By Liu Ling, Shang Honghua, Zhang Haoyong

Oversupply hard to be eased in the short term

The adipic acid is excess in China, with exports continuing to rise sharply and only high-end products in the need of being imported. The main adipic acid manufacturers and their capacities are shown in Table 1. As the traditional production processes fail to meet the improved requirements of green production due to the generation of a large number of pollutants, in the next few years, the adipic acid industry in China will experience a wave of de-capacity. The supply and demand of adipic acid from 2014 to 2019 are shown in Table 2.

Two major downstream sectors

   In China, the adipic acid is mainly used in the production of nylon, mainly nylon 66 fiber and nylon 66 resin, and polyurethane, like polyurethane sole resin and polyurethane adhesive. Other applications include plasticizers, greases and food additives. The consumption structure of adipic acid is shown in Figure 1.

Chart 1 The consumption structure of adipic acid in China

   By the end of 2019, China's nylon 66 chip production capacity reached 540 000 t/a, and the annual output reached 351 000 tons, with an average operating rate of about 65%. The main Chinese manufacturers of nylon 66 chips in 2019 are shown in Table 3.

   The apparent consumption of nylon 66 in China in 2019 was 547 000 tons, an increase of 5.2% year-on-year, and the self-sufficiency rate increased to 64.1%. The main grades of China's nylon 66 chips are fiber-grade chips and engineering plastic-grade chips. The major consumer of nylon 66 chips is engineering plastics, in the fields of machinery, electronical & electronics, automobiles, and especially the plastic alloy modified by blending with ABS, PC and other engineering plastic products. With the high import dependence and an increasing gap between supply and demand, nylon 66 industry has huge room for development in China.

Development opportunities for PBAT

   PBAT is a copolymer of butylene adipate (PBA) and butylene terephthalate (PBT), with good ductility and elongation at break, as well as good heat resistance and impact performance. In addition, it has excellent biodegradability. It is widely used in the fields of disposable daily necessities, packaging materials and agricultural films.
The industrialization of PBAT has been developing rapidly in China recently, and the industrial concentration has increased. By June 2020, China's total PBAT capacity is 213 000 t/a, and the main manufacturers are shown in Table 4.

   It is expected that in the next few years, China's PBAT industry will usher in a capacity expansion peak. It is estimated that between 2021 and 2022, about 300 000 t/a of PBAT capacities will be launched to the market. See Table 5 for the capacities under construction and planned.

   As environmental problems become increasingly prominent, the replacement of traditional petrochemical products by biodegradable biomaterials worldwide has been more and more necessary. Supported by national policies, PBAT has a huge market space in China. In addition, as the demand for PBAT products from developed countries continues to grow, China's PBAT exports also have a bright future.