Titanium dioxide capacity will break 6 million tons this year! Industry warning: highly concerned about overcapacity and titanium raw material shortage

From March 30 to April 1, the 2022 National Titanium Dioxide Industry Annual Meeting was held in Chongqing. It was learned from the meeting that the production and production capacity of titanium dioxide in 2022 continued to maintain the growth trend, and the concentration of production capacity was further improved; At the same time, the further expansion of the scale of existing producers and the increase of investment projects outside the industry will lead to the shortage of titanium ore supply. In addition, with the rise of the new energy battery material industry, a large number of iron phosphate or lithium iron phosphate project construction or preparation, will lead to the surge of titanium dioxide production capacity, aggravate the contradiction between titanium ore supply and demand. At that time, the market prospect and industry outlook will be worrying, and all parties should pay close attention to and make timely adjustments.

The total capacity of the industry reaches 4.7 million tons

According to the statistics of the Secretariat of the Strategic Alliance of Titanium Dioxide Industry Technology Innovation and the Titanium Dioxide Branch of the Chemical Industry Productivity Promotion Center, in 2022, there are 43 full-process producers with normal production conditions in China's titanium dioxide industry except for production shutdown. Among them, 2 are pure chlorination process (Citic Titanium Industry, Yibin Tianyuan Haifeng and Tai), 3 are both sulfuric acid process and chlorination process (Longbai, Panzhihua Steel Vanadium Titanium, Lubei Chemical Industry), and the remaining 38 are sulfuric acid process.

In 2022, the comprehensive output of 43 whole-process titanium dioxide enterprises was 3.914 million tons, an increase of 124,000 tons over the previous year, an increase of 3.27%. Among them, the rutile type was 3.261 million tons, accounting for 83.32%; Anatase type was 486,000 tons, accounting for 12.42%; Non-pigment grade and other products amounted to 167,000 tons, accounting for 4.26%.

In 2022, the total effective production capacity of titanium dioxide in the industry is 4.7 million tons/year, the total output is 3.914 million tons, and the capacity utilization rate is 83.28%.

Industrial concentration is increasing

According to Bi Sheng, secretary general of titanium dioxide industrial technology innovation Strategic alliance and director of the Chemical Industry Productivity Promotion Center Titanium dioxide branch, in 2022, the actual production of titanium dioxide reached more than 1 million tons of one large enterprise; 11 large enterprises with output of 100,000 tons or above; Seven medium-sized companies with output of 50,000 to 100,000 tons; The remaining 25 producers are small and micro enterprises.

In that year, the combined output of the top 11 producers in the industry was 2.786 million tons, accounting for 71.18% of the total output of the industry in that year. The combined output of 7 medium-sized enterprises was 550 thousand tons, accounting for 14.05%; The combined output of the remaining 25 small and micro enterprises was 578,000 tons, accounting for 14.77 percent. Among the whole process production enterprises, the output increased by 17, accounting for 39.53%; There were 25 decreased, accounting for 58.14%; One was flat, accounting for 2.33%.

In 2022, the comprehensive production of titanium dioxide by chloride process of 5 enterprises in China was 497 thousand tons, an increase of 120 thousand tons or 3.19% over the previous year. In 2022, the production of titanium dioxide by chlorination accounted for 12.70% of the total production of titanium dioxide in China. It accounted for 15.24% of the rutile titanium dioxide production, which increased significantly compared with last year.

In 2022, the domestic production of titanium dioxide is 3.914 million tons, the import volume is 123,000 tons, the export volume is 1.406 million tons, the market apparent demand is 2.631 million tons, per capita is 1.88kg, about 55% of the average level of developed countries.

The scale of producers has expanded further

Bi pointed out that among the expansion or new projects being implemented by existing titanium dioxide producers that have been announced, at least six projects will be completed and put into operation from 2022 to 2023, with an additional scale of more than 610,000 tons per year. By the end of 2023, the total production scale of existing titanium dioxide enterprises will reach 5.3 million tons/year.

According to public information, there are at least 4 titanium dioxide projects under construction and completed by the end of 2023, with a design capacity of more than 660,000 tons/year. By the end of 2023, the total production capacity of titanium dioxide in China will reach at least 6 million tons/year.

