Increased Demand for Phosphorus Trichloride

By Gao Fugeng, China National Chemical Information Centre

1. Phosphorus trichloride is used mainly to produce pesticides, flame retardants, chelating agents and plastic additives
1.1 Organophosphorus pesticide
Manufacturers of organophosphorus pesticides consume 70% of China’s phosphorus trichloride supply. In 2014, China’s organophosphorus pesticide sales exceeded US$8.5 billion, 16% of the world’s pesticide sales. These products included the most popular herbicide, glyphosate, and insecticides imidacloprid and chlorpyrifos. In 2014, domestic glyphosate sales reached US$5.6 billion, over 25% of the world’s herbicide sales. Driven by worldwide growth of planting area for transgenic crops, it is expected that by 2019, global sales of glyphosate will exceed US$8.5 billion, after an average annual growth of 8.7%. At the same time, glufosinate sales will also boom, riding the same trend – by 2019, glufosinate sales are expected to exceed US$1.0 billion, after an average annual growth of around 15%. In addition, sales of insecticides like chlorpyrifos and acetamiprid will grow nearly 10% annually. Considering the declining price of pesticides, the pesticide sector’s demand for phosphorus trichloride should grow at around 6% annually.
1.2 Flame retardant
Flame retardant makers also consume a great deal of phosphorus trichloride. In the formula for oxygen-containing engineering plastics, 1% phosphorus has the same effect as 10% bromine, so phosphorus can fully replace bromine as the flame retardant, with less toxicity, easy availability of raw materials and low cost. The smoke produced by pyrolysis and combustion of bromine flame retardant contains toxic substances like hydride and carcinogenic dioxin, so a variety of bromine-containing flame retardants are prohibited or gradually used less. Outside of China, the consumption of bromine flame retardants in major flame retardant markets is declining. Global consumption of organophosphorus flame retardants rose from 190 kt in 2004 to 270 kt in 2014, with an average annual growth of around 3.6%, and it is expected to reach 320 kt by 2019. China’s consumption of phosphorus flame retardants has recently increased somewhat, with an average annual growth exceeding 9%. In addition to a large amount of exports, the domestic market also has a great development space.
1.3 Organophosphorus chelating agent
Organophosphorus chelating agent is used mainly as a water treatment agent. Today’s major phosphorus chelating agents include ATMP, HEDP and PBTCA. In 2014, the global consumption of organophosphorus chelating agents was 141 kt, with Europe, North America and China each taking close to 40 kt. Organophosphorus chelating agent can be used as a scale inhibitor or dispersant in industrial water treatment, and consumption in that sector accounts for around 75% of the total. Organophosphorus chelating agent is important in seawater desalination, especially in the Middle East. Global consumption of organophosphorus chelating agent is expected to grow 2%-3% annually.
1.4 Plastic additives
In the plastic additives sector, phosphorus trichloride is used mainly to produce organophosphite antioxidants. In 2014, the world consumed 142 kt of phosphite antioxidants, with consumption of plastic antioxidants concentrated in North America, China and Western Europe, and growing steadily. The manufacture and use of plastic antioxidant products has developed constantly in Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Middle East. The market for phosphite antioxidants is expected to keep growing at around 3% annually. The rapid development of China’s plastics industry offers good development opportunities for the makers of plastic antioxidants, with stable annual growth at around 6%.
2. Domestic industrial chain needs expansion
China’s capacity to make phosphorus trichloride expanded rapidly from 1.15 million t/a in 2004 to 2.29 million t/a in 2014, while consumption increased faster, percentage-wise, but always lagged very far behind, growing from 350 kt to 1.1 million tons. China’s capacity to produce phosphorus trichloride is seriously in surplus, even far exceeding the world’s total demand.
Although there are not many phosphorus trichloride enterprises in the international market, all of them have formed a complete industrial chain, while China’s phosphorus trichloride enterprises have single-product portfolios, comparatively backward production technology and small-scale units. Jiangsu Yoke Technology Co., Ltd. is China’s largest phosphorus flame retardant producer. Its main products are organophosphorus flame retardants. In Europe and the United States, TCPP is a major organophosphorus flame retardant, and the low-end TCEP has been gradually phased out, while in China, TCEP is still the important organophosphorus flame retardant product.
A similar pattern exists in the pesticide sector – China is the largest glyphosate producer in the world, making over 60% of the world’s output; however, the market value of China’s glyphosate output is only around 25% of the world total.
3. Phosphorus trichloride will still have a development space
The phosphorus trichloride sector is developing slowly, but there is still room for development. From a global perspective, the market for organophosphorus pesticide will keep growing at around 6%, and the growth of phosphorus flame retardants, chelating agents and plastic additives will exceed 3%. However, the development potential is greater in China, where the growth of demand for phosphorus flame retardants and pesticides will reach 9.4% and 7.8%, respectively, the demand for plastic additives and chelating agents will also maintain rapid growth at around 6%, and phosphorus trichloride still has good development prospects.