(1) Basic properties and uses of titanium

Titanium is known as the “all-purpose metal” among metal materials, and is the “third metal” with great development prospects after iron and aluminum. Titanium is located in the IVB group of the periodic table, silver-white, hard, melting point 1,668 ℃, is a refractory light metal, but also one of the country's important strategic metals.

Titanium has outstanding characteristics such as low density, high strength, good resistance to high and low temperatures, strong corrosion resistance and excellent molding performance, and is widely used in aviation, aerospace, ships and weapons, biomedical, chemical and metallurgical engineering, marine engineering, sports and leisure, etc., and is known as “space metal” and “strategic metal”. metal”.

Titanium alloy is an alloy formed by adding aluminum, tin, vanadium, molybdenum, niobium and other elements to titanium, adjusting the composition of the matrix phase and comprehensive physical and chemical properties. Because titanium and titanium alloys involved in the melting and processing technology is complex, high technology content, at present only the United States, Russia, Japan, China, four countries in the world to master the complete titanium industrial production technology. Titanium and titanium alloys are of great strategic significance to a country's national defense, economic and technological development.

(2) The position and role of the industry in the industry chain, and the correlation between upstream and downstream industries

(1) Titanium Industry Chain

The titanium industry chain can be divided into two: one is the titanium dioxide industry chain; the other is the titanium material industry chain.

Titanium dioxide industry, starting from ilmenite and rutile mining, through the sulfuric acid method and chlorination method to generate chemical intermediate products - titanium dioxide, downstream is mainly used in coatings, plastics and paper industries.

The titanium industry consists of four main stages. First, rutile and ilmenite as the main raw material, after beneficiation, enrichment of natural rutile concentrate and ilmenite concentrate, and then through the magnesium reduction method and other extraction processes to obtain the titanium sponge; second, titanium sponge as the main raw material, through the melting and casting process to get the titanium ingot, or add intermediate alloy melting for titanium alloy ingot; third, the deformation treatment, heat treatment and mechanical processing, such as the use of forging, rolling, extruding, drawing, etc. to produce different sizes (including the titanium alloy), the titanium material industry, mainly consists of four stages. machining, etc. to produce titanium products of different specifications (shapes); finally, in some industries and industrial products industry, titanium materials can be manufactured into titanium and titanium alloy parts or equipment through deep processing process.

(2) The position and role of titanium material industry in the industry chain, and the correlation between upstream and downstream industries

Titanium material industry is located in the middle reaches of the titanium material industry chain, playing the role of the upstream and downstream, with an indispensable position.

The upstream of titanium material industry is mainly titanium sponge and other raw materials. Since the cost of raw materials accounts for a large proportion of titanium products, the supply and price changes of the upstream raw materials will directly affect the output and cost of titanium industry. According to the “2021 China Titanium Industry Development Report”, China is the world's largest producer of titanium sponge, titanium sponge production in 2021 amounted to 139,900 tons, accounting for 61.57% of the world's total output of titanium sponge, the supply is sufficient.

The downstream of the titanium industry is mainly for the aerospace, petrochemical, marine energy and other industries. The market scale of the downstream industry directly determines the market scale of the titanium material industry, and changes in the market demand of the downstream industry will also directly affect the research and development and sales of products in this industry. In recent years, with the steady advancement of national policies such as the modernization of China's national defense and army, green development, high-end development and Industry 4.0, the downstream market demand has been gradually released, which has brought further room for growth for China's titanium material industry.

(3) Titanium industry development history

Titanium as a chemical element was discovered at the end of the 18th century, but because of its lively nature, extraction is difficult until the end of the 1940s in the United States began industrialized production. Since then, Japan, Russia and China have established their own titanium industrial production system. At present, the United States, Japan, Russia in the application of titanium materials, product structure, each with its own characteristics. Among them, the United States titanium material is mainly used in aviation; Japan is concentrated in heat exchangers, electrolysis, chemical and other civilian fields; Russia is mainly used in aviation and naval field.

China's titanium industry started in the mid-1950s, the development so far can be divided into three stages:

(1) preliminary industrialization stage (1956-1978): as one of the key projects of the “First Five-Year Plan”, the Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials was established in 1956, and the following year set up China's first titanium alloy laboratory, the successful trial production of titanium alloys; 1976, the Baoji Nonferrous Metals Processing Plant (now BaoTi Group) In 1976, Baoji Nonferrous Metal Processing Plant (now BaoTi Group) completed its initial construction, marking the beginning of the industrialization of titanium in China. As of 1978, China's titanium production of about 504.92 tons.

(2) Rapid development stage (1979-2012): since the reform and opening up, thanks to the development of China's chemical industry, metallurgy and other industries, China's titanium material market scale continues to grow. Among them, China's titanium production increased from 2,233.00 tons in 2000 to 51.6 million tons in 2012, a significant increase in scale. However, the overall product mix is still dominated by low-end chemical industry, metallurgy, etc., which is driven by low-end demand for titanium production capacity expansion, making China's titanium industry capacity structural overcapacity problem highlighted, China's titanium industry structure needs to be optimized.

(3) Development and adjustment stage (2013 to date): With the adjustment of China's macroeconomic structure, improve product value-added, reduce pollution emissions and other policies implemented, the chemical industry, metallurgy and other traditional industries in the low-end titanium demand declined, titanium industry has gradually entered a period of adjustment, China's production of titanium materials in 2013 was about 44,500 tons, a year-on-year decline of 13.78%. After several years of market digestion and absorption, as well as titanium material industry technology breakthroughs, application areas to expand, the structural adjustment of the industry has begun to show results. At present, the structure of China's titanium industry is gradually from the past low-end areas to the aerospace, ships and high-end chemical industry and other high-end areas.