Analysis of China's Anionic Surfactant Market   

By Luo Yi, China Research Institute of Daily Chemical Industry

In the surfactant industry, anionic surfactants (referred to as SAA) are the class of surfactants which was developed earliest and has the largest output and the most varieties, mainly including carboxylic acid salts, sulfonic acid salts, sulfuric acid (ester) salts, phosphoric acid (ester) salts and amino acid salts, of which sulfonic acid salts and sulfuric acid salts have the largest output and are most widely used. (Those two groups mainly include sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (LAS), sodium fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether sulfate (AES), sodium fatty alcohol sulfate (AS), ammonium fatty alcohol ether sulfate (AESA), ammonium fatty alcohol sulfate (LSA) and sodium alpha-olefin sulfonate (AOS).) By output, the second largest type is the carboxylic acid salts, such as fatty acids' sodium, calcium and other metal salts; fatty acid sodium salts are mainly used as soap, which has an annual output of 700 000 tons in China in recent years; and the calcium and other salts are mainly used in industrial areas - for example, calcium stearate is mainly used in the plastics industry. As the oldest surfactants, fatty acid salts are often not thought of within the scope of modern surface active agents. Other anionic surfactants also include fatty alcohol (ether) phosphates (MAP), fatty alcohol ether carboxylates (AEC), sulfosuccinate salts, amino acid salts, and so on. In recent years, China's surfactant industry has developed fast. Some of its equipment and technology have reached international advanced levels; and its product yield, type and quality have seen significant growth or improvement.

1. Overview

Table 1 lists the output, net import and apparent consumption of surfactants in China from 2005 to 2010, based upon the China Cleaning Industry Association's statistics and the General Administration of Customs' import and export data.
   As shown in Table 1, the output, net import and apparent consumption of surfactants in China were constantly growing during 2005-2010, except in 2008; and the share of anionic surfactants (SAA) within the total surfactant output reached 72% to 76% during 2005-2008 but fell to 68.7% in 2009, because the output of non-ionic surfactants soared to 400 000 tons.

Table 1 Output, net import and apparent consumption of surfactants in China from 2005 to 2010    (thousand tons)
Year    Total output    Net import volume    Apparent consumption    YoY growth of apparent consumption /%    Share of SAA in the total output /%                                                                                                                             
2005    1060    160    1220    -    73.6
2006    1110    168    1280    4.9    74.2
2007    1270    193    1470    14.8    71.9
2008    1250    158    1410    -4.0    75.9
2009    1490    196    1690    20.0    68.7
2010    1600    86    1690    0    62.4
Source: China Cleaning Industry Association, and the General Administration of Customs

2. Output of alcohol-type anionic surfactants increased steadily

"Alcohol-type anionic surfactants" refers to sodium salts (such as AS and AES) and ammonium salts (such as LSA and AESA) of fatty alcohols (ethers) produced by sulfating fatty alcohols or fatty alcohol ethers with SO3 and then neutralizing the resultants with NaOH or NH4OH. China's output of major alcohol-type anionic surfactants in recent years is itemized in Table 2.
          
Table 2  Outputs of major alcohol-type anionic surfactants in China from 2005 to 2010         (thousand tons)
Year    AES    AS    AESA    LSA    Total
2005    152.5    14.4    20.4    12.7    200.0
2006    175.1    20.4    17.2    11.3    224.0
2007    211.6    20.8    15.2    10.9    258.4
2008    232.7    17.8    12.6    9.3    272.4
2009    282.3    23.8    17.7    11.0    334.8
2010    233.9    24.8    11.3    8.0    278.0
Source: China Cleaning Industry Association

   As shown in Table 2, the output of alcohol-type anionic surfactants in China increased year by year in 2005-2009, having an average annual growth rate of 13.8%; the output of AES and AS grew year by year in 2005-2009, having an average annual growth rate of 16.6% and 13.5%, respectively; the proportion of AESA and LSA in the total output declined; and the output of AES was largest, reaching a proportion of more than 80%, which is expected to increase in the future.

3. Industrial concentration continued to improve

Major producers' contributions to the total alcohol-type anionic surfactant output from 2005 to 2009 are shown in Table 3.

Table 3  Contributions of major producers to the total alcohol-type anionic surfactant output from 2005 to 2009  (%)
Producer    2005    2006    2007    2008    2009
Zhejiang Zanyu Technology Co Ltd    8.7    10.7    14.3    13.8    18.7
Hunan Lichen Industry Co Ltd    12.1    13.2    12.7    11.3    12.8
Sinolight Chemicals Co Ltd    9.2    9.4    10.1    10.2    12.5
Shanghai Cognis Oleochemicals Co Ltd    9.1    9.0    10.1    12.4    11.0
Subtotal    39.1&nbs