World Fine Chemical Industry Overall Development Status and Trend Analysis
Fine chemistry is one of the most dynamic and emerging fields in the chemical industry. It is an important part of new materials. Fine chemical products are diversified, high value-added, widely used, and industrial relevance, directly serving many industries of the national economy and various fields of high-tech industries. The vigorous development of fine chemicals has become a strategic focus of the world to adjust the structure of the chemical industry, enhance the level of the chemical industry and expand economic benefits. The rate of the fine chemical industry (the ratio of fine chemical output value to total chemical output value) has become an important symbol to measure the degree of development of the chemical industry and the level of chemical science and technology in a country or region.
First, the world fine chemical industry’s overall development trend overview.
In the past 20 years, the world’s chemical development process, the world’s industrialized countries, and their famous multinational chemical companies, all attach great importance to the development of fine chemicals. They take the fine chemical industry as an effective measure to adjust the structure of the chemical industry, improve the added value of products and enhance international competitiveness. The world’s fine chemical industry has shown a rapid development trend, and the concentration of the industry has further increased. Entering the 21st century, the world’s fine chemical industry development is a distinctive feature: industrial clustering, process cleanliness, energy saving, product diversification, specialization, and high performance.
Since the 1990s, based on the world’s highly developed petrochemical industry to the development of deep processing and the vigorous rise of high-tech, the world’s fine chemical industry has been unprecedentedly rapid development. Its growth rate is significantly higher than the development of the entire chemical industry. In recent years, the total annual sales of chemical products in the world is about 1.5 trillion dollars. Among them, fine chemicals and specialty chemicals are about 380 billion U.S. dollars. The average annual growth rate of 5 to 6%. Higher than the chemical industry by 2 to 3 percentage points. It is expected that by 2030, the global fine chemicals market will still grow at an average annual rate of 6%. In 2024, the world fine chemicals market size will reach $650 billion.
At present, there are more than 100,000 kinds of fine chemicals in the world. The refinement rate is an important symbol to measure the technical level of the chemical industry in a country and region. The United States, Western Europe, Japan, and other developed countries of the chemical industry, whose fine chemicals are also the most developed, represent the development level of fine chemicals in the world today. The refinement rate of these countries has reached 60-70%. In recent years, the United States’ annual sales of fine chemicals is about 125 billion U.S. dollars, ranking first in the world. Europe is about 100 billion U.S. dollars. Japan is about 60 billion U.S. dollars, ranking third. The three together account for more than 75% of the world’s total sales.
Strengthening technological innovation, adjusting and optimizing the structure of fine chemical products, and focusing on the development of high-performance, specialized, green products, has become important feature of the current development of the world’s fine chemicals. This is also the key direction of the future development of the world’s fine chemical industry.
Japan, for example, has a developed fine chemical industry, and technological innovation plays a vital role in the development of fine chemicals. In the past 10 years, Japan’s synthetic dyes and traditional fine chemicals market has shrunk by half. In their place, a large number of functional, green, and other high-end fine chemicals are developed. As a result, the industrial capacity and economic efficiency of fine chemicals have been greatly enhanced.
For example, we are focusing on the development of functional fine chemicals for electronic applications such as semiconductors and flat panel displays. This has enabled Japan to establish a dominant position in the field of high-end products such as information recording and display materials. In terms of catalysts, with increasingly stringent environmental regulations, Japan is actively developing new environmentally friendly catalysts to meet the needs of environmentally friendly fuels such as sulfur-free gasoline. At present, high-performance catalysts such as ultra-deep desulfurization catalysts have taken up a considerable share of the Japanese catalyst industry. The desulfurization capacity has increased from less than 50μg/g to less than 10μg/g. This has also contributed to the overall development of the catalyst industry.
In 2004, the production of refinery catalysts for hydrogenation processes such as deep desulfurization in Japan increased by nearly 60% over the same period of the previous year, and sales increased by 43%. At the same time, sales of catalysts for petrochemicals and automotive exhaust gas purification also grew at double-digit rates and accounted for 50% of the catalyst market. Japanese catalyst production and sales grew by 7% and 5% respectively last year, breaking a nearly six-year record.
