Kronos Has Been Shipping TiO2 It Didn't Make
Kronos has sold more titanium dioxide than it produced in each of the last four reported quarters, 68,000 tons net out of inventory since October 2025. Finished goods are down 30 percent since December and raw materials down 42 percent, and the company guides fourth-quarter production lower again. Here is what a supplier with no cushion does to a 2027 negotiation, and which two plants carry every sulfate ton it sells.
Kronos sold 439,000 tons of titanium dioxide in the first nine months of 2026 and made 403,000.
In the same nine months of 2025 both numbers were 394,000. Balanced to the ton.
This desk has been on that gap twice, once in August when it was a half-year old and again on Saturday in about ninety words. Neither pass went back far enough to see what it is.
The run does not begin in 2026. It begins in the fourth quarter of 2025, and it is four quarters long.
"How long can a pigment producer sell out of its own warehouse before the buyer on the other side of the contract feels it?"
The rest of this brief is for subscribers.
The capacity math, the trade-flow read, and what it means for the products you buy.
$50 a month, or $400 a year.
Already a subscriber? Sign in