Building a solid platform for the future

Amid the remote terrain in Qianxinan prefecture in Southwest China's Guizhou province, one can hear the roar of heavy machinery at the Shengxing workshops. Inside the facility one can see scores of workers huddled over machines that turn raw titanium into materials for making screws for Apple Inc's iPhone 5s and iPhone 6.

Xiao Guiyun, general manager of Shengxing Co Ltd, said the company achieved a milestone after the US-based tech giant started using Shengxing's titanium screws for its products. The Chinese company supplied more than 30 metric tons of titanium screws to Apple from January 2013 to September 2014, he said, adding that it is also Apple's official screw material supplier.

According to Xiao, Foxconn, the contract manufacturing major that makes Apple handsets, used to procure the titanium screws from Japanese manufacturers till 2012. Shengxing managed to score over other competitors with better quality products and competitive pricing, which also helped it secure repeat orders and add additional production lines specifically for Apple, he said.

"At our facility, we are able to transform raw titanium that has a diameter of 620 millimeters to products that are 1 millimeter in diameter after several procedures and processes," he said.

Shengxing also provides Apple's manufacturing foundries with superior quality materials.

Guizhou has the biggest titanium sponge manufacturing base in China. The abundant raw titanium resource in the province and sophisticated titanium processing techniques have helped a few local companies become the top players in the industry, said industry experts.

Founded in 1999 with just $1.6 million in registered capital and covering 20,000 square meters, Shengxing has a powerful research team, the members of which include an academician from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The main business of the company is to produce titanium and titanium alloy products with its own technologies. The company also makes high-end titanium pipes for export.

However, Xiao said that there are several hurdles that the company has to overcome. Capital shortage is the main concern, he said, adding that the intensive processing of titanium, especially, materials for nuclear and spaceships, needs huge capital input.

Xiao said the company recently got $2.4 million funding from a South Korean bank, and that Shengxing is also looking to lend its technologies to other titanium manufacturers to ease financial difficulties.

Rising labor costs are another major issue, he said.

The government is providing capital rewards to high-tech companies like Shengxing to stimulate the production. Titanium is a key raw material for the aviation industry. With the nation embarking on building its own narrow-body jetliners, the demand for the metal is set to surge, experts said.

Demand for sponge titanium is expected to reach 200,000 tons by 2020, industry website mining120.com reported, citing Gan Yong, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.