Metallurgy / Chemicals / Rubber & Plastics

Since the second half of last year, the titanium dioxide market, which has been popular for many years, has continued to cool down, and the price has gradually declined. Up to now, the price of various titanium dioxide has dropped by more than 20% year on year. However, as a high-end product in the titanium dioxide industry, chlorinated titanium dioxide still has a strong resilience, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

"Chlorination titanium dioxide is also the development trend of high-end transformation of China's titanium dioxide industry. With the support of various advantages such as market supply, technological breakthrough and leading, the domestic production capacity of chlorination titanium dioxide has grown steadily in recent years, especially the large-scale production of Longbai Group's chlorination titanium dioxide plant has broken the situation that high-end products are subject to foreign restrictions, and the high-end transformation of domestic titanium dioxide is on the way." Senior market commentator Shao Huiwen said so.

Continuous growth of chloride production capacity

"Five years ago, chlorinated titanium dioxide products accounted for only 3.6% of domestic production, and the industrial structure was seriously unbalanced. More than 90% of titanium dioxide in high-end applications in China depended on imports, and the price was about 50% higher than domestic generic titanium dioxide. High end products are highly dependent on foreign countries, and have no say in chlorinated titanium dioxide products, which is also the bottleneck of high-end transformation and upgrading of China's titanium dioxide industry." Vice President of titanium dioxide Industry Innovation Alliance Vice Chairman and Benliu of the Titanium Material Production and Application Branch of the China Building Materials Market Association said so.

According to the observation report of Huacheng import and export data, in the first quarter of 2023, China's titanium dioxide import volume accumulated about 13200 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 64.25%; The cumulative export volume is about 437100 tons, a year-on-year increase of 12.65%. According to other data, in 2022, China's titanium dioxide production capacity will be 4.7 million tons, the import volume will be 43% lower than that in 2017, and the export volume will be 290% higher than that in 2012. "In recent years, the import volume of domestic titanium dioxide has declined and the export volume has increased, because the rapid expansion of the capacity of domestic leading enterprises of chlorination titanium dioxide has effectively alleviated their dependence on imported high-end products." The head of a domestic paint enterprise said.

He Benliu introduced that the mainstream processes of titanium dioxide are divided into sulfuric acid process, chlorination process and hydrochloric acid process. Among them, the chlorination process is the main process in titanium dioxide industry because of its short process, easy expansion of production capacity, high degree of continuous automation, relatively low energy consumption, less "three wastes" emissions, and high-quality products. The global production ratio of chlorinated titanium dioxide and sulfuric acid titanium dioxide is about 6:4, which is higher in developed countries in Europe and America. In China, the ratio has now risen to 3:7. In the future, the insufficient supply of chlorinated titanium dioxide will continue to be improved.

Chlorination method listed in the encouraged category list

The Guiding Catalogue for Industrial Restructuring issued by the National Development and Reform Commission lists the production of chlorinated titanium dioxide in the encouraged category, and restricts the construction of non co produced sulfuric acid titanium dioxide, which has become an opportunity for the transformation and upgrading of titanium dioxide enterprises. Since then, domestic titanium dioxide enterprises have gradually increased their investment in research and development of chlorinated titanium dioxide production technology, and Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

"After many years of technical breakthrough, many problems of chlorination titanium dioxide have been solved. Longbai Group has developed a number of high-quality series high-end chlorination titanium dioxide products, whose overall performance has reached the international advanced level, and some of its performance has reached the international leading level. We are the first enterprise in China to successfully innovate and apply large-scale boiling chlorination titanium dioxide technology. Practice has also confirmed that chlorination titanium dioxide technology is more green and environmentally friendly, and its waste residue storage Compared to the sulfuric acid method, the quantity is reduced by more than 90%, with a comprehensive energy saving of up to 30% and a water saving of up to 50%. The environmental benefits are very significant, and the product performance meets import standards, breaking the monopoly of foreign countries in the high-end market and gaining market recognition. At present, Longbai Group has built the largest chlorination titanium dioxide production base in China, forming two chlorination bases of Henan New Material Company and Yunnan Xinli Titanium Industry. " Chen Jianli, Vice President of R&D at Longbai Group, President of Longbai Research Institute, and Chairman of Yunnan Guotai Company, introduced the observation report of Huacheng's import and export data.

61% of Longbai chlorination production capacity

Shao Huiwen said that with the continuous production of new chlorinated titanium dioxide projects in China, its production capacity has reached about 1.08 million tons by 2022, accounting for more than 22% of the total domestic production capacity from 3.6% five years ago, greatly reducing the dependence of chlorinated titanium dioxide on foreign countries, and the market supply advantage is beginning to appear.

At present, there are 4 single enterprises with chlorination capacity of more than 100000 tons/year, among which Longbai Group's chlorination titanium dioxide production capacity has reached 660000 tons/year, accounting for more than 61% of the total domestic chlorination production capacity. The leading effect is obvious. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Industry insiders believe that based on the development trend of high-end applications of titanium dioxide, as well as the current layout and status quo of the domestic industry, China's high-end transformation of titanium dioxide has begun to break down. It is recommended that relevant government departments and industries increase their attention and guidance on the planning of chlorination projects. Enterprises should also have a targeted approach, abandon project investment and planning for outdated processes and products, and focus on the development and application of high-end products to avoid the risk of surplus low-end products.