IperionX opened the first US commercial titanium sponge plant as VSMPO cut to four days per week and Japanese consolidation absorbed Toho Titanium

Summary

IperionX Limited achieved first commercial production of titanium sponge at its Meadowview, Virginia facility on March 27, 2026, using the HAMR (hydrogen-assisted magnesiothermic reduction) process with domestic rutile feedstock. The facility is the first US commercial titanium sponge production in decades; initial capacity is 125 tonnes per year with a Phase 2 target of 1,200 tonnes per year. The commissioning comes against the backdrop of VSMPO-AVISMA, the world's largest titanium producer, being placed on the US Entity List in September 2025, shifting to a four-day working week with internal revenues declining approximately 17% as Western aerospace customers accelerated transitions away from Russian supply. Osaka Titanium Technologies in Japan approved a ¥39 billion expansion to 50,000 tonnes per year by 2028 in February 2026, directly targeting VSMPO allocations. JX Advanced Metals absorbed Toho Titanium on June 1, 2026, consolidating Japanese sponge production into two major entities: Osaka Titanium and JX. US titanium sponge prices reached $6,080 per tonne in 2026, up 10.5% year-on-year.

The split

IperionX frames the HAMR process as a structural improvement over conventional Kroll-process sponge production: lower energy consumption, domestic feedstock from US rutile, and integrated capability to produce both sponge and powder for additive manufacturing from the same facility. Western aerospace manufacturers, notably Boeing and Airbus, view the IperionX facility as strategically important but commercially marginal at 125 tpa initial scale relative to their multi-thousand-tonne annual requirements; qualified-aerospace-grade titanium requires extended supplier qualification programmes that IperionX has not yet completed. Japanese producers Osaka Titanium and JX Advanced Metals are expanding in response to direct contract commitments from Boeing and Airbus, making them the primary near-term VSMPO replacement. Kazakhstani producer UKTMP and South Korea's POSCO Titanium are also qualified Boeing and Airbus suppliers, making the supply restructuring primarily a Japan-Kazakhstan-Korea substitution rather than a US domestic substitution. VSMPO itself continues operating for non-Western aerospace customers including Chinese COMAC and Russian aircraft programmes, and the Kremlin has not restricted titanium exports as a counter-sanction measure.

By the numbers

• March 27, 2026, IperionX Virginia first titanium sponge production.
• 125 tpa, IperionX Phase 1 capacity; 1,200 tpa Phase 2 target.
• September 2025, VSMPO-AVISMA added to US Entity List.
• ~17%, VSMPO revenue decline from pre-Entity List baseline.
• ¥39 billion, Osaka Titanium expansion investment approved February 2026.
• 50,000 tpa, Osaka Titanium target capacity by 2028 (from ~28,000 tpa).
• June 1, 2026, JX Advanced Metals absorption of Toho Titanium.
• $6,080/t, US titanium sponge price in 2026 (+10.5% year-on-year).

Why it matters

Titanium sponge is the upstream material for all titanium aerospace components, from airframe structural members to engine compressor blades. VSMPO-AVISMA's pre-war position supplying approximately 30% of global aerospace titanium was a single-supplier concentration risk that Western aerospace primes acknowledged but did not pre-emptively resolve. The Ukraine war forced an emergency supply chain transition that is now structurally complete through Japanese and Kazakhstani qualification, but at higher cost reflected in the 10.5% sponge price increase. IperionX's Virginia facility is geopolitically significant, establishing US domestic sponge production for the first time in decades, but commercially it is a rounding error relative to Osaka Titanium's expansion. The Japanese consolidation, with Toho Titanium absorbed by JX Advanced Metals, reduces the number of qualified Boeing-Airbus sponge suppliers and concentrates Japanese capacity in fewer entities, creating a different concentration risk from a different geography.

What to watch

• IperionX Phase 2 financing and scale-up: whether $44.6 million or equivalent financing is secured for the 1,200 tpa expansion and when aerospace-grade qualification is completed.
• Osaka Titanium 50,000 tpa ramp: whether the 2028 target holds and whether Boeing and Airbus sign long-term offtake agreements sufficient to underwrite the ¥39bn expansion.
• VSMPO non-Western customer base: whether COMAC and Russian aircraft programmes absorb VSMPO's Western-displaced output and on what terms, affecting global sponge supply balance.
• Titanium sponge price trajectory: whether the 10.5% year-on-year increase continues into 2027 as Osaka Titanium's expansion gradually adds supply, or whether tight aerospace build rates sustain the premium.