By Yan Feng

NBR production units in China are concentrated mainly in East China and Northwest China. The capacity in East China is 177 kt/a, around 66.42% of the national total. Northwest China has 69.5 kt/a, around 26.08%. Table 1 shows the major NBR producers in China in 2017.

Table 1    Major NBR producers in China, 2017

Imported NBR still dominates

   China imported 91.4 kt of NBR in 2017, an increase of around 3.98% over the previous year, according to customs statistics. The import sources include Korea, Japan and Russia, with these three countries providing 75.4 kt in 2017, around 82.49% of the imported total. Korea has always been the biggest import source for NBR in China, and the amount imported from Korea in 2017 was 39.0 kt, around 42.67% of the total and a drop of around 1.26 percentage points from the previous year. Japan, the number two source, provided 20.0 kt in 2017, for around 21.88% of the total and an increase of around 12.36 percentage points over the previous year.

Application demand promotes consumption

   The apparent consumption of NBR in China has increased steadily in recent years, reaching 224.2 kt in 2017, an increase of around 8.73% over the previous year, with 62.44% self-sufficiency.
   In China NBR is used mainly in sectors like construction materials, automobiles, aerospace, petroleum/chemicals, textiles, shoemaking and electric wires/cables. Around 31.9% is consumed for thermal insulation and foaming materials (insulation in walls of energy- efficient buildings, insulation for pipelines, insulation in air-conditioning systems, insulation of handles of sports apparatuses), around 29.8% for sealing products (sealing parts and O rings for motor vehicles), around 26.6% for rubber hoses (rubber hoses with oil-, corrosion-, heat- and compression-resistance, hydraulic rubber hoses mainly used in engineering machinery for coal mines and oil transmission hoses of motor vehicles), around 3.2% for conveyor belts, around 3.2% for modified materials and around 5.3% for others such as oil-resistant rubber shoes, rubber rollers, adhesives and oil-resistant rubber boards. With the rapid development of the automobile industry in China, consumption of automobile components will increase constantly. Other application sectors such as the electric wire/cable sector will also develop rapidly. NBR consumption in China is expected to reach 280-290 kt in 2022.

Development

   The quality of NBR production technologies in China has been improved in recent years. Considerable development has been achieved in both production and consumption. Compared with foreign countries, however, shortcomings still exist. Few branded products exist, high-end products are mainly imported, applications are undifferentiated and technical services are not in place.
   (1) Efforts should be made to improve the polymerization technology used today, research and produce new additives, increase the automation, improve product quality, research new technologies for wastewater treatment, apply technologies for polymerization with third monomers, for mixing with other polymers and for hydrogenation, and develop new equipment to upgrade the technical level of NBR in China.
   (2) NBR is extensively used in various sectors and therefore has bright market prospects, but high cost and performance defects constrain its application. The method for use of NBR mixed with other rubbers can effectively combine advantages of NBR and other rubbers or resins to produce materials with superior comprehensive performance.
   (3) Investors in new capacity should be cautious; better to focus on effective use of existing units. NBR capacity in China has already reached 256.5 kt/a. The average operating rate of NBR units is less than 60%. Nevertheless, quite a few enterprises are ready to construct or expand NBR units in the next few years. The main projects include a 30 kt/a second-phase unit of INSA GPRO (Nanjing) Synthetic Rubber Co., Ltd. and a new 50 kt/a unit to be jointly constructed by Sibur of Russia and Sinopec. Also, Anqing Hualan Technology Co., Ltd. plans to construct a 30 kt/a unit to produce NBR series products. If these projects are all put on stream as planned, NBR capacity in China would reach around 400 kt/a in 2022. The capacity would be in surplus at that time, and market competition would be aggravated. Enterprises should make great efforts to constantly improve and modify existing production processes, increase the quality and stability of products, upgrade products to medium- and high-end varieties, avoid a market surplus of low-end NBR products and achieve sustainable development.
   (4) Product structure will be adjusted, and development of high-performance products will be strengthened. Enterprises should actively develop some specialty NBR products with unique features and high added value to meet the market demand in high-end sectors. For example, R&D and commercial production of modified products – such as HNBR, pre-crosslinked NBR, XNBR, PNBR, polymerization-stabilized NBR, heat-resistant NBR, alternating NBR, LNBR, acrylic NBR and NBR/PVC co-precipitated rubber – should be accelerated to serialize and diversify products so as to expand applications, enhance product competitiveness and increase profitability.
   (5) Markets will be actively expanded, and technical services will be strengthened. Users of NBR typically consume small amounts in producing a complicated variety of products. And their performance requirements for NBR differ. Enterprises should therefore target R&D on specialized and well-characterized products, strengthen research on product processing and applications, and meet the unique requirements of different products. When domestic demand is satisfied, product export should be accelerated to mitigate fierce competition caused by surplus in the domestic market.