(1) Output of Titanium Dioxide in China
The research and establishment of titanium dioxide industry in China began in 1955, but the substantial development of titanium dioxide industry began in 1998. According to the statistical data of the titanium dioxide sub center of the National Productivity Promotion Center of the chemical industry, the total output of titanium dioxide has increased from 140000 tons in 1998 to 3.79 million tons in 2021. In terms of capacity utilization, in recent years, the overall capacity utilization rate of the industry has exceeded 80% for many consecutive years, maintaining a high level.
With the increase of production capacity, the status of titanium dioxide industry in China in the world is also rising. In 2002, the total production capacity of China's titanium dioxide industry reached 390000 tons, surpassing Japan, which was the second largest titanium dioxide producer in the world at that time; By 2009, the total production capacity of China's titanium dioxide industry had reached 1.8 million tons, surpassing the United States, which ranked first at that time, and becoming the world's largest producer of titanium dioxide so far.
(2) Demand of titanium dioxide industry in China
China is a large country in titanium dioxide production and consumption. In 2021, the apparent demand for titanium dioxide in China was about 2.6703 million tons. Data source of apparent demand for titanium dioxide in China from 2010 to 2021: titanium dioxide sub center of National Productivity Promotion Center of chemical industry
Titanium dioxide is widely used in coatings, plastics, papermaking, printing inks, rubber, chemical fiber, ceramics, cosmetics, food, medicine, electronic industry, microelectronics and environmental protection industry. It can be said that it has penetrated into all aspects of the industrial field. Its city scene and development trend are closely related to the overall environment of economic development. For domestic titanium dioxide production enterprises, in recent years, in addition to the demand of the original downstream industries, the market demand for titanium dioxide also has the following incremental demand factors: ① the increase of export scale is mainly due to the improvement of technology of domestic titanium dioxide production enterprises, which has brought about the improvement of product quality, and can seize part of the market in foreign medium and high-end markets, This has become one of the most important factors supporting the prosperity of the domestic titanium dioxide industry in recent years; ② With the continuous expansion of the application field of titanium dioxide, in addition to the demand for titanium dioxide in the traditional downstream industries such as coatings, paints and plastics, the downstream industry of titanium dioxide has gradually expanded to cosmetics, toys, food, medicine and other fields. With the economic development, scientific and technological progress and the deepening of application research, the application field of titanium dioxide will be broader.
(3) Import and export of titanium dioxide in China
According to China's customs statistics, the export volume of China's titanium dioxide industry has maintained a rapid growth in recent years. Since 2011, China has changed from a net importer of titanium dioxide to a net exporter. By 2021, the export volume of China's titanium dioxide industry was 1311600 tons, while the import volume was 191900 tons, and the import and export trade surplus further expanded. The change of import and export volume of titanium dioxide in China since 2010 is shown in the following figure: import and export of titanium dioxide in China from 2010 to 2021 data source: customs statistics over the years
With the continuous growth of China's titanium dioxide exports, exports have become an important demand factor to support the development of China's titanium dioxide industry. According to the statistical data of the titanium dioxide sub center of the National Productivity Promotion Center of the chemical industry and the customs, the export volume of titanium dioxide accounted for 34.61% of China's total output of titanium dioxide in 2021, and the export proportion increased steadily; At the same time, the proportion of titanium dioxide imports in China's apparent demand for titanium dioxide is declining year by year, and by 2020, the proportion has been significantly less than 10%. The specific situation of the proportion of China's titanium dioxide exports to output and imports to demand from 2010 to 2021 is shown in the following figure: the proportion of China's titanium dioxide exports to output and imports to demand from 2010 to 2021 data source: calculated according to the titanium dioxide sub center of the National Productivity Promotion Center of the chemical industry and the statistical data of customs over the years
(4) Structure of titanium dioxide products in China
In terms of product structure, before 1998, the structural contradiction of titanium dioxide products in China was relatively prominent. Titanium dioxide products were mainly used for non pigment enamel and welding rods, and high-end special anatase and high-end Rutile Titanium Dioxide needed to be imported in large quantities. With the expansion of domestic titanium dioxide consumption market, the wide application of international advanced equipment, process and automatic control technology in China, and the continuous improvement of domestic titanium dioxide production process, the proportion of rutile titanium dioxide products representing the comprehensive capacity of production enterprises has increased year by year, and the product types have also developed from several general-purpose varieties to nearly 100 functional special varieties. The product quality of some large enterprises is close to the first-class level of similar products in the world, It can partially replace imported products for medium and high-end applications.
