The worldwide leading TiO2 supplier about to cut capacity expansion

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Publish time:3/19/2018 12:00:00 AM      Source: CCM
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It is generally well known, that the global titanium dioxide (TiO2) market grew significantly in the last decades. The extensive growth is supported by huge investments in the car and housing markets, which need the raw material for coatings, plastics, paint and other minor sectors, like cosmetic. The boosting demand from worldwide countries is facilitating the increase of TiO2 production and export.



 


It is inevitable for international market players to keep tracking the development in the worldwide largest TiO2 production base, China. Connect with the top TiO2 suppliers in China and take advantage of opportunities. 


However, according to China’s leading manufacturer Lomon Billions, the global TiO2 market will remain growing, but there are difficulties in China’s market. From the supply side, international titanium dioxide enterprises including Chemours, Tronox, and Huntsman have together removed titanium dioxide capacity in several hundred thousand tonnes from the beginning of the decade. Alongside with growing demand for the raw material, there are extremely few raw material suppliers for chloride process TiO2 production, prices of these raw materials will remain high in the short term. In this context, the global TiO2 market will remain bullish. 


According to market intelligence firm, only the 60,000 t/a sulphate-process TiO2 project of Shandong Doguide had finished construction so far and started trial production. Whether this project could achieve full capacity even after successful trial production is still uncertain because the operating rate will be largely determined by environmental protection policies this year. 


New projects of other domestic TiO2 manufacturers are still under construction, including a 100,000 t/a sulphate-process TiO2 project starting production in H2 2018, a 200,000 t/a chloride-process TiO2 production lines completed in Q4 2018, as well as 60,000 t/a chloride-process TiO2 project, to be finished in early 2019.


From all above, CCM believes few new TiO2 capacities will be put into operation in 2018 and the future operating rates of these companies are unpredictable. 


What’s more, Lomon Billions attributed this financial improvement to climbing TiO2 prices and prosperous domestic market. There were drops in Q3 and Q4, which had been triggered by fluctuating TiO2 prices during the traditional slack season. Lomon Billions believes that China's high TiO2 prices indicate that the market will keep blooming in the short term.


China’s recent import and export of TiO2

In December 2017, China’s imports went down by 9.68% MoM, and 29.26% YoY. Looking at the import price, it rose by 1.88% MoM, and 15.42% YoY. The decreased import volume can be attributed to the ongoing traditional slack season of the TiO2 industry. As the weather became increasingly chilly, market demand for coatings slumped. Furthermore, downstream coating manufacturers suffered environmental protection pressure due to more stringent air pollution prevention and control during autumn and winter seasons. Therefore, domestic demand for TiO2 sharply fell down, resulting in dropping import volume. 


In the same month, China exported an increasing TiO2 amount in total, up by 13.83% MoM and 83.31% YoY. The average price rose by 0.48% MoM and 27.12% YoY. In late November 2017, some international leading TiO2 enterprises, such as Chemours and Tronox released their price hike plans in succession, deciding to raise their TiO2 quotations in the Asia-Pacific Region. Given this, China's TiO2 exports were strongly supported. 


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CCM is China’s leading market intelligence provider for the fields of agriculture, chemicals, food and feed.


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