Pigment Sector in China Enjoyed a Great Growth of Profit in 2006      

1  Overall production and
operation status of the pigments
manufacturing sector


The output, the sales amount and various major economic indexes in the pigments manufacturing sector of China gained a growth by different degrees in 2006. The growth of profit was the highest and the loss accumulated was reduced drastically.
    (1) The total output went up. According to the report of the National Bureau of Statistics, China manufactured totally 1.465 million tons (excluding carbon black. As carbon black belongs to rubber assistants in China, carbon black and silica white are not included in this report.) of pigments in 2006, an increase of 5.3% over 2005. Of the total, the output of inorganic pigments was around 1.282 million tons and the output of organic pigments was around 183 thousand tons. There were considerable loopholes in the output statistics. For example, Shandong Dongjia Group, the biggest titanium dioxide producer in China, and Henan Billions Chemicals Co., Ltd., the fifth biggest pigments producer in China, were not included. The pigment output in Shanghai Yipin Pigments, Inc. with a pigment capacity of 30 thousand t/a was not included in the total output of 1.465 million tons as well. Due to difficulties in verification, the analysis made in this report has to take the present un-corrected statistics as the basis. Here the total output is even less than the total output (1.59 million, hereafter mentioned) of titanium dioxide, iron oxide and chrome yellow, which is reported by their branch associations respectively.
   The output of pigments in all six regions of China grew by different rates. The growth in northwestern China was the highest, reaching 200%. In spite of extremely big differences in the growths of pigments output among these six regions, there is also a very big difference of the output base number (the output in 2005), so the distribution picture of the pigment output did not change with the different degrees of the output growth in 2006. The production of pigments was still mainly in eastern China and central southern China. The pigment output in eastern China reached 670 thousand tons in 2006, holding the first place among the six regions and accounting for 46% of the national total. Central southern China came next with an output of 520 thousand tons, accounting for 35%. Northern China and southwestern China followed behind. The pigment output in northeastern China and northwestern China was very small, being less than 10 thousand tons.

Table 1  Top Ten Provinces/Municipalities
          in Terms of Pigment Output  (thousand tons)
Province    2006    2005    2006/2005 (%)
/municipality                                                                            
Jiangsu     280.5    311.4    -9.92
Zhejiang    207.7    182.4    13.87
Guangdong    173.0    191.2    -9.52
Hunan       151.6    161.6    -6.19
Hebei       133.3    103.5    28.79
Guangxi     130.3    110.8    17.60
Shanghai    86.7    84.4    2.73
Shandong    80.5    62.0    29.84
Chongqing    59.6    44.3    34.54
Henan       54.8    43.8    25.11
Total       1 358.0    1 295.4    4.91
Source: CNCIC


   Judging from the top ten provinces/municipalities in terms of pigment output, the growth of output in Chongqing municipality, Shandong province, Hebei province and Henan province was quite high, being more than 25%. The growth of output in Guangxi and Zhejiang provinces was more than 10% and less than 20%. The pigment output in Shanghai achieved a slight growth. The pigment output in Jiangsu, Guangdong and Hunan provinces experienced a negative growth.
　　(2) Both the imports and exports grew, the increase of export value was remarkable, the unfavorable balance (trade deficit) was shifted to the favorable balance (trade surpass), but the general mode of "importing at a high price and exporting at a low price" remained unchanged. The import and export amount, the import and export value and the import and export average price in 2006 all grew by different rates compared with 2005. The growth of the export value was the highest, which mainly contributed to the trade surpass. It showed that the competitiveness of the pigment manufacturing sector in China upgrade somehow.
　　
Table 2  Import and Export of Pigments in China
Item                            2006    2005    2006/2005
Import amount (thousand tons)    606     547     10.5%
Import value (US$ billion)      1.20    1.03    17.1%
CIF price (US$ per ton)         1 989    1 881    5.7%
Export amount (thousand tons)    948     872     8.7%
Export value (US$ billion)      1.55    1.233    25.8%
FOB price (US$ per ton)           1 635    1 413    15.7%
Source: CNCIC

Table 3  Supply and Demand of Pigments in China
Item                          2006    2005    2006/2005  
Output (thousand tons)          1 466    1 392    5.3%
Import amount (thousand tons)    606     547     10.8%
Export amount (thousand tons)    948     872     8.7%
Consumption (thousand tons)     1 124    1 067    5.3%
Import amount/consumption (%)    53.9    51.27    -
Source: CNCIC

Table 4  Major Economic Indexes in
the Pigment Sector of China
Item          &