Market Prospects of Sodium Metasilicate
                         By Shen Lingzhuang
Present status
Sodium metasilicate in China is mainly used as detergent.  It  has  made  a
rapid development in the  recent  years  and  has  formed  a  considerable
commercial production scale. Table 1 shows the major  sodium  metasilicate
producers in China.
Major applications
Due to the low  level  of  people  living  standards,   China  started  the
development of sodium metasilicate rather later.  More  than  85%  of  the
product is used in washing powder in China ( the  consumption  being  very
small in Europe).  Besides,   it  is  a  cleaning  agent  for  metals  and
industrial and public facilities. Its  application  in  paper- making  and
textile sectors is just starting. The consumption  in  building  materials
will increase fast and occupy a considerable proportion.
Import and export
China imports around 1 000 tons of sodium metasilicate a year.  The  import
amount was 1 209 tons and the export amount was 1 780 tons in 1997.
Table 1   Major Sodium Metasilicate Producers in China
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                Producer                        Capacity (t/a)
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Beijing Hongxing Sodium Silicate Plant                1 000
Jinzhou No. 3 Chemical Plant                            300
Shanghai Sodium Silicate Plant                         2 000
Shanghai Xinghuo Chemical Plant                          840
Nanjing Inorganic Chemical Plant                       2 000
Xi'an Xinfeng Chemical Plant                             330
Tianjin Soda Plant                                     1 000
Jiaozuo Chemical General Plant                         2 000
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Market and projectionin 2000
The synthetic detergent industry in China has developed very fast.  It  was
started in 1960. The output was 1.0049 million tons in 1985,   rose  to  1
.5142 million tons in 1990 and 2.10 million tons in 1995 ( including  1. 70
million tons of powder detergents) and will reach 3.50 million tons in 2000.
The average per-capita consumption will be  4  kg/a.   The  proportion  of
highly-concentrated powder detergents will increase from 6%  to  over  20%
(being over  85%  in  advanced  foreign  countries) .   The  proportion  of
industrial cleaning agents will reach  over  10%  and  the  proportion  of
liquid detergents will reach over 10%.
  The addition amount of sodium metasilicate is 7% in  highly- concentrated
powder detergents, 15% in industrial cleaning agents  and  25%  in  liquid
detergents. The market demand will be around 35 000 tons in the near  term
and over 100 000 tons in 2000.
  The  standards  of  detergents  with  a  low  phosphorus  content  or  no
phosphorus content approved by China started implementation in 1996.   The
addition amount of sodium metasilicate in phosphorus-free detergents is 21%.
If phosphorus-free detergents account for 10% of the total  detergents  in
2000, the demand of sodium metasilicate in this  field  alone  will  reach
around 50 000  tons.   Sodium  metasilicate  will  therefore  have  bright
prospects in the domestic market.