous expansion of titanium dioxide application field, in addition to the traditional coatings, paints, plastics and other downstream industry demand for titanium dioxide, gradually expanded to cosmetics, toys, food, medicine and other fields. With the development of economy, the progress of science and technology and the deepening of application research, the application field of titanium dioxide will be more broad.
At the same time, with the advancement of the supply-side reform of titanium dioxide industry in our country, and the backward production capacity elimination, the whole industry will be in the balance of supply and slightly growth for a long time, it is expected that the demand and price of titanium white products will remain relatively stable.