Many well-known companies have restructured their operations through mergers, acquisitions, or restructuring. Exiting uncompetitive industries. Leverage their expertise and strengths and increase investment in competitive industries. Focus on developing fine chemicals with advantages in order to consolidate and expand market share. Improve economic efficiency and international competitivenes
For example, in July 2005, the world’s leading rubber chemicals manufacturer, Crompton Corporation (Crompton), spent $2 billion to acquire Great Lakes Chemical Company and set up a company called Chemturags. The company became the third-largest U.S. fine chemical company after Lumhas and Anger and the world’s largest producer of plastic additives. The new company’s products include plastic additives, petrochemical additives, flame retardants, organometallics, polyurethanes, pool and spa maintenance products, and agricultural chemicals. These products have a leading position in the market for high-value products. Its annual sales of fine chemicals could reach $3.7 billion.
As another example, Degussa and Celanese USA each contribute 50% to the merger of carbonyl synthesis products. To establish a production site for propylene-carbonyl synthesis products in Europe. After the merger, the annual production of carbonyl synthesis alcohols will reach 800,000 tons – a third of the European market share. At the same time, Degussa sells its food additives business to Cargill for $670 million. This makes Cargill a leader in the food additives industry. It is able to supply a wide range of specialty additives to food and beverage companies worldwide. Royal DSM, headquartered in Heerlen, the Netherlands, acquired Roche’s global vitamins, carotenoids, and fine chemicals business in February 2003 for €1.95 billion, making it the world’s vitamin king. Became the world’s vitamin king. 2004 global sales of 8 billion euros (about 10 billion U.S. dollars).
Second, China’s fine chemical development status and trends.
In the past decade or so, China has attached great importance to the development of fine chemicals. China takes fine chemicals as one of the strategic priorities for the development of the chemical industry and an important part of new materials. It is included in many national plans. It is supported by policies and funds. At present, the fine chemical industry has become an important independent branch of China’s chemical industry and a new growth point of economic benefits.
China has listed fine chemicals as one of the six priority areas for development during the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period. It also lists functional coatings and water-based coatings, new dyestuff varieties and their industrialization technology, important chemical intermediates green synthesis technology and new varieties, electronic chemicals, high-performance water treatment chemicals, paper chemicals, oilfield chemicals, functional food additives, high-performance environmentally friendly flame retardants, surfactants, high-performance rubber and plastic additives, etc. as the focus of fine chemical technology development and industrialization. It is foreseeable that with the vigorous development of China’s petrochemical industry and the development of the chemical industry from rough to refined direction, as well as the extensive application of high-tech. China’s independent innovation ability and industrial technology capability of fine chemicals will be significantly improved. It will become the world’s leading producer and consumer of fine chemicals.
The rapid development of China’s fine chemical industry, not only basically meets the needs of the national economic development, and some of the fine chemical products, but also has a certain degree of international competitiveness, becoming the world’s important processing and export of fine chemical raw materials and intermediates, fine chemical products have been widely used in various areas of the national economy and people’s daily life. Statistics show that China’s fine chemical categories have reached 25, more than 30,000 varieties, has built 10 fine chemical technology development centers, the fine chemical production capacity of nearly 13.5 million tons/year, a total annual output of nearly 9.7 million tons, the annual output value of more than 100 billion yuan. 2004, China’s fine chemical rate has risen to 45%.
Conclusion.
In recent years, China’s dyestuff production has jumped to first place in the world. At present, it has been able to produce more than 1200 varieties of dyestuffs. Among them, about 700 varieties are produced year-round. China is not only the world’s number one dyestuff producer but also the world’s number one dyestuff exporter. The export volume of dyestuff is the first in the world. It accounts for about 25% of the world’s dyestuff trade and has become the center of world dyestuff production and trade. It holds a prominent position in the world dyestuff market. Pesticide production ranks second in the world. The annual export volume of citric acid has approached 400,000 tons, accounting for about one-third of the total global consumption. The export volume of vitamin C has exceeded 50,000 tons, accounting for more than 50% of the total global consumption.
Since entering the 21st century, with the rapid development of the trend of economic globalization, as well as the continuous steady and rapid development of the Chinese national economy. The strong market demand for fine chemicals and specialty chemicals has attracted many world-famous multinational companies to invest in China. The investment fields involve fine chemical raw materials and intermediates, catalysts, oil additives, plastic and rubber additives, textile/leather chemicals, electronic chemicals, coatings and adhesives, foam and refrigerant substitutes, food and feed additives and pharmaceuticals, etc., thus strongly promoting the development of China’s fine chemical industry.