On June 18, good news came from Panzhihua Titanium Materials Company: In May, Panzhihua's 35,000-ton titanium sponge expansion project achieved profitability for the first time, with output exceeding 3,000 tons. This is another major achievement after the project reached full production and technical and economic indicators were achieved.
It is understood that the Panzhihua Iron and Steel 35,000-ton sponge titanium expansion project is a strategic support project for Anshan Iron and Steel Group to accelerate the construction of the "dual-core + third pole" strategy and promote the development of the vanadium and titanium industry. The project started construction in April 2022, was completed and put into production in August 2023, and achieved full production for 6 consecutive months in 2024. The quality indicators and technical and economic indicators reached the design targets for 3 consecutive months, setting a record for the fastest production and technical and economic indicators of the largest single sponge titanium plant in China.
Since the project reached full production and efficiency, all cadres and employees of the Titanium Materials Company have been working hard to make the new production line profitable. They have coordinated efforts from top to bottom, held monthly production and operation analysis meetings, and analyzed output, quality, major technical and economic indicators, key energy indicators, inventory, contract fulfillment rate, equipment status, and material procurement one by one to find out the reasons that affect the efficiency and benefits of the new production line, and promoted the solution of the difficulties and pain points of the new production line in production, supply, transportation, and marketing, as well as the construction of a resource balance system.
Ensure stable operation of equipment. The new production line has introduced some new processes and new equipment. There are many types of instruments and meters on site, which makes daily inspection and maintenance difficult. To this end, the titanium company cooperated with the engineering company to carry out special research to comprehensively improve the skills of on-site maintenance technicians, further reduce the frequency of failures of on-site electrical equipment, and improve the automation control function and stability of on-site equipment.
Conduct technological research. The 35,000-ton titanium sponge expansion project is different from the old production line in terms of vanadium removal and electrolysis process, and there is no mature process technology that can be transplanted or used as a reference. To this end, the Titanium Materials Company launched a new round of technological research, and successively overcame key technological difficulties such as vanadium removal from refined mineral oil, automatic control of reduction temperature, and magnesium chloride discharge, opening up the process flow of the 35,000-ton titanium sponge expansion project; established a five-resource balance system of "titanium, magnesium, chlorine, alkali, and salt"; and completed key research projects such as the electrolyte composition control of the magnesium electrolysis process of Line 3 on schedule.
Make every effort to increase the proportion of high-end titanium sponge. The production of high-quality titanium sponge is inseparable from high-quality raw material titanium tetrachloride. The titanium materials company and the joint research institute have improved the quality of titanium tetrachloride, and have successively carried out research on carbon element analysis methods and equipment for refined titanium tetrachloride. They have found a better detection method (system) that can quickly and accurately detect the carbon content in refined titanium tetrachloride, providing technical support for improving the quality of the production line. As technical difficulties are gradually overcome, the production of the new production line has been stable and smooth, and the proportion of batches that meet the 0-level nitrogen element of the product has increased from 71.7% before the research to 97%, and high-end titanium such as small-grain titanium and ultra-soft titanium sponge has achieved mass production.