According to the statistical data of the titanium dioxide sub center of the National Productivity Promotion Center of the chemical industry, of the total output of 3.79 million tons of 42 full process large-scale titanium dioxide enterprises that can maintain normal production in 2021, the output of rutile titanium dioxide was 3.126 million tons, accounting for 82.5%; The output of anatase titanium dioxide is 494000 tons, accounting for 13%; The output of other titanium dioxide products such as non pigment grade is 170000 tons, accounting for 4.5%. After years of development, the structure of titanium dioxide products in China has been continuously optimized, and the output of rutile titanium dioxide products has occupied a leading position in the industry.
(5) Fluctuation of titanium dioxide market price in China
Since 2016, the market price of titanium dioxide in China has fluctuated. From 2016 to may 2017, the market price of titanium dioxide in China has stabilized and rebounded on the basis of the low price in the early stage due to the comprehensive impact of the stricter requirements of national environmental protection and industrial policies, the further improvement of industry concentration, the more transparent industry pricing information and transmission, and the increased downstream demand; From June 2017 to the end of the second quarter of 2020, affected by market factors, the overall market price of titanium dioxide showed a slight downward trend; In the third quarter of 2020, the market price of titanium dioxide hit the bottom. Since then, affected by the rising cost of upstream raw material titanium concentrate and the increasing export volume, the market price of titanium dioxide has shown an upward trend. The trend of titanium dioxide market price in China in recent years is shown in the figure below: the trend chart of rutile titanium dioxide market price in China from 2016 to 2021 (unit: yuan / ton) data source: wind, Shenzhen Hong Kong Securities Research Institute
(6) Overall competition pattern and market concentration of the industry
Internationally, titanium dioxide production plants tend to be large-scale, production capacity is increasingly concentrated to a few manufacturers, and industrial mergers and acquisitions are still in progress. As the leader of the titanium dioxide industry, such globalized large companies, to a large extent, dominate the global supply, price and development of titanium dioxide.
From a domestic perspective, although the titanium dioxide industry has seen industrial restructuring events such as the merger and reorganization of longmang titanium and Bailian in recent years, as well as the closure of some small and medium-sized production enterprises due to environmental factors, the industrial concentration of China's titanium dioxide industry has increased, but on the whole, the scale of China's titanium dioxide production enterprises is still small, and the industrial concentration is still low. According to the statistical data of the titanium dioxide sub center of the National Productivity Promotion Center of the chemical industry, in 2021, the total output of titanium dioxide in China was 3.79 million tons, and the total output of the top five manufacturers was about 1.84 million tons, accounting for about 48.55% of the total output. Among them, the annual output of Longbai group exceeded 900000 tons, making it the only domestic enterprise among the top five manufacturers in the world. By the end of 2021, among a total of 42 full-scale titanium dioxide enterprises that can maintain normal production in China, 15 titanium dioxide production enterprises have an output of less than 30000 tons, and the industrial concentration needs to be further improved.
From the competition pattern of different grades of products:
1) Most small and medium-sized enterprises in China are concentrated in the anatase titanium dioxide market. According to the statistics of the titanium dioxide sub center of the National Productivity Promotion Center of the chemical industry, the total output of anatase titanium dioxide in 2021 was only 494000 tons, but this mainly comes from more than a number of small and medium-sized enterprises in the industry that can only produce less than 30000 tons of anatase titanium dioxide.
2) A few large and medium-sized enterprises are concentrated in the medium and high-end rutile titanium dioxide market. In addition to meeting domestic demand, rutile titanium dioxide is also exported to Europe, America, South Korea, Japan, Brazil and other countries or regions to participate in international competition, and the export scale is expanding year by year, promoting the increase of the export proportion of the whole industry.
3) The domestic high-end rutile titanium dioxide product market has long been occupied by foreign chlorination process manufacturers. In recent years, the annual import scale is about 200000 tons. With the gradual maturity of domestic chlorination process, the product output scale has exceeded 300000 tons; At the same time, the process technology of titanium dioxide by sulfuric acid method in China has approached the international level, the process automation level, the seriation and specialization of products have been greatly improved, the comprehensive utilization of resources has reached the international level, and the gap between product quality and foreign products has been further narrowed. The products produced by the domestic chlorination process and the products produced by the sulfuric acid process of some enterprises can also be used in high-end fields. The rutile titanium dioxide products imported by the chlorination process have been replaced, and the proportion of the imported quantity in the domestic apparent demand has gradually decreased.
