The hottest titanium dioxide enters the critical p

Titanium dioxide enters the critical period of industrial upgrading

titanium dioxide enters the critical period of industrial upgrading

November 18, 2011

[China paint information] China's production scale and actual output of titanium dioxide have increased extremely rapidly, and has become one of the most important forces in the world titanium dioxide industry, and this growth momentum will continue. According to the statistics of titanium dioxide industry branch of China Paint Industry Association, in the next five years, the new production capacity of titanium dioxide in mainland China will be 1.5 million ~ 2million tons, of which the chlorinated titanium dioxide has made a breakthrough in the external wall insulation technology in China, with a total production capacity of 3.7 million ~ 4.1 million tons in 2015. At the 2011 national titanium dioxide industry annual meeting held recently, Xie Xiangyun, chairman of the titanium dioxide industry branch of China Coating Industry Association, said that although the output increased significantly, the domestic competitiveness did not improve synchronously. At present, titanium dioxide in China is in a new critical period in many aspects. Improving its international competitiveness through various ways will be the "highlight" of the solvent industry in the next five years, which is insoluble in all solvents except concentrated sulfuric acid

-- the upgrading period of product structure and technology. At present, China has changed from mainly using anatase titanium dioxide by sulfuric acid method to rutile titanium dioxide. The production capacity of rutile titanium dioxide has exceeded 70%, and this proportion is still increasing, but the products are still concentrated in the middle and low grades, and high-end titanium dioxide still depends on a large number of imports. The main domestic products with obvious advantages in product quality are several large titanium dioxide enterprises. In addition, the chlorinated titanium dioxide product is currently only 30000 tons nationwide, which is insignificant in the total amount of 1.47 million tons. In the next step, four or five enterprises plan to develop the chlorinated titanium dioxide business, and the planned production capacity will reach more than 600000 tons. Therefore, this period is a critical period for changing the product structure, improving China's technological level, introducing foreign advanced technology and digesting and undertaking

-- during the promotion period of energy conservation and emission reduction and environmental protection, energy conservation and emission reduction, cleaner production, environmental protection and sustainable development are the clear tasks put forward in the national "12th Five Year Plan". In view of the characteristics of titanium resources in China, the current situation of titanium dioxide industry and the difficulty of developing and introducing titanium dioxide technology by chlorination method, the development of titanium dioxide industry will still be dominated by sulfuric acid method for a period of time in the future. In terms of how to effectively use the waste and byproducts produced by sulfuric acid method and guide and standardize enterprises to take the road of circular economic development, the state and industry organizations are actively working to promote enterprises to take the road of circular economy from many aspects of policies and regulations. In this process, some enterprises that fail to meet the standard will greatly broaden the scope of the experiment and be eliminated, which will bring greater pressure to the survival of enterprises, but for those enterprises with a sense of society, it is a good time to improve the industrial layout and enhance their competitive strength

-- the opportunity period for the implementation of mergers and acquisitions. Although China has become a major producer and consumer of titanium dioxide in the world, there are still many problems, and there is a significant gap compared with traditional titanium dioxide production and consumption regions such as Europe and the United States. China's output in 2010 reached 1.4743 million tons, an increase of 40.9% over the previous year, but the concentration of production capacity is declining. The total output of the top 10 producers is 675500 tons, accounting for 45.8% of the country's total output, a decrease of 5.6 percentage points over the previous year. According to statistics, there are 60 titanium dioxide manufacturers in China. If the Sino US trade war continues to escalate, only 3 have a single plant output of more than 100000 tons, showing a pattern of many, small, miscellaneous and scattered. Due to the rapid growth of titanium dioxide demand and high profits in China in the past 10 years, many enterprises have poured in, and the problem of disorderly development is more prominent, mainly due to the serious repeated construction of low-end sulfuric acid titanium dioxide. Therefore, although the scale has increased, its competitiveness in the world has not been improved at the same time. China's titanium dioxide industry is a highly free competitive industry, with few thresholds in mergers and acquisitions, and it is easy to realize market-oriented investment and capital operation. According to foreign development experience, the merger and reorganization of titanium dioxide industry is a general trend. In the next 5-10 years, the joint reorganization among titanium dioxide enterprises will be more frequent, and the enterprises with technology, resources and market will stand out. There will be 3-5 titanium dioxide enterprises with a capacity of more than 300000 tons in China, and a series of low-cost expansion methods such as merger, acquisition and joint reorganization will become the main way. At present, this period is a good opportunity to implement industrial upgrading, mergers and acquisitions

Xie Xiangyun pointed out that from the perspective of the overall economic situation, China is still a developing country, with a large population, strong demand and the level of urbanization to be improved. These factors determine that there is still considerable room for growth in the demand for titanium dioxide in China. According to relevant data, the per capita consumption of titanium dioxide in the United States is 4.1 kg, in Europe is 3.6 kg, in the Asia Pacific region is 1.6 kg, while China is only 1.01 kg at present. If China can reach the consumption of 2 kg titanium dioxide per capita by 2015, the market demand in China will be about 2.9 million tons. Considering the industrial transfer of developed countries and other factors, the market production in China is likely to reach about 3.5 million tons; By 2020, China's market production and consumption will likely reach 4million ~ 4.5 million tons