Right now, the titanium dioxide industry is ushering in a peak sales season, stimulated by downstream demand, international giants have raised prices. Recently, the international titanium dioxide giant DuPont announced that it will increase the price of titanium dioxide by about 5% from April 15. At the same time, Huntsman of the United States will also increase the price of titanium dioxide by 150 euros per ton from April 1.

It is different from the situation where international giants raised prices in the same period in 2013, while domestic titanium dioxide prices are still running at a low level or even falling. In this year's peak sales season, domestic companies have also followed the same trend. It is understood that Shandong Dongjia and Shandong Daun took the lead in raising prices by 200-300 yuan/ton. After that, Baililian (002601), Anada, China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide (002145), Shandong Daun, Haifengxin, Jinan Yuxing, Shandong Jinhai and others have increased by 300-500 yuan/ton. Anhui Anada increased by 200 yuan and 300 yuan/ton on March 2 and March 10, and on March 18, it will increase rutile titanium dioxide and titanium dioxide. The price of anatase titanium dioxide was increased by 300 yuan/ton, and the cumulative increase of anatase was 800 yuan/ton.

"By comparison, we can see that the domestic titanium dioxide industry does show signs of recovery." Zhuo Chuang Information analyst Bian Jianwei said. The industry expects that under the demonstration effect of price increases by international giants, coupled with policies such as titanium dioxide industry regulations and industrial pollutant prevention technologies, will be introduced within this year, the industry will accelerate integration, and the profitability of titanium dioxide is expected to continue to improve.

Integration acceleration

According to data collected by Zhuo Chuang Information, half of the companies have raised the price of titanium dioxide. Unlike previous years where Sichuan Dragon Mang Group led the rise, when Shandong Daun, Haifengxin, Jinan Yuxing and other companies increased their prices this year, Sichuan Dragon Mang Group alone did not move. The reason for this "abnormal" phenomenon, according to industry insiders close to Sichuan Dragon Mang Group, is because Sichuan Dragon Mang Group has recently acquired an intention to lower prices. In addition to Sichuan Dragon Mang Group, there are many titanium dioxide acquisition projects under discussion recently. The mergers and reorganization activities between titanium dioxide companies are more frequent, and the industry is ushering in a wave of integration.

It is understood that 2013 was a year in which the titanium dioxide industry experienced severe tests. The market demand was not prosperous, the operating rate was seriously insufficient, product prices fell, and operations were difficult. In order to promote the healthy development of the industry, the relevant government departments revised the "Titanium Dioxide Industry Access Conditions" (now changed to the "Titanium Dioxide Industry Standard Conditions") and formulated the "Titanium Dioxide Industry Pollution Prevention Technology Policy". At present, although these policies have not been issued, some of the contents have been disclosed. The "Titanium Dioxide Industry Standard Conditions" stipulates that no matter what titanium dioxide process capacity, its process by-products must establish a "resource recycling system"; whether it is a nationally encouraged process or a newly restricted process, the current domestic , International advanced technology, so as to avoid and prevent the disadvantages of "planarized production capacity expansion", and promote industrial upgrading and technological transformation. The "Technical Policy for Pollution Prevention and Control of Titanium Dioxide Industry" also puts forward requirements for clean production, air pollution prevention, water pollution prevention, and solid waste treatment.

Cai Xubo, general manager of Shanghai Haoke Network Technology Co., Ltd. (Good Pigment Supermarket), said: “With the upgrade of environmental protection, the titanium dioxide industry will inevitably go through the process of de-capacity as in Europe and the United States, which will promote industry upgrades, increase the proportion of chlorination, and enhance the industry. Concentration, leading companies with the right to speak will gradually emerge."

It is from 2013 that China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide, Jinpu Titanium (000545) and other companies have thrown olive branches out.

In recent years, the development of the titanium dioxide industry has been sluggish and business operations have been difficult. "Intensification of production capacity" is considered a good way to deal with the weak market. Because the company has formed a scale through mergers and reorganizations, it can have a certain amount of financial and material resources, can conduct research and development in a planned way, and make product structure planning according to customer needs.

Policy overweight

In addition to the "Titanium Dioxide Industry Standard Conditions" and the "Titanium Dioxide Industry Pollution Prevention and Control Technology Policy", there are many later policies for titanium dioxide.

