Present Status of the PMMA Industry
                     By Yin Zhiyuan  Lei Shengcai
PMMA(polymethyl methacrylate) is also called plexiglass.  It  is  extensively
used in sectors of aviation,  automobile,   ship,   lighting,   electronics,
optical instruments, medical apparatuses, building  materials  and  cultural
supplies.
China started the PMMA production and  application  rather  late.   The  PMMA
production in China started in the 50's, developed in the  60's,   got  wide
-spread in the 70's, became large  scale  in  the  80's  and  developed  deep
processing and expanded application fields in the 90's.
1. Production status
There are several dozens of MMA and  PMMA  producers  in  China,   but  their
capacity is small. There are only two large MMA  production  lines  and  two
PMMA production units. Anda Longxin  Chemical  Industrial  Co. ,   Ltd.   of
Heilongjiang imported a 20 000 t/a MMA production line from  Italy  in  1987
and a PMMA production line with a capacity of 12 000 t/a  molding  compounds
and 2 000 t/a extruded sheets from the  United  States.   Fushun  Plexiglass
Plant of Liaoning has a capacity of 13 000 t/a  MMA,   12  000  t/a  molding
compounds and 1 000 t/a cast sheets. The domestic MMA  production  route  is
still based on the ACH process.
The MMA capacity in China was around 78 000 t/a in 1996, including around  23
000 t/a scrap-containing cracked monomer. The actual MMA output  was  around
39 000 tons. Table 1 shows the major MMA producers in China in 1996.   There
is still a considerable gap compared with the advanced world level and  even
with advanced regions in  Southeast  Asia  and  Taiwan  Province.   The  MMA
capacity in Taiwan has reached 100 000 t/a, and the  actual  consumption  is
around 60 000 t/a, 70% of the consumption being in the production of  sheets
and molding compounds.
The capacity of PMMA resin in China was around 92 200 t/a in 1996,  including
31 100 t/a cast sheets, 23 100 t/a extruded  sheets,   32  000  t/a  molding
compounds (24 000  t/a  for  solution  polymerization  and  8  000  t/a  for
suspension polymerization) and 6 000 t/a ACR. Table 2 shows the  major  PMMA
producers in China in 1996. The main PMMA production and application  region
is East China, especially Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.  The  capacity  of
PMMA cast sheets in East China was around 12 000 t/a, accounting for 40%  of
the national total and the output accounted for around 50%. The capacity  of
molding compounds in East China accounted for 25% of the national total  and
the output accounted for around 30%. According to incomplete statistics, the
PMMA capacity in East China was around  50%  of  the  national  total.   The
processing amount of molding compounds in East China,  in  particular,   was
around 20 000 tons in 1996, accounting for more than  60%  of  the  national
total (32 000 tons). The processing amount was around 5 000  tons  in  South
Zhejiang centering around Wenzhou, around 3 000 tons in Jiangsu Yangzhou and
around 2 000 tons in Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou of  Jiangsu,   Shanghai  and
Ningbo of Zhejiang. The processing amount of molding compounds  in  Zhejiang
accounted for 25% of the national total. The processing  amount  of  molding
compounds in Ningbo accounted for 8% of the national total and one-third  of
the total in Zhejiang (being around 2 560 tons).
2. Demand status and development trend
(1) demand status
The development of the national economy has led to an  increasing  demand  of
MMA and its product series. The demand of MMA was around 100 000 tons in 1995,
but due
to constraints such as high price, the actual consumption was around  53  000
tons, only accounting for 50% of the demand. The demand of
PMMA was more than 50 000 tons, but the actual consumption was only around 40
000 tons. Besides the domestic resources, China imported 11 000 tons of  MMA
and 19 000 tons of PMMA (mainly molding compounds) in 1996.  PMMA  resin  is
always in short supply in East China.  More  than  50%  of  the  PMMA  resin
imported in 1996 was used in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. Table  3  shows
the application fields of MMA in China.
(2) development trend
The market volume of PMMA in China was around 7 000 - 9 000 tons in the 70's,
12 000 - 14 000 tons in the 80's and 50 000 - 100 000 tons in the 90's.  The
PMMA market in China has great potentials for development.  The  per- capita
annual consumption is only 0.025 kg, much lower than the average world level
. If the per-capital annual consumption is at the level of 0.1 kg  in  Taiwan
in the late 80's, the total domestic consumption would reach 1 200 000 tons.
It is expected that more than 20 000 tons of PMMA  resin  will  need  to  be
imported each year from 1998 to 2000 in East China  alone,   the  amount  in
Zhejiang accounting for around 50%. With the economic  development  and  the
production, dissemination and application of PMMA products,  the  demand  of
PMMA resin will increase rapidly and the short supply in  PMMA  market  will
not be changed in near future.
            Table 1   Major MMA Producers in China in 1996      (t)
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                 Producer              Location   Capacity  Time of starting