| Basic information of surfactant industry in China 01 Surfactant is a kind of compound whose molecular structure is amphiphilic (hydrophilic and hydrophobic). Adding a small amount of surfactant can make the interface state of its solution system change obviously. The upper reaches of surfactants are mainly petroleum derivatives and natural oil derivatives. As the cost composition of surfactants is composed of raw materials, the price fluctuation of surfactants is closely related to the price fluctuation of raw materials. The development of China's surfactant industry is similar to that of China's fine chemical industry as a whole, both of which started late but developed fast. At present, a certain industrial scale has been established, especially the large variety of surfactant production capacity has been greatly improved, can meet the basic needs of the domestic, but the small variety, high technical content, high product quality and special function of the special surfactant new variety is still insufficient. On the whole, China's surfactant industry shows the following characteristics: A. Breakthroughs were made in major preparation technologies. For nearly 30 years, through continuous introduction, digestion, absorption and innovation, and independent development, surface active agent in our country main preparation technology of ethoxylation and sulfonated technology, amines and quaternary ammonium were achieved breakthroughs, such as its product quality, process control and material consumption most indexes such as close to or reached the international advanced level, formed a relatively complete system of industrial technology. B. Localization of the device. At present, the spray and spray ethoxylation equipment, membrane sulfonation equipment and loop amination equipment in the large variety of surfactant production equipment in China have been basically localized. C. The varieties are gradually enriched. At present, there are more than 6000 kinds of surfactants in the world, and the production in China has reached more than 3000 kinds. D. Independent innovation ability needs to be improved. After years of accumulation, China has had some experience in surfactant research and development, but the independent innovation ability of the whole industry is still not strong, especially in the field of special surfactant, a large number of key technologies are still dependent on the introduction, and there is still a big gap between the independent innovation ability and that of developed countries. 02 Industrial Chain Relevance (1) The correlation between the upstream industry and the industry The main raw materials of petroleum-based surfactants are petroleum and its derivatives, while the main raw materials of natural oil-based surfactants are natural oils and their derivatives. Because of the high proportion of raw materials in the cost composition of special surfactants, the price fluctuation of special surfactants is closely related to the price fluctuation of raw materials. (2) The correlation between the downstream industry and the industry The downstream applications of the surfactant industry are very extensive, covering various fields of the national economy, such as water treatment, glass fiber, coating, construction, paint, daily chemicals, ink, electronics, pesticide, textile, printing and dyeing, chemical fiber, leather, automobile industry, aerospace and aviation, etc. Major application fields of surfactant: Trend of industry profit level The surfactant industry has the characteristics of high cost of raw materials, fast updating of products, numerous varieties and strong personalized requirements from customers. At present, China's surfactant enterprises generally have small production scale, lack of core technology, weak ability to develop new products, single product structure, small capacity of a single variety, high unit cost, so they are not competitive in terms of product price and cost, low profit margin. And a few have strong product development ability and the scale of the enterprise reasonable product structure, to constantly develop new products, optimize product structure, expanding the scale of production, achieve synergies, effectively cope with changes in the cost of raw material price fluctuations, in order to gain higher relative industry average profit level. Level of industrialization technology With the rapid development of surfactant industry in recent years, our country has become the surfactant production and consumption power, through the untiring efforts of the part of the superior enterprises, surfactant industrialized technology has experienced by a combination of simple introduction - the introduction of absorption and independent research and development - the upgrade process is given priority to with independent research and development of the development, and in some parts of the production technology of new products has made breakthrough progress, reached the international advanced level. Large-scale production and applied technology research and development have higher requirements on the enterprise's financial strength, research and development level, market position and other comprehensive professional strength. Some new products are currently in the critical stage of industrialization technology upgrading, and it is necessary to actively invest capital and develop the market to achieve industrial upgrading. Industrial policy support Surfactant, as an important product of fine chemical industry, has been paid much attention by national authorities and supported by national industrial policy. The petrochemical and chemical industry development planning (2016-2020) ", will build a batch of influential