China's architectural paint demand to reach 3 M tonnes/y by 2015

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2008
• Weight: 51 KB
• Volume: 2008
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0969-6210
• DOI: 10.1016/s0969-6210(08)70058-4

✦ Synopsis

and volatility of input cost increases are at unprecedented levels and our TiO 2 business cannot continue to absorb the costs."

Independently, DuPont has also been advising its customers that, with crude oil prices in the region of $100 per barrel (as against only $30 per barrel prior to 2003/04), there will have to be a step-change of at least 10% in medium-term average TiO 2 pigment prices just to take account of energy and chlorine costs. For its part, Cristal Global stated at the recent Vienna press seminar: "The TiO 2 industry should take a leaf out of the petrochemical suppliers' book. Instead of taking a classic supply/ demand approach to pricing, pigment suppliers ought to persuade customers of the benefits of a costplus approach, avoiding the shortterm swings up and down, smoothing out regional price discrepancies and giving suppliers a return that will encourage them to invest in new pigment capacity." (See also 'Focus on Pigments', Jan 2008, 1-3).

All of this looks very reasonable from the viewpoint of the major TiO 2 multinationals. But consumers, facing soaring oil-related costs of their own, may turn a deaf ear to such entreaties. There is still an excess of effective capacity over consumption of 7-10% and suppliers are investing in new capacity anyway -in Australia, China, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Ukraine, the UK and possibly elsewhere too.