How Is Titanium Priced?

At present, global titanium resource pricing is mainly based on manufacturer pricing. In international trade, traders mostly use long-term contract transactions to realize spot transactions and contract transaction pricing based on the agreed pricing principles of premiums, discounts and reference prices. The price of imported titanium concentrate mainly refers to the price of the source. In the global titanium ore market, Britain's Rio Tinto, Australia's Aluka, South Africa's Aiso Mining and Ireland's Kenmare Resources, as major producers, have strong market price competitiveness and price influence.

First, from 2008 to 2012, the demand for titanium ore was strong, the supply increased slowly, and the price increased significantly. During the global financial crisis in 2008, major miners closed mines and cut capital expenditures. In 2009, global and Chinese titanium ore production declined. After the economic recovery, the global titanium dioxide production capacity continued to increase from 5.28 million tons in 2008 to 6.55 million tons in 2012. The supply of titanium ore exceeded the demand. In March 2012, the price of titanium ore reached 2,400 yuan/ton; secondly, from 2013 to 2016, The global titanium market demand fell after a surge, and titanium prices dropped significantly. Demand for titanium dioxide is sluggish, and titanium ore production capacity is beginning to be overcapacity. The price has dropped from the highest point of 2,400 yuan/ton in 2012 to 480 yuan/ton in February 2016, ushering in the lowest price in the past 20 years. Third, from 2016 to the present, due to the impact of many factors on market supply and demand, titanium prices have become volatile. Variety. The price of titanium ore increased from 480 yuan/ton in February 2016 to 1,850 yuan/ton in June 2017. The titanium industry has begun to come out of the trough, bottomed out, and fluctuated at mid-to-high prices.

The world's titanium resources are abundant, mainly composed of ilmenite and rutile, with China and Australia accounting for half of them. According to statistics from the United States Geological Survey, global titanium resource reserves (calculated as TiO2) in 2022 will be approximately 699 million tons, of which ilmenite accounts for the vast majority, with ilmenite resource reserves of 650 million tons, accounting for approximately 93%; Rutile resource reserves are 49 million tons, accounting for about 7%. China and Australia are the two countries with the largest ilmenite reserves, with reserves of 190 million tons and 160 million tons respectively, accounting for 53.8% of global ilmenite reserves. In terms of rutile, Australia has a monopoly of 31 million tons, accounting for 63.3% of global rutile resource reserves. Currently, the industry can mainly utilize ilmenite, with rutile accounting for less than one-tenth. However, the grade of global rutile is much higher than that of ilmenite, and its target market is mainly high-end demand.

Global titanium ore production continues to grow, and the producing countries and producers are relatively concentrated. The growth rate of global titanium ore production has slowed down and will be basically the same year-on-year in 2022. After 2018, global titanium ore production increased rapidly, and the production growth rate slowed down. On the one hand, due to factors such as the epidemic and tight international shipping capacity, some mines have failed to return to production levels before 2019; on the other hand, the grade of old mines has declined and new mines have decreased, resulting in a slowdown in the growth rate of titanium ore production.

Global titanium ore production in 2022 will mainly come from China, Mozambique and South Africa, accounting for approximately 59% of global production. According to data from the United States Geological Survey, the total global titanium ore production (calculated as TiO2) in 2022 will be approximately 9.52 million tons. Among them, the output of China, Mozambique and South Africa will reach 3.4 million tons, 1.21 million tons, and 1 million tons respectively, accounting for 35.7% respectively. %, 12.7%, 10.5%. The production of ilmenite is mainly distributed in five countries: China (accounting for 38%), Mozambique (accounting for 14%), South Africa (accounting for 10%), Australia (accounting for 7%), and Senegal (accounting for 6%). Rutile production is concentrated in five countries: Australia (32%), Sierra Leone (22%), South Africa (16%), Kenya (12%), and Ukraine (10%). In addition, as an important supplement to ilmenite and rutile, according to the "2021 China Titanium Industry Development Report" data, the total global production of titanium-rich materials (including titanium slag and artificial rutile) reached 1.31 million tons in 2021, of which South Africa, Canada , Australia and Norway accounted for 30%, 45%, 13% and 12% respectively.

The development of global titanium resources is mainly concentrated in Canada, China, Australia, South Africa and other countries. Among the global titanium ore raw material suppliers in 2019, the global market shares of Rio Tinto of the United Kingdom, Australia's Aluka, South Africa's Aiso Mining, and Ireland's Kenmare Resources accounted for 25%, 16%, 11%, and 5%, respectively. The rate is close to 60%, forming an oligopoly pattern. Among them, Rio Tinto, as the world's largest producer of titanium ore, mainly has three production bases in Canada, South Africa and Madagascar. The annual output of ilmenite is about 1.4 million tons-1.5 million tons. my country is rich in titanium ore resources. However, compared with global giants, titanium ore raw material suppliers have obvious gaps in scale and resource output. Small and medium-sized titanium ore raw material manufacturers are the main producers.