XAXB is currently China's leading enterprise in the development and production of high-end titanium and superconducting materials. In 2005, it began to develop titanium alloys and became an excellent titanium alloy supplier in China's military industry. In 2014, it entered the field of superalloys and carried out various researches. This business may become a new profit growth point for the company. The company has formed an absolute technological monopoly in the industrialization of low-temperature superconducting wires in China, and formed a comprehensive advantage of leading technology in the field of high-end titanium alloy bars for aviation in China.
As the main R&D and production base of titanium alloy rods for aviation in China, the company has created two "ones": China's only superconducting wire commercial production enterprise, and the world's only niobium-titanium ingot, bar, superconducting wire production and superconducting A full-process enterprise of magnet manufacturing. It meets the needs of high-performance materials in China's aviation, aerospace, shipbuilding and other fields.
The company is an important R&D and industrialization base for practical superconducting materials and magnet technology in China. The technical barriers of low-temperature superconducting wires are high, and the technology is difficult to obtain from abroad. In terms of high-temperature superconducting materials, the company focuses on the R&D and industrialization of Bi series and MgB2. Now it has mastered the core preparation technology of the above-mentioned materials. In the future, it will break through and lead the application of the above-mentioned materials in smart grid, fast pulse accelerator, wind power and other fields.
The company has obtained bulk supply orders for NbTi superconducting wires from major domestic and foreign MRI equipment manufacturers such as GE, SIEMENS, and Shanghai United Imaging, and continues to supply cryogenic superconducting magnets to domestic and foreign scientific research institutions, accelerator projects, and MCZ equipment manufacturers.
The company's main business is high-end titanium alloy materials, superconducting products and high-performance superalloy materials. The first category is high-end titanium alloy materials, which are mainly used in the military aviation field. As military products are supplied to downstream customers such as AVIC and China Aviation Development, such products are the company’s main source of revenue, accounting for about 80%; the second category is super Leading products are mainly used in medical MRI, national defense and military industry, magnetic levitation and other fields; the third category is high-performance high-temperature alloy materials, which are supplied to military aero-engines, gas turbine components and nuclear power equipment.
The company has broken through many bottlenecks in the domestic titanium alloy and superconducting wire fields, and filled many domestic gaps with new mass-produced products. Among them, Ti45Nb titanium alloy materials used in aerospace fasteners is the only manufacturer in China with mass production capabilities. Previously, this field was completely monopolized by the company's major global competitor ATI.
R & D team:
Most of the company's core executives and core R&D personnel are professors or senior engineers with a doctoral degree, and have many years of basic research and applied research experience in the field of high-end titanium alloys and superconducting materials. As of the end of 2019, there were a total of 194 R&D personnel, higher than the 139 of its main competitor, Baoti. Among them, 32 have a doctoral degree and 138 have a master's degree, which constitute the main force of the company's R&D team.
client status:
Downstream customers are mainly aviation material forging manufacturers, and the company's aviation high-end titanium alloy products (bars, wires) are mainly used in China's aviation and ship fields.
The civilian high-end titanium alloy business is mainly export. Typical customers include Thyssenkrupp, Acnis, HanseatlscheWaren. At the same time, the company participated in the supply of the C919 test model, and the overall contribution was small because the C919 has not yet been mass-produced.
Industry Trends:
Titanium has the outstanding characteristics of low density, high specific strength, low thermal conductivity, high temperature and low temperature resistance, strong corrosion resistance, and good biocompatibility. It is widely used in aviation, aerospace, ships, weapons, biological medical, The fields of chemical metallurgy, ocean engineering, sports and leisure are known as "space metal", "ocean metal", "modern metal" and "strategic metal".
Titanium alloy is mainly used to make aircraft engine compressor parts, followed by structural parts for rockets, missiles and high-speed aircraft.
From a global perspective, the overall size of the titanium alloy market is about 5-6 billion US dollars, of which nearly half are used in the aviation industry (Boeing, Airbus, US military aircraft, Russian military aircraft, etc.), and about 10% are used in the defense industry ( Warships, weapons, etc.).
From China's point of view, titanium alloys are mainly used in chemical applications, and there is more room for improvement in aviation applications. In the past ten years, aviation has mainly focused on third-generation aircraft with low titanium alloy content, and the proportion of domestically produced aircraft engines is relatively low. At the same time, domestic civil aviation aircraft ARJ21 and C919 have not yet entered the mass production stage, and the demand for aviation titanium alloys is relatively small. Therefore, there is a big difference between the domestic titanium alloy market structure and the global market structure. The main downstream demand for titanium alloys comes from the chemical industry, salt production, seawater desalination, and other industrial links where salt transmission or salt is present. But it also indicates a huge room for development in the military field in the future.
At present, the demand for titanium alloy materials for aviation in China exceeds 10,000 tons per year, corresponding to a market size of about 4 billion yuan. Looking forward to the next ten years, with the mass production of fourth-generation military aircraft with higher titanium content, the localization of aero engines, and the gradual mass production of domestic civil aviation aircraft, the demand for titanium alloy materials for aviation in China is expected to maintain sustained rapid growth.
XAXB, XABT Titanium Alloy Technology Group, and HNJT Titanium Alloy Technology Group are currently leading suppliers of China Aerospace Titanium Alloy. Among them, XABT involves various types of titanium alloy products such as plates, bars, and wires. The sales angle is the first in the industry, and Western Superconductivity ranks second.
From the perspective of product application, there are obvious differences between XABT and XAXB, and there is less direct competition: XABT's main products are aircraft fuselage plates (TC4) and aero engine rods (TC4, TC6, TC11, TA11); XAXB's main products are aircraft fuselage structural rods (TC4, TA15, TC18, TC4-DT, TC21) and wire for aircraft fasteners (Ti45Nb).
In terms of new materials TC4-DT, TC21, and Ti-45Nb, XAXB has the first-mover advantage from R&D to mass production. It is the first to obtain the qualification of a Chinese aviation supplier and become China's main titanium alloy material supplier.