It is reported that Kronos is expected to close the 35000 ton sulfuric ACID Titanium Dioxide production line in the German Leverkusen plant by the end of 2020 or early 2021. With the encouragement of China's national policy on titanium dioxide export, the "14th five year plan" period is an opportunity for China's titanium dioxide industry to enter the international market.
At the end of last year, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued the Announcement No. 54 of 2020 on the adjustment of the catalogue of prohibited commodities in processing trade, which adjusted the catalogue of prohibited commodities in processing trade, excluding the products with high energy consumption, high pollution and high technology content. 199 ten digit commodity code chemicals including titanium dioxide were eliminated. During the 14th Five Year Plan period, China's Chlorinated titanium dioxide and sulfuric acid titanium dioxide products will enter the international market, which may speed up the pace of closing foreign sulfuric acid titanium dioxide production plants.
In 2019, the global titanium dioxide production capacity is about 8.355 million tons, an increase of 4.07% compared with 8.028 million tons in 2018. From the global titanium dioxide production capacity, titanium dioxide production capacity is mainly distributed in Asia Pacific, North America and Europe. Among them, the Asia Pacific region is the leading region of the global titanium dioxide market capacity, especially since 2016, the production capacity has accounted for more than 50% and reached 56.4% in 2019. China has the largest titanium dioxide production capacity in the Asia Pacific region, accounting for 45.3% of the global total in 2019.
The world's major titanium dioxide manufacturers are distributed in North America, Western Europe and China. Due to the global titanium dioxide production increase from 2011 to 2015, resulting in excess supply and low prices, the capacity of international titanium dioxide giants continues to shrink. In the process of continuous integration, the number of overseas large titanium dioxide enterprises gradually decreases. In April 2019, TRONOX completed the acquisition of Cristal tiona, marking the reduction of overseas titanium dioxide leading enterprises from 5 to 4, and the continuous improvement of overseas titanium dioxide production capacity concentration. Chemours, TRONOX, Venator (split from Huntsman) and Kronos account for nearly half of the world's production capacity.
In 2019, the global output of titanium dioxide is about 6.1 million tons, the output of titanium dioxide by chlorination method is 2.63 million tons, and the output of titanium dioxide by sulfuric acid method is 3.47 million tons. China's total output in 2019 is 3.18 million tons, including 520000 tons of chlorinated titanium dioxide, 2.55 million tons of sulfuric acid titanium dioxide and 110000 tons of non pigment titanium dioxide; China's output from January to November 2020 is 3.17 million tons, which is basically the same as that of the whole year in 2019. From January to November, the output of titanium dioxide by chlorination method is 260000 tons, and that by sulfuric acid method is about 2.83 million tons. The domestic production is still dominated by sulfuric acid method.
From the perspective of global titanium dioxide demand, the global titanium dioxide demand from 2016 to 2019 is about 6.5 million tons, and some institutions predict that the global titanium dioxide demand in 2020 will basically maintain the level of recent years.
From the perspective of global titanium dioxide supply and demand, the titanium dioxide market has basically reached a balance. With the gradual recovery of the real estate industry in the United States and Europe in early 2017, the market demand continued to improve, greatly improving the overseas titanium dioxide demand. At the same time, some overseas high-cost titanium dioxide production capacity has been shut down, resulting in a certain supply gap of titanium dioxide products. Since 2020, the inventory level of some domestic large titanium dioxide production enterprises has been lower than the normal level, and the domestic titanium dioxide downstream enterprises have resumed work and production in stages, continuously increasing the market demand. In addition, the export market has a lot of profits China's total export volume of titanium dioxide from January to October in 2020 is 999776.4 tons, and that of China's titanium dioxide in October is 110236.39 tons, a record high in the same period.
At present, the global titanium dioxide international market is mainly occupied by foreign manufacturers led by Chemours. Although China is the largest titanium dioxide manufacturer in the world, the overall competition level of a single manufacturer still needs to be improved. With the national policy to encourage the export of titanium dioxide and the gradual integration of the titanium dioxide market, China's titanium dioxide manufacturers actively become bigger and stronger, China's titanium dioxide is becoming more and more mature in the international market.
