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

The prices of energy and raw materials have risen in recent years. At the same time, titanium dioxide in developed countries in the world has entered the mature stage of the product life cycle. It is expected that the average annual growth rate of demand in the next few years will only be 1.4%, and it is unlikely that investment will increase production. This makes multinational companies place their hopes on the future development of titanium dioxide in Asia, especially China, where the production of titanium dioxide has begun to shift to China. Huntsman's large chlorinated titanium dioxide projects in Ningbo, DuPont in Dongying, Shandong, and Australian manufacturers in Yingkou, Liaoning, will all be completed and put into production around 2010. According to the existing domestic and foreign expansion plans and projects under construction, it is estimated that China’s titanium dioxide production capacity will increase by 300,000 tons before 2008, and another 500,000 tons will be added around 2010. By then, China’s titanium dioxide production capacity will reach approximately 1.6 million tons/year, it is expected to surpass the United States to become the world's largest producer of titanium dioxide. The production capacity of chlorination process titanium dioxide 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 has the same prospects, and famous foreign iron oxide manufacturers are also optimistic about the Chinese market. Bayer of Germany, Lockwood of the United Kingdom, and Elimings have all established wholly-owned or joint ventures in developed coastal cities in China such as Shanghai, Zhejiang Fuyang, Jiangsu Changshu, Taicang, and Guangdong Shenzhen. At present, the coastal areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Guangdong have become iron oxide production bases for overseas enterprises. The production capacity of these enterprises has reached 120,000 tons per year, accounting for 15% of the total domestic iron oxide production capacity.

The transfer of foreign inorganic pigment production to China has accelerated China's becoming the world's inorganic pigment production base and sales market, and at the same time has intensified the market competition in China's inorganic pigment industry.

Exports will show strong growth

For a long time, China’s exports of iron oxide, lithopone and chromium pigments have been far higher than their respective imports. Only titanium dioxide has always been more imported than exported. However, from the perspective of the import and export trade methods of titanium dioxide, since some products are imported through trade methods such as imported materials, processed materials and warehousing and re-export goods in bonded areas, they are eventually exported to foreign countries, so 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 were imported in China, of which about 76,000 tons were imported through trade methods such as processing trade with imported materials and warehousing and transit goods in bonded areas; 155,000 tons of titanium dioxide were exported. In the future, with the continuous growth of China's titanium dioxide production capacity and output, and the further improvement of product quality, the amount of titanium dioxide imported by general trade will gradually decrease, and the proportion of titanium dioxide imported by imported processing trade will increase. , The export volume of titanium dioxide will continue to maintain a strong growth momentum, and China is just around the corner as a net exporter of titanium dioxide in the world. To

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

The strategic significance of titanium ore resources is prominent

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

Although China is one of the countries with the richest titanium ore resources in the world, more than 90% of them are symbiotic rock ore. The TiO2 grade is low, the composition is complex, and mining is difficult. At the same time, due to scattered operations, low degree of mechanization and unstable product quality, it caused serious waste of titanium ore resources. At present, the annual production of titanium dioxide in China requires about 1.8 million tons of ilmenite, while the domestic production capacity is only about 1 million tons. It is necessary to import ilmenite and high-titanium slag from Australia, Canada, Vietnam and other places. It is estimated that the domestic demand for titanium dioxide in China in 2010 is about 1.1 million tons, the output is about 1.2 million tons, the demand for ilmenite is about 3 million tons, and the domestic self-sufficiency rate of titanium ore is only 37%.

Facing the situation of insufficient supply of titanium ore resources, domestic enterprises must prepare as soon as possible. One way is outsourcing, which is divided into two channels, domestic and foreign, and there are two ways of independent procurement and group procurement for foreign procurement. Relatively speaking, group procurement has more advantages. Not only is the price low, but the transportation cost is low. Each user can also import raw materials according to the production requirements, and there will be no problems such as capital occupation and storage. Group procurement is undoubtedly the best solution for ordinary titanium dioxide companies to solve titanium ore raw materials. It is possible to consider forming a raw material supply alliance based on the region to focus on importing titanium raw materials.