Titanium Dioxide Fears Overcapacity (quanxu)

Liu Changhe, head of the expert group of China National Coatings Industry Association Titanium Dioxide Industry Branch, recently said in an interview that at the end of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, the problem of overcapacity of domestic titanium dioxide powder may be even more serious.

It is understood that titanium dioxide production process sulfuric acid and chlorination two. Chlorination is the mainstream process in developed countries. As of the end of the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, China is already the world’s largest producer and consumer of titanium dioxide, with a production capacity of 2.3 million tons, but the chlorination capacity is only 30,000 tons, accounting for 1.5% of the domestic production; Titanium dioxide 1.474 million tons; annual imports of 269,000 tons, exports of 266,000 tons; domestic apparent consumption of 1.477 million tons, nearly 40% excess capacity.

Liu Changhe told reporters that due to the shortage of international titanium dioxide market in the first half of the year, China’s export volume surged and the price of titanium dioxide increased significantly, resulting in a higher overall industry profit margin. Under such circumstances, the domestic enterprises’ investment enthusiasm is high and they have invested in the construction of titanium dioxide plants, which has led to a rapid increase in domestic titanium dioxide production capacity. According to statistics, the current national capacity for the production of sulfuric acid titanium dioxide to be constructed and under construction exceeds 1.5 million tons, and the titanium dioxide production capacity of the chlorination process has reached 670,000 tons. By 2015, after the completion of all new construction projects, production capacity will reach 4.38 million tons.

He pointed out that according to the development speed of several major downstream industries of titanium dioxide, with an annual growth rate of 15% of titanium dioxide demand, it is optimistic to estimate that by 2015, the demand for titanium dioxide is only 3.017 million tons. If the model application of the new product is similar to that of the existing product, then at the end of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, the problem of overcapacity in the titanium dioxide industry will not be reversed. On the contrary, the issue of overcapacity will become more serious, resulting in excessive consumption of resources and the market. Increased competition. Under such circumstances, domestic titanium dioxide enterprises are eager to carry out technological innovation. It is imperative for enterprises to have a new orientation for the new or proposed titanium dioxide project. New products should focus on high-end markets and emerging fields.

Liu Changhe also said that at present, domestic enterprises have been able to meet the demand for traditional low-end areas, but the high-end market is basically monopolized by imported products and needs to be solved by a large number of imports each year. At the same time, large foreign titanium dioxide companies have invested a lot in the development of new applications, accounting for more than 2% of the total output value. However, domestic companies have invested less, and their development efforts are not enough, resulting in slow growth in new areas.

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