After Idemitsu’s exit, only three Japanese acrylic acid and ester manufacturers will remain

Recently, Japan’s old petrochemical giant Idemitsu announced that it will withdraw from the acrylic acid and butyl acrylate business. Idemitsu said that in recent years, the expansion of new acrylic acid facilities in Asia has led to an oversupply and a deterioration of the market environment, and the company found it difficult to continue operations in view of its future business policy. Under the plan, Iemitsu Kogyo will cease operation of the 50,000 ton/year acrylic acid plant at the Aichi Refinery by March 2023 and withdraw from the acrylic acid products business, and the company will outsource the production of butyl acrylate.

China has become the world’s largest supplier of acrylic acid and esters

Currently, the global acrylic acid production capacity is close to 9 million tons, of which about 60% comes from Northeast Asia, 38% from China, 15% from North America and 16% from Europe. From the perspective of major global producers, BASF has the largest acrylic acid capacity of 1.5 million tons/year, followed by Arkema with 1.08 million tons/year capacity and Japan Catalyst with 880,000 tons/year. 2022, with the successive launch of satellite chemical and Huayi’s capacity, satellite chemical’s total acrylic acid capacity will reach 840,000 tons/year, overtaking LG Chem (700,000 tons/year) to become the fourth largest acrylic acid company in the world. The top ten acrylic acid producers in the world have a concentration of more than 84%, followed by Hua Yi (520,000 tons/year) and Formosa Plastics (480,000 tons/year).

China in the SAP market development potential is huge

In 2021, the global SAP production capacity of nearly 4.3 million tons, of which 1.3 million tons of capacity from China, accounting for more than 30%, and the rest from Japan, South Korea, North America and Europe. From the perspective of the world’s major producers, Japan Catalyst has the largest SAP production capacity, reaching 700,000 tons / year, followed by BASF capacity of 600,000 tons / year, after the launch of the new capacity of satellite petrochemicals reached 150,000 tons / year, ranking ninth in the world, the global top ten producers industry concentration of nearly 90%.

From the global trade point of view, South Korea and Japan is still the world’s largest SAP exporters, exports a total of 800,000 tons, accounting for 70% of the global trade volume. While China’s SAP exports only tens of thousands of tons, with the gradual improvement in quality, China’s exports will also increase in the future. The Americas, the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe are the main import regions. 2021 global SAP consumption of about 3 million tons, the average annual consumption growth in the next few years is about 4%, of which Asia is growing close to 6%, and other regions between 2%-3%.

China will become the global acrylic acid and ester supply and demand growth pole

In terms of global demand, global acrylic acid consumption is expected to remain at an average annual growth rate of 3.5-4% in 2020-2025, with China representing developing Asia’s acrylic acid consumption growth rate of up to 6%, driven by high demand for SAP and acrylates due to higher disposable income and demand for high quality products.

From the global supply point of view, the strong demand in the next few years has stimulated Chinese companies to increase the investment in integrated acrylic acid capacity, but there is basically no new capacity in the rest of the world.

It is worth mentioning that, as the leading acrylic acid satellite chemical, in the center of the fast-growing demand, continue to make efforts to increase the production capacity of acrylic acid, butyl acrylate and SAP to put efforts, three products in the global production capacity distribution in the fourth, second and ninth place, forming a strong scale advantage and integrated integrated competitiveness.

Looking overseas, the acrylic acid industry in Europe and the United States has seen a number of aging devices and accidents in the 1960s and 1970s, and the demand for acrylic acid and downstream products imported from China in overseas markets will increase, while the demand for fine monomers and products downstream of acrylic acid in China is increasing, and the acrylic acid industry in China will show a more robust development.