What colour costs and what it earns: the pigments and materials behind it and what they sell for, what a colour choice adds to making a product, and where colour measurably changes a price — with the measured figures kept apart from the explanations people offer for them.
Only published prices, production figures and market studies are used, each with its date and scope; forecasts are labelled as forecasts. Nothing here is investment, valuation or purchasing advice, and a resale study of one country's used cars says nothing about another's.
6 topics · 35 evidence-labelled claims · 30 sources
China held 42% of the world’s estimated titanium dioxide pigment capacity at the end of 2019 and 61% at the end of 2025 — the white behind most paint, plastic and paper. And the materials colour is made from are priced very differently: the 2025 figures run from about $0.40 a kilogram for ilmenite concentrate to about $46 for cobalt metal. They are ores, metals and finished pigments at different stages, so the spread shows where cost enters, not which paint is dearer.
| Material | 2025, US$ per kg |
|---|---|
| Ilmenite concentrate | $0.40 |
| Rutile concentrate | $1.14 |
| Iron oxide pigments (finished) | $1.90 |
| Titanium dioxide pigment | $3.20 |
| Cadmium metal | $3.90 |
| Selenium | $28 |
| Cobalt metal | $46 |
What colourants are made from, who makes them and what they cost.
Colour changes, minimum runs, matching, rework and repainting.
Resale value, neutral ranges and how firms choose what to offer.