In the first half of 2025, the imbalance between supply and demand in China's titanium dioxide industry intensified, prices rose first and then fell, and the average price of rutile type fell by 6.65% year-on-year. EU anti-dumping blocked exports, and Turkey jumped to the largest export destination. The contraction of international production capacity brings opportunities, and new tracks are opened in the field of new energy, but the contradiction between supply and demand will continue in the second half of the year.
In the first half of 2025, China's titanium dioxide industry faced a significant imbalance between supply and demand. With the concentrated release of new and expanded production capacity, the growth rate of industry production capacity has accelerated significantly, but the growth on the demand side is weak, and it is difficult to digest the excess supply. Especially in the second quarter, the decline in raw material costs after mid-April and weak demand led to a lack of effective support in the market, which ultimately caused the overall downward trend of titanium dioxide prices in the first half of the year, which rose first and then fell.
Changes in the international trade environment have also had a significant impact on China's titanium dioxide industry. The EU and India have successively made final anti-dumping rulings on Chinese titanium dioxide, resulting in a significant increase in the cost of exports to the European market. Affected by this, the European coatings industry's purchase of titanium dioxide decreased by 18% year-on-year. Export data in May showed that Turkey surpassed India (7.22%) with a share of 9.09% to become China's largest export destination for titanium dioxide. Although domestic manufacturers are actively exploring emerging markets such as South Asia and Southeast Asia, it is still difficult to completely make up for the decline in the EU and Indian markets.
In terms of international capacity layout, in March 2025, Tronox announced the closure of its 90,000 tons/year titanium dioxide plant in the Netherlands, which continued the trend of international giants such as Chemours and Pan-Energy to close factories one after another. The contraction of international capacity provides Chinese companies with an opportunity to fill the market gap. Although facing anti-dumping barriers from the EU and India, Chinese companies are accelerating the expansion of other overseas markets and showing strong market adaptability.
In terms of domestic industrial structure, China continues to maintain its position as the world's largest titanium dioxide producer, and the industry presents a "one super and many strong" competition pattern. Longbai Group ranks first, followed by CNNC Titanium Dioxide, Shandong Dongjia and other companies. It is worth noting that Dongjia Group built a new 300,000-ton titanium dioxide project in Xinjiang in February 2025, indicating that capacity expansion is still continuing. Although the industry faces the dilemma of long-term supply and demand mismatch and overcapacity, the new energy track provides a new development idea for the titanium dioxide industry, especially the surge in demand for lithium iron phosphate positive electrode materials, which has given new application space to the core raw material of ferrous sulfate, a by-product of titanium dioxide production.
Looking forward to the second half of the year, when the weak domestic demand situation is difficult to fundamentally improve, the supply side will also face incremental pressure from the commissioning of new equipment, and the imbalance between supply and demand is likely to continue, and the upward trend of titanium dioxide prices will still face great resistance. However, the continued withdrawal of international production capacity and the expansion of applications in the new energy field may bring new development opportunities to the industry.
