Demand for Cyclohexylamine Increases Rapidly

By Meng Hui

Cyclohexylamine is mainly used to synthesize sodium cyclamate
and rubber accelerator CBS (N-cyclohexy-2-benzothiazole
sulfenamide). The capacity of cyclohexylamine in China was 36
thousand t/a and the output was around 29 thousand tons in 2006.
There are nearly 10 major producers including Sinopec Nanjing
Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., Jintian Enterprises (Nanjing) Co.,
Ltd., Hebei Jizhong Chemical Co., Ltd. and Shandong Hengda
Chemical (Group) Co., Ltd. The sustained demand increase and the
constant application development of sodium cyclamate and CBS in
recent years have led to a rapid demand growth of
cyclohexylamine.

Sodium cyclamate

China is a major sodium cyclmate producer and supplier in the
world. The food sweetener sector in China itself is also
gradually reducing the consumption of saccharin sodium. Due to
complicated synthesis technology, high production cost and
inadequate consumers' understanding, new sweetener aspartame
has not yet gained extensive application. The major synthetic
sweetener with popular use in China is still sodium cyclamate.
Both the demand and the exported amount of sodium cyclamate in
China have increased rapidly in recent years.
   The consumption of cyclohexylamine in sodium cyclamate was
around 10 thousand tons in 2006. It is expected that the demand
for cyclohexylamine in sodium cyclamate will maintain an average
annual growth of 8%-10% in the next few years and reach around
14 thousand -15 thousand tons in 2010.

CBS

As CBS does not decompose to generate carcinogenic nitrosamine
in the vulcanization of rubber and the application of rubber
products, it has become one of the major rubber accelerators in
China. The rapid development of the tire and rubber industry in
recent years has led to a drastic demand growth of CBS. The
production of rubber accelerators has developed rapidly in
recent years. The output of CBS was around 38 thousand tons in
2006, consuming around 18 thousand tons of cyclohexylamine. It
is expected that the output of CBS will have a rapid growth in
the next few years. The demand for cyclohexylamine in CBS will
increase at an average annual rate of around 15% and reach around
30 thousand tons in 2010.

Others

As the cyclohexylamine market is slack, experts call on the
development of other downstream products such as
boiler/chemical equipment water treatment agents, metal
cleaning agents and pharmaceutical/pesticide intermediates.
Some of these products have already formed a considerable market
scale and their demand for cyclohexylamine is increasing. The
consumption for cyclohexylamine in these sectors was around 2
thousand tons in 2006. It is expected that the demand for
cyclohexylamine in these sectors will reach around 3 thousand
tons in 2010.
   The market demand for cyclohexylamine in China will therefore
reach 47 thousand -48 thousand tons in 2010 and the existing
capacity can not satisfy the market demand at that time.