The global titanium dioxide market is basically balanced in 2020

The chemical properties of titanium dioxide are relatively stable, and generally do not react with other substances. The market demand is great. It is widely used in special application products including ultrafine titanium dioxide and high-purity titanium dioxide (such as sunscreen and skin care products), titanium dioxide catalyst, and photoactivity Titanium dioxide (such as self-cleaning glass, exterior wall paint cleaning, smog treatment), electrical ceramics, pigments (used in automobile manufacturing and cosmetics industries), etc. The titanium dioxide industry is valued by various industrialized developed countries and has a long history of development in developed countries. At present, after the global titanium dioxide market has undergone changes from 2010 to 2019, the four major foreign titanium dioxide companies (Chemours, Tenuo, Venator, Connors) and the three major Chinese titanium dioxide companies (Long Mangbaili, China Nuclear Huayuan, Pangang). With the progress of corporate mergers and reorganizations, this pattern will be further consolidated and strengthened.

In order to better understand the global titanium dioxide development situation in recent years, this article will analyze the global supply and demand of titanium dioxide based on the statistics and forecast data that have been published in 2019.

Distribution of global titanium dioxide supply regions, manufacturers and processes
The current situation of global titanium dioxide supply can be analyzed from two aspects: production capacity and output. These two aspects can be cut from three perspectives: regional distribution, manufacturer distribution, and process distribution.
In terms of production capacity, in 2019, the global titanium dioxide production capacity was approximately 8.355 million tons, an increase of 4.07% from 8.028 million tons in 2018. From the perspective of titanium dioxide production capacity in various regions of the world (see Table 1), titanium dioxide production capacity is mainly distributed in Asia-Pacific, North America and Europe. Among them, the Asia-Pacific region is the dominant area in the global titanium dioxide market, especially since 2016, the production capacity has accounted for more than 50%, and it will reach 56.4% in 2019. China is the country with the largest titanium dioxide production capacity in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2019, China's titanium dioxide production capacity accounted for 45.3% of the global total production capacity.

In terms of the distribution of manufacturers, the world's major titanium dioxide manufacturers are located in economically developed regions such as North America and Western Europe. The proportion of production capacity of major global titanium dioxide companies in 2020 is shown in the figure below. Globally, due to oversupply and low prices caused by the increase in global titanium dioxide production from 2011 to 2016, the production capacity of international titanium dioxide giants continues to shrink. In the process of continuous integration, the number of large overseas titanium dioxide companies has gradually decreased. In April 2019, Tenuo completed the acquisition of Coster, marking the reduction of leading overseas titanium dioxide companies from 5 to 4, and the concentration of overseas titanium dioxide production capacity has continued to increase. It is worth noting that almost all overseas production capacity is in the hands of multinational companies. Excluding Lomon Bailey, Chemours, Tenor, Venator (split from Huntsman) and Connors account for nearly half of the global production capacity.

With the production of chlorinated titanium dioxide production and the acquisition of Yunnan Xinli in June 2019, Lomon Baili's total titanium dioxide production capacity will reach 1.01 million tons in 2020, jumping from fourth in the world to third in the world. In 2019, the global new titanium dioxide production capacity is mainly concentrated in my country. The capacity changes of overseas giants mainly come from mergers and acquisitions. The global titanium dioxide market presents a relatively stable oligopoly pattern. In addition, Connors expects to close the 35,000-ton sulfuric acid titanium dioxide production line at the Leverkusen plant in Germany at the end of 2020 or early 2021. The closed capacity accounts for less than 0.5% of the global capacity. If the Sino-US trade friction slows down and China's chloride-process titanium dioxide and sulfuric acid titanium dioxide products enter the North American market, it will accelerate the pace of closure of foreign sulfuric acid titanium dioxide production plants.

According to the forecast of "TiO2 Market Insight" magazine "Titanium Dioxide Market Insight", by 2022, some small titanium dioxide factories will be closed. From the price point of view, some high-cost manufacturers will not temporarily withdraw from the market.

