In 2025, the market capacity of Cellulose ether in China is expected to reach 652,800 tons.
Cellulose ether is a kind of natural cellulose (refined cotton and wood pulp, etc.) as raw materials, after a series of etherification reaction generated a variety of derivatives, is the cellulose macromolecule hydroxyl hydrogen by ether group partially or completely replaced after the formation of products. Cellulose is thermoplastic and soluble in water, dilute alkali solution and organic solvent after etherification. Cellulose ether has long been widely used in construction, cement, medicine, agriculture, coatings, ceramic products, oil drilling and personal care and other fields, the scope of application and consumption of cellulose ether and the level of economic development.
In 2018, the market capacity of Cellulose ether in China was 51,200 tons, and is expected to reach 652,800 tons in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 3.4% from 2019 to 2025. In 2018, the market value of Cellulose ether in China is 11.623 billion yuan, and is expected to reach 14.577 billion yuan in 2025, with a compound growth rate of 4.2% from 2019 to 2025. In general, cellulose ether market demand is stable, and continue to develop and apply in new fields, the future will show uniform growth form.
China is the world’s largest cellulose ether production and consumer, but the concentration of domestic production is not high, the strength of enterprises differ greatly, product application differentiation is obvious, high-end product enterprises are expected to stand out.
Cellulose ether can be divided into ionic, non-ionic and mixed three types, among which, ionic cellulose ether accounted for the largest part of total production, in 2018, ionic cellulose ether accounted for 58.17% of total production, followed by non-ionic 35.8%, the mixed type is the least, 5.43%. In terms of the end use of products, it can be divided into building materials industry, pharmaceutical industry, food industry, daily chemical industry, oil exploitation and others. Building materials industry accounts for the largest proportion, accounting for 33.16% of the total output in 2018, followed by oil exploitation and food industry, ranking second and third respectively. Accounting for 18.32% and 17.92%. The pharmaceutical industry accounted for 3.14% in 2018, which has seen rapid growth in recent years and will show a trend of rapid growth in the future.
For China’s strong, large-scale manufacturers, in quality control and cost control has a certain advantage, product quality stability is good, cost-effective, in the domestic and foreign markets have a certain competitiveness. The products of these enterprises are mainly concentrated in the high-end building materials grade cellulose ether, pharmaceutical grade, food grade cellulose ether, or the market demand is large ordinary building materials grade cellulose ether. And those comprehensive strength is weak, small manufacturers, generally adopt low standards, low quality, low cost competition strategy, take the means of price competition, seize the market, the product is mainly positioned at the low-end market customers. While leading companies pay more attention to technology and product innovation, and are expected to rely on their product advantages to enter the domestic and foreign high-end product market, improve the market share and profitability. Demand for cellulose ether is expected to continue to increase for the remainder of the 2019-2025 forecast period. Cellulose ether industry will usher in a stable growth space.