China’s Rubber Additive Industry Trends

By Chen Chunyun and Liang Cheng, Sinopec Nanjing Chemical Industries Co., Ltd.

The rapid development of China’s automobile and tire industries has driven the development of the rubber additives industry here. China has become a major rubber additive producer in the world market. China’s yield of rubber additives in the last ten years is shown in Figure 1. In 2014, the output of rubber additives was 1.06 million tons, with an increase of 13.7% YoY; the export volume was 335.7 kt, about 31.7% of the total output.
As is well known, China’s economy has entered a critical period of transformation and upgrading. Green tires and the new environmental protection law both bring higher requirements for green, high performance rubber additives, and they also promote in-depth adjustment of the rubber additive industry’s structure.

Table 1  Production and export of China's main rubber additives     (kt)

Item    2012    2013    2014
Output of antioxidant     292.2    315.2    369.1
    Antioxidant 6PPD    135.0    174.0    218.0
    Antioxidant 4010NA    21.0    3.2    3.3
    Antioxidant TMQ    99.0    94.7    97.0
    Antioxidant BLE    2.3    3.4    1.3
    Antioxidant A    3.0    1.4    1.3
    Antioxidant of p-diphenylamine    20.6    20.0    20.0
    Phenols and other antioxidants     11.3    18.5    28.2
Output of accelerator     297.3    337.3    374.7
    Accelerator MBT    69.0    67.7    61.4
    Accelerator MBTS    41.0    44.0    44.3
    Accelerator CZ    55.0    67.7    69.9
    Accelerator NS    52.0    56.0    72.7
    Accelerator DCBS    12.0    13.8    16.7
    Accelerator DPG    14.0    18.0    16.5
    Accelerator TMTD    15.0    20.1    14.3
    Other accelerators    39.3    50.0    78.9
Output of insoluble sulfur    69.0    68.4    92.1
Output of processing agent    86    126    137.4
Output of special functional assistant     60.0    69.0    85.9
Output of other auxiliaries    16.0    16.0    -
Total output    820.5    931.9    1 059.2
Export volume    239.0    275.7    335.7


Table 2  China's major rubber additive manufacturers in 2015

Producer     Sales (billion RMB)
Jiangsu Sinogchem Technology Co., Ltd.    2.556
Shandong Sunsine Chemical Co., Ltd.    2.205
Kemai Chemical Co., Ltd.    1.727
Shandong Yanggu Huatai Chemical Co., Ltd.    1.158
Puyang Willing Chemical Co., Ltd.    0.875
Tianjin First Chemical Co., Ltd.    0.650
Sinopec Nanjing Chemical Industries Co., Ltd.     0.629
Shanxi Xiangyu Chemical Industries Co., Ltd.    0.557


1. Variety of production

In recent times, the structure of Chinese rubber additive production has constantly tended toward greenness and high performance. The yield of antioxidant 6PPD of p-phenylenediamine, phenolic antioxidant, primary amine sulfonamide accelerators CZ and NS, thermally stable insoluble sulfur increases continually. However, the manufacture of both naphthylamine antioxidant and secondary amine accelerator NOBS has almost halted. The production and marketing of China’s main rubber additive varieties are shown in Table 1.
China’s rubber additive production enterprises have developed to large scale, with the sales revenue of top ten enterprises accounting for more than 60% of the Chinese total. The main manufactories are shown in Table 2.
Innovation-driven products lead portfolio upgrades toward high-end green varieties. Green manufacturing has become the top priority in the development of the rubber additives industry. In recent years, the clean process technology of China’s rubber additives has been developing in an orderly fashion. Shandong Sunsine Chemical Co., Ltd.’s process technologies for 10-thousand-ton grade high thermal-stability insoluble sulfur, accelerators DM, CZ, NS and other products’ hydrogen peroxide oxidation, oxygen oxidation have been developed to show good initial results. The solid acid method of high quality antioxidant RD synthesis has been industrialized; a production line for 10-thousand-ton grade pre-dispersed rubber additives has been put into operation. Wastewater treatment technology employing both biochemical method and multi effect evaporation is now applied in accelerator production. Dehydrogenation recovery technology is used to treat process-generated of 4-methyl-2-amyl alcohol waste during antioxidant 6PPD production. Continuous transformation of the process of antioxidant RD production is steadily ongoing.

2. Prices & profits decline

At present, China's capacity to make the main rubber additive varieties is overbuilt, so prices decline continually. Domestic mainstream rubber additive price movements between 2014 and 2015 are shown in Figures 2 & 3 (based on enterprises in East China). International oil prices and basic raw material prices are low, while the tire industry continues to decline, so the price of major domestic rubber additives has declined significantly since the fourth quarter of 2014.

3. Demand forecast

China's tire production in 2014 maintained more than 10% of the speed of growth, however, the market competition is intense, burdened with excess capacity. After entering 2015, the growth rate of China's auto and tire industries gradually fell to 5% or so. In the coming few years, domestic rubber additive demand will maintain a growth rate of 6%. It is expected that in 2018, among China’s main varieties of rubber additives, the demand for p-phenylenediamine antioxidant (including export) will reach about 235 kt, quinoline antioxidant demand (including export) will be 105 kt, thiazole and sulfenamide accelerator demand (including export) will be 320 kt and insoluble sulfur demand (including exports) will be about 180 kt.