The West wakes up to the titanium challenge
By late 2024, Chinese pigment exports were facing headwinds — in particular, multiple countries, including some of its largest titanium export markets, started to implement anti-dumping duties:
- EU imposed anti-dumping tariffs (14.4%–39.7%) on TiO₂ imports from China in 2025
- Brazil set duties of US$578-$1772/ton
- in 2025, India imposed anti-dumping duties on imports of TiO₂ from China, ranging from US$460-681 per metric ton
- and Saudi Arabia launched their own anti-dumping investigations in 2024
The tariffs have had a significant impact in neutralizing the price advantage of Chinese imports, with analysts forecasting a tentative price recovery in 2025; for example, Chemours, one of the world’s leading titanium dioxide suppliers, announced it will impose a 125% tariff surcharge on products exported to China, effective May 1, 2025 — and that the hike stems from steep cost increases due to China’s counter-tariffs.
However, the current structural reality is that China, by commanding such a large share of production, will continue to heavily influence global titanium prices.
China’s strategic circumvention via acquisition
Importantly, Chinese producers are not sitting passively. Recently, Chinese firms have acquired strategic assets in Europe to circumvent tariffs and secure process know-how. For example, Chinese buyers have acquired the Greetham assets in the UK, which include significant product and process intellectual property, as well as an established European footprint that allows Chinese companies to legally operate within the EU tariff structure, effectively circumventing Western trade defenses.
Choke points: sponge, feedstocks, and Western scale-up barriers
Two major chokepoints stand out: titanium sponge production (crucial for aerospace/defense alloys) and high-grade feedstock for chloride pigment and aerospace metal (natural rutile, synthetic rutile, and chloride slag).
These are areas where capacity is concentrated or inherently hard to scale, and where Western nations have found themselves at a disadvantage.
China’s increasing implementation of export restrictions across a range of critical minerals, from rare earths to antimony, gallium to germanium, has raised alarms about potential future restrictions on titanium.
Bob Wetherbee, president of Dallas-based ATI, one of the three big producers of US titanium metal, recently told the Washington Post that he believed all of the American titanium producers had seen demand double, but that “the lack of action is having an impact on national security.”
