| ISSUE 037 · MATERIALS, CAPACITY, CONVERSION | |
| Everyone is counting shells. European output targets, American production rates, the months-long backlog at Scranton. Titanium sponge sits one layer deeper: the first metallic form of titanium, and the feedstock for everything made from it. | |
| Sponge is the porous grey metal produced when titanium tetrachloride is reduced in a Kroll process furnace. The majority of US titanium metal consumption goes to aerospace, according to the USGS, with the remainder serving armor, chemical processing, marine hardware, medical implants, and power generation. Fighter airframes, jet engine compressor disks, and submarine hull sections all start with sponge. | |
| The United States produced zero commercial titanium sponge in 2025, according to the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries published February 2026. Imports totalled approximately 44,000 tonnes: through July, Japan supplied 73 percent, Kazakhstan 13 percent, Saudi Arabia 13 percent. Japan mines no titanium ore. The Department of Commerce transmitted its Section 232 report to the President on November 29, 2019, concluding that titanium sponge imports threaten to impair national security; on February 27, 2020, the President concurred and accepted Commerce’s recommendation not to adjust imports. | |
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Elon Musk’s One Stock Retirement Plan
Sometimes you come across an opportunity so explosive…
That it has the potential to turn a small stake…
Into a six figure and in some rare cases even a seven-figure nest egg…
Like it happened when I picked Nvidia in 2016.
It jumped high enough to turn $5,000 into an entire retirement nest egg of $1,895,000.
And while I can’t guarantee you’ll become a millionaire...
I think this little-known AI stock is one of those opportunities…
Which is why I call it “Elon Musk’s One Stock Retirement Plan.”
Now, if this idea of retiring with a single stock sounds crazy to you…
You should know that some of the best investors in the world believe that the idea of diversification is a little overrated.
Stanley Druckenmiller said…
“You don’t get rich by diversifying into 50 mediocre assets. You get rich by finding two or three asymmetric home runs.”
Or listen to legendary investor Peter Lynch. He said…
“I would own one stock if I can find one great stock.”
Even Warren Buffett said…
“Diversification is protection against ignorance. It makes little sense if you know what you are doing.”
| PLATE · JAPANESE STEELWORKS, CONTINUOUS CASTING LINE, 1980S |
| In the 1970s and 1980s, Japan built a commanding lead in world steel through capital investment at a pace its competitors chose not to match. During the thirteen years ending in 1984, Japanese steelmakers added roughly 90 million net tons of continuous casting capacity while the United States added approximately 30 million, according to the IMF’s Finance and Development in December 1987. |
| Japan achieved that position while importing virtually all its iron ore and coking coal. The competitive advantage was in the process itself: the furnace technology, the continuous casting lines, the quality certification systems, the workforce. |
| The pattern now holds in titanium sponge: Japan mines no titanium ore. It imports rutile and titanium slag from countries including South Africa, Canada, and Australia, processes them through Osaka Titanium Technologies and Toho Titanium, and supplies 73 percent of US sponge imports through July 2025. Both producers hold aerospace quality certifications accepted by Boeing and Airbus. |
| PLATE · OSAKA TITANIUM TECHNOLOGIES, AMAGASAKI, JAPAN | |||
| On September 2, 2024, Osaka Titanium Technologies announced an expansion of sponge capacity at its Amagasaki plant, investing approximately ¥33 billion. On March 13, 2026, OTC revised the investment to approximately ¥39 billion, citing rising construction material and labor costs. The expansion adds roughly 10,000 tonnes per year to OTC’s existing 40,000-tonne annual capacity, with completion targeted within fiscal 2027. | |||
| The Japanese government supported the project with a grant of up to approximately ¥8.04 billion announced by METI in August 2024. | |||
| The last large-scale American titanium sponge plant, TIMET’s Henderson, Nevada facility, had an estimated annual capacity of 12,600 tonnes per year according to the USGS. It was idled in July 2020. TIMET is a subsidiary of Precision Castparts Corp., which has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway since January 2016. | |||
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| Every supply figure carries a date and a source in the text. Not a footnote. In the sentence. | |||
| FREE. NO STOCK PICKS. NO PREDICTIONS. | |||
| Nothing here is investment advice. No company is named as an investment. |
