[bryanlarsen]

TLDR, AFAICT:

A: refining the titanium is probably fairly close to maximally efficient. But converting the refined titanium sponge into the final product has a ton of steps, and figuring out ways to delete one or two of those steps would pay dividends.

B: Assuming that the price of energy is going to drop relative to the other costs in the process is probably a safe assumption that can be exploited.