Genie in a bottleneck: : How a supply squeeze has worked magic for TiO2

• Autores: William Clarke
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 597, 2017 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Octubre-Noviembre)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • As environmental inspections cut Chinese titanium dioxide output and producers elsewhere in the world fail to pick up the slack, prices for the pigment chemical have staged a surprise turnaround, William Clarke, IM Reporter, finds.

    The strength of demand for titanium dioxide (TiO2), the white pigment used in a wide range of coatings, paper, plastics and inks, is considered a lagging indicator of global economic strength.

    Rising wealth drives higher demand for manufactured goods and fuels construction activity, pushing pigment prices higher.

    But TiO2 producers have reported that prices for the chemical, which languished though 2015 and most of 2016, have outpaced global economic growth this year, thanks to a slowdown in Chinese production and some bottlenecks in European supply.

    IM's spot price for pigment-grade TiO2 in northern Europe rose to EUR 2,765-3,190/tonne ($3,306-3,815/tonne*) in May, a two-year high, and have held at that level through the summer, when buying traditionally slows to a crawl.