industry alliance, in chemical new materials, fine chemicals and other key areas to build national and industry innovation platform, support to carry out the "double gen" Internet platform construction, speed up the application of the new products such as chemical new material technology development, develop new products market. On March 29, 2019, general office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released for general office of the national development bank, accelerate the industrial energy saving and green development of notice, the notice referred to promote coking, building materials, non-ferrous metal, chemical industry, printing and dyeing and other key industry enterprise to implement clean production, in sectors such as steel ultra low emissions, from the source to cut waste gas, waste water and solid waste. On August 30, 2019, the Guidelines for Investment in Technological Transformation and Upgrading of Industrial Enterprises (2019 edition) were released, aiming to guide industrial innovation and development in various regions, guide social investment, strengthen technological transformation of enterprises, and realize industrial optimization and upgrading. The guidelines put forward the development of water-based, high solid content, powder, radiation curing and other environmental coatings and functional coatings such as high and low temperature resistance, high pollution resistance and green transportation coatings, non-ionic surfactants and fluorosilicone special surfactants. On September 11, 2019, the Announcement of the Tariff Commission of the State Council on the First Exclusion List of the First Batch of Goods subject to Tariff duties on the United States and Canada was included in the exclusion list of non-ionic organic surfactants. On November 6, 2019, The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) issued order no. 29 of 2019 "Guiding Catalogue of Industrial Restructuring (2019 Edition)", which listed the development and production of multi-effect, energy-saving, water-saving, environmentally friendly surfactants, auxlivities and detergents as encouraged projects, and article 19 of the Light industry category. 06 Development Direction As the surfactant with industrial monosodium glutamate (MSG) is widely used in various fields of national economic development and the country pays more and more attention to environmental protection, the research and development of mild, safe, efficient functional and environmentally friendly new surfactant has become a hot spot in recent years. The future development direction of surfactants in the market is mainly as follows: (1) Green mild surfactant With the improvement of living standards and the progress of human civilization, people pay more and more attention to the protection of environment and own health, people tend to use don't pollute the environment, and a gentle, safe to human body is an ideal natural green products, it's the biodegradability of surfactants, stimulating and ecological toxicity put forward higher requirements. Green surfactants and their derivatives, which are made from natural renewable resources such as oil, starch, rosin and amino acids, represent the development direction of the new generation of green surfactants. (2) Polymeric surfactant Macromolecule surfactant is a macromolecule compound with surface active function, which is widely used as gelling agent, resistance reducing agent, viscosity increasing agent, flocculant, dispersant, emulsifier, demulsifier, solvent increasing agent, levelling agent, reinforcing agent, humectant, antistatic agent and paper reinforcing agent. The development of low - cost, non - toxic, non - polluting and multi - agent polymer surfactants will be the research trend of polymer surfactants. (3) Elemental surfactants Due to the introduction of elements such as fluorine, silicon, phosphorus and boron, it is given more unique and excellent properties of surfactants, with less addition and ultra-low surface tension. It is a kind of special surfactants. With the development of national economy, the demand for high-performance surfactant increases, and its development potential is huge. Major barriers to entry in this industry (1) High requirements for comprehensive specialization of production, sales and technology Due to surfactant application field widely, the product category is more, all kinds of products in the production process control, sales channel management and technical services and so on all have high professional requirements, need to be equipped with corresponding professional production enterprises, and has strong professional research and development, production, sales and management capabilities, superior enterprises through many years accumulation of specialized production, sales and technical service comprehensive professional ability in the short term is difficult to be copied by new entrants to enterprise. (2) Long r&d cycle and high industrialization threshold There are many kinds of surfactant products, most of the ordinary products have low technical content, low quality requirements, the corresponding product production equipment and processing technology is relatively simple, low barriers to entry. But for some technical content is higher, reaction control process is complex and strict quality requirements of the new high-end products, from basic laboratory research to final mass industrial production and sales, need after a long r&d cycle and market development, financial strength and technological level of production enterprises put forward high request, relatively high threshold determines the industrialization of new enterprise is difficult to make a breakthrough in a short time. |
