To
prepare for a world of big data and interconnectivity with third parties,
business will need to improve their data management capability, including
defining, cleaning up and maintaining data. Data is only valuable when it comes
from a reliable, secure source, is structured within an architectural
environment that accommodates internal and external data, and is regularly
maintained.
The
TiO2 World Summit, which was held from October 03 to 05 in Spain, has granted
big insights into the worldwide titanium dioxide (TiO2) market situation and
served not only as a meeting point for the international players but also
updated the participants on the latest innovations, trends and directions. It
became clear, that market tracking and research is and will be one of the key
elements for businesses to succeed in the titanium dioxide industry and make
the right, sustainable decisions.
TiO2
is processed from titanium including minerals like rutile and ilmenite. The raw
materials are treated with chlorine or sulfuric acid and then oxidized and
upgraded to TiO2 98% or higher. The end product is mostly used in the
accommodation and car industry as paint, coatings, paper, or plastics raw
material. In 2016, the global use of TiO2 was shared by 60% in paints
(including coatings), 25% for plastic, and 11% for paper. Other minor areas of
use are inks, fibres, food and cosmetics.
When
talking about the global TiO2 market, it is inevitable to take a closer look at
the situation in China, serving as the main production and export areas as well
as the main consumer region for TiO2. Market intelligence firm CCM and trade
analysis firm Tranalysis, both brands are part of the parent company Kcomber,
have released an online platform for data mining, structuring, analyzing and
visualizing to enable fast and ambitious market research on China’s and
worldwide TiO2.
This
paper gives an overview of the current TiO2 situation in China compared to the
global trend and introduces how the information of internal market research
combined with data from search engines, news and industry websites, e-commerce
platforms, and Customs can be turned easily into structured, meaningful market
insights and serve as a reliable forecast tool to stay ahead in the game.
TiO2 trend in China
From
2013 to 2015, Chinese TiO2 price decreased affected by oversupply and a
depressed international as well as domestic economy. However, China’s TiO2
industry recovered in 2016 with an overall operating rate exceeding 82%,
downstream demand increasing and more trades being made.
China’s
TiO2 price kept climbing in 2016 due to lower capacity triggered by supply-side
structural reform, higher costs on ilmenite, more demands from the downstream
real estate and automobile industries and larger export volumes.
Regardless
the negative price development, the titanium dioxide production in China grew
constantly from 2013 to 2016, due to the high demand in the country itself as
well as in international markets. The national TiO2 capacity totalled 3.59
million t/a and the combined output of 39 TiO2 companies that maintained
consecutive production reached 2.2 million tonnes, up by 11.80%.
In
2017, the Chinese government started to implement stricter environmental
protection measurements, which led to forced production limitation and even
shut-downs of some companies. The results are a falling operating rate of
manufacturers to less than 60% in the middle of the year.
In
2010, China became the largest TiO2 producer in the world. Since
then, China is one of the major influencers of global TiO2 markets.
However, the four largest TiO2 manufacturers are not from China. Those are
Chemours, Christal, Tronox, and Huntsman. The recently merged company Henan
Lomon is the fifth largest producer in the world and the dominant manufacturer
in China. However, even Henan Lomon is the largest Chinese producer, the
enterprise only accounts for about 5% of the global capacity, while the other
Chinese producers combined to reach a global share of 48%. This shows
the high decentralized character of China’s industry with plenty of small- and
middle-scale producers.
Besides
being the largest producer, China is also the leading consumer of TiO2 in the
world. After all, the country had a global share of TiO2 consumption by 32% in
2016, mostly needed for the booming car manufacturing and construction
industries. Other major consumption regions are the European, Middle East and
Africa region (EMEA) with 31% in 2016 and the Americas with 20%.
One
of the main factors for China’s huge TiO2 demand is the recovered macro-economy
and the GDP increases by 6.70% YoY in 2016. As a result, the downstream demand
of TiO2 substantially grew as well.
In
the last 10 years, the consumption of TiO2 in China has increased in average 8%
every year, caused by the high need of paint, plastics, and fibres. This is
demonstrated in the share of TiO2 by industry in 2016, where paint accounted
for almost 60% of the total share, while one-fifth of TiO2 is used in the
plastics industry and three percent for paper products.
What’s
more, China is additionally the largest exporter of titanium dioxide. In 2016
China exported over 700 thousand metric tons of titanium dioxide around the
world. The main export destinations were India, the United States and South
Korea. This was a large increase in the 540 thousand metric tons exported in
2015. In 2016, this was the first time that China has exported more titanium
dioxide than the United States. The United States exported an estimated 650
thousand metric tons of titanium dioxide pigments in 2016, with about 30%
headed for Western Europe, 16% to Mexico and 10% to Canada.
