Titanium dioxide is considered to be the world's best performance of a white pigment, is an important inorganic chemical pigment. The reporter entered the Kuncai technology located in Fuqing and learned that pearlite pigments and titanium dioxide (scientific name "titanium dioxide") are so close to our lives. Automotive coatings, industrial coatings, plastics, inks, cosmetics, personal care products and so on have their figure, involving all aspects of our lives. However, such an important bulk raw material titanium dioxide in China, but in the production process, brand and quality of products, long-term subject to people.

In order to break the shackles and master the industry's most high-end and advanced preparation technology, Xie Bingkun, founder and chairman of Kuncai Technology, bent down to lead the research and development team to do experiments, find ways to overcome difficulties, and was called "scientific research crazy". After 13 years of hard work, costing more than 3 billion yuan, Kuncai Technology explored the feasibility of the process, the reliability of materials and the stability of equipment, and finally developed the world's first set of extraction method of titanium dioxide chloride process, subverted the process route of titanium dioxide industry for more than 100 years, led the industry to make revolutionary technological progress, broke the foreign "jam neck" technical barriers, Complete intellectual property and exclusive process certification.

Against all odds

Achieve "return to zero crossing"

In order to enter the field of titanium dioxide, Kuncai Technology has commissioned the domestic chemical design institute, opened a huge design fee, the other party finally returned the design fee; Kuncai Technology has also consulted many universities, and they do not have papers or patents and literature that can be used for reference.

The first step is the hardest. Previously, the main manufacturing methods of titanium dioxide are sulfuric acid method and chlorination method, sulfuric acid method is mainly for the low-end market, the current production capacity is mainly concentrated in China, the market proportion is as high as 90%, and Europe and the United States to chlorination method, high-end titanium dioxide accounted for about 90%.

The application of sulfuric acid process has a long history and the technology is mature, but the "three wastes" discharge is large, and it is easy to cause serious pollution. With the increasingly strict environmental protection regulations, as early as 2006, the United States closed the last domestic sulfuric acid process titanium dioxide production plant. On the other hand, with the development of the national economy and the improvement of people's living standards, the application and demand for high-end titanium dioxide continue to rise, and there is a certain gap in weather resistance and purity of sulfuric acid method. This has led to a shortage of high-end production capacity in China, and high-quality titanium dioxide needs to be imported from abroad every year to meet domestic demand.

The chlorination process started late, but the process flow is simple, the production capacity is large, the pollution is small, and the application is more popular in foreign countries. Although China has begun to encourage and promote the chlorination production process since 2005, the development speed is slow due to the shortage of main raw materials such as high titanium slag and artificial rutile in China and the monopoly of advanced technology by a few international enterprises.

Hearing the drums of war, thinking good generals. Kuncai Technology makes full use of the government's support policy in talent introduction, gathering many talents at home and abroad, including about 50 doctors and nearly 100 masters, to form a research and development team with doctors and masters as the project leader and research group leader. "We are the first to hire a foreign doctor, which also sets a precedent for China's private chemical industry." Xie Bingkun said.

Xie Bingkun, known as the "scientific research madman", led the research and development team of Kuncai Technology day and night to climb the scientific research peak. "Kuncai to make pearlescent pigments need a lot of titanium tetrachloride, early just want to make a product to replace it." With the extraction method, the titanium tetrachloride is configured into titanium dichlorooxide, and in this process, we found that the quality of titanium dioxide produced by titanium dichlorooxide is very good, even beyond the chloride process of titanium dioxide." CAI Zhiming, deputy general manager of Kuncai Technology, said that failure is the mother of success, encountered too many problems in the process of industrialization, 13 years of time, Kuncai invested more than 3 billion yuan of funds, is in the practice of the feasibility of the process, the reliability of materials and the stability of equipment.

Compared with the traditional titanium dioxide production process, extraction method of titanium dioxide chloride has many advantages such as stability, low energy consumption, low emissions, recyclability, sustainability, safety and environmental protection, and Kuncai Technology has obtained more than a dozen domestic and foreign invention patents. "Hydrochloric acid extraction method compared with sulfuric acid method and chlorination method, the quality requirements for raw materials titanium concentrate are lower, and domestic medium titanium ore can achieve complete supply and full production, without importing from abroad, breaking through the foreign chlorination process titanium dioxide technology blockade and monopoly, and cracking the overseas industry leader 'jam neck' problem." Xie Bingkun said.

It is worth mentioning that the intermediate products and by-products produced by the extraction process are titanium oxychloride and ferric chloride, which can also be used by Kuncai Technology to produce pearlescent materials, in order to ensure quality and raw material supply, while reducing costs, and the original pearlescent main industry will have a better industrial synergy.
However, recently the titanium dioxide market has made many companies feel troubled

Titanium dioxide industry chain put the cart before the horse

On May 29, Jinpu Titanium (000545.SZ) announced that the company intends to issue shares to specific objects, raising a total of no more than 900 million yuan, after deducting issuance costs, will be used for 100,000 tons/year of new energy battery material precursor and thermal energy comprehensive utilization project construction. According to Jinpu titanium industry, after the completion of the project can fully absorb ferrous sulfate and other by-products in the production process of titanium dioxide, the industrial chain has been further extended, the added value of products has increased significantly, and the company has formed a new performance growth point.

However, Bi Sheng, secretary general of the titanium dioxide industry technology innovation Strategic alliance, has repeatedly said that with the rise of the green new energy battery material industry, a large number of iron phosphate or lithium iron phosphate projects are under construction or preparation, which will lead to a surge in titanium dioxide production capacity, while aggravating the contradiction between supply and demand of titanium ore.