From the perspective of production technology, the current global production process of titanium dioxide products is still dominated by the sulfuric acid method. About 42.5% of the world's titanium dioxide production capacity uses the chlorination process, while 84% of the production capacity in my country uses the highly polluting sulfuric acid method. The global production capacity of titanium dioxide by process statistics is shown in Table 2. Compared with the sulfuric acid method, the chlorination method has significant advantages in environmental protection, product quality stability, brightness and whiteness. The chlorination method is developed and applied by Chemours. The technology is relatively mature, and it is the mainstream process for the production of titanium dioxide in developed countries. Due to the technical barriers of the chlorination process in China, only a few companies such as Lomon Baili, Jinzhou Titanium Industry, and Yunnan Xinli (acquired by Lomon Baili) have the production capacity of chlorination titanium dioxide. Among them, Lomon Baili The second phase of the new plant in Jiaozuo City, Henan Province is gradually releasing production capacity. Due to the high technical barriers of chlorination titanium dioxide, advanced technology is basically monopolized by overseas companies, and the domestic independent development capability is relatively weak. At the same time, the investment scale of chlorination titanium dioxide is relatively large. Mainly concentrated in large and powerful enterprises.

In terms of output, from the global titanium dioxide production statistics by region (see Table 3), the Asia-Pacific region, as the world’s largest titanium dioxide production area, has shown a year-on-year growth in the share of global titanium dioxide from 2015 to 2019, especially since Since 2016, the region's output has accounted for more than 50%, and in 2019, it will account for 57.60%.

From the perspective of global titanium dioxide output based on the production proportion of manufacturers, the current global titanium dioxide market is mainly occupied by foreign manufacturers led by Chemours. Although my country is the world’s largest producer of titanium dioxide, from a single manufacturer, the overall The level of competition still needs to be improved. What is gratifying is that with the gradual integration of the titanium dioxide market, my country's titanium dioxide manufacturers are also actively expanding and strengthening. The emergence of Lomon Baili has played a good leading role in domestic titanium dioxide manufacturers.
Judging from the global production of titanium dioxide by production process (see Table 4), the global production of chlorination titanium dioxide in 2019 was 2.629 million tons, and that of sulfuric acid titanium dioxide was 3.472 million tons. Comparing the production of titanium dioxide in various production processes, it can be seen that the production of sulfuric acid method is higher than that of chloride method. This is mainly due to the low barriers to entry for the sulfuric acid process. As the largest producer of titanium dioxide, China has not yet fully mastered the chloride process titanium dioxide technology, and is still dominated by the sulfuric acid process titanium dioxide process.

The global demand for titanium dioxide has stabilized at more than 6.5 million tons in the past 4 years.

From the perspective of global demand for titanium dioxide, "TiO2 Market Insight" magazine predicts that the total demand for titanium dioxide in North America, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East and Africa in 2020 will be 5.304 million tons (see Table 5). It can be seen from Table 5 that the global demand for titanium dioxide basically stabilized at more than 6.5 million tons from 2016 to 2019. In 2015, the demand for titanium dioxide showed a sharp decline under the influence of the global economic downturn, with a decrease of nearly 10%. In response to this, global titanium dioxide companies actively responded, reducing supply through measures such as restricting start-ups and reducing inventories. The recovery of China's real estate industry also made a positive contribution to the growth of titanium dioxide demand in 2016. In 2017, the economies of the United States and Southeast Asian countries continued to improve, which stimulated the demand for titanium dioxide. Under normal circumstances, the demand for titanium dioxide lags behind the real estate market by about one year. In 2016, China's real estate destocking achieved significant results, which drove the rapid growth of titanium dioxide demand in 2017, and the demand for titanium dioxide in various regions increased by different degrees. Despite the strong demand in the coatings industry in 2017, in the second half of 2018, the global destocking policy continued, and demand was greatly affected. The most affected was Western Europe, followed by Asia, and even North America was not immune. In 2019, the demand for titanium dioxide in the coatings market in the United States remained strong. In the fourth quarter of 2019, the demand in Europe has returned to the level of the same period in 2017.

From the perspective of global titanium dioxide supply and demand, the titanium dioxide market has basically reached a balance. With the gradual recovery of the real estate industry in the United States and Europe in early 2017, market demand continued to improve, which greatly improved the demand for overseas titanium dioxide. At the same time, the shutdown of some overseas high-cost titanium dioxide production capacity has caused a certain shortage of titanium dioxide product supply, making the price of titanium dioxide gradually stabilized after a continuous increase for half a year in 2017. In 2018, the inventory levels of some large domestic titanium dioxide manufacturers were lower than normal. In recent years, the export proportion of Lomon Baili titanium dioxide products has continued to increase, and overseas markets have continued to improve.

In addition, the COVID-19 outbreak that broke out in December 2019 has caused a global economic recession. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that the global economy will grow by 3% in 2020. In the first half of 2020, affected by the epidemic, the global titanium dioxide market demand and output are operating at a low level, and the uncertainty of the titanium dioxide market has increased.