Super Absorbent Polymers – Market Conditions & Development Trends

By Zhang Li, China National Petroleum and Chemical Planning Institute

Super absorbent polymers (SAP) fall mainly into three categories according to raw materials: starch series, cellulose series and synthetic resins. The synthetic resins fall mainly into two broad categories: polyacrylate series and modified polyvinyl alcohol series. Compared with the starch series and cellulose series, polyacrylic acid (salt) SAP holds obvious advantages in post-processing, storage & transportation, and mildew resistance during industrial processing, due to its excellent water absorption and retention, heat resistance and low cost. Therefore, it dominates the SAP market. The following analysis primarily covers polyacrylic acid (salt) SAP.

Production

From 2003, well-known SAP manufacturers, such as Japan Nippon Shokubai, San-Dia Polymers, Formosa Plastic Group, etc., have set up factories in mainland China. Since 2005, China's SAP industry has developed rapidly, reaching a capacity of 828 kt/a by the end of 2014 – with both capacity and output averaging nearly 35% annual growth in recent five years. At present, there are more than 20 SAP manufacturers in China, as characterized in Table 1.
The concentration of China’s SAP production is increasing and polarization is obvious. Eight producers are above 30 kt/a in size, with a combined capacity of 660 kt/a, 80% of the county’s total capacity.

Table 1    China’s SAP manufacturers, 2014

Manufacturers    Capacity
(kt/a)    Remarks
Yixing Danson Technology Co., Ltd.    200    Singapore sole proprietorship
San-Dia Polymers (Nantong) Co., Ltd.    150    Japan sole proprietorship
Formosa Plastics Water Absorbing Resin (Ningbo) Co., Ltd.    90    Taiwan proprietorship
BASF-YPC Co., Ltd.     60    Sino-foreign joint venture
Quanzhou BLD ScienceTechnology Industry Co., Ltd.     50    
?Shandong Nuoer Bio-Tech Co., Ltd.?    50    
Japan Nippon Shokubai (Zhangjiagang) Co., Ltd.    30    Japan sole proprietorship
Zhejiang Satellite Petro-Chemical Co., Ltd.    30    
Shanghai Huayi Acrylic Acid Co., Ltd.    20    
Jinan Haoyue Absorbent Material Co., Ltd.    20    
Nanjing Kingreen Polymers Chemical Co., Ltd.    20    
Shandong Zhongkeboyuan New Material Co., Ltd.    20    
Zhejiang Weilong Polymer Material Co., Ltd.    15    
Tangshan Boya Resin Co., Ltd.    15    
Zhuhai Demi Co., Ltd.    10    
Hebei Haiming Ecology Co., Ltd.    10    
Anhui Huajing New Materials Co., Ltd.    10    


China’s SAP production is distributed mainly in nine provinces/city: Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Fujian, Hebei, Shanghai, Anhui, Guangdong and Henan. Jiangsu Province alone hosts 462 kt/a capacity, concentrated in Yixing, Nanjing, Nantong. The distribution of China’s SAP production is shown in Figure 1.
In the future, domestic SAP capacity will keep growing, mainly in support of demand from the acrylics sector, downstream and due to expansion of existing capacity. New and proposed SAP projects in China are shown in Table 2.

Consumption

In recent years, the annual growth rate of domestic SAP market volume has been about 20%. In 2014, China consumed about 410 kt of SAP, 80% of which (328 kt) went into sanitary products. In the sanitary products field, manufacturers of baby diapers consumed the most, accounting for 60% of total SAP consumption. Other industrial consumption was 52 kt, accounting for 13% of the total. Agricultural and forestry consumption of SAP was 20 kt, accounting for 5% of the total. China’s SAP consumption is shown in Figure 2.

Table 2   China’s new and proposed SAP projects
Manufacturers    Capacity (kt/a)
Yixing Danson Technology Co., Ltd.    220
San-Dia Polymers (Nantong) Co., Ltd.    80
Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical Co., Ltd.    80
Quanzhou BLD Science Technology Industry Co., Ltd.    100
Wanhua Chemical Group    30


Table 3   China's SAP export, 2014

Manufacturer    Export volume (kt)
San-Dia Polymers (Nantong) Co., Ltd.    51.6
Yixing Danson Technology Co., Ltd.    40.1
Formosa Plastics Water Absorbing Resin (Ningbo) Co., Ltd.    6.0
BASF-YPC Co., Ltd.    1.6
Quanzhou BLD Science Technology Industry Co., Ltd.    0.7



Import and export

At present, more than 20 companies produce SAP in China; the high-end SAP producers here are mainly foreign owned. The capacity of China’s five biggest SAP producers, Yixing Danson Technology Co., Ltd. (Singapore), San-Dia Polymers (Nantong) Co., Ltd. (Japan), Japan Nippon Shokubai (Zhangjiagang) Co., Ltd. (Japan), Ningbo Formosa Plastics, BASF-YPC (joint venture in Nanjing), accounts for about 65% of the total SAP capacity here. Domestically owned SAP producers are all small scale, with lagging technology and low product quality, mainly occupying the low end of the market. Producers of high-end sanitary products such as infant diapers mainly use SAP from foreign-funded enterprises or imported SAP.  
With the expansion of domestic capacity since 2011, China has greatly increased its SAP export volume, gradually becoming a net exporter. In 2013, the export volume reached 136 kt, with a net export of 76 kt. In 2014, the export volume was 111 kt, with a net export of 46 kt. China's export of SAP in 2014 is shown in Table 3.

Prospects

1. Sanitary products
Sanitary products are an important and mature application area of SAP, which is mainly used in producing baby diapers and other diapers, feminine hygiene products, adult incontinence pads and other products. China’s baby diaper production and market have both enjoyed rapid development in recent years, and a high growth rate is expected in the next 10 years. China’s population is aging rapidly, with the elderly segment expected to increase by an average annual rate of 3.2% in the next 50 years. Therefore, the market for adult incontinence products is in an initial stage of development and will grow rapidly, with great development potential. The proportion of adult incontinence products in the sanitary products market is expected to grow from about 3% to 10% by 2020. In recent years, China's female sanitary products market maintained relatively rapid growth, occupying 91% of the sanitary products market on average. In the near future, the amount of pet mats and export volume will both grow rapidly as well.
2. Industrial applications
SAP is widely used in industry:
? civil construction,
? cable manufacture,
? oil/water separation and wastewater treatment in oilfields and hospitals,
? food preservation in supermarkets,
? and so on.
The applications in civil construction, cables and retail food preservation are especially promising for big growth.
3. Agriculture and forestry
SAP is widely used in coating seeds, transplanting seedlings, artificial cultivation and other aspects of agriculture. Applications in the agricultural garden field are still very limited, mainly because of the relatively high cost, low soil water absorption capacity and poor tolerance of repeated use. However, SAP still has great potential in agriculture and forestry.
4. Others
In addition, SAP can be used as a detergent in anti-deposition additives, artificial snow, humidity regulators, gel-drive devices, active enzyme carriers, cosmetics, etc.
It is expected that China’s SAP demand will continue to increase, reaching 850 kt annually by 2020, with average annual growth of 12% from 2014 to 2020.