Of course, this "pot" must not let Gimpu titanium industry back itself, which is not uncommon in the industry.

The five listed companies with titanium dioxide as the main business (in order of listing time: China Nuclear Titanium dioxide, Annada Titanium industry, Longbai Group, Jinpu Titanium industry and Huiyun titanium industry) are all planning to build new energy materials projects of iron phosphate, and the non-listed enterprises and non-titanium dioxide enterprises in the titanium dioxide industry have this initiative much more. Most of the iron phosphate in these projects has a capacity of 100,000 to 200,000 t/a, and the corresponding by-product titanium dioxide has a capacity of 150,000 to 300,000 t/a. It can be expected that in a few years, even if only part of such projects can be realized, the total production capacity of China's titanium dioxide industry is likely to exceed 10 million t/a. Bi Sheng once sighed, by then, the market prospect and industry outlook is unimaginable.

Industry overcapacity after the hidden worries

Excess titanium dioxide capacity, especially sulfuric acid titanium dioxide, is a commonplace, but the problem always exists, and it is not easy to solve. According to the statistics of the Secretariat of the Strategic Alliance of titanium dioxide industry technology innovation and the Titanium White branch center of the chemical industry productivity Promotion Center, in 2022, in addition to the shutdown of the titanium dioxide industry in China, there are 43 full-process producers with normal production conditions. Among them, 2 are pure chlorination process (CITIC Titanium Industry, Yibin Tianyuan Haifeng and Tai), 3 are both sulfuric acid process and chlorination process (Longbai, Panzhihua Steel Vanadium and titanium, Lubei Chemical Industry), and the remaining 38 are sulfuric acid process.

Kemu has analyzed that the important reason for excess capacity is the mismatch of structure, which seems to be some specific meaning. They believe that the capacity utilization rate of high performance (chlorination) titanium dioxide pigments is much higher than that of general purpose, low performance titanium dioxide pigments. In this case, although China is a large producer of titanium dioxide, a large consumer, the export business is also growing rapidly, but high-end products do not have much say. What is even more troubling is that this situation will not be completely changed in the short term.

Compared with overcapacity, weak demand, pressure on performance, and shortage of titanium resources, titanium dioxide enterprises are more troubled.

Weak demand: In 2022, the domestic construction industry as the main downstream of titanium dioxide products, its prosperity is affected by the environment and the "three red lines" policy phased decline. In the second half of 2022, the state issued a series of good real estate policies, and the 2023 national government work report proposed to "support rigid and improved housing demand", although there are three rounds of price increases, but the demand is not as expected, the real single price has been lowered, and the production capacity growth continues, and the buyer's market has been continued.

Performance pressure: from the first quarter performance alone, the net profit of domestic titanium dioxide listed companies generally declined, and the adverse factors such as rising raw materials and insufficient downstream demand are still affected. Data show that most of the net profits of five titanium dioxide listed companies, Longbai Group, China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide, Ananda, Huiyun Titanium, and Jinpu titanium dioxide, were negative or declined compared with the same period last year. It is worth mentioning that in the case of poor performance, the phenomenon of titanium dioxide enterprises in the new energy track to find new growth poles will continue, and capacity growth is inevitable.

Resource shortage: According to the preliminary statistics of the Titanium, Zirconium and hafnium Branch of the China Non-Ferrous Metals Industry Association, in 2022, China produced a total of 314.4×104t of titanium ore (measured by TiO2 content), an increase of 10.05%. Imports of various types of titanium ore and medium ore 155.3×104t (measured by TiO2 content), a year-on-year decrease of 12.4%. Domestic titanium ore and imported titanium ore totaled 469.7×104t (measured by TiO2 content), an increase of 1.4%. However, it should be noted that at present, the main producing area of domestic titanium ore is Panxi area of Sichuan province, Chengde area of Hebei Province, and the expansion degree of smaller mines in Shandong, Xinjiang and other places is limited.

According to statistics, the total production capacity of the titanium dioxide industry in 2023 will reach more than 6 million t/a (of which 1 million t/a by boiling chlorination, 45,000 t/a by molten salt chlorination, and 5 million t/a by sulfuric acid), the required titanium raw materials will reach more than 13 million t/a, and other titanium-related industries will require about 1.2 million t/a of titanium ore. The total market demand for titanium ore is at least about 14.2 million t/a or more (including imported high-grade titanium raw materials converted into titanium ore). If some of the dozens of new energy projects in China are completed and put into operation, the demand for titanium ore will increase significantly.

And so far, in the industry of 43 full-process titanium dioxide producers, with their own titanium ore raw material resources only 5 (Pangang Vanadium titanium, Longbai Group, big exchange Group, nuclear titanium dioxide, Fumin Longtang), the rest of the manufacturers can only purchase raw materials through different channels, which to a large extent to the normal production of uncertainty.

At present, the main titanium ore producers abroad are Rio Tinto Group (UK), Kenmare Company (Ireland), Iluka Company (Australia) and so on. Among them, the titanium ore produced by the Rio Tinto Group is not sold directly, but is processed into high titanium slag and sold. According to the current information available, Kenmare's production will increase in 2023; Iluka and Base Resource will likely reduce production due to depletion of existing mineral resources; It is expected that the overall production of foreign titanium ore will increase slightly in 2023, while the trend of declining rutile production year by year is difficult to reverse.

In short, the production growth of titanium ore resources is far less than the demand, and the shortage of titanium raw materials is a long-term problem.

Article source: China Powder Network, Southeast network