Summary of the Iron Oxide Pigment Industry-2025 H1

2. Detailed Summary

I. Market Scale, Production, and Sales

1. Market Scale

• Global Market: The global iron oxide market reached $2.62 billion in 2024, maintaining a steady growth trend, and is expected to expand further to $3.95 billion by 2032.
• Chinese Market: As the world’s largest iron oxide producer, China performs prominently in the iron oxide red segment. Its iron oxide red market scale is projected to reach approximately 30 billion RMB in 2025.

2. Production and Sales Volume

• Production: In the first half of 2025, China’s iron oxide pigment production stood at 365,000 tons, a 9.7% year-on-year increase, with stable capacity release.
• Sales: During the same period, the market sales volume reached 372,000 tons, a 24.7% year-on-year increase. The growth rate of sales significantly outpaced that of production, indicating strong market demand.
• Growth Driver: The growth is mainly driven by the recovery of downstream industries such as architectural coatings and plastic products; the rebound in downstream demand directly boosts the production and sales of iron oxide pigments.

II. Market Concentration and Competitive Pattern

1. Industry Structure

• General-purpose pigments occupy the mainstream market due to low technical barriers and a wide application scope.
• Special-purpose pigments have achieved technological breakthroughs in high-end application scenarios (e.g., automotive coatings).
• Functional pigments (e.g., conductive pigments, magnetic pigments) are in the R&D and emerging stage, with great future potential.

2. Enterprise Competition

• Leading enterprises in the industry occupy a dominant position in the high-end market, relying on long-term technological accumulation and scale advantages.
• Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) focus on niche segments (e.g., specific color systems, small-scale application scenarios) and gain market share through differentiated competition to avoid confrontation with leading enterprises.

III. Export Performance

1. Export Data

• Cumulative export volume: 74,100 tons, a 11.42% year-on-year decrease.
• Export value: $69 million, a 17.25% year-on-year decrease.
  Both export volume and value declined.

2. Major Markets

IV. Price Trend and Influencing Factors

1. Price Trend in H1 2025 (Domestic Products with 99% Purity)

2. Analysis of Key Influencing Factors

• Raw Material Cost Fluctuations: Long-term high raw material prices directly increase the production cost of iron oxide pigments, continuously squeezing enterprises’ profit margins.
• Energy Price Changes: Electricity prices showed an overall downward trend, while fuel prices fluctuated significantly, presenting a "roller-coaster" trend in the first half of the year. In June, oil prices rose twice in a row, with gasoline and diesel prices increasing by a total of 325 RMB/ton. The rise in fuel costs partially offset the benefit of lower electricity prices.
• Environmental Policies and New Energy Consumption Regulations: The Energy Consumption Quota for Titanium Dioxide and Iron Oxide Pigment per Unit Product ( GB 32051-2024 ), officially implemented on May 1, 2025, has a profound impact on the industry. Enterprises need to upgrade equipment and optimize processes to meet energy consumption requirements, which indirectly pushes up production costs.

V. Regional Market Differences

1. Yangtze River Delta Region

• Core Advantages: Relying on a mature chemical industry chain and industrial agglomeration effect, the Yangtze River Delta contributes over 65% of China’s total iron oxide pigment production, with a high degree of industrial concentration.
• Price Benchmark: Shandong Province, as a major national production base, has a benchmarking role in iron oxide pigment quotations, directly influencing the price trend of the national market.
• Enterprise Distribution: Major production enterprises are concentrated in provinces such as Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Hunan, forming a benign competitive pattern in the region and facilitating technological exchange and resource sharing.

2. Central and Western China

• Price Difference: Affected by factors such as logistics costs and the maturity of the industrial chain, iron oxide pigment prices in central and western China are usually slightly lower than those in the Yangtze River Delta.
• Market Potential: With the continuous advancement of infrastructure construction (e.g., roads, buildings) in central and western China, local demand for iron oxide pigments is gradually increasing, promising great future growth space.

VI. Technological Innovation and Development Trends

1. Production Process Innovation

• Hydrothermal Synthesis: Low-energy-consumption technology is gradually replacing traditional production processes. It not only reduces energy consumption but also accurately controls product properties such as particle size and color, improving the stability of product quality.
• Supercritical Fluid Technology: As an innovative process, it can reduce production energy consumption by more than 30% and features stronger environmental friendliness, conforming to the industry’s green development needs.

2. Product Innovation Directions

• High-Performance Iron Oxide Pigments: Focus on improving key indicators such as weather resistance and dispersibility to meet the application needs of high-end coatings (e.g., outdoor architectural coatings, original automotive coatings).
• Functional Products: Develop special-purpose products such as conductive pigments and magnetic pigments to expand applications in fields like electronic components and new energy equipment.
• Eco-Friendly Products: Water-based and solvent-free iron oxide pigments have become R&D priorities, reducing VOC emissions during production and application to align with environmental policy requirements.

3. Future Trends

• Green Manufacturing: Promote full-life-cycle environmentally friendly production processes, achieving full-chain low-carbon environmental protection from raw material procurement and production processing to waste disposal.
• Intelligent Production: Introduce digital and automated technologies (e.g., intelligent control systems, robotic inspection) to improve production efficiency and product quality stability, while reducing labor costs.
• Application Expansion: Explore innovative applications of iron oxide pigments in emerging fields such as new energy (e.g., lithium battery cathode material additives) and electronics (e.g., chip packaging materials) to open up new growth space for the industry.

VII. Industry Challenges and Outlook

1. Industry Challenges

• Cost Pressure: High and fluctuating raw material prices, coupled with rising electricity and fuel costs, double-squeeze enterprises’ profit margins, putting particular operational pressure on SMEs.
• Environmental Constraints: To meet increasingly strict environmental requirements (e.g., VOC emission limits, solid waste disposal standards), enterprises need to continuously increase investment in environmental protection facilities and operating costs, facing significant financial pressure.
• International Competition: The high-end iron oxide pigment market is still monopolized by foreign enterprises, and domestic enterprises lag behind in core technologies and product added value. Meanwhile, the decline in exports in the first half of 2025 requires active exploration of emerging markets to ease external pressure.

2. Industry Outlook