Since May 2019, the domestic titanium market has been booming for more than a month.
At the beginning of May, the main sponge titanium enterprises in China: Zunyi Titanium Industry, Jinda Stock, Shuangruiwanji, Pangang Sponge Titanium, Baotian Huashen, and so on, raised the price of sponge Titanium by 2,000 yuan per ton, with 71,000 yuan per ton in grade 0 and 70,000 yuan per ton in Grade 1 respectively. Then, in late May, Baoti, the leading domestic titanium processing material company, announced a 10% increase in the price of titanium materials. Subsequently, the price of titanium tetrachloride in the north and South also increased. The price of titanium tetrachloride in Zhongxing Electronics reached 8500 yuan per ton. High titanium slag and rutile have also increased their prices. By the beginning of June, the price of Shuangruiwanji Sponge Titanium was increased by another 3,000 yuan/ton, and the price of Sponge Titanium was approaching 75,000 yuan/ton.

In 2015, the authoritative media of domestic titanium industry, titanium micromedia, predicted that the price of sponge titanium would be in a spiral upward state during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. Especially through the upstream and downstream titanium industry research, we can see that in 2018, the price of sponge titanium has been rising for a longer time than in previous years. In early April 2019, Titanium micromedia re-surveyed that "the price of titanium sponge breaking through 70,000 yuan per ton is a big probability event." Unexpectedly, a month later, the domestic price of titanium sponge has risen. In July 2018, the price of titanium sponge rose to 68,000 yuan per ton, which lasted for nearly a year. At last, the price of titanium sponge rose to more than 70,000 yuan on May 6, 2008. Unexpectedly, only a month later, the price of sponge titanium was raised again in the summer when students rushed for the college entrance examination.

In one month, the price of titanium in the middle and lower reaches of the market seems a bit out of line, which makes it difficult for the market to sign relatively stable contracts. Frankly speaking, it is unfavorable for the market to adjust prices too frequently. In early June, after learning that Shuangruiwanji Sponge Titanium had raised its price, the reporter contacted two Sponge Titanium Enterprises by telephone. One said it would immediately raise its price, while the other said it would not be considered for the time being. The company, which did not consider price adjustments, said that stabilizing prices was conducive to organizing production downstream. It also said that if everyone had to adjust prices, they would have to choose price adjustments. It seems that the annual price increase of sponge titanium in 2019 should be a probable event. According to more than a year's interviews and research, the reporter believes that the price of 75,000 yuan per ton will become the central axis of the price of sponge titanium in 2019, and will fluctuate around 75,000 yuan throughout the year. Down is the actual transaction line, up is only the quotation line. If the price of titanium sponge is close to 80,000 yuan/ton, unless the price of titanium tetrachloride exceeds 9,000 yuan/ton.

The reasons for the two price adjustments of sponge titanium in one month are analyzed, which are mainly based on the following aspects:

Prices of raw materials such as high titanium slag, rutile and magnesium ingot have been rising successively, especially the price of titanium tetrachloride, which has been advancing rapidly since 2018, forcing the price of sponge titanium to rise. The reason for the price increase of raw materials, on the surface, is that the production is affected by environmental supervision, and the production of titanium tetrachloride is declining, which makes it a seller's market. In fact, the environmental protection work of the titanium industry itself is not in place, or the environmental protection facilities are furnished, can not withstand the inspection of environmental protection supervision, production can not achieve full load operation. The supply of titanium tetrachloride has become the "bottleneck" in the production of sponge titanium, and the price of sponge titanium has risen. From this point of view, it is reasonable that the price rise of raw materials causes the price rise of sponge titanium. In the future, the "Blue Sky Action" environmental protection supervision will become normalized, and it will not change the situation of TiCl4 shortage and price increase in a short period of time. As a sponge titanium enterprise, it should have this reasonable judgment.

Regardless of the price increase of titanium tetrachloride or sponge titanium, the most profitable should be the sponge titanium with more advanced technology - Shuangruiwanji and Pangang. Especially, Panzhihua Iron and Steel Co. sponge titanium has opened up the whole process of production technology, showing its advantages from titanium ore to sponge titanium production line. "Price increase + environmental protection supervision" has achieved the development of sponge titanium in Panzhihua Iron and Steel Company. In the future, the resource and cost advantages of sponge titanium in Panzhihua Iron and Steel Company will become more and more obvious.

Since the 13th Five-Year Plan of the State, the sponge titanium has been depleted in excess capacity. The inventory of sponge titanium between upstream and downstream enterprises has been slowly lower than the enterprise's reserve plan, especially since 2018, there has been almost no inventory of sponge titanium enterprises. In addition, in 2018, the production of titanium tetrachloride did not increase because of environmental supervision, while the statistical production of sponge titanium increased, which is a "mysterious celestial phenomenon". There are some discrepancies between official data and folk data. It is reported that in 2018, some enterprises produced high output, underreporting hundreds of tons of sponge titanium, and some enterprises combined reported thousands of tons of sponge titanium. This phenomenon of "false increase" is also one of the factors that keep the price of titanium sponge rising. The market is not to play fake, environmental storm under the supervision of titanium tetrachloride reduction sponge titanium how to increase! Why can the incremental price of titanium sponge keep stable for one year and then rise again?

In 2018, Titanium micromedia journalists interviewed and investigated between upstream and downstream enterprises in the titanium industry. It is obvious that the application of titanium is gradually expanding. Although the demand for rigidity is not large, the fact that the demand for rigidity has increased has already existed. The proportion of titanium used in chemical industry is decreasing, but the proportion of aviation, navigation, military and civil use is increasing. On May 20, a 10% increase in titanium in Baoti shares was just one form of downstream demand. The upstream raw materials are rising, the downstream titanium materials are rising, and the upstream sponge titanium price is naturally logical.

With the turbulent international environment, the increase of military titanium will become a normal trend. The mysterious phenomena appeared in early June. The rocket army and the People's Navy microblog echoed and joined in the interaction. This tells us that the national defense industry is developing rapidly, the development of advanced weapons such as aerospace and military equipment, and the rigid demand of titanium.