The
trend for anatase, rutile, and non-pigment TiO2 has developed differently in
the past years, with rutile TiO2 becoming much more important for China’s
exports than the other specifications.
Overall,
China’s imports have witnessed a declining trend in the period from 2008 to
2016. The country already became a net exporter of TiO2 in 2010, when the
export volume surpassed the import volume. The import volume fluctuated several
times, falling under 200 million kg in 2012, was able to recover and dropped
again in the year 2016.
China’s
imports and exports of TiO2, Jan. 2016 – Jan. 2017
TiO2 E-commerce trend
in China
China
is the largest e-commerce market in the world, driven by the largest population
with a more and more busier lifestyle and less time for physical shopping. In
the first quarter of 2017, the online retail sales in the country went up by
more than 32% year-on-year, reaching 1.4 trillion yuan. This is about USD210.8
billion.
China’s
e-commerce companies are booming, benefitting from the convenience of clients
to compare different products and suppliers online, see reviews, order online,
and get the products delivered, available on just one platform. Hence, it is
not a surprise that the development of the largest e-commerce enterprise in
China, Alibaba, has shown an immense growth in the last years. The e-commerce
giant Alibaba accounts for more than 10% of China’s retail sales and about 75%
of the national online sales.
Annual
e-commerce revenue of Alibaba from 2010 to 2017, by region (million
yuan)
Source:
Statista
However,
the online sales in China are still only accounting for 15% of the national
total.
As
for TiO2 related e-commerce platforms, the main websites to consider are
1688.com, Yclmall.com, and jwelltitanium.com. 1688.com is the world-leading B2B
purchase platform, owned and operated by Alibaba Group. It has by far the
greatest number of users in China and therefore has developed to the largest
e-commerce platform of TiO2 in the country. Yclmall.com is operated by
the Titanos group for the purpose of purchasing titanium dioxide,
carbon black, pigment, resin, and similar products. Besides serving as an
e-commerce platform, it also provides services for technology, logistics, and
trade issues. Jwelltitanium.com, found by Pangang Group, allows products to be
up for sale or auction, offers information about supply chains of steel and
titanium dioxide, and facilitates spot transactions. It aims to build the most
influential integrated e-commerce platform for the industries of
vanadium-titanium and other chemicals.
Data-based analysis of
TiO2 market trend
To
prepare for a world of big data and interconnectivity with third parties,
business will need to improve their data management capability – defining,
cleaning up and maintaining data. Data is only valuable when it comes from a
reliable, secure source, is structured within an architectural environment that
accommodates internal and external data, and is regularly maintained.
However,
data are nothing but raw material. They're a necessary condition for insight,
but not a condition that necessarily creates insight. Analysis of data is the
key for real insights in the subject and the fundament to make sustainable and
reasonable business decisions with long-term goals and success.
The
data gathered by e-commerce platforms is one of the most important assets they
gather since it enables capturing the consumer information to implement the
most personalized shopping experience and tailor-made marketing. This huge data
management is the key advantage that many online retailers have on their
physical counterparts.
For
example, the analysis of Alibaba purchase data regarding Titanium Dioxide in
July and August 2017 can show the most popular titanium dioxide brands in the
market as well as the related enterprises from the perspectives of buyers and
suppliers. This gives a good overview of the hottest products in the market and
the trade price that is used in average. Buyers and suppliers can use this
information for their reference in negotiations with their business partners.
Furthermore,
e-commerce platforms can also reveal the most popular keywords what users are
searching for. In Alibaba, the most used keywords for TiO2 in August have been
Factory Direct Sale, Product Origin, Goods for Export, Spot Goods, and Product
of Quality. These are very valuable insights for every marketer and business
developer to enhance their promotion strategy.
Data
from search engines can show precisely, what, when, and how people are
searching for topics and products around TiO2. Search engines even now from
which region the request is coming from. When manufacturers and traders of TiO2
use this information, they can understand the needs of potential clients and
optimize their own marketing campaigns on targeted audience, time period,
communication channels, and many more areas.
Baidu.com
is the largest Chinese search engine. With Baidu Index, a data sharing platform
based on mass data about hundreds of millions of users, people can tell
discover the search volume of a certain keyword on baidu.com, how price changes
during a specific period of time, how people respond to price volatility, and
many more information.
The
analytics also show the number of searched by region, which indicated where are
the most active and engaging market players are engaging. According to CCM’s
research, the search activity per region is highly related to the activity of
the TiO2 industry in China’s provinces.
