Artificial Partition and PoorCommunication
        in Organic Pigment and Masterbatch Sectors
               By Wu Xiumin, Fan Rongxiang
As is disclosed in  the  meeting  of  organic  pigment  and
masterbatch sectors being held in Beijing, although  there
is upstream and downstream  relationship  organic  pigment
producers and masterbatch producers  in  China  belong  to
different sectors and make their own production, marketing
and new product development. Some  product  standards  and
testing methods  can  not  meet  the  need  in  production
development. One side does not know the actual  production
and demand of the other side. For  example,   products  in
  urgent  need  in  masterbatch  producers  may   have   no
production in organic pigment  producers;   Products  with
sufficient production capacity and good quality in organic
pigment producers may not be known by masterbatch producers.
Varieties which can substitute imports are still imported.
China has more than 200 organic  pigment  producers  mainly
distributed in  Guangdong,   Shanghai  and  Jiangsu.   The
production capacity is around 50 000 t/a.  In  1997,   the
output of organic pigments was 36 000  tons,   the  export
amount was 8 000 - 9 000 tons and the  import  amount  was
more than 3 000 tons. The  export  amount  of  high- grade
products only accounted for around one-third of the total.
China started masterbatch production in the  70's  and  has
made a rapid development since the 90's.  There  are  more
than 200 producers with a total production capacity of 100
000 t/a, but the operating rate is only around  50%.   The
output of masterbatch was more than 50 000 tons  in  1997.
The demand is expected to reach around 100 000 tons in 2000,
and the market potential is great.