Longbai Group was surveyed by 45 institutions: The company's overseas mines are mainly in Australia, and the two coastal placer mines in Australia belonging to Guangdong Dongzirconium are very high-quality sources of titanium raw materials.

Longbai Group (002601) released the record sheet of investor relations activities on June 12, 2023. The company was surveyed by 45 institutions on June 10, 2023. The main content of investor relations activities: the company responded to the questions raised by investors in this meeting:
   Q: how does the company predict the price trend of titanium dioxide for the whole year? What are the competitive advantages of the company's new energy?
  : Hello. At present, the macroeconomic situation is not very good, so the downstream demand of titanium dioxide market is not very good. Second Longbai Group's sales strategy is flexible, titanium dioxide is actually a rigid demand product, the development of global urbanization and people's pursuit of modern lifestyle will inevitably drive the consumption of titanium dioxide, the company has established a global sales network, can fully grasp the dividends between different regions of the world, through flexible sales strategy, no matter how the market development, the company has obvious sales advantages. The company has the competitive advantages of large chemical industry and low cost, and caustic soda and hydrogen can be directly or indirectly used in the production of iron phosphate in the same park; when planning battery material projects, the company has a deep understanding of battery materials; at the same time, there are phosphoric acid supporting enterprises around the company. The iron phosphate produced by the company has entered the front-end supply chain of Ningde era (300750) and BYD (002594).
   Q: Hello, would the company please introduce the price difference between chlorinated titanium dioxide and sulfuric acid titanium dioxide, and the future development of the price difference between chlorinated titanium dioxide and foreign chlorinated titanium dioxide? Please talk about the difference between hydrochloric acid extraction titanium dioxide and sulfuric acid titanium dioxide and chlorination titanium dioxide in terms of cost and quality.
  : Hello. Because of the cost of raw materials, the price of titanium dioxide by chlorination process is higher than that by sulfuric acid process. With regard to the price difference between the company's chlorinated titanium dioxide and foreign chlorinated titanium dioxide, from the international market, the company's existing mainstream chlorination products are mostly used in general-purpose coatings and plastics, in some slightly less developed areas, such as the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, the sales price competes with western titanium dioxide manufacturers at the same stage and sells at the same price. In Europe and North America, the price of chlorinated titanium dioxide has increased significantly in the past few years, and there is still a lot of room for improvement in the future, because of the price protection mechanism, logistics chain system rather than product quality. Western suppliers sell at higher prices in these areas. It is believed that on the basis of our existing sales network, the price of chlorination products can be further increased, the price difference between chlorination process titanium dioxide and traditional sulfuric acid process titanium dioxide will be further widened, and the price difference with foreign chlorination titanium dioxide suppliers will be reduced. In the future, the company will solidify the production mode based on chlorination technology, gradually upgrade the existing sulfuric acid process, and no longer add or expand the sulfuric acid titanium dioxide project. The development of hydrochloric acid titanium dioxide process abroad has a specific background and conditions. in order to develop perovskite-type ilmenite in Minnesota, USA, BHP began to study the technology of hydrochloric titanium dioxide in the early 1990s. At that time, the very cheap natural gas in the United States was conducive to the development of titanium dioxide by hydrochloric acid process, and the cycle of regeneration and concentration of hydrochloric acid consumed a lot of natural gas and steam, but the price of natural gas in China was relatively high, and the hydrochloric acid method had no competitive advantage. The hydrolysis process of titanium dioxide by hydrochloric acid process is the same as the hydrolysis process by sulfuric acid method, which leads to the fluctuation of product quality. The good quality and stability of titanium dioxide by chlorination process is due to the continuous oxidation process, so the quality of titanium dioxide by chlorination process is better. Thank you!
   Q: what is the competitive advantage over the Chinese counterpart sponge titanium? After cooperation with Yongjin (603995), what breakthroughs may be made in the field of civil products in the middle reaches of sponge titanium processing in the future?
  : Hello. Compared with Chinese counterparts, titanium sponge has the following advantages: first, the advantage of the whole industry chain, titanium concentrate-rich titanium material-titanium tetrachloride-sponge titanium, each process is owned by the company; second, the location advantage of the factory, the electricity price of the company's two existing sponge titanium plants is relatively cheap. Third, technical advantages, the company also mastered the sponge titanium production technology of Ukraine, Japan and the United States, the sponge titanium production line has a high degree of automation, and through lean management and control, the power consumption per ton of sponge titanium is lower than that of the same industry. The company set up Zhongyuan Titanium Industry in a joint venture with Yongjin and other companies to expand the application of titanium to more civilian areas, such as the mobile phone shell of Apple 15. Thank you!
