Short-term benefit from thermal power, seawater desalination and other pull; in the medium term will benefit from the recovery of basic chemical industry demand; long-term will directly benefit from the large aircraft project put into production, with the rapid development of the economy, with the support of all levels of government, titanium The industrial chain will experience rapid growth during the 12th Five-Year Plan period.

In the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” of strategic emerging industries jointly prepared by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, titanium has been listed as a key material for new materials. It is reported that the competent authorities have considered the introduction of policies and are prepared to implement the access management for the titanium sponge industry. For large projects that do not have obvious technical features or are redundant construction projects, they will not be approved during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period.

Support policies for titanium materials will be put in place

Like rare earths that have recently attracted worldwide attention, titanium is also a scarce resource. Titanium has the characteristics of small density, high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, good biocompatibility, non-magnetic and easy processing and forming. It is widely used in nuclear power, aviation, military industry, chemical industry and various emerging fields. Titanium is often referred to as "space metal," "marine metal," or "universal metal." The application of titanium and titanium industrial development has become an important indicator of a country's overall strength. However, China's development of the titanium industry has a unique advantage. The data shows that China is rich in titanium resources, total reserves of 965 million tons of titanium dioxide, ranking first in the world. However, for a long time, many titanium materials in China have basically depended on imports. Especially in recent years, the volume of imports of titanium coils and titanium welded pipes has continuously increased, and major exporters of titanium products such as the United States and Japan have controlled the price and supply of products by blocking core technologies, which has greatly inhibited the development of related strategic industries in China. Increasing the R&D and industrialization of titanium deep-processing technology has become a major issue in China's national economic development and national defense construction.

Therefore, in the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” of strategic emerging industries jointly prepared by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, titanium materials have been included in the newly supported varieties of key materials.

The reporter was informed that the plan has entered the consultation stage and will be introduced soon. Since then, support policies for the titanium industrial chain will continue to be in place.

At the same time, some provinces and cities are or have formulated specific development plans for the titanium industrial chain. Among them, the “Twelfth Five-Year Development Plan for the titanium industry in Yunnan Province” has been formulated and will be introduced in the near future.

Yunnan Province proposed that the development of the titanium industry in Yunnan Province will be based on Yunye, Yunnan Copper and Kunming Steel, relying on the surrounding titanium resources to build the Wuding-Luquan and Wuhua plant titanium concentrates and titanium slags, respectively. , Sponge Titanium Raw Material Production Area, Lufeng Sheep Street Chlorination Titanium Dioxide and Sponge Titanium Production Area, Lufeng Tuguan-An Ningluo Titanium Ingot Casting, Titanium Plate Roll, Titanium Products, Titanium Alloy Production Area, timely construction of Wuhua Factory outlet titanium product industry agglomeration area.

Prior to this, in another area with rich titanium resources, Baoji's "Baoji National New Materials High-tech Planning Industrial Base Construction Development Plan" has also been introduced.

One of the main points of Baoji planning is to build a titanium material R&D system. Baoji Hi-tech Zone will use government funds as the guide to encourage universities, research institutes and intra-cluster companies to establish R&D centers such as technology transfer centers and joint laboratories, with a focus on the Baoji Tire National R&D Center and titanium material applications. Technical Innovation Incubation Center (Titanium Professional Incubator) and postdoctoral mobile workstations form the "Chinese Titanium Valley" public technology service system.

Baoji made it clear in the plan that by 2015, it will establish 5-8 national and provincial R&D centers, engineering and technical centers, and 3-5 professional incubators, with an annual sales income of 65 billion yuan, and an export value of 1 billion US dollars. The “Baoji·China Titanium Valley” industrial cluster has been built into a world-famous, domestic first-class, high-tech industrial base for new materials with distinctive features and competitive advantages, and it has become the largest and most versatile titanium material trading center in the country.

Baoji also proposed in planning that 10 to 15 backbone enterprises will be formed in 2015, with 15 to 20 companies with a production value of 100 million yuan and 3 to 5 companies with a value of 1 billion yuan.

The Application Prospect of "Going to Heaven"

What is the charm of the titanium industry? How does the titanium industry get unanimous recognition from the central government to the local government? In the final analysis, Titanium has an application space of “Going into the sky and ubiquitous”.

According to Zhou Lian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, titanium is an “all-purpose metal” and is a lightweight, corrosion-resistant structural material. It is also a new type of functional material and an important biological material. It is an important strategic metal in the air, land, and ocean. As well as the universe's ultra-low temperature outer space has a wide range of uses.

Analysts pointed out that the current low demand for titanium in the aviation industry in China is mainly due to the fact that the proportion of demand for titanium in the aerospace sector is low: First, China’s civilian mainline aircraft are purchased from abroad; secondly, some new types of military aircraft have not yet been mass produced; Thirdly, the amount of titanium used in mass-produced military aircraft is not high. Under normal circumstances, the mass of titanium in the body does not exceed 5%, and the mass of engine titanium does not exceed 20%. These factors will gradually improve in the next five years, thus bringing a steady stream of demand for titanium.

