As the raw material of titanium dioxide, the price has always been affecting the "lifeblood" of the coating industry, making the industry's personnel worried all day. However, the titanium dioxide market seems to have fallen recently. What does this mean?
Since the beginning of 2016, the domestic titanium dioxide industry has experienced more than ten rounds of price hikes, and the relevant enterprises have made a lot of profits. Since the second quarter of this year, the price of titanium concentrate upstream of titanium dioxide began to fall.

The price of titanium concentrate in the middle of April is about 2000 yuan / ton. From the middle of April to the end of April, the price of titanium concentrate has been in a sharp downward trend. In just three weeks, titanium concentrate has declined by 15%. As a downstream enterprise of titanium concentrate, the high price of titanium concentrate in this round will decrease, which will have a certain impact on the price of titanium dioxide.

ilmeniteIn fact, since the second quarter, the demand for titanium dioxide has gradually cooled down, and the titanium dioxide market and paint market have gradually become weak. Although large-scale paint companies announced price increases, but small and medium-sized enterprises in the paint industry have occupied half of the country. The vicious competition for low prices in the paint market is extremely fierce. In addition, environmental protection supervision has increasingly monitored the paint industry, resulting in a large number of medium-sized and small-sized enterprises. The closure and shutdown of small enterprises directly led to the decline of demand in titanium dioxide market.

In addition, as the price of titanium dioxide has been rising for more than a year, downstream enterprises have already privately reserved a certain amount of goods (large-scale terminals have three months to stock, and small-scale terminals have half a year to stock) in order to avoid high price shortage of titanium dioxide, which further weakens the real-time demand for titanium dioxide in the market. According to a person in charge of the titanium dioxide enterprise, while the price of titanium dioxide is rising, the price of titanium concentrate is also rising fiercely. Therefore, in response to the rising cost, the same industry also has several months of hoarding. At the same time, due to the shortage of domestic titanium concentrate in the early stage, many enterprises also turned to import foreign ores. Nowadays, foreign products are sold to China, but the market demand is reduced, so the source of imported goods is difficult to digest. In addition, many traders also have a certain amount of titanium concentrate stock in their hands. When they realize that the market is not right, they gradually ship at a price lower than the market price. In addition, some leading titanium dioxide enterprises have their own mines and do not need to buy Titanium Concentrate from outsourcing.

Therefore, the industry expects that the titanium concentrate market will continue to be in a weak state of demand, and the price is likely to continue to fall at a high level.

Recently, it was reported on the Internet that a large titanium dioxide enterprise began to sell products at a low price by earning a price difference. Large titanium dioxide enterprises have a certain pricing discourse power. If large enterprises take the lead in opening the price reduction shipping mode, then the whole market price will show a decline mode.
According to industry analysis, the domestic titanium dioxide price has not yet showed a callback signal, but the current price is indeed at a high point. The fall of titanium concentrate price shows the change of titanium dioxide market. The long-term price rise makes the downstream enterprises store a large number of coatings. In addition to the pressure of environmental protection management and control, the demand of enterprises will not be too large in the short term, and it is difficult to substantially stimulate the consumption of titanium dioxide market for a time.

"The high price of titanium dioxide may last for another one or two months. If you go down, you may go back as long as you can." According to an industry analyst, the inventory of titanium dioxide enterprises is not large at present, but it has also begun to sell. The higher the industry concentration, the less affordable the inventory. The price rise of titanium dioxide must be in direct proportion to the market demand. The price rise of titanium dioxide basically needs to be driven by the downstream. In addition, the continuous regulation and control since this year has reduced the demand of the real estate market, so it is difficult to sustain the rise of titanium dioxide. The decline of titanium concentrate is also a wake-up call for the continuous rise of titanium dioxide. At the same time, it also indicates that the coating companies do not need to stick to the hard bar any more and tear their heads and blood on the "price war" with their peers!