Titanium is a low-key and connotative variety in the metal family. With the development of China's high-end manufacturing industry, titanium is more and more widely used. Titanium metal has the characteristics of light weight, high strength, high melting point, small specific gravity, high specific strength, good wear resistance, good toughness, corrosion resistance, low thermal conductivity, good high and low temperature resistance, low stress under rapid cooling and heating conditions, etc.
Although titanium has this series of excellent qualities, its commercial use is relatively late, and it was recognized by people until the 1950s. Titanium is mostly combined with other elements such as iron, aluminum, vanadium or molybdenum to create high-strength light alloys, which are used in aviation, aerospace, military industry and other high-tech fields. With the continuous promotion of titanium to chemical industry, petroleum, electric power, seawater desalination, construction, agricultural food, medicine, daily necessities and other industries, titanium has been paid more and more attention, known as "the third metal", "space metal", "marine metal" and "universal metal". Because it is an indispensable strategic material to improve the level of national defense equipment, it is also known as "modern metal" and "strategic metal".
From the perspective of the global application distribution of titanium materials, the application proportion of about 20% of titanium materials in aerospace in China is still low. In the future, the application of titanium materials in Aerospace will become the main application direction of titanium materials, especially high-end titanium materials, and the added value of high-end titanium materials to enterprises is also higher.
From the perspective of industrial chain, China is one of the few countries in the world with a complete titanium industry from ore processing to titanium production. Titanium industry is the foundation of petroleum, chemical industry, aerospace manufacturing and other industries. On the whole, China's titanium industry chain is in a structural imbalance with different supply and demand conditions at the high and low ends. China is a country with large reserves of titanium ore resources, but titanium concentrate with high purity still needs to be imported; The output of sponge titanium in China has ranked first in the world. The overall supply of sponge titanium is far greater than the demand, but the production capacity of aerospace high-end sponge titanium is still insufficient. At present, the main added value in the titanium industry chain is the processing and application of titanium materials in the middle and downstream. In the field of titanium processing, China's high-end titanium production capacity is relatively scarce. At present, almost all titanium materials used for civil aircraft are imported. In 2022, COMAC C919 will be delivered during the intensive delivery period of 20 large transport aircraft, and the demand for high-end titanium materials will be significantly large. Enterprises that have made major breakthroughs in titanium processing technology will give priority to sharing the dividends of China's aerospace development.
Benefiting from the recovery of downstream industries, the prices of titanium industry chain products generally increased in 2021, and superimposed with factors such as supply contraction, the growth of downstream products was generally higher than that of upstream products, and the profits of processing enterprises were thickened. The improvement of chemical demand superimposed on the contraction of low-end supply, the profit of titanium processing increased, and the demand for civil titanium remained good. Due to the strengthening of environmental protection policies, the demand for upgrading some salt and alkali equipment in the chemical industry has increased. As the chemical salt and alkali industry is the largest downstream consumption field of titanium materials, the recovery of growth in this field has a significant pulling effect on the demand for titanium materials. According to the data of the National Bureau of statistics, the chemical industry as a whole is in a state of recovery, or continue to drive the demand for new equipment and materials required for equipment in the future.
In recent years, the structure of China's Titanium processing industry has been upgraded with the high-end downstream demand, and the proportion of high-end titanium applications represented by aerospace has increased year by year. Globally, aviation titanium accounts for about half of the total consumption of titanium materials, and aviation titanium materials in the United States, Russia and other countries account for even more than 70%. The consumption of titanium materials in China's aerospace applications has increased rapidly, and the consumption has increased continuously since 2009. At present, China's aviation titanium materials have just started. With the replacement and large volume of aviation equipment in China in the future, key breakthroughs will be made in the field of civil aircraft manufacturing, and aviation titanium materials will usher in considerable incremental demand. Globally, aviation manufacturing is developing towards the technical requirements of safety and efficiency. The use and application proportion of titanium and titanium alloy in aviation industry are increasing. At present, the proportion of titanium in the fuselage of international advanced fighters has exceeded 40%, and the titanium content of Airbus A380 and Boeing B787 in the field of civil aviation has reached 10% and 15% respectively. According to China's industry information data, the titanium consumption of B737, B747 and B777 aircraft manufactured by Boeing is 10 tons, 13.8 tons and 18 tons respectively, and the titanium consumption of Airbus A380 is as high as 24.5 tons, accounting for nearly 10%.
In recent years, the market demand for metallic titanium has increased steadily, and China has gradually become the largest titanium producer and consumer in the world. In 2020, the output of sponge titanium in China exceeded 100000 tons for the first time, reaching 123000 tons; The output of titanium ingots exceeds 119900 tons; The output of titanium materials exceeds 97000 tons. Although China's titanium alloy ranks first in the world in terms of production capacity, there is still a large gap between titanium processing technology and the United States, Japan and Russia. The United States, Russia and Japan are leading in military and civil technology respectively, while 10% - 15% of China's demand for high-end titanium materials cannot be produced by themselves and still need to be imported. According to statistics, since 2016, the annual import volume of high-end titanium materials in China has been more than 5000 tons. This data has decreased in 2019 and 2020, indicating that China's titanium industry is also gradually developing to high-end.
Why develop high-end titanium alloy? Firstly, the core barrier of titanium alloy industry chain does not lie in upstream resources and midstream smelting, but in the processing capacity of titanium materials, especially the R & D capacity and manufacturing process of high-end titanium materials; Secondly, because high-end titanium alloys are generally used in special scenes such as aerospace, national defense construction and marine engineering, the processing requirements of titanium materials are very high, which also provides corresponding technical barriers, and even becomes the key to the game between countries in aerospace, national defense, marine engineering and other fields.
The potential of high-end titanium alloys is mainly in the aerospace field. In China's titanium consumption structure in 2020, the main consumption of high-end titanium alloy is still the chemical industry, although the proportion has decreased, it is still more than 50%, while the consumption in the domestic aerospace field is still less than 20%; Compared with the two major military powers of the United States and Russia, the consumption of titanium materials in aerospace accounts for more than 70%, which is really low. Even if the global consumption of titanium materials accounts for an average of 46%, it can be seen that there is great growth potential in the domestic aerospace titanium market.
