Titanium Dioxide prices in Germany increased by about 4% in the second quarter compared to what was seen in Q1 from historical price trends. Due to the restrictions on Russian energy imports brought on by the sanctions imposed by European countries, domestic production of TiO2 saw its costs surge even further. Additionally, the commodity's price was highlighted and its market expansion was supported by the upstream construction and automation sectors' buoyant demand.

③ Paper making industry: Paper making and paper products industry is the third largest application industry of titanium dioxide. Paper using titanium dioxide has good whiteness, high strength, luster, thin and smooth, and is not easy to penetrate when printing. Under the same conditions, the opacity is 10 times higher than that of paper using calcium carbonate and talc powder, and the weight can also be reduced by 15% to 30%. The amount of titanium dioxide in decorative paper accounts for 20%~40% of its raw materials, and the amount of titanium dioxide in other papers is about 1%~5%. Due to the continuous adjustment of the industrial structure of the paper products industry from 2016 to 2018, according to the data of China Paper Association, the output of China's paper products in 2019 was 72.19 million tons, a significant year-on-year increase of 29.4%, and the use of titanium dioxide increased significantly.