China’s Demand for Three Amide Herbicides Increases Rapidly

By Zhang Weinong

Amide herbicides are third largest types of herbicides based on sales volume after amino acid herbicides (including glyphosate and glufosinate) and sulfonylurea herbicides. In domestic or global market, the hottest products of amide herbicides are acetochlor, metolachlor and butachlor.
In China, the pre-emergence herbicides for corn fields and herbicides for rice fields will enters an era of meager profit. The consumption of pre-emergence herbicides for corn fields has had a declining trend, and the post-emergence herbicides have suddenly risen as a new force. Due to the phytotoxicity problems, the application of nicosulfuron will be restricted in the near future. It is more difficult to expand the application of mesotrione because of its high cost. Acetochlor, metolachlor, butachlor, atrazine and glyphosate will continue to be the major application varieties of herbicides. Due to the price rise of crude oil, bio-ethanol is highly acclaimed by users. The demand for corn - an upstream product of bio-ethanol - has increased, and the consumption of corn herbicides has climbed rapidly. China’s average annual growth of corn planting areas is 2%. It was expected that in 2013, China’s planting area of corn would grow 4.1% and reach around 30 million hectares, and corn would become the second largest crop only after rice. Major varieties of herbicides for corn fields in China include over 10 products such as acetochlor, atrazine, metolachlor, paraquat, nicosulfuron and 2,4-D butylate. The consumption growth of herbicides for corn fields will become a strong impetus for the development of the whole herbicide sector.

(1) Acetochlor

China started the application of acetochlor in 1989. Through application dissemination for more than 20 years, acetochlor has become a pillar product for the herbicide market in China. Acetochlor, which is a selective pre-emergence herbicide for dry land soil treatment with the largest application area, has a great potential in the spring corn and summer corn markets, and will gradually develop and play a greater role in the aspects of no tillage cultivation, minimum tillage cultivation as well as protective pesticide application. For pre-emergence herbicides applied immediately following seeding, the National Agricultural Technology Dissemination Center has promoted the use of 90%/99% acetochlor emulsifiable concentrates (EC), 72%/96% s-metolachlor EC, etc. In the period of pre-emergence, the use of acetochlor with advantages like low cost, convenient usage, moderate duration and no effect to crop rotation, is safety to crops. With the transformation of a large area of paddy fields to drought fields in the rural area, the consumption of acetochor has increased drastically, and acetochor is in short supply. Through the R&D by Chinese  researchers, the wettable powders of compound acetochor formulations and single-component acetochor formulations have been approved to be used in rice transplanting fields, so the market demand for acetochor has climbed. Due to the normal precipitation and suitable weather in the spring, the sales volume of pre-emergence herbicides in 2013 is higher than that in 2012.
At present, there are 32 enterprises registered for acetochor technical material and more than 600 enterprises registered for single-component formulations and compound formulations in China. The capacity of 11 major producers including Jiangsu Changlong Chemical Co Ltd, Shandong Binnong Technology Co Ltd, Nantong Jiangshan Pesticide Chemical Industry Co Ltd, Shandong Zhongshi Pharmaceutical Co Ltd and Hangzhou Qingfeng Agrochemical Co Ltd is 146 kt/a and the actual annual output is around 50 kt. Around 50% output of acetochor technical material is for export. The major acetochor producer abroad is Monsanto of the United States and the capacity in the company is around 20 kt/a. The domestic acetochor market has been saturated.
Acetochlor has been included in the restricted list by the European Union (EU). However, China’s export volume of acetochor to the EU is small. There are also some problems in the usage of acetochlor, but because of its good weed control ability and low cost, acetochlor is still used in a large quantity. Due to the influence of transgenic corn planting, the sales volume of acetochlor reduced considerably during 2005-2006, and restored year-by-year after 2006. The sales value of acetochlor in the world reached US$530 million in 2011.

(2) Metolachlor

Metolachlor is the most important amide herbicides. Over the years, metolachlor has been the preferred gramineous weed herbicide in corn fields. As it has synergistic effect with flumetsulam - a broadleaf weed herbicide, the sales volume of the mixture of two products has increased constantly. At the same time, metolachlor is suitable for soybean, cotton and potato. As (R)-metolachlor is inactive and modern production methods afford only (S)-metolachlor instead of the racemate, s-metolachlor’s market share has climbed after being developed and used in China. There are 8 enterprises registered for metolachlor technical material and 68 enterprises registered for single-component formulations and compound formulations in China. China’s total capacity to make metolachlor technical material is around 60 kt/a, the annual output is 15 -20 kt, and 60% of the output is for export. According to Yan Qiuxu, a senior engineer of Sinochem Shenyang Research Institute of Chemical Industry, in the international market, the market share of metolachlor in amide herbicides is 28.0%, and the sales value of metolachlor reached US$550 million in 2011, surpassing acetochlor to become the largest variety of amide herbicides. The expansion of market is mainly due to the development of compound formulations and the growth of corn planting area in the United States. In addition to China, the main markets of metolachlor include the United States, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, etc.

(3) Butachlor

Butachlor is a common variety of herbicides in China, and it becomes a main export variety. It is a selective pre-emergence amide herbicide, and can be used for the control of weeds in fields of rice (both direct seeding fields and transplanting rice fields), wheat, oilseed rape, cotton, etc. Butachlor was developed and first produced by Monsanto of the United States in 1969, and China imported butachlor in quantity and achieved the localization of butachlor in the mid and late 1980s. At present, China has 11 enterprises registered for butachlor technical material and around 170 enterprises registered for single-component formulations and compound formulations. China’s total capacity to make butachlor technical material is 50 kt/a, and the actual total output is around 15 kt. Through market competition, the registered crops of butachlor compound formulations have expanded considerably, and the ratio between single-component formulations and compound formulations is 1:3.3. 40% butachlor/oxadiazon EC is used for the control of weeds in rice and cotton seedling, and the products like 48% butachlor/atrazine suspension concentrates (SC) are used for the control of annual weed in corn fields. These products are highly acclaimed by the market. In recent years, with the transformation of some paddy fields to drought fields in China, the domestic consumption of butachlor has reduced considerably. However, China after all is a large rice planting country in the world, and with the constant growth of planting area in direct seeding rice fields, the market of butachlor has presented a stage of tense supply in peak season. Butachlor is a conventional variety for farmers, and China consumes a certain amount of butachlor each year. Some production enterprises with a considerable scale are still profitable.
Due to the widespread planting of transgenetic crops, the sales of glyphosate have increased rapidly, having impacts on other varieties of herbicides. However, due to its unique weed control mechanism, amid herbicides are useful complement to other herbicides like glyphosate.