Bromine Supply Tightening, Prices Rising

By Zhang Miao, China National Chemical Information Centre

Production

Chinese bromine production is concentrated mainly at the Bohai Bay, and more than 80% of the total output comes from Shandong province. At present, there are around 60 bromine manufactories in China, with the total capacity of nearly 200 kt/a.
Currently, there are more than 200 manufacturers of bromine and its downstream chemicals, producing more than 200 varieties. Factories are distributed in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Tianjin, Hebei and other places. The factories in Shandong province produce mainly flame retardants, bromine-series pesticides and pharmaceuticals; the manufacture of bromine dye products is concentrated mainly in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Consumption distribution is shown in Figure 1.

High import dependence

Over 98% of China’s imported bromine comes from Israel and Jordan. Other sources include the United States, China's Taiwan region, Ukraine, India and South Korea. China’s bromine foreign trade in 2009~2014 is shown in Table 1. The import dependence may grow due to the exhaustion of domestic deposits, increasing production costs and environmental protection. In recent years, foreign enterprises have increased bromine prices many times. In the future, the high price will constrain Chinese bromine consumption and the development of downstream products.

Policy and climate constraints on industry development

Development of the bromine industry is heavily impacted by both policy and climate. As for policy, there are the resource tax and the environmental concern over the high energy consumption of bromine production. Weifang started to levy a brine resource tax locally in 2014, at RMB2 per ton.
Chinese bromine is mainly produced from bromine-containing brine (seawater), so the climate affects the development of bromine industry a lot. In winter, at low temperatures, extracting bromine causes both massive brine discharge and serious pollution near the shore. Typhoon season is not suitable for bromine production. In flood season, factories in coastal areas (accounting for 8% of total production), such as Hebei and Tianjin, have to shut down production because of reduced concentration of bromine in the brine. In October 2004, north Weifang suffered the heaviest storm since 1992, Changyi costal bromine enterprises suffered heavy losses, and more than 10 bromine enterprises, such as Haiyu, Minkang, Zhaohu and Hongchang shut down for the emergency.

Prices are expected to increase

China is exhausting its bromine resources. No bromine can be extracted in Liaoning area, the northern Bohai Bay. The bromine content of underground brine has fallen sharply in Tianjin, Hebei and Shandong. Weifang, the main area producing bromine, has over 60% of the nation’s bromine production capacity. However, the small-workshop style of production enterprises poses serious pollution issues, so local governments have proposed to remove local 80% of the area’s bromine capacity in the next three years, which will greatly diminish the national supply.
With the shortage, China will be more dependent on imports. Israel’s low-price strategy will change, and bromine suppliers globally will increase the price in coming years. The price of bromine in China is likely to increase substantially in the future.       

Table 1    China's import and export of bromine

Year    Import (t)    Export (t)    External dependence (%)
2009    12 491    2    7.9
2010    22 450    8    15.1
2011    22 837    7    15.3
2012    26 270    0    18.1
2013    33 445    0    20.2
2014    34 664    104    20.6