Rapid Market Growth of Polyurethane Elastomer Industry in China

As an industry once monopolized by foreign enterprises, China's polyurethane elastomer industry has developed rapidly in recent years, and now it has become the largest market growth area of polyurethane elastomer in the world.

China's market is developing rapidly

Liu Jing, senior engineer of Elastomer Committee of China Polyurethane Industry Association, said that thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU) is a block copolymer formed by addition polymerization of macromolecule glycol (polyester or polyether), diisocyanate (MDI, HDI, PPDI, H12MDI) and small molecule chain extender (diol or diamine). TPU has many advantages, such as excellent wear resistance, high tensile strength, high elongation, oil resistance, low temperature resistance, weatherability, ozone resistance, good biocompatibility and wide hardness range. In recent years, TPU has been used in many fields of national economy, such as shoemaking industry, medical and health care, clothing fabrics and national defense products. It has been widely used.

According to reports, the global TPU market is mainly concentrated in Europe, the United States and the Asia-Pacific region. China is the world's leading and fastest growing regional market in Asia. According to the statistics of China Polyurethane Co-elastomer Committee, in 2018, the total consumption of polyurethane products in China reached 11.3 million tons, of which the consumption of polyurethane elastomers was about 1.1 million tons, accounting for about 10% of the total consumption of polyurethane, mainly including CPU, TPU, waterproof and paving materials.

Lu Guigui, secretary-general of China Polyurethane Industry Association, said that China is currently the largest producer and consumer of polyurethane in the world. Since the 13th Five-Year Plan, the growth rate of polyurethane industry in China has changed from high-speed to low-speed. The market of polyurethane elastomer has entered a period of innovation, development and promotion, and is facing high performance, high quality, environmental protection and promotion. Sustainable development.

TPU has a strong growth rate

Liu Jing said that the rapid growth of TPU is mainly due to the development of shoemaking industry and the increasing demand for TPU film, and the market application of TPU is expanding from the traditional footwear industry to pharmaceutical, aviation, environmental protection and other industries with excellent future prospects. With the development of the market, it is an inevitable trend that the application of plastics in many industries will be replaced by TPU.

Lv also said that TPU is still one of the fastest growing products in polyurethane in the near future. The demand of footwear, film, pipe and wire industries will be more vigorous. Traditional PVC materials will be further replaced in the fields of medical equipment, cable and film. EVA will be most likely replaced in the field of footwear. It is expected that TPU will maintain a growth trend of 10% or more in the future.

It is reported that compared with casting polyurethane (CPU), the final product made of TPU generally does not need vulcanization cross-linking, which can shorten the production cycle and recycle waste materials. TPU can be widely used as additives and fillers to improve some physical properties, processing properties or reduce costs. At the same time, TPU is suitable for the production of small but considerable quantities of products. TPU is the fastest growing area of polyurethane elastomer materials in recent years. Its consumption increased to 380,000 tons in 2017 and 450,000 tons in 2018. The proportion of TPU in polyurethane elastomer is increasing year by year, and it has reached about 40%. It is expected that in 2019, its production capacity will reach 954,000 tons, its output will reach 590,000 tons and its consumption will reach 500,000 tons.

The Emergence of Innovative Achievements

With the development of polyurethane applications and the increasing demand for high performance and more sustainable polyurethane elastomers, many polyurethane enterprises in China are speeding up the construction of new polyurethane factories, R&D centers and innovation centers, and accelerating the R&D and innovation of polyurethane elastomers.
Zhao Tingwu, deputy director of Shanxi Institute of Chemical Industry, said that with the gradual expansion of production scale, product cost reduction, variety diversification and market demand improvement, the polyurethane elastomer industry is developing rapidly. In the international market share of enterprises such as Kejua, Hengsmai, Kesichuang and Bolei is relatively high. A number of R&D, production and supporting enterprises such as Shanxi Chemical Research Institute, Suzhou Xiangyuan, Yinover, Dawn Court, Wanhua Chemistry, Zibo Huatian, Shanghai Hecheng, Jintang Science and Technology, Wenzhou Feilong have been formed in China.
As the earliest unit in China to develop polyurethane elastomer materials, Shanxi Institute of Chemical Industry has developed polyurethane damping materials for Ballastless rail transit, polyurethane bearings for bridges, polyurethane cushion pads for sleepers and other transportation polyurethane elastomer products, as well as polyurethane sieve boards, wear-resistant boards, cyclones, coupling joints and other minerals. Polyurethane elastomer for mountain machinery.