Titanium dioxide market got improvement in the 3rd quarter of 2020

In the first 10 months of 2020, the overall situation of the titanium dioxide industry is expected. In addition to being seriously affected by the global epidemic, under the complex global economic environment in recent years, the downward trend of China's GDP growth has become more obvious. Titanium dioxide is a multi-purpose chemical product. Its development is not only affected by raw materials and environmental protection, but also by downstream and related fields.

In the first half of 2020, the price of titanium dioxide products continued the downward trend since the end of the previous year, and the market also entered the cold winter at the same time. Since the beginning of the year, product prices have continued to decline, and in the mid-term, the overall decline has reached about 2,000 yuan/t, falling to the lowest level in the past two years. After the second half of the year, there have been many price increases, and many companies have followed suit and responded, realizing a rare concerted action in the entire industry. At the same time, the downstream market has greatly improved with the positive changes in the economic situation, and the industry has shown the most prosperous market this year. All enterprises are booming in production and sales, and their profitability has risen.

While the domestic market is gradually improving, the export data also maintains a good momentum. It is expected that the export to the international market will still be a very important factor supporting the prosperity of titanium dioxide in the later period of this year and in the future.

High-quality development has become the main theme of the future development of the titanium dioxide industry

The main products of the sulfuric acid method are developing to the middle and high end

As we all know, after more than 20 years of rapid development from 1998 to 2019, the scale and quality of the titanium dioxide industry have also been comprehensively improved. The application fields of sulfuric acid method products are fully covered, and the quality and application performance are constantly improving.

Nevertheless, compared with international big companies, there is still a big gap in terms of product brand awareness or quality connotation.

In the domestic market, although the products of large enterprises have a certain reputation, this is only compared to the past or small and micro enterprises, and most of them can only be used in the fields below the mid-range or high-end. High gloss, high weather resistance, high dispersibility and high hiding power are still required for high-gloss, high-weather, high-dispersion, and high-covering titanium dioxide used in top-end fields such as high-end automobiles, high-speed trains, and ocean-going containers. Imported high-end products must still be used.

In the international market, the titanium dioxide products exported by China are mainly used in the low-end fields for end users, and some of them can be used in the mid-to-high-end fields.

Since 2009, the overall scale of China's titanium dioxide has ranked first in the world. In today's open era of global economic integration, high quality is the main theme of future development. Here, it refers specifically to the quality and brand of products. The traditional concept of winning the world only by quantity and low price has long been a thing of the past.

The chlorination method achieves a breakthrough and develops in depth

China's chlorination titanium dioxide industry started in the late 1990s, and it is almost the same time period as the rapidly developing sulfuric acid titanium dioxide industry, but later the performance of the two is quite different. However, the transfer of the production process to the chlorination method is one of the development trends of the international titanium dioxide industry in the past 30 years. Because compared with the sulfuric acid method, excellent quality is its fundamental feature.

Production scale is the foundation and foundation of industrial development. It is believed that China's chlorination process will develop from point to area to in-depth development under the premise of achieving scale breakthroughs, which is another important sign of high-quality development of the industry.

The problem of titanium chloride raw materials

Under the background that domestic titanium ore to prepare high-grade titanium raw materials for boiling chlorination has not yet achieved industrialization, titanium raw materials can only rely on foreign imports. However, in recent years, the excavation or production of high-grade (TiO2≥92%) titanium raw materials in the international market has not only made no progress, but has also shown a downward trend. In the future, the tension between supply and demand will be an indisputable fact.

Therefore, in addition to high investment and high-end technology, the basic conditions for the new chlorination process project also require a stable source of titanium raw materials.