Global consumption of specialty chemicals will add more than 100 billion U.S. dollars in five years

In the next five years, the global specialty chemicals market will grow at an average annual growth rate of 3.6%. It is estimated that by 2025, the global specialty chemicals market will approach US$720 billion. Specialty chemicals are high-end fine chemical products. They usually refer to chemicals with high technical content and small output. They include specialty polymers, electronic chemicals, surfactants, flavors and fragrances, special coatings, and various additives. Specialty chemicals Products are closer to the consumer terminal and have a relatively high level of profitability.

From the perspective of market size, the global specialty chemicals market will be close to 600 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. China is the largest consumer of specialty chemicals, accounting for 27% of the global market, reaching 160 billion US dollars; North America (including the United States, Canada and Mexico) consumption reaching 130 billion US dollars, ranking second, accounting for 22% of global sales; Western Europe’s consumption is about US$90 billion, accounting for 15% of the world’s share. Japan’s consumption is US$43 billion, accounting for 7% of the world’s total. The total consumption from South America, the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, and other parts of Asia totals 170 billion. The scale of consumption is comparable.

In the next five years, China, North America, Western Europe and Japan will account for 31%, 20%, 14% and 7% of consumption respectively, and the consumption scale will be 225 billion US dollars, 142 billion US dollars, 100 billion US dollars and 48 billion US dollars respectively.

From the perspective of global consumption scale, 2025 will increase consumption by nearly 120 billion US dollars compared to 2020, of which 55% of the increase in consumption (65 billion US dollars) will be contributed by China, while North America, Western Europe and Japan will each contribute 12 billion US dollars. , 10 billion U.S. dollars and 15 billion U.S. dollars in consumption increments.

China is the country with the fastest consumption growth rate in the world. On the basis of a market size of 160 billion US dollars, it can still maintain an average annual growth rate of up to 7%. This is mainly due to the rapid development of China's large chemical industry and the relatively complete large chemical industry. The agglomeration of basic and industrial parks, especially the consumption upgrade in China, has greatly increased the consumption scale of fine chemicals.

Compared with bulk chemicals, the specialty chemicals industry is less cyclically affected, and its profitability is stable and maintained at a relatively high level.

From the perspective of the segmented specialty chemicals market, the six segments of specialty polymers, electronic chemicals, industrial cleaning products, surfactants, flavors and fragrances, and construction chemicals account for approximately 45% of the global consumption share, and the remaining major The subdivided areas include water-soluble polymers, petrochemical catalysts, special coatings, various additives (including food, plastics, feed, lubricants and other additives), and various chemicals (such as paper chemicals, oil field chemicals, etc.) , Textile chemicals, water treatment chemicals) and various additives.

Overall, China is the largest consumer of specialty polymers, electronic chemicals, antioxidants, catalysts, construction chemicals, feed additives, plastic additives, rubber additives, specialty coatings, textile chemicals and water treatment chemicals; North America It is a major consumer of fungicides, corrosion inhibitors, cosmetic chemicals, food additives, industrial and public institution cleaners, lubricant additives, oil field chemicals, printing inks, surfactants and synthetic lubricants; Western Europe is a nutritional health product The main consumer countries of flavors and fragrances; South Korea and Taiwan of China are the main consumer areas of electronic chemicals in Asia, accounting for 45% of global consumption.

According to IHS statistics, the largest market segment is specialty polymers (including high-performance thermoplastics, engineering thermoplastics, and specialty films). Among them, engineering thermoplastics have high strength and relatively light weight, and they are extremely important in many different applications. Attractive metal substitutes, such as transportation, electronics, construction, medical and electrical parts; the main uses of specialty films include packaging, electronic parts, displays, and solar cell backsheets.

In 2020, the global market for specialty polymers will be 53 billion U.S. dollars, the Chinese market will be about 16 billion U.S. dollars, North America will be 8 billion U.S. dollars, and Western Europe and Japan will each have a 6 billion U.S. dollar market size. The pre-interest and tax profit rate of specialty polymers is as high as 15%, and the market size is growing at 4% annually. There is still room for growth of 15 billion US dollars by 2025.

For engineering thermoplastics, the downstream consumer sector is mainly PC, followed by polyamide 6 and polyamide 66, and thermoplastic polyester (mainly PBT). The global consumer market for engineering thermoplastics is about 23 billion U.S. dollars, and China’s consumption Nearly 9 billion U.S. dollars, it is the world's largest consumer market, with a growth rate of more than 5% in the next five years. Specialty films include engineering films and high-performance films, which are mainly used for packaging, electronic parts, displays and solar cell backsheets. The global market size is about 25 billion U.S. dollars, and the Chinese market is 6.5 billion U.S. dollars. It is the world's largest consumer market and will maintain 8% in the future. With the development of the growth rate, polyimide (PI) film, fluoropolymer film and polycarbonate (PC) film will all have greater room for development. The main applications of high-performance thermoplastics include electrical and electronic, automotive, aircraft/aerospace, industrial and medical fields. In 2020, the global sales volume will be 350,000 tons, and the market size will be about 5.5 billion U.S. dollars. Among them, high-performance polyamides are the main high-performance thermoplastics. Plastics are widely used because of their high temperature resistance, low water absorption, increased strength and durability.

Electronic chemicals are the world's second largest specialty chemicals. They are widely used in the processing steps of electronic components and product manufacturing, silicon wafers and integrated circuits (IC), IC packaging, and printed circuit boards (PCB) production and assembly. Complex specialty chemicals.

The global electronic chemicals market in 2020 will be 45 billion U.S. dollars, with an EBIT margin of 13%, and the overall industry average annual growth rate of 6%, making it the fastest growing industry among all specialty chemicals. Semiconductor & IC chemicals and PC & packaging chemicals each account for half of the market. The global semiconductor and IC chemicals market is USD 22 billion, mainly from South Korea and Taiwan, followed by North America and Japan. The market size of mainland China is close to that of Japan, reaching USD 3 billion.

With the rapid growth of China’s semiconductor industry, the semiconductor and IC chemical market is expected to double to USD 6 billion by 2025, with an average annual growth rate of up to 16% (far exceeding the global growth of 5%), becoming the world’s second largest consumer market .