China Surfactant Market and Future Development Trend Analysis
I. What is a surfactant
A surfactant molecule is generally composed of two parts, one with a hydrophilic head group and the other with a hydrophobic tail chain; therefore, a surfactant molecule has the unique characteristic of being both hydrophilic and lipophilic. A surfactant, by definition, is a substance whose addition in small quantities can cause a significant change in the interfacial state of its solution system. To give a common example, when washing dishes, if you don’t add detergent, oil and water are not miscible, and the water can’t wash away the oil, after adding detergent, the oil is surrounded by bubbles, and can be washed away together with the water, and what plays a role here is the surfactant inside the detergent.
Surfactants can be categorized into ionic surfactants and nonionic surfactants according to the type of hydrophilic group. Ionic surfactants can be dissociated from their head group in water, and can be classified as cationic, anionic and amphoteric surfactants according to the type of their hydrophilic group ions; nonionic surfactants do not dissociate in aqueous solutions. According to different raw materials, surfactants can be divided into petroleum-based surfactants and natural oil-based surfactants; according to different fields of use, they can be divided into industrial surfactants and daily-use surfactants.
Second, surfactant industry chain
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Surfactants have a wide range of applications and are known as “industrial monosodium glutamate”, which belongs to fine chemical industry and is located in the middle of the whole chemical industry chain. The upstream is based on petroleum and natural oils and fats as raw materials, and the downstream application involves various fields, mainly water treatment, glass fiber, coatings, construction, paints, daily chemicals, inks, electronics, pesticides, textiles, printing and dyeing, chemical fibers, leather, automotive industry, aerospace and other industrial products, and the expanding demand for the downstream industry has a greater driving force on the surfactant industry.
Third, non-ionic surfactants raw materials
The most important raw material of nonionic surfactants is ethylene oxide, and the purchase amount of ethylene oxide accounted for about 67% of the total purchase amount of raw materials in 2014-2016; in addition, propylene oxide is also one of the main raw materials, and the purchase amount of propylene oxide accounted for about 10% of the total purchase amount of raw materials in 2014-2016.
During the period from 2009 to 2018, the production capacity of ethylene oxide increased from 750,000 tons to 4,335,000 tons, and the production capacity increased to 5.78 times; the output increased from 730,000 tons to 3,167,800 tons, and the output increased to 4.34 times. During the past ten years, the process route of ethylene oxide has also been diversified, in addition to the traditional petroleum-based feedstock, the coal-based process and biological process have also been launched; the main body of ethylene oxide production, in addition to Sinopec and PetroChina, private enterprises and joint ventures have also joined in the competition, which provides better raw material security for the downstream. Over the past decade, ethylene oxide prices are mainly downward trend, there are still a lot of new capacity release in the future, it is expected that the probability of future prices run low. The price of propylene oxide has a relatively small impact on the cost of propylene oxide, the future of propylene oxide also has a lot of new production capacity release, propylene oxide prices in the short term there is no basis for a significant upward movement.
Fourth, surfactant market size
During 2015-2022, the global surfactant sales volume growth rate is 5.4%, and the sales growth rate is 5.9%; by 2020, the global surfactant market will reach $42.7 billion, and the total market volume will reach 22.802 million tons. Among the surfactants, the proportion of nonionic surfactants is about 42%, then the global market size of nonionic surfactants is about 18 billion U.S. dollars.
China’s polycarboxylic acid water reducing agent monomer produced 1.195 million tons in 2018; except for polycarboxylic acid water reducing agent monomer, nonionic surfactants produced 1.0515 million tons and had an apparent consumption of 1.137 million tons in 2018. We approximate the price of polycarboxylic acid water reducing agent monomer and other nonionic surfactants to be 10,000 yuan/ton, and assume that the output and consumption of polycarboxylic acid water reducing agent monomer are equal, then the domestic market size of polycarboxylic acid water reducing agent monomer is about 12 billion yuan, the market size of other nonionic surfactants is about 11.4 billion yuan, and the total domestic market size of nonionic surfactants is about 23.4 billion yuan.
V. Enterprise situation of surfactants
The main players in the surfactant industry are a few foreign enterprises and a large number of domestic enterprises. The main foreign enterprises are: Dow Chemical, BASF, British Harvest, Procter & Gamble, etc. BASF from ethylene → ethylene oxide → surfactants for the integrated production, Dow Chemical and BASF are global chemical giants, in the field of surfactants sales volume is relatively large.
Domestic enterprises engaged in the surfactant industry totaled more than 4,000, but the overall scale is relatively small, and individual enterprises have little influence on the industry. The products produced by Royal Horse Science and Technology are involved in various fields of surfactants, covering a wide range, and domestic competitors tend to focus on only one of these fields. For example, Jiangsu Zhongshan Chemical competes with Royal Horse only in the field of high-performance polyesters for modification of new silicone materials, Nanjing Weir Chemical competes with Royal Horse in the field of high-performance synthetic esters and special polyethers for high-end lubricating oils and metalworking fluids, and Colony Essentials and AOKE compete with the company in the field of polyethers for water-reducing agents.
