The fragmented nature of the titanium metal value chain

Abstract

This study investigates the fragmented nature of the global and local titanium metal value chains. South Africa has the fourth most abundant titanium reserves in the world. However, South Africa mainly exports titanium ore and imports value-added titanium products, which impacts the potential to derive more economic benefit from this resource. For South Africa to benefit from its titanium reserves, an understanding of the current fragmented nature of the global titanium value chain would assist in entering the global titanium industry. Information on the global and South African titanium value chains was collected by means of a desktop study. It was found that the leading countries operating within both the upstream and the downstream titanium industry are the USA, China, Japan, Russia, and Kazakhstan. The key drivers that caused fragmentation were identified as technology, markets, production costs, and the availability of titanium mineral reserves. An important outcome of this study is the identification of the local need for a technological foundation in support of downstream titanium processing to market-competitive titanium mill and powder products.