Roskill forecasts continued growth in demand through 2011

By Staff -- Purchasing, 5/3/2007

World titanium sponge production doubled over the past five years to 124,000 metric tons in 2006, causing major producers Timet, Allegheny Technologies, Sumitomo Titanium, Toho Titanium and Russia's VSMPO-Avisma to announce sponge capacity expansions over the next decade.

Most market analyses say that's because of the growing demand for titanium metal in new-generation commercial and military aircraft, which use more of this light metal in conjunction with new families of composites. Boeing's new 737 Dreamliner uses 20,000 lbs of titanium in its airframe, while the new 787 will use 250,000 lbs; the Airbus A320 uses 25,000 lbs, but the new A380 will use 150,000 lbs. In military aircraft, the F-15 contains 50,000 lbs of titanium metal, while the F-22 uses 100,000 lbs and the Joint Strike Fighter contains 60,000 lbs.

A Merrill Lynch report says that "titanium demand is almost unfathomable" because of a "secular change towards composite aircraft manufacturing." The Merrill Lynch report says that "commercial aerospace is in the midst of a secular shift away from aluminum alloy use in airframes to that of composites. The shift towards composites goes hand in hand with the shift towards higher levels of titanium usage, as carbon-based composite airframe construction requires many of the properties that are unique to titanium." The analysis compares the transition to the earlier shift away from wood and canvas aircraft construction to aluminum.

Also, industrial demand for heat exchangers, pipes, tanks and pump components in the power, petrochemical and other process industries also is growing, particularly in China, according to a new Roskill Consulting Group report.

The report says the global market for titanium mill products exceeded 90,000 metric tons, with another 45,000 metric tons consumed in the form of the ferrotitanium alloy. World demand for mill products is forecast by Roskill to grow by 6.8% annually up to 2011, resulting in a market for 124,000 metric tons of mill products that year requiring some 230,000 metric tons of sponge.