It is reported that the National Development and Reform Commission will also formulate the "Energy Consumption Quota per Product of Titanium Dioxide", which will regulate the energy consumption of titanium dioxide production from three aspects: existing enterprises, new enterprises and advanced levels of the industry; start the formulation of the "Negative List for Market Access" Work together with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to study and formulate the "Cleaner Production Evaluation Index System System (Revision) Plan (First Batch)", which involves the "Inorganic Pigment Cleaner Production Evaluation Index System", including titanium dioxide, oxidation Iron, chromium pigments, etc. In addition, the Ministry of Environmental Protection also initiated research on environmental and economic policies for the titanium dioxide industry.

On January 1 this year, the newly revised environmental protection law, known as the most stringent in history, was implemented. Lai Xiaodong, deputy director of the Policy Division of the Department of Policies and Regulations of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said that the government will encourage titanium dioxide companies to purchase environmental protection equipment and technology through financial and taxation and other levers. The government should encourage compliant companies that voluntarily withdraw from technical reforms that fail to meet the standards.

Bi Sheng, director of the Titanium Dioxide Sub-center of the National Chemical Industry Productivity Promotion Center and secretary-general of the Titanium Dioxide Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance, said that with the rapid changes in market conditions and severe environmental pressures, in the past two years, there have been more than 10 companies in the industry. Small and micro titanium dioxide companies with long-term development capabilities are closed, dismantled, or in a state of halted or semi-stopped production, which has changed the disordered situation of mixed large and small enterprises before.

Dongxing Securities (601198) analyst Yang Wei said that in the future, as the country introduces new policies on the production scale, energy consumption and environmental protection of titanium dioxide enterprises, it will further accelerate the integration of the titanium dioxide industry. It is expected that there will be small and medium-sized production capacity in the next two years. Enterprises have withdrawn from the market one after another. In the next 5 years, my country's titanium dioxide industry will usher in a large-scale reorganization and integration.

Technological innovation

The reporter learned that the "Technical Policy for the Prevention and Control of Pollution in the Titanium Dioxide Industry" that is being formulated proposes to adopt a batch of cleaner production technologies to replace the traditional sulfuric acid production process. At present, many enterprises in the industry have begun to promote and apply the new processes and technologies.

The "Technical Policy for the Prevention and Control of Pollution in the Titanium Dioxide Industry" does not propose to replace the sulfuric acid production with a more environmentally friendly chlorination method. This is because the more advanced chlorination technology has been mastered in the United States DuPont and other European countries for a long time. In the hands of titanium dioxide companies, these companies have joined forces to engage in technology blockade and do not sell technology to domestic companies.

However, as China's titanium dioxide has become increasingly important in the global market in recent years, some foreign companies have also begun to actively cooperate with domestic companies. Among them, Panyu Titanium uses the chlorination titanium dioxide production process technology provided by the United States Profumens. On the basis of this, it began to build a 100,000-ton chlorination titanium dioxide production line; Baililian paid PPG industry a technology transfer fee of 105 million yuan to purchase the chlorination-method titanium dioxide production process from it, and also began to build 100,000 tons. The production line of chlorination titanium dioxide; other companies such as Lomon Titanium Industry and Yunnan Metallurgical Group have also invested heavily in the development and production of chlorination titanium dioxide production lines.

At the end of last year, the chlorination titanium dioxide project of Luohe Xingmao Titanium Industry Co., Ltd. completed the trial production task, marking a major breakthrough in the technological upgrading of my country's titanium dioxide industry.

Even so, industry insiders believe that there is still a big gap between the production lines of chlorinated titanium dioxide of domestic companies and foreign companies, with small production capacity and high costs. Therefore, sulfuric acid production will continue to occupy a dominant position for a long time. To solve environmental problems, only a batch of cleaner production technologies can be studied and adopted. It is reported that the sulfuric acid titanium dioxide process of a company in Panzhihua uses high-quality acid-soluble titanium-rich materials as materials to solve environmental problems and is highly regarded in the industry.

"Titanium dioxide enterprises should combine their own and regional characteristics to achieve comprehensive utilization of resources in multiple ways, turn waste into treasure, seek benefits from environmental protection, and expand the profitability of the main body of the titanium dioxide industry.