The worldwide recession put a dent in shipments to the $27-billion global medical implants market.  But with demographics skewed toward an aging population and the persistence of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and many other degenerative diseases, the prognosis is never far from positive.

The medical industry is usually a source of steady demand growth for titanium, even when some more cyclical end-use markets are in a tailspin. But that isn't true right now. While the underlying demand for implants has actually held up relatively well even in this severe economic downturn, titanium mill shipments to medical component manufacturers have not fared quite as well.

"Companies will not purchase titanium unless they absolutely need to," said Thomas U. Zuccarini, market manager, medical and consumer, for titanium producer Dynamet Inc., Washington, Pa. "Right now we are in a period of oversupply and declining prices, so therefore medical companies are carrying less inventory because it makes good business sense."

Because of this—and to a lesser degree because of some market share gains by competitive materials—year-to-date titanium shipments to the medical market have been flat to up by only low-single-digit percentages while, according to Millennium Research Group (MRG), demand for orthopedic implants continues to grow at mid-single-digit rates annually,...