China's Sulphuric Acid Capacity Continues to Rise in 2022

China's sulfuric acid capacity in 2022 is 129 million tons, up 1.59% from the same period in 2021. According to the production process, sulfonic acid accounted for 46.18%, smelting acid accounted for 34.73%, ore acid accounted for 16.50%, other acid accounted for 2.59%. The distribution of sulphuric acid production capacity in China is unbalanced, mainly concentrated in east China, southwest China and central China, accounting for 73% of the national production capacity.

Among them, the capacity of sulfuric acid in East China is the most concentrated, and the capacity is mainly distributed in the smelting industry in Anhui, Jiangxi and Shandong, mostly for smelting acid, and the representative enterprises are Anhui Tongling Nonferrous Metals (4.6 million tons/year), Jiangxi Copper (3.2 million tons/year), Shandong Yanggu Xiangguang (1.7 million tons/year). And southwest and south China region of sulphuric acid is downstream fertilizer and titanium dioxide supporting device, more than for sulfuric acid with yunnan yun on behalf of the enterprise group (8 million tons/year), guizhou phosphate group (7 million tons/year), sichuan dragon python group (2.5 million tons/year), hubei YiHua (3 million tons/year), hubei xingfa (2 million tons/year), etc.

In 2022, it plans to increase capacity by 9.3 million tons/year, of which 3.5 million tons/year will be added to sulfonic acid units, accounting for 37.63% of the increase. Acid smelting plant increased by 3 million tons/year, accounting for 32.26%; 2 million tons/year was added for ore acid, accounting for 21.51%, and 800,000 tons/year was added for other acid making plants, accounting for 8.60%. Central China, Southwest China and North China accounted for the largest proportion of new growth, with 2.6 million tons, 2.5 million tons and 2.2 million tons, respectively. The increase was 27.96 percent in central China, 26.88 percent in southwest China, and 23.66 percent in North China.

In the next five years, the sulfuric acid industry is planning to build capacity of 21.08 million tons/year, among which there are 5 enterprises with a scale of more than 1 million tons/year. The newly added capacity is mainly distributed in east China, central China and South China. After the concentrated launch of new capacity in 2022-2024, the supply pattern of sulphuric acid market will undergo significant changes, including shrinking imports, increasing exports, and significant changes in the flow of goods. However, the development trend of upstream and downstream integration of sulfuric acid is further prominent.