Page 22 - 201902 SCA February 2019 Volume 56 Number 1

Technical ARTICLE

Is your Tio Supply Strategy sustainable?
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By Joe Maas, The ChemQuest Group, Inc.
This article was previously published in Coatings World, July 2018 Vol 23, No. 07.
Reprinted by permission of Coatings World. www.coatingsworld.com
With over 30 years of experience working in the titanium dioxide industry,
ChemQuest Director Joe Maas’s knowledge spans TiO 2 technologies and substitutes,
global supply logistics (including channels/distribution), end uses, customers
and regulations. In this issue of Surface Coatings Australia, Joe Maas shares his
perspective on the global TiO 2 supply/demand trends and drivers that are likely to
affect paint and coatings’ stakeholders through 2020.

1. Hypothetically speaking, how would the Over the past 100 years, approximately 300
absence of titanium dioxide affect humanity? million metric tons of TiO have been produced
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Admittedly, titanium dioxide pigment (TiO ) is not and consumed. TiO has positively impacted the
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as essential to human life as oxygen and water, lives of nearly every man, woman and child in the
given that humans managed to survive without it industrialized world and remains one of the safest
until the 20th Century. Since its inception, however, and most useful materials ever developed. For many
TiO – comprising properties that extend the such reasons, I believe it is essential.
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lifecycle of thousands of products – has become an
integral part of modern life. Less measurable but 2. Which end uses consume the most TiO ?
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equally important to our quality of life, colors could Annual global TiO demand is estimated to be over 6
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not be properly developed without TiO – which million metric tons split among key end-use markets.
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would detract from the beauty of our world, making As Figure 1 depicts, sixty percent of the annual
it less vibrant, drab and dull; unquestionably, a global demand is consumed by paints and coatings,
somber place. Practically speaking, pharmaceutical followed by plastics at twenty-five percent.
colorants with TiO facilitate a patient’s ability to
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distinguish between pills and medications. 3. How would you describe TiO ’s current
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market dynamics?
Assessing the current global TiO market requires
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some background on the 2008/09 economic
crisis. Following the worldwide economic collapse,
TiO production was severely curtailed, with
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producers slashing capacity and postponing
plant expansions. In recovering economies, TiO
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supplies struggled to meet a pent-up demand
for the products formulated with TiO , quickly
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depleting producer inventories. The ensuing
shortage drove prices up to near historical highs.
The turning point came in mid-2012: growing
supply coupled with waning demand ended the
TiO shortage. For the next three-and-a-half years,
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prices plummeted nearly to pre-recession levels,
as shown on Figure 2.
Figure 1: TiO by End Use Market. Beginning in mid-2016, demand picked up
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Source: The ChemQuest Group, Inc. when the Chinese government cracked down on
highly polluting (mostly small) TiO operations,
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which severely decreased supply. In early 2017,
Author Profile Huntsman’s Pori Finland plant (~130,000 metric
ton capacity) suffered a catastrophic fire that
Joe Maas is a director at The further curtailed TiO supply, driving up prices
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ChemQuest Group Inc. and ChemQuest worldwide. Between 2017 and 2018, quarterly
Technology Institute. For more price increases were passed through the supply
information, visit www.chemquest.com
chain, albeit this successful price pass-through
may be short lived as the preceding inventory
shortfall continues to be offset, not only by
increased Chinese capacity, but by overall
increases in global production through 2019.

20 Journal of Surface Coatings Australia • February 2019