The inverted industrial chain - new energy projects

Bi Sheng pointed out that the current titanium dioxide industry is more worthy of 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 intense construction or planning, most of which start from the iron source. The most convenient and economical channel of iron source is ferrous sulfate, and ferrous sulfate is the main by-product in the production of titanium dioxide by sulfate process. In this way, ferrous sulfate from sulfuric acid titanium dioxide enterprises once a heavy burden to become "Xiangbobo".

Therefore, there are a large number of new energy projects around the horse or brewing planning (including non-titanium dioxide enterprises), thus subverting the industry's previous cognition, the main production of ferrous sulfate and byproduct titanium dioxide industry chain inverted. This in essence also avoids the restriction of sulfuric acid titanium dioxide policy bottleneck. With titanium dioxide as the main business of China nuclear titanium dioxide, Annada titanium industry, Longbai Group, Jinpu titanium industry and Huiyun titanium Industry 5 listed companies, all in the construction of iron phosphate new energy material projects. And titanium dioxide industry non - listed enterprises and non - titanium dioxide enterprises have this measure much more.

Most of the iron phosphate in these projects has a production capacity of 100,000 to 200,000 tons/year, and the corresponding by-product titanium dioxide has a production capacity of 150,000 to 300,000 tons/year. It can be expected that in a few years, even if only part of such projects can be realized, the total production capacity of the titanium dioxide industry in China is likely to exceed 10 million tons/year. Until then, the market prospect and industry outlook is unimaginable.

Bi Sheng believes that the above data, even without the above new energy materials involved in titanium dioxide capacity, to 2023, the total capacity of China's titanium dioxide industry will reach about 6 million tons/year, about 63% of the global total production capacity of titanium dioxide 9.5 million/ton. If 83% ~ 85% of the normal operation rate of the industry, then the annual total production of titanium dioxide will reach 5 ~ 5.1 million tons.

Most titanium ore raw materials are imported

It is reported that the total production capacity of boiling chloride process in 2022 of China's five enterprises will be 960,000 tons/year, and will be increased by 160,000 tons/year in 2023, reaching more than 1.1 million tons/year. Under the background that the high grade titanium raw materials used in the boiling chlorination process for titanium concentrate preparation in Panzhihua have not achieved industrial mass production, more than 1.6 million tons of high grade titanium raw materials required by the boiling chlorination process can only rely on the reprocessing and refining of high quality titanium ore imported from abroad, except that small smelters in some parts of China can provide a small amount of products. Or directly import high grade titanium raw materials.

However, in recent years, various information shows that the international market high-grade (ton TiO₂≥92%) titanium material discovery or production, not only no great progress, but also a downward trend. In the future, it will be an indisputable fact that titanium raw materials needed by boiling chlorination titanium dioxide will be in short supply. Therefore, the new boiling chlorination titanium dioxide project, the basic conditions in addition to the need for high investment and high-end technology and talent, the stable source of high grade titanium raw materials is a key problem.

In 2022, Chinese titanium dioxide industry consumes about 7.8 ~ 8.2 million tons of titanium ore raw materials by sulfuric acid process, and other titanium-related industries consume about 1 million tons of titanium equivalent to ilmanite. In addition to imported high grade titanium raw materials for boiling chloride process, the total consumption of titanium ore in China exceeds 9 million tons. By 2023, titanium dioxide industry needs titanium raw materials will reach more than 13 million tons/year, and other titanium-related industries need about 1.2 million tons/year titanium ore. The total market demand is at least 14.2 million tons/year. If some of the dozens of new energy projects in China are completed and put into operation, the demand for titanium ore will increase significantly.

At present, the main producing areas of domestic titanium ore are Panxi in Sichuan province, Chengde in Hebei Province, and the expansion of production capacity of smaller mines in Shandong and Xinjiang is limited, Bi pointed out. The quantity of imported ore is on the decline on the whole, and there are many uncertain factors in the shipping date. In 2022, China's titanium ore imports decreased by 333,000 tons, or 8.77%, compared with the same period last year. In the future, the market supply and demand imbalance of titanium ore raw materials is a matter of great probability.

So far, in the whole process of titanium dioxide producers, with their own titanium ore raw material resources only 5, the rest of the manufacturers can only through different channels to purchase raw materials, which to a large extent to the normal production of uncertainty.

Bi stressed that not only the supply of high-grade titanium materials used in the production of titanium dioxide by boiling chloride process is a difficult problem, but also the shortage of titanium materials by sulphuric acid process.