From
Jan. 2016 to June 2017, top 9 places by search volume of titanium
dioxide were Guangdong Province, Shanghai City, Zhejiang Province,
Jiangsu Province, Beijing City, Hebei Province, Henan Province, Sichuan
Province and Fujian Province. The ranking was the same as that of coating
output in 2016.
There
are many benefits of using big data technology for TiO2 market research. This
method enables real-time updates about TiO2 trends, which are faster and more
reliable than traditional methods of information gathering. The information is
furthermore free from any artificial intervention since it is consisting of the
pure data without any subjective interpretations. As seen in the example
before, the organic search data can reflect the consumer demand quite well. All
in all, big data-based analysis of TiO2 is cost effective and time saving for
the users.
Innovative data
analysis platforms
Kcomber
has published two online platforms, developed by the market intelligence brand
CCM and trade commercial brand Tranalysis. Those two platforms are using the
big data of search engines, e-commerce, news websites, as well as Customs and
combine those with the in-house technology and market research to enable a
unique and innovative way for users to find the high-quality information they
are looking for in the TiO2 related industries. Furthermore, the information
can be automatically turned into scalable charts, graphics, and customized
reports for immediate use on business meetings and decisions.
CCM Online Platform
CCM’s
Online Platform serves as the database for many years of market research by
in-house industry insiders and experts in the form of market data, monthly
newsletters, and industrial reports on TiO2 in China. Based on this foundation,
the platform offers many analytic tools to get the valuable insights in China’s
TiO2 market.
CCM
gathers the previously bespoken user data from search engines and e-commerce
platforms to process them into market analysis tools. The search popularity
index crawls data from all big search engines like Google, Baidu, Yahoo,
Yandex, Naver, and more to combine them all into one chart that represents the
hot spots of TiO2 over time. The ups and downs can be related to market events,
which validates the tracking of search and be prepared for growing or
declining attention.
In
another function, CCM gathers and analysis data from e-commerce and companies
directly for close price monitoring. Combined with the price forecast
algorithm, which includes historical data, upstream and downstream development,
public statements and more factors, this Price Analysis Function not only shows
the historical price by country, region, and manufacturer but also gives a
forecast for the next months. To support this analysis. The function also
crawls the internal market research information of CCM and external news
information to give the full insight into China’s TiO2 price trend.
The
last major function of the online platform combining big data crawling is
Company Research. It allows users to search for TiO2 in China, which will show
all TiO2 related enterprises. Starting from choosing the enterprise of
interest, there are many segments to click for detailed information. On the one
hand, the function shows the company relations, including all clients,
suppliers, subsidiaries, the parent company, and other related enterprises
crawled from CCM’s internal enterprise database. This gives an overview of all
relations between manufacturers, traders, and buyers in the TiO2 market to
understand the supply chain flow. On the other hand, it reveals related indexes
of the chosen enterprise, such as contact information，financial info，legal
status，products
portfolio，export &
import data，related news
from valuable media websites, production info，and
company dynamics. Users can get all relevant data and information of companies
in this easily navigable database.
Tranalysis IE
Wizard
Kcomber’s trade
brand Tranalysis has recently opened the import and export analysis online
platform IE Wizard. IE Wizard is a multi-dimensional online trade data analysis
platform under Tranalysis’ brand. The main functions are a trade data
processing platform, analysis and analytic tools, aggregates Trade circulation
data, and carrier for trade analysis products.
IE
Wizard is a connectivity and automation tool for Raw Trade Data in China and
worldwide. Based on the global Customs import and export information as well as
trade data from reliable industry websites, IE Wizard connects all related
commodities and enterprises in real trade flows and visualizes the results in
immediate usable and adaptable charts for convenient trade analysis.
Conclusion
China’s
TiO2 market is the key area to look at for the future development. Supported by
the booming downstream industries, the production is likely to grow further in
the future and China might become an even bigger influencer of the global
market.
Even
it can be considered to be still in the early state, China’s e-commerce will
definitely grow fast in the near future and enable a supportive consumer and
supplier analysis. The data crawled from news and industry websites as well as
from search engines and e-commerce platforms help to monitor, understand, and
forecast the trend of TiO2 in China and worldwide.
Kcomber’s
market and trade research, combined with the external crawled data, enables a
comprehensive and insightful view on the development of Tio2 in China. While
constantly searching for more reliable data sources and enhancing the platforms
with AI and automatically report writing algorithms, market and trade research
is on the brink of a new technology level, moving away from human-based market
research and report writing towards AI and algorithm-generated, customized
reports and analysis.
Contact
us now for more information and a free trial on the platforms at:
Emarket7@cnchemicals.com
Patrick.schreiber@kcomber.com