After the fierce competition in the industry in the past few years, due to the double pressure of cost and market competition, the downstream enterprises of surfactants have been more cautious in the selection of suppliers, and the trend of the market concentrating on the enterprises with large scale, good reputation and high product quality in the industry has been obvious, and some of the surfactant enterprises with lower technology level, single product, single customer and market structure, and weak research and development capability are facing the situation of serious decline in the sales volume and sales profit. Serious decline in product sales and sales profits, forced to reduce production or even shut down. At the same time, chemical enterprises with the focus on environmental protection regulation, small enterprises due to financial constraints, infrastructure is difficult to meet environmental requirements, the industry has a great need for consolidation.
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VI. Development trend of surfactants
The application of surfactants is very large, but in the use of the current situation, there is still a single species, low performance, and easy to use after the problem of environmental pollution. The future development trend of surfactants is toward the direction of green, non-pollution and high efficiency.
1、Green development
The green development of surfactants refers to the replacement of chemical components in surfactants with natural raw materials under the premise of cost control, which effectively reduces the toxicity of surfactants. Promote the green development of surfactants, reduce pollution while reducing the energy consumption in the preparation, and then reduce process costs. For example, APG and AES process in surfactants can improve the green level of surfactants, promote the sustainable development of active agents and reflect the green value of surfactants.
2、Environmentally friendly development
The environmentally friendly development of surfactants emphasizes the safety of surfactants, which means that surfactants can be biodegraded after application without pollution problems. In the environmental requirements, the best surfactant biodegradation degree is 98%. Representative environmentally friendly surfactants are straight chain sodium dodecyl phenyl ketone acid, long chain alkyl polyglycosides, which are not only biodegradable in use, but also the raw materials have renewable characteristics. Environmentally friendly surfactants is the mainstream direction of future development, planning the development of environmentally friendly surfactants, in order to improve the efficiency of the use of surfactants.
3、Multi-functional development
The multifunctional development trend of surfactant refers to the surfactant can be applied to a number of production processes, and actively develop the new functions of surfactant to solve the previous single application mode and improve the application efficiency of surfactant. Not only focus on the basic role of surfactants, but also broaden the application function of surfactants on this basis, in order to improve the consumption of surfactants. For example, the surfactants of cleaning class should also have the functions of bactericidal and antibacterial, moisturizing and skin care in the future multifunctional development, in order to solve the destructive problem of surfactants.
4、Adaptive development
The development of surfactants should also be combined with the current needs of consumers. In the adaptive development of surfactants, concentrated active agent is more representative, such active agents are more suitable for social needs, and have achieved certain benefits. For example, the surfactants in detergents have a cleaning effect only in warm water, but the future development trend is to concentrate the surfactants so that they can also work in cold water. The adaptability of surfactants can refer to foreign technology to actively improve the adaptability of surfactants.
Seven, the future development of surfactants
1, the overall amount of continuous growth
In China’s social progress, the rapid development of various industries, and at the same time, the people’s quality of life has been greatly improved, these good changes have a direct impact on people’s daily lives, in such a superior objective environment, surfactants and other related industries have been developed to varying degrees. In addition, in the industrial field, the actual application range of surfactants is also expanding.
5、MES market prospect is broad, attention of the business
With its own high-quality properties, low cost, good ecological performance and other unique advantages, MES has been favored by all walks of life in China, can be said to have unlimited prospects for development.
6、With the continuous rise of oil prices, human society’s attention to the ecological environment is also increasing.
Alcohol surfactants, MES, AOS and other product advantages have also begun to gain people’s recognition, these basic status quo to a certain extent on the future development of the LAS has brought unexpected impact, so that the LAS in the process of development is bound to encounter a variety of impact on the problem.
7, surfactants promote the progress and development of various industries
The large number of surfactants used to a certain extent will give us rely on the survival of the natural ecological environment to bring extremely poor impact, through the changes and development over the years, people’s awareness of environmental protection ideas and concepts of the level of cognitive, in order to be able to better protect our only living environment, in the research and development of surfactants began to ecological, environmentally friendly, high-performance direction of the evolution, and has long been the mainstream of the development trend. Green surfactant refers to a type of surfactant that is ecologically friendly, environmentally friendly and highly efficient. Green surfactant refers to a renewable natural raw material, which is produced through a cleaning reaction with a two-philic structure, and the irritation brought by this special property is very small. In a word, the future development trend of green surfactant industry: Firstly, the biodegradability of surfactant is significantly increased, and biodegradability can be said to be the mainstream trend of the future development of surfactant, in which the evaluation of the life cycle in the process of greening surfactant will be a very important criterion; Secondly, the full utilization of the natural renewable use. For example: natural fatty alcohols, sugars, starch and other raw materials to the production of surfactants, so that the toxicity of surfactants can be controlled to a minimum degree, and ecological and environmental protection development direction is completely consistent; Third, the greening of the reaction process. Third, the greening of the reaction process. The use of some green raw materials, catalysts, etc. to reduce the pollution formed in the production process of surfactants; Fourth, the functionality and effectiveness of surfactants. It is of great significance to develop new surfactants with high performance. However, the new green surfactants in the actual research and development process, pay attention to improve the overall strength of the surfactant, so as to drive the rapid development of the green surfactant business.