  : would you please introduce the downstream demand structure of titanium dioxide and the impact of Chinese real estate on the demand of titanium dioxide? Can China's ilmenite directly produce chlorinated titanium dioxide, and how much room for reduction in the cost of chlorinated titanium dioxide? What does the company think of the global titanium price, and does it have a further strategic layout?
  : Hello. With regard to the titanium dioxide market, due to the depression of China's real estate market, the overall operating rate is lower than that of previous years, and the overall downstream demand is weak. Compared with the same industry, our impact is actually not very great. The downstream customers of the company are mainly big customers in various industries, even in the face of the industry recession, but the objective demand still exists, and the leading effect is more obvious, such as the poor demand for real estate in China. The operating rate of leading paint manufacturers related to real estate in China is higher than that of many regional small paint manufacturers. Due to the recession in the Chinese market, the company is also adjusting the sales ratio between China and the world. Since the beginning of this year, especially in some international emerging markets, the increase has been quite obvious. Since the second quarter of 2023, the feedback from the European market is better than that in the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023. Downstream customers, on the one hand, consider costs, and more importantly, supply stability and price stability. Longbai's advantages in this respect are also very obvious. Pan-Energy Tinto (Venator) filed for bankruptcy protection in 2023 and some Chinese manufacturers had safety and environmental protection problems, which made some major customers outside China turn their orders to Longbai. From the technical level, China's ilmenite can directly produce chlorinated titanium dioxide, and the company is also chlorinating part of the ilmenite directly, which needs to consider the problem of cost balance. The direct chlorination of Chinese ilmenite needs to consume more chlorine and petroleum coke. It is necessary to balance the reduction of the cost of titanium ore with the increase of the cost of petroleum coke and chlorine. Due to the direct chlorination of ilmenite in China, more chlorine-containing wastewater needs to be treated, so it is necessary to balance the reduction of ilmenite cost with the increase of wastewater treatment cost. From the current supply and demand pattern of ilmenite, the price of ilmenite will not change much in a short period of time, especially the raw materials of titanium dioxide by chlorination process, as a whole, for the manufacturers without ilmenite, the cost of ilmenite will still be in a relatively high position. The company has not only titanium slag, artificial rutile, but also Panxi mine upgrade project of chlorinated high titanium slag. The cost of titanium chloride slag produced by the company's artificial rutile and Panxi mine is much lower than that produced by imported mines. Thank you!
   Q: what is the difference between the process of titanium chloride titanium dioxide in Panxi titanium mine and the traditional rutile process and quality? What is the optimization of cost and structure after the completion of the production line?
  : Hello. At present, Panxi titanium ore upgrade titanium chloride slag has been normally used in the production of chlorination titanium dioxide, the path is from mineral processing, to titanium chloride slag, and finally to chlorination titanium dioxide. At present, this process can convert titanium ores of any quality into raw materials for the production of chlorinated titanium dioxide, and its quality is the same as that of artificial rutile purchased abroad. The company has mastered a number of core technologies of the process and applied for a number of Chinese and international patents, which is of vital importance to the development of China's titanium industry. Through a breakthrough in Panxi ilmenite mineral processing technology, the company has reduced the calcium content from 1.3 to 1.5 to about 0.2, and achieved Panxi ilmenite classification. High-quality ilmenite is used in chlorination titanium dioxide and ordinary ilmenite is used in sulfuric acid titanium dioxide. At the same time, the raw material of chlorinated titanium dioxide with the same quality as UGS and synthetic rutile was made by combining acid slag with basic process, and the cost advantage was very obvious. All these benefit from the company's emphasis on technology research and development and the improvement of equipment, as well as the upgrading of electric furnace technology. Thank you!
   Q: what is the progress of the company's overseas titanium mines?
  : Hello. The company's overseas mines are mainly in Australia, belonging to Guangdong Dongzirconium's two seaside placers in Australia, which is a very high-quality source of titanium raw materials. The company has a professional team overseas, actively looking for overseas high-quality mineral resources. The ultimate goal of the company is to fully meet the production of chlorinated titanium dioxide by locking in foreign high-quality mines and upgrading titanium chloride slag technology combined with Panxi titanium mine.