Titanium dioxide industry research report: demand space is large, titanium raw material supply tight pattern or will continue

Release date：2021/06/07

1 cost to go up, internal and external need to be good, waiting for titanium dioxide within the year for the sixth adjustment 1.1 The price rise of titanium dioxide in 2020-2021 is resumed.

In the early part of 2020, affected by the epidemic, domestic titanium dioxide and titanium ore manufacturers started to reduce the burden or frequently stop to postpone the delivery time of part of the order, making the domestic demand in the second half of the year more than previous years.The weak control of overseas epidemic situation and the contraction of supply from foreign manufacturers further boosted the export of titanium dioxide in China. In 2020, the export of titanium dioxide in China was 1.214 million tons, with a year-on-year growth of 21.0%.From the point of view of raw materials, titanium dioxide production capacity growth in the year but titanium concentrate incremental limited drive mineral source price growth, so the cost end also gave titanium dioxide prices strong support.Under the support of cost and supply and demand, the price of titanium dioxide began to rise significantly from the lowest point in July 2020, the highest price was 16362.5 yuan/ton, the amplitude reached 30%, the average annual price was 14025.4 yuan/ton, the same ratio of + 31.2%, but affected by the high price of titanium concentrate,In 2020, the annual gross profit of sulfuric acid titanium dioxide pre-tax device will reach 1732.3 yuan/ton, which is -47.7% compared with 3311.0 yuan/ton in 2019.

Enter 2021, in the global economic recovery, rising inflation expectations, commodity prices continue to rise rapidly under the macro trend, as well as manufacturers low inventory, downstream replenishment demand and rigid demand, high cost industry background, titanium dioxide manufacturers frequently send letters to increase prices, prices show a strong trend in the off-season.The domestic titanium dioxide market price is supported by strong supply and demand and cost, has ushered in five rounds of price increases, as of May 28 close, the domestic market price of rutile titanium dioxide rose to 20578 yuan/ton, breaking through the historical high since the beginning of 2016, the increase in the year is 25.8%, the monthly average price +48.4%,The annual average price is +31.4%.

1.2 low inventory, high cost, titanium dioxide will welcome the sixth price rise within the year

From January to April in 2021, no new capacity of titanium dioxide landed, titanium dioxide output was 1.268,000 tons, +23.2% compared with the same period last year, the industry utilization rate has been rising since January, the highest value is 91.4%, slightly fell in April, down 2.8 percentage points month-on-month;Since 2021, the year-on-year decline of social inventory and factory warehouse has been expanding. Since April, the weekly social inventory and weekly factory warehouse have been kept below 30,000 tons, and the industry basically has no inventory, and the spot is continuously tight.

From January to April, the total export volume of titanium dioxide became positive, and the total import volume reached 31.5% year-on-year: since 2020, the demand for titanium dioxide at home and abroad has been significantly boosted, and the export volume of titanium dioxide in 2020 was 1.214 million tons, +21% year-on-year.In April 2021, the monthly export volume of titanium dioxide was 107,000 tons, -15.5% month-on-month and +21.6% year-on-year. The average export price was 2697 dollars/ton, which rose to 2700 dollars as expected, in line with the price adjustment rhythm. The total export volume was 435,000 tons, +3.6% year-on-year.In April, the import volume was 19,000 tons, and the year-on-year changes were +15.6% and +52.1% respectively. The average import price was $2,956 / ton. Most of the imported products were high-end chlorination products, whose unit price was higher than that of exports.

Titanium is known as "modern metal" and "strategic metals," important strategic materials is indispensable to improve the level of defense equipment, is a kind of important in the 1950 s to the industrialized production of metal, whose nature is good, is very rich in reserves, is regarded as a "third metal" is on the rise, titanium industrial process can be divided into two paths:One is to produce high purity titanium tetrachloride by processing ilmenite or rutile as raw material, and then use magnesium as a reducing agent to reduce the titanium in titanium tetrachloride, you can get titanium sponge;The second is the raw materials directly processed to obtain titanium dioxide.At present, 90% of the world's titanium is used to make titanium dioxide, with only 4% used to make titanium sponge and 6% used for other purposes.

