Dicamba Has Bright Market Prospects      

By Zhang Weinong   

Dicamba has several brand names, such as Banvel and Mediben. It was developed by the former Novartis in 1965 and was introduced into China in the 1990s. China has only a few companies producing dicamba active ingredient and formulations. Most of their output is exported.
   Dicamba belongs to the benzoic acid family of herbicides. Within this family, 2,4-D and dicamba still occupy a certain position in the global pesticide market today and are widely used around the world. In recent years, the global annual sales value of dicamba is around US$200 million.
   Compared to other herbicides, dicamba has a low dosage, only 142.5 grams per hectare. At its current market price, the cost of using dicamba is about RMB78 per hectare, more than 50% less than that of other herbicides with the same performance, and its environmental impact is relatively small. At present, due to the emergence of herbicide-resistant weeds, the efficiency of conventional herbicides is declining, and novel herbicides like dicamba are playing a minor but increasingly significant role in weed control.
   In 1998, Zhejiang Shenghua Biok Biology Co Ltd (Shenghua Biok) took the lead in China to research the manufacture of dicamba. With a series of processes and new starting materials, it successfully developed dicamba in September 2000. After improving its production line, it began to commercially produce dicamba in March 2001 (300 t/a). So far, China has 10 dicamba active ingredient producers, including Shenghua Biok, Jiangsu Yangnong Chemical Co Ltd (Yangnong Chemical), Jiangsu Shenghua Pesticide Co Ltd (Shenghua Pesticide) and Jiangsu Institute of Ecomones Company Limited. Also Swiss Syngenta AG has registered in China to produce dicamba active ingredient. In China, producers of 48% dicamba aqueous solution include Shenghua Pesticide, Shanghai Hongbang Chemical Co Ltd, Shenghua Biok, Jiangsu Xingnong Agrochemicals Co Ltd, Jiangsu Bailing Agrochemical Co Ltd and Syngenta (Suzhou) Crop Protection Limited (Syngenta Suzhou). Shenghua Biok is currently China's largest manufacturer of dicamba, with a dicamba active ingredient capacity of 1 300 t/a. Yangnong Chemical is the second largest, with a dicamba active ingredient capacity of 1 000 t/a. China's total capacity to make dicamba active ingredient is about 3 000 t/a, but its actual output in 2009 was only 500 - 800 tons. China is home to about 20% of the global dicamba capacity, and it is highly export-oriented.
   The dicamba market has great potential for development, but the production technology for dicamba is very sophisticated. Shenghua Biok's synthesis route is innovative in high-temperature hydrolysis, liquid-phase high-pressure carboxylation and other steps. The dicamba active ingredient content of the company's products reaches 96%. After refinement, the dicamba active ingredient content of its products can exceed 98%, but its production cost is only 60% of other dicamba producers, so its products are highly competitive. The company's monthly dicamba output has grown from 30 tons to more than 80 tons while the production cost of these products has dropped by 30%. In 2009, the company produced 300 tons of dicamba active ingredient. Now, its total annual output of dicamba active ingredient and formulations can exceed 1 300 tons. Yangnong Chemical's 1 000 t/a dicamba active ingredient project went into operation in early 2009. The company's combined sales volume of dicamba active ingredient and formulations reached about 800 tons in 2009 and will maintain a growth rate of 10% in 2010. Its dicamba products have a relatively high gross margin and have become the company's new growth point for profit.
   In recent years, China's dicamba active ingredient industry has developed rapidly, and its production technology continues to improve. In order to gain more return on investment, Chinese dicamba producers have constantly increased their production scale and improved their product quality, and the competitiveness of their products in the international market is also growing.
   Dicamba has been widely used around the world. It was reported that from 2001 to 2004, the global demand for dicamba grew by 157%, while the demand in China grew very slowly. Most dicamba active ingredient produced by Shenghua Biok is exported, and the company's 48% dicamba aqueous solution is all exported. In 2009, all the dicamba products of Yangnong Chemical were sold to foreign companies. All of this shows that the dicamba market is still very small in China, and Chinese companies produce dicamba only for export. The export price of dicamba active ingredient is now RMB90 000 to 100 000 /t, with a gross margin of 35%.
   In the past two years, nearly 100 tons of 48% dicamba aqueous solution produced by China's formulation producers and nearly 100 tons of 48% Banvel aqueous solution produced by Syngenta Suzhou have been sold in the Chinese market, but because of inadequate market awareness as well as the competition of similar dry-farmland herbicide products, such as fluazifop-P-butyl, metsulfuron-methyl, tribenuron-methyl, MCPA and Derby-c, dicamba products have not yet been welcomed by Chinese farmers. But the dicamba mixture products have been marketable in China due to their higher weed control effectiveness and broader weed-killing spectrum, such as 30% MCPA + dicamba aqueous solution for the control of broad-leaved weeds, 20% glyphosate + dicamba aqueous solution for the control of weeds in non-arable farmland, 20% bensulfuron-methyl + dicamba wettable powder (WP) for the control of weeds in non-arable peanut fields and 14% bensulfuron-methyl + dicamba aqueous solution for the control of weeds in wheat fields. This year, the sales volume of dicamba in China is growing slightly, and its sales price is RMB95 000 /t, falling by 5.3% compared with the 2009 price of RMB100 000 /t.
   It was reported that in the next few years, the supply of dicamba will reach a shortage of about 3 000 tons annually in the world market. Therefore, dicamba has a favorable market prospect in international markets. Yangnong Chemical believes that the current key factor for the large-scale application of dicamba lies in the breakthrough of transgenic technology. Now, global pesticide companies are conducting research on transgenic crops. Once a breakthrough is achieved in the transgenic technology, the demand for dicamba will grow dramatically. Mr. Zhang Yibin, deputy chief engineer of Shanghai Pesticide Research Institute, says that transgenic crops that can resist 2,4-D and dicamba will be soon put on the market. In addition, dicamba-resistant transgenic soybean and corn will be put on the market in 2012. This transgenic soybean can resist 2.8 kg/hectare dicamba. The two herbicides are cheap. When transgenic crops that can resist them are put on the market, it will have a great impact on glyphosate sales.