Inorganic pigments: Foreign companies are optimistic about China!


At present, China is already the world's largest producer of iron oxide, lithopone and chrome pigments, and titanium dioxide production is second only to the United States.

At present, China is already the world's largest producer of iron oxide, lithopone and chrome pigments, and titanium dioxide production is second only to the United States.

In recent years, the prices of energy and raw materials have risen. At the same time, titanium dioxide in developed countries has entered the mature stage of product life cycle. It is expected that the average annual growth rate of demand in the next few years will be only 1.4%, and the possibility of investment increase is not high. This has made multinational companies pin their hopes for the future development of titanium dioxide in Asia, especially in China, where titanium dioxide production has begun to shift to China. Huntsman's large-scale chlorinated titanium dioxide project in Ningbo, DuPont in Dongying, Shandong, and Australian manufacturers in Yingkou, Liaoning, will be completed and put into operation around 2010. According to the existing domestic and foreign expansion new construction plans and projects under construction, it is estimated that before 2008, China's titanium dioxide production capacity will increase by 300,000 tons, and will increase by about 500,000 tons around 2010. By then, China's titanium dioxide production capacity will reach about 1.6 million tons / year, is expected to surpass the United States to become the world's largest producer of titanium dioxide. The production capacity of titanium dioxide in the chlorination process will increase significantly, and the product quality will be greatly improved. China is expected to become a veritable world inorganic pigment manufacturing center.

China's iron oxide industry also has the same prospects, and foreign famous iron oxide manufacturers are also optimistic about the Chinese market. Bayer, Germany, Lockwood and Elimens have established wholly-owned or joint ventures in developed coastal cities such as Shanghai, Fuyang, Jiangsu, Changshu, Taicang and Shenzhen. Now Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai coastal areas have become iron oxide production bases for overseas enterprises. The production capacity of these enterprises has reached 120,000 tons/year, accounting for 15% of the total domestic iron oxide production capacity.

The transfer of foreign inorganic pigment production to China has accelerated the market competition of China's inorganic pigment industry while accelerating China's entry into the world's inorganic pigment production base and sales market.

Exports will show strong growth

For a long time, the export volume of China's iron oxide, lithopone and chrome pigments is much higher than their respective imports. Only titanium dioxide has always been imported more than exports. However, from the perspective of import and export trade of titanium dioxide, since some products are imported from the past, processing of imported materials and goods in the bonded area, and finally exported to foreign countries, it can be said that the import and export trade of titanium dioxide is basically balanced. In 2005, a total of 228,000 tons of titanium dioxide was imported from China, of which about 76,000 tons were imported from the past, processing of imported materials and goods in the bonded area, and exported by the trade. The export of titanium dioxide was 155,000 tons. In the future, as the production capacity and output of China's titanium dioxide continue to increase and the quality of products is further improved, the amount of titanium dioxide imported by general trade will gradually decrease, and the proportion of titanium dioxide imported from the processing of imported materials will increase. The export volume of titanium dioxide will continue to maintain a strong growth trend, and China will become the world's net exporter of titanium dioxide.

The future trade trend of iron oxide is roughly the same as that of titanium dioxide. Since then, the proportion of imports of imported processing trade will remain above 50%, and the export volume will continue to increase.

Titanium resources strategic significance

With the continuous development of the titanium dioxide industry, future competition will largely depend on the possession of titanium resources.

Although China is one of the world's most abundant countries in the world of titanium ore, more than 90% of it is a symbiotic rock ore. TiO2 has a low grade, complex composition and difficult mining. At the same time, due to the scattered operation, the degree of mechanization is not high, and the product quality is unstable, resulting in serious waste of titanium ore resources. At present, China's titanium dioxide production requires about 1.8 million tons of ilmenite per year, while domestic production capacity is only about 1 million tons. It is necessary to import ilmenite and high-titanium slag from Australia, Canada and Vietnam. It is estimated that the domestic demand for titanium dioxide in China will be about 1.1 million tons in 2010, the output will be about 1.2 million tons, the demand for ilmenite will be about 3 million tons, and the domestic self-sufficiency rate for titanium ore will be only 37%.

In the face of the shortage of titanium resources, domestic enterprises must be prepared as soon as possible. One of the ways is outsourcing, which is divided into domestic and foreign channels. Foreign procurement has its own independent procurement and group procurement. Relatively speaking, group procurement has more advantages, not only low prices, but also low transportation costs. Each user can also import raw materials according to production requirements, and there will be no problems such as capital occupation and storage. Group purchasing is undoubtedly the best solution for general titanium dioxide enterprises to solve titanium ore raw materials. It is considered to form a raw material supply alliance based on geographical proximity and concentrate on importing titanium raw materials.