2.2 Global titanium raw material supply continues to be tight

Concentration of global titanium raw material supply and reduction of production in 2020: After the successful acquisition of Kester by Teno, the concentration of global titanium raw material supply is further improved, mainly concentrated in Rio Tinto, Teno, Iluka, Kenmel, Tizir and other companies, Cr5 reaches 54%.According to the statistics of titanium raw material data from Rio Tinto, Iluka, Kenmare, BaseSource and other manufacturers, we believe that the production of titanium raw material has recovered in the first half of 2020, but the supply of titanium raw material has been significantly reduced since the second half of the year due to the impact of the epidemic. Taking Rio Tinto as an example,The Company's titanium slag production was -7.1% year-over-year due to lower market demand in 2020 and the disruption of operations at Richards Bay Minerals.

3. Process reform accelerates the pace of industry reshuffle, and industry concentration needs to be improved

Titanium dioxide chemical name for titanium dioxide, commercial name for titanium dioxide, chemical formula for TiO2.Titanium dioxide has high refractive index, ideal particle size distribution, good hiding power and coloring power, is a white pigment with excellent performance, widely used in coatings, rubber, plastics, paper making, printing ink, daily chemical industry, electronic industry, micro-electromechanical and environmental protection industry. Titanium dioxide can be divided into pigment grade and non-pigment grade titanium dioxide according to the purpose of use.Pigment grade titanium dioxide according to the crystalline morphology is divided into anatase type titanium dioxide (A type) and rutile type titanium dioxide (R type) two categories.Sharp titanium type titanium pigment mainly used in indoor coating, printing ink, rubber, glass, cosmetics, soap, plastic and paper making industries, rutile type titanium pigment than sharp titanium type titanium pigment has better weatherability and hiding power, it is mainly used for advanced outdoor paint, latex paint, plastic, light high decolorization strength and weather resistance of rubber materials, advanced paper coating, etc.Non-pigment grade titanium dioxide is divided into enamel grade titanium dioxide, electrode grade titanium dioxide, ceramic grade titanium dioxide, electronic grade titanium dioxide and other types according to the main use.

3.1 Process: Chloride method will gradually replace sulfuric acid method and become the mainstream production process of titanium dioxide in China

3.1.1 Titanium dioxide production process - sulfuric acid method In 1916, sulfuric acid titanium dioxide in Europe to achieve the first industrial production, is the most mature titanium dioxide production process.Both ilmenite and acid-soluble titanium slag can be used as raw materials for sulfuric acid process. The products obtained can be divided into anatase type and rutile type.The sulphuric acid process is mainly divided into the following processes: preparation of raw ore, preparation of titanium sulfate solution with sulphuric acid decomposition concentrate, purification and removal of iron in solution, precipitation of metantitanic acid by hydrolysis of titanium sulfate solution, preparation of titanium dioxide by calcination of metantitanic acid, and post-treatment procedure.

3.1.2 Titanium dioxide production process - chlorination method The rutile titanium dioxide produced by chlorination method has controllable particle size and uniform distribution, which is mainly used for downstream high-end products, such as automotive paint, exterior wall paint, printing ink, etc.Chlorination process research began in the 1930 s, the first in the United States began to industrialize by dupont, mainly ilmenite, high titanium slag, synthetic rutile and natural rutile as raw materials, such as reaction with chlorine gas generated titanium tetrachloride, through distillation, and then by gas phase oxidation, after rapid cooling after a gas-solid separation of titanium dioxide.Chloride method can produce rutile type titanium pigment products, its production technology is continuous production process, with the continuous process of sulfuric acid method, simple process, less control points, the quality of the product is easy to achieve optimal control, and greatly reduces the waste produce, plus there is no turning kiln calcining process of sintering, the titanium dioxide level original particles easily depolymerization,So in the process of product refining than sulfuric acid method greatly save energy.At present, more than 80% of overseas titanium dioxide production by chlorination device, only the domestic CITIC titanium industry, Longanfang Baili, Panzhihua vanadium titanium, Tianyuan shares, Yunnan Xinli five companies, such as the application of this technology.With the construction of new chlorination capacity in the future, it is expected that the proportion of chlorination capacity in China will reach 19.5% in 2024, up 7.9 percentage points compared with 2020.