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