Chemical Guide

As compared to the crisis period of 2008-2009, the situation on the global Titanium Dioxide market has notably improved starting with 2010: there has been a rise in demand, foreign trade has extended, more Titanium Dioxide is being produced now. The majority of Titanium Dioxide producers managed to gain profit if calculated considering the losses of 2009.

DuPont Titanium Technologies, Huntsman Pigments, National Titanium Dioxide Co., Ltd., Kronos Worldwide, Inc., Tronox, Inc. are the largest Titanium Dioxide manufacturers (they account for 64% of global production capacity).

Today the USA and China are considered to be the global leaders by both the Titanium Dioxide production volumes and utilized capacities. The production capacities in the USA and China stay almost at the same levels – about 1.6 mln tons per year. However, they are different by the production technologies and product quality. In the USA all the manufacturers resort to chlorine route, while there is only one factory in China where this method is applied. During 1998-2008 the share of Titanium Dioxide manufactured by chlorine route declined from 60% to 57% due to the increasing production of the material by sulfate route in China.

Nowadays producers are striving to maximize the utilization of capacities in order to lower the operating costs. Moreover, the key manufacturers (as DuPont, fro example) design and implement a whole complex of measures to lower the operating prices.

In 2001-2009 there were significant changes in the breakdown of global Titanium Dioxide consumption – the focus moved from the West to the East. In the nearest future demand for the product will grow at the rate of 3% yearly and will reach 6.97 mln tons by 2016.

In case all the planned projects are launched (in India, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Vietnam and other countries) the total Titanium Dioxide production capacity will reach 7.3-7.5 mln tons a year by 2015, 66-70% of which will be produced by chlorine route.

Titanium Dioxide is a universal decolorant used in food industry, pharmacy and cosmetics. As pigment, Titanium Dioxide is used in paint and varnish, paper industries, for plastics and resins production.

More information on Titanium Dioxide market may be found in the report Titanium Dioxide: 2010 World Market Outlook And Forecast recently published by TD The Market Publishers, Ltd.

Source: MarketPublishers, Ltd.