Chinese Titanium Dioxide Market Will Be Hard to Increase

Introduction:

TITANIUM dioxide companies increased prices after the National Day. The offers from mainstream factories increased in the range of RMB 500-1,000/mt. However, downstream users held a weak interest in purchasing. The Titanium Dioxide market was hard to increase.

Titanium Dioxide Market:

The Chinese mainstream offers of Rutile Titanium Dioxide were in the range of RMB 17,500-18,500/mt. However, downstream users showed resistance to high-priced titanium dioxide. The negotiation prices of titanium dioxide were in the range of RMB 16,500-17,500/mt. The Chinese mainstream negotiation prices increased in the range of RMB 200-300/mt.

From 2016, titanium dioxide prices have increased for one and a half years. The overall prices stayed on a high level and the profit in titanium dioxide factories increased gradually. The profits in mainstream titanium dioxide companies were in the range of RMB 3,000-4,000/mt. Parts of companies with inner supply had higher profits. Therefore, producers were willing to increase prices, but the operation was hard.

Downstream Demand:

For downstream users, with the increasing prices of raw materials, mainstream users suffered production cost pressure. For coating and plastic producers, their purchasers showed resistance to high prices of products obviously. Therefore, facing the increasing prices of titanium dioxide in October, the downstream users held a poor interest in purchasing, which attempted to avoid increasing production cost. For titanium dioxide companies, producers considered to maintain both regular customers and their profits. As a result, players in titanium dioxide market operated in a hard way.

Forecast:

It is predicted that the Chinese titanium dioxide market will be range-bound in the short term and the increase range will be limited. Firstly, from supply side, the Chinese titanium dioxide companies will operate stably. Although the titanium dioxide output will be limited in part of factories, the operating rate will be around 70%. At present, the overall operating rate of titanium dioxide is approximately 60% and the output is not very high. Moreover, when North China enters the heating period, the overall titanium dioxide operating rate will be hard to increase because of air pollution prevention. Secondly, from demand side, with the traditional peak season finishing, the downstream demand will be flat. Users will mainly purchase titanium dioxide on a need-to basis. The overall demand will be limited. Lastly, from producers side, although the titanium profit will be modest, the inventory will be modest in most factories. Therefore, the titanium dioxide prices will be hard to decrease. To sum up, it is predicted that the Chinese titanium dioxide market will maintain a stable trend in the short term.