Isoprene Rubber Has Bright Market Prospects in China   

1. Capacity grows fast in China

In recent years, with the large-scale capacity expansion of ethylene projects in China, the C5 separation technology has gradually matured, and polymer-grade isoprene has achieved industrial production. As a result, isoprene rubber has become an investment hotspot in China. In 2010, Qilu Ethylene Group Maoming Luhua Chemical Co Ltd's 15 000 t/a isoprene rubber project, which is China's first isoprene rubber facility, was put into production. In the same year, Qingdao ECSS Tech. & Eng. Co Ltd's 30 000 t/a isoprene rubber project was also put into operation. All these mark that isoprene rubber in China has entered a stage of industrialization. In the next few years, a few isoprene rubber projects at Zibo Luhua Chemical Co Ltd, Fushun ECSS Co Ltd, Sinopec Yanshan Petrochemical Company and PetroChina Jilin Petrochemical Company will be put into production. By then, China will become one of the world's largest isoprene rubber producers. As of the end of 2010, there had been a total of 10 isoprene rubber plants in six countries worldwide, with a total production capacity of 656 000 t/a.

2.  Broad application prospects in tire industry

There are insufficient natural rubber resources in China. In 2010, the output of natural rubber in China was only 687 000 tons, and its self-sufficiency rate was less than 20%. Among all types of synthetic rubber, only isoprene rubber has the structure and properties closest to natural rubber, so the development of isoprene rubber has become an effective solution to the shortage of natural rubber resources in China. If natural rubber is added with 20% of isoprene rubber, its formulation and process do not need any adjustment at all. In 2010, China's tire industry alone consumed 3.5 million tons of natural rubber. If 20% of the natural rubber is replaced with isoprene rubber, the consumption of isoprene rubber will be up to 700 000 tons. In Russia, the proportion of isoprene rubber in tires reaches up to 50%. If China also does so, this can significantly reduce imports of natural rubber. All isoprene rubber required by some parts of all-steel truck radial tires in China is imported from Russia. Such imports reached more than 40 000 tons last year, and their prices are constantly rising. In 2009, China's tire industry consumed 20 000 tons of isoprene rubber, accounting for 62.1% of the national total isoprene rubber consumption. The output of all-steel radial tires in China now grows fast, having an average annual growth rate of more than 10%. It is expected that the demand for isoprene rubber in China's tire industry will continue to increase in the future.

3.  Promising prospects in medical field

Because natural rubber contains proteins, fatty acids and other impurities, many countries have banned the use of natural rubber as packaging materials for medicine. Since 2005, the State Drug Administration of China has banned the use of natural rubber as packaging materials for biological products, blood products and frozen and dry antibiotics injections and clearly required the use of synthetic rubber (isoprene rubber) as rubber stoppers for injections. As isoprene rubber has the same performance with natural rubber but contains very little impurities, its performance can meet the requirements of national standard YY/T0243-1996 for medical packaging materials. Especially, isoprene rubber has better biochemical performance than natural rubber, and also has good compression set performance. More importantly, isoprene rubber does not contain any proteins that users may be allergic to. Thus, isoprene rubber has a bright application prospect in the medical field.
   In addition, in shoes, conveyor belts, sealing materials, toys and other areas, isoprene rubber also has great potential for development.

4. Constraining factors for the development of isoprene rubber

Although isoprene rubber has promising market prospects, its development is also facing many constraints in China. First, its raw material resources are relatively scarce, limiting the large-scale capacity expansion of isoprene rubber. Currently, the annual output of isoprene is about 100 000 tons in China. Some of it is used for the production of SIS, spices, perfumes and other fine chemical products. So only a limited amount of isoprene can be used for the production of isoprene rubber. In addition to separating isoprene from C5 fractions, some companies are seeking to synthesize isoprene with biological and other methods, but isoprene made with such methods needs high energy and material consumption. Second, in recent 2-3 years, natural rubber prices fluctuated dramatically, seriously affecting the development of isoprene rubber. In one word, the industrial production of isoprene rubber in China has just started and will need a long process to gradually mature.