Plastic additives, also known as plastic additives, are some compounds that must be added when the polymer (synthetic resin) is formed to improve its processing performance or to improve the insufficient performance of the resin itself. For example, in order to reduce the molding temperature of polyvinyl chloride resin, the plasticizer added to make the product soft; For example, in order to prepare light weight, vibration resistance, heat insulation, sound insulation foam and add blowing agent; The thermal decomposition temperature of some plastics is very close to the molding processing temperature, and it can not be formed without adding heat stabilizer.

Therefore, plastic auxiliaries occupy a particularly important position in plastic molding processing. There are many kinds of classification methods of plastic auxiliaries, and the more popular method is to classify according to the function and role of auxiliaries. In the same category of function, it is often further subdivided according to the mechanism of action or the type of chemical structure.

(A) Market overview

At present, plastics are mainly divided into two categories according to the use of general plastics and engineering plastics. General plastics generally refer to large output, wide use, good formability, low price of plastics, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), acrylonitrile-butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic is the five most commonly used general plastics, of which PVC is the main.

Plastic additives are associated with the plastics industry, and its development degree is closely related to the development of the plastics industry. PVC products with low cost, easy to install and use, not easy to corrosion aging, good thermal insulation performance and other application advantages, widely used in chemical building materials, agricultural PVC plastic products, industrial PVC plastic products, packaging materials and other production fields.

From China's current PVC products consumption structure, PVC hard products and soft products accounted for 59.2% and 40.8%, of which, industrial civil construction engineering is the main demand for hard PVC, pipe accounted for about 13.3% of the share, profiles, doors and Windows accounted for 22.9% of the market share; Soft products, the largest amount is the film.

The plastic processing industry with the continuous prosperity of China's economy to maintain rapid growth, the development potential is great. In the state to promote energy conservation and emission reduction and circular economy development policy, economic and technological innovation, socialist new rural construction speed up the development, the process of urbanization continues to promote people's living standards greatly improve, promote China's consumption rise and other positive factors, the great development of plastics industry has been further promoted.

In recent years, with the development of China and the global economy, the scale of the PVC products industry continues to expand, product output increases year by year, the main economic and technical indicators have increased significantly, the orderly development of the whole industry continues to grow, is moving along the path of sustainable development of the plastics industry from a big country to a strong country.

At present, plastic auxiliaries are a complex category, many functions, throughout the resin synthesis, plastic products processing and final application of all links, plastic auxiliaries industry has become an important branch of the fine chemical industry.

(2) Global plastic additives industry

At present, enterprises engaged in the production of plastic additives in the world are distributed in Asia, Europe, the United States and other continents, international large manufacturers due to strong financial strength, broad technology, engaged in related industries for a long time, so they are more engaged in the production of a variety of plastic additives, the industrial chain is longer, and the production ratio of high-end plastic additives is significant.

Due to the low labor cost in Asia (except Japan) and the huge market size, the world's plastic additives industry has gradually transferred to Asia, and Asia, especially China, has gathered most of the manufacturers. Therefore, in recent years, the rapid growth of plastic additives, China has played an important role, becoming the world's largest and fastest growing market, has been far ahead of other countries.

In recent years, with the wide application of plastics, the global plastic additives industry has achieved rapid growth. In the past few years, the world demand for plastic auxiliaries has continued to grow at an average annual rate of about 3-4%, the average annual growth rate of Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region (excluding China) demand is 3%, the average annual growth rate of China's plastic auxiliaries is as high as 8%-10%, and the average annual growth rate of demand in other regions is 5%-6%. It is predicted that in the next period of time, the plastic additives market will still grow at a rate of 3%-4%.

(3) China's plastic additives industry

China's plastic additives industry started late, in the 1970s only relevant research institutes and manufacturers engaged in the research and development of plastic additives, production, and with the rapid development of PVC industrialization. Today, after 30 years of construction and development, China's plastic additives industry has developed into a complete category, many manufacturers of a major industry.

Since 2005, the average annual growth rate of China's plastic additives industry has remained at the level of 8%-10%, far higher than the average annual growth rate of 4% of the world's plastic additives. The plastic auxiliaries industry has also received the attention of various departments of the state, and has gradually become an important member of the field of new materials with the most development potential in recent years.

Plastic additives in China has formed more than 30 billion yuan of industry, in addition to most of the needs of China's plastics industry, China's plastic additives exports also reached about 5 billion yuan. At the same time, through years of development, China has made great progress in the technical level of plastic auxiliaries, product structure and the quality of scientific and technological personnel.

However, although there are more than 1,000 manufacturers of plastic additives in China, most of them are small workshop enterprises except plasticizers; The research and development of plastic additives also exists imitation of foreign mature products, and the proportion of development and research of new and high-performance additives is relatively low. However, with the upgrading of the industrial structure of China's chemical industry, as well as the improvement of Chinese enterprises' awareness of research and development and innovation, the independently developed new and high-performance plastic additives will gradually increase.

(4) Industry competition pattern

After years of development, China's PVC heat stabilizer industry has formed a certain scale, the current production enterprises are numerous, the degree of marketization is higher, and at the same time, according to the different products have formed different marketization characteristics and competition pattern: more than 300 production plants of a certain scale. The production of lead series, stearic acid soap, metal soap composite stabilizer (including solid and liquid), organotin, organoantimony, rare earth and organic auxiliary stabilizer (such as β -diketone, phosphite, etc.) various categories of dozens of products. Among them, lead accounted for about 43%, metal soap accounted for 20%, organotin accounted for 5%, compound accounted for 17%, rare earth accounted for 8%, and other accounted for 6%.

Lead salt heat stabilizer and other low-end products have mature technology and low threshold, at present, there are many manufacturers in China, fierce competition, the highest degree of marketization. With the increasing awareness of environmental protection in the world, the regulations on environmental protection are becoming more and more strict. Under this situation, toxic lead, cadmium and even barium are replaced by non-toxic products, which also strongly promotes the development of non-toxic products.

Calcium/zinc composite stabilizer is an important variety of non-toxic PVC heat stabilizer, and it is also one of the most active areas of research and development of composite stabilizer in recent years. Its research direction is through the combination of various auxiliary stabilizers, constantly improve its thermal stability, give it more functionality, so that it can replace or partially replace lead and cadmium developed in recent years some commodities, can also be used in wire and cable and other fields, heat resistance has been greatly improved.

The world famous manufacturers have a series of products launched, such as the United States Kejuya company is mainly OBS an organic stabilizer, in China sales MarK OBS.100 series, mainly used in PVC pipes, pipe fittings, powder products, MarK CZ series liquid, powder calcium/zinc products can be used for PVC calendering, extrusion, granulation and other processes and other composite stabilizers; German bear brand company mainly has MC series, can be used for PVC wire, cable material processing.

BS series for dipping, rotomolding, calendering process and products, SMS series can be used for pipes, pipe fittings products; Japan Adico (ASahi Chemical) company RX series powder calcium/magnesium/zinc products for PVC profile, RuPl00 series for PVC cable material.

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