After the force majeure announcement of RBM, the market of CP grades TiO2 was expected to raise in 3rd and 4th quarter. But after the mid of July, the Wait-and-see sentiment in the market since May finally leads to a price fallback in Asia, and some Chinese manufacturers had to reduce their price to continues their production.
Was the uptrend turning around? We all asked the same question.
In the late of July, the power supply limitation in south China caused a sudden rasie of the sulphate acid price, which was totally unexpected.
Usually, in the wet season, the power supply is abundant, and the power cost is the lowest of whole year.
But this year, the price of sulphate acid raised more than 20% in ten days, till now, the price is still going up without any signs of stop.
Even the sulphate acid price cost only takes 15% of total cost of SP tio2, but this sudden rise of the acid definitely is adding fuel to the fire.
After several days of wondering, today, the SP grades gaint LomonBillions finally announced the new price increase of 200USD/MT.
But as to the SP tio2 is not the mainstream of the global market yet, it is hard to say worse if we only take the acid price increase into account. Followings are the real things causing a headque to some users.
South African power plant explodes only a week after launch
Tronox mulls chlorine projects, expects logistics issues to last through H2
Trade hit as cost of freight from China surges 200%
Overall, the main aspects making things worse.
- The raw material supply. The power, the acid, the slag, the chlorine.
- The shipment. The shortage of containers and the prejudice against heavy goods from shipping company also makes the chemical suppliers even harder to get their material loaded on board. Which is extending the supplying period, and strength the tight supply sistuation.