Great demand for tio2 was usually seen in highly developed countries such as the U.S. and some Western European countries whose consumption of tio2 per head is 4.1kg and 3kg, while China only sees consumption per head of less than 1kg which was 25 and 32 percent of that of the U.S. and developed European countries. Compared to other Asian-Pacific countries, China’s tio2 consumption is also lower than the average level.

Since 2001, when domestic tio2 productivity was only 180,000 tonne, the industry has already been troubled by over-capacity, and the situation has not become better today. In early 2012, China’s annual tio2 productivity has reached nearly 2.8 million tonne as a growing number of large-scale enterprises with productivity of 200,000 tonne have arisen in recent years. The annual productivity is expected to surpass 5 million tonne by 2015.

However, one point of view is that tio2 over-capacity is more a surface impression as last year’s global financial crisis, which greatly influenced the real estate and other related markets, has seen a serious decline in domestic tio2 demand. The viewpoint also believes that the demand would increase by 50 percent to 3.5 million tonne by 2020.

Actually the oversupply problem is mainly found in low-quality products. According to newly-issued policies and market conditions, nearly 20 percent of domestic manufacturers, especially the small-scale ones, are expected to be shut down due to low competitive power in the coming two years. Merging and recombination is an inevitable trend for China’s tio2 industry, and big manufacturers with productivity of over 100,000 tonne are sure to take the lead.