China’s SAP Sector Ready to Set Sail

By Li Cangsang, Gong Yongqiang, ChemSino


Super absorbent polymers (SAPs) are classified by raw material: starch series, cellulose series and synthetic polymer series. Among the latter, polyacrylic acid products have many advantages such as low production costs, a simple production process and high water absorption. They have become a major force in the SAP family. Among SAPs, polyacrylic acid series products hold a share of around 80% today.
SAPs are heavily used in manufacturing absorbent sanitary articles, treating industrial wastewater and making agriculture more efficient. The main sanitary articles are paper diapers for babies, incontinence articles for adults and sanitary napkins for women. Globally, the consumption of 70% of SAPs are used in making baby paper diapers, 17% for adult incontinence products and 9% for women’s sanitary napkins.

Leading enterprises in China aim for the middle and the high end of the market

China’s SAP capacity was around 1.30 million t/a last year, with numerous producers, most of them small and not very competitive. Exceptions are wholly foreign-owned enterprises, joint ventures and a few large domestically funded enterprises such as Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical Co., Ltd. and Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd.
Acrylic acid (AA) is the major raw material for polyacrylic acid series SAPs. Acrylic acid can be classified by purity into CAA (crude acrylic acid), PAA (polymerization acrylic acid) and GAA (glacial acrylic acid). CAA is used mainly to produce acrylic esters. PAA is used mainly to produce polyacrylic acid and in turn synthesize special acrylic esters. GAA is used mainly to produce SAPs, water treatment agents and washing aids. Around 65% of the acrylic acid used in China goes into making acrylic esters. The manufacture of GAA accounts for only 20%.
China’s acrylic acid capacity last year was 2.90 million t/a, a drop of around 300 kt/a from 2015. Utilization was down drastically – only around 50%. Table 1 shows the effective CAA and GAA capacities in China at the end of 2016.

New trend poses new business opportunities

Global demand for GAA as raw material for SAPs is forecast to reach 3.10 million tons by 2020. In the same period, demand for SAPs will increase 6-7% annually, reaching 4.30 million tons by 2020. Asia’s growth as an SAP consumer will be especially remarkable.
The SAP sector has changed in 2017. First of all, China increased its import tariff on SAPs from 3% to a general rate of 45%, so local brands’ share of the domestic market rose. Secondly, many SAP producers in China have proposed new products. With product quality improving, well-known enterprises have started to buy more Chinese SAP brands, both at home and abroad. Thirdly, development of efficient agriculture, control of desertification and treatment of waste water also bring new opportunities to apply SAPs.
Demand for SAPs in China still has huge growth potential overall. Market demand will move toward catching up with capacity (now in surplus) in the acrylic acid and SAP sectors. SAPs’ strong adsorbing and chelating functions can be extensively used in treating heavy-metal wastewater, dying wastewater and municipal wastewater.               

Table 1    SAP raw material capacity in China, 2016  (kt/a)

Sr. No.    Producer    CAA    GAA
1    Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical Co., Ltd.    480    250
2    BASF-YPC Company Limited    350    190
3    Formosa Plastics (Ningbo) Co., Ltd.    320    30
4    Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd.    300    50
5    Jurong Chemical Co., Ltd.     240    200
6    Jiangsu Sanmu Chemical Co., Ltd.    140    40
7    Shandong Kaitai Petrochemical Co., Ltd.    110    20
8    Shandong Hongxin Chemical Co., Ltd.    80    20
9    Wanchio Petrochemical (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd.    80    20
10    Fujian Binhai Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.    60    20
    Total    2 160    840