One of the depths of titanium alloys: domestic titanium production accounts for about half of the world, and aerospace titanium demand is growing rapidly

May 29, 2024, 11:58 AM

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Highlights at a glance

China dominates titanium production, accounting for nearly half of global output. The aerospace sector shows a significant rise in demand for titanium alloys, with sales increasing by 36.73% in 2020. The industry relies on advanced smelting technologies, particularly vacuum consumable arc melting and cooling-bed furnace methods, to ensure high-quality materials for aerospace applications. Domestic companies are poised to benefit from this growing demand, although risks such as supply chain issues could impact growth.

One of the depths of titanium alloys: domestic titanium production accounts for about half of the world, and aerospace titanium demand is growing rapidly

Titanium alloy smelting technology is complex and difficult to process. At present, only four countries in the world, the United States, Russia, Japan, and China, have complete titanium industrial production technology. The titanium industry industry chain has two different branches, namely titanium material industry and titanium dioxide industry. In the titanium industry, starting from ilmenite and rutile mining, sponge titanium is manufactured, and then made into various metal products for aerospace, chemical, marine and other fields.

In terms of demand for titanium alloys, the use of titanium materials in my country is mainly in the chemical industry, and the demand for titanium materials in the aerospace industry is growing rapidly. According to the statistics of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association Titanium, Zirconium and Hafnium Branch, the sales volume of the major domestic titanium material manufacturers in the chemical industry accounts for about 50% of the total sales volume. In the aerospace field, titanium sales have maintained rapid growth. In 2020, the total sales volume of major domestic titanium material manufacturers in the aerospace field is about 17,228 tons, a year-on-year increase of 36.73%, and a compound growth rate of 16.94% compared with the sales volume of 3,603 tons in 2010.

In terms of titanium alloy supply, vacuum consumable arc melting and cooling bed furnace melting are the most widely used in the industrial production of titanium and titanium alloy ingots. At present, the smelting of titanium alloys for aviation in my country basically adopts the vacuum consumable electric arc furnace smelting method. For titanium alloy ingots with high quality requirements, generally 3 times of vacuum consumable arc melting is required to obtain ingots with uniform composition and low defect rate. The cooling-bed furnace smelting technology has emerged under the demand for high quality and high reliability of titanium alloys for aviation. The technology of cooling-bed furnace smelting and vacuum consumable arc remelting is preferred in foreign countries to ensure the metallurgy of titanium alloy materials for aero-engines. quality. The cooling-bed furnace smelting technology has developed rapidly abroad, especially the cooling-bed furnace smelting technology in the United States is the most mature. Domestic enterprises such as Baotai Co., Ltd., Juneng Titanium Industry, Yunnan Titanium Industry and other enterprises have successively introduced electron beam cold hearth melting furnaces, and electron beam cold hearth melting has certain applications in China.

The demand for titanium alloys in the domestic aerospace industry is expected to maintain rapid growth, and related companies are expected to fully benefit. In the aviation field, the number of my country's military aircraft is relatively small, and the proportion of old models is relatively high. There is an urgent need to supplement and upgrade the number of military aircraft. The installation of new aircraft and the replacement of domestic aircraft engines for military aircraft increase the demand for titanium alloys in the aviation field. In addition, domestic civil aviation aircraft such as ARJ21 and C919 will successively bring new increments to the demand for aviation titanium materials. In the aerospace field, as the main consumables for modern warfare, the demand for missiles is expected to maintain rapid growth. Domestic enterprises engaged in the production of aerospace titanium alloys mainly include Baotai Co., Ltd., Western Superconductor, Western Materials, Xiangtou Jintian Group, Aviation Materials Institute, Baowu Special Metallurgy, Tiancheng Aviation Materials, etc., and are expected to fully benefit from the aerospace industry. Increased demand for titanium alloys.

Risk reminder: The deployment of military aircraft and the replacement of domestic aviation engines are less than expected; the expansion of the civil aviation market is less than expected; the supply of upstream raw materials is insufficient and the price rises more than expected.

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