In addition to aviation manufacturing, desalination is also an important application area for titanium materials during the 12th Five-Year Plan period. At present, there are 14,000 seawater desalination plants in more than 150 countries and regions, and the output has reached 35 million tons per day. As of 2010, the consumption of titanium in global seawater desalination has reached about 27,500 tons. According to the calculation of the annual compound annual growth of global seawater desalination capacity by 10% over the next ten years, the world's new desalination plant will require 359,500 tons of titanium in the next decade, with an annual average of 36,000 tons. Among them, the titanium materials required for new desalination projects in China in the next five to ten years will reach 8025 tons and 16,050 tons, respectively, and the average annual demand for titanium materials will be about 1,600 tons.

In addition, titanium materials have become the light material with the most potential for development in the automotive industry due to its excellent corrosion resistance and high temperature strength. Suitable for connecting rods, crankshafts, intake valves, exhaust valves, steering racks and other fields. In the field of nuclear power, in the next decade, 3000 tons of titanium can be consumed each year; LNG plants and transport ships will consume a large amount of titanium.

Titanium resource prices soaring

Experts pointed out that under the protection of abundant resources, a titanium industrial chain such as "titanium ore-high titanium slag-sponge titanium-titanium ingot-titanium" has basically taken shape. At present, China's titanium industry's capacity is second only to the United States, Russia and Japan, ranking fourth in the world.

Dai Yongnian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that Chinese titanium resources are mainly distributed in western regions such as Sichuan, Yunnan and Guangxi. Among them, Panzhihua, where Panzhihua Steel Vanadium and Titanium are located, is the main storage area.

Since the beginning of this year, with the gradual establishment of the status of titanium resources, major exporters of titanium concentrate have issued policies and measures to restrict exports. At the end of 2010, Vietnam increased the titanium tax rate to 11% and adopted a quota management system; India will increase the export tariff of titanium ore to 20% in 2011; at the same time, floods in Australia have also affected the mining and transportation of titanium concentrates in Australia, making upstream Titanium concentrate supply is relatively tight.

The tight supply has led to a “doubling” of titanium concentrate prices. It is reported that the price of titanium concentrate has been maintained at a stable level of about 500 yuan/ton from 2006 to 2009, and it has started to rebound in 2010, and the annual increase has been about 65%. This year, the trend of price increase of titanium concentrates has intensified. The price at the beginning of the year was 1,000 yuan/ton, and by the end of July, the price of titanium concentrate had reached 2,300 yuan/ton, and the half-year increase had reached 130%.

Analysts believe that with the titanium industry entering the boom cycle, titanium concentrate prices will continue to rise in the coming years, and companies with resources will benefit directly.

Leading company will benefit from market integration

As a downstream titanium concentrate, titanium sponge also has outstanding performance in high-growth industrial express trains.

According to the data, due to the tight supply of titanium concentrates in the upper reaches of the industry, prices of titanium concentrates, titanium sponges, and titanium ingots rose sharply in the entire industrial chain since March. The price of sponge titanium rose more than 70% from the beginning of the year. The concentrate rose more than 130% from the beginning of the year.

Experts pointed out that the reason why the price of sponge titanium rose significantly less than titanium concentrate, mainly due to the former overcapacity. At present, there are more than 10 sponge titanium manufacturers in China, and the competition in the middle and low-end markets is fierce.

In this regard, the competent authorities have considered the introduction of policies and are ready to implement the access management for the titanium sponge industry. For large projects that do not have obvious technical features or are redundant construction, they will not be approved during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period.

At the same time, relevant departments plan that during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, the production capacity of titanium sponge will be controlled within 100,000 tons/year, among which the zero grade grade of sponge titanium shall be 70% or more; at the same time, it is encouraged that the advantageous enterprises will actively integrate and it is expected to form 3-5 companies. World-class corporations (over 10,000 tons of sponge titanium or titanium ingot production).

Analysts believe that Panzhihua Vanadium and Titanium has mastered 95% of our country's titanium resources, and it is the most promising to become a world-class titanium sponge giant in the next five years. In fact, the company's 15,000 tons of sponge titanium project has been put into production in April this year.

Zhong Xueliang, an analyst at China Investment, believes that with the initial improvement of the company's titanium business chain and the gradual improvement of its technical level, the company is expected to become the absolute leader in the titanium industry chain.

The relevant personages of the China Nonferrous Metals Association stated that after more than 50 years of development, the scale of China's titanium industry has basically ranked among the top two in the world, but the product quality tends to be medium to low, and there are gaps in some varieties of specifications, and it cannot fully meet the national requirements. need. Therefore, we must strengthen technological innovation, improve product quality, develop new varieties, and optimize technical and economic indicators as the main direction of industrial development, improve product quality and optimize industrial structure.

According to the concept of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other competent authorities, during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, key developments involving small-scale high-precision titanium alloy wire rods will be carried out to meet the demand for titanium wire rods in aviation and medical industries; titanium and titanium will be studied. Alloy extrusion technology to meet the aerospace, naval vessels and marine oil and gas extrusion extrusion profiles and pipe, formed over 10 billion yuan of industrial clusters or enterprises.