Experts talk about the present situation and trend of China's polylactic acid market
Experts talk about the present situation and trend of China's polylactic acid market
Interest in bioplastics is growing in China, but the cost of raw materials remains a limiting factor. At the 2015 China international conference on biotechnology and cooperation in Shanghai, a number of speakers put forward their own views and interact with the audience. There is a view that the whole industry is not profitable, and unless it expands the domestic production scale and reduces costs, it will not be able to break through the current difficulties. But brigitte, oprah grams (Corbion Purac NV) in China, general manager of poly (lactic acid) (PLA) ZhenGuangMing more optimistic, he said, there are many steps can help reduce cost, improve production technology, for example, and don't always expect suppliers to lower the price. The total iqu polylactic acid consumption will reach 300,000 tons by 2020, according to research engineer and sales support from Sulzer Chemtech Ltd., a polylactic acid producer. He also believes there will be a shortage of supply in the market next year, but there will be new capacity to go online in 2017-2018, rebalancing the supply and demand. He says more capacity will be needed after 2020. Until then, demand will be lower than capacity. He said it was a good time to get into the polylactic acid production industry, and if it was waiting, it would be missed. He predicts that local policy support will lead to rapid development of the application of polylactic acid. "China will become the world's largest market for polylactic acid in the near future, because we have a large population base and market demand is here, and environmental protection has become a necessity." The biomaterials will always compete and compete with traditional plastics because of the price of raw materials, he told attendees. So he thinks the most important thing at the moment is to get away from low-end applications. "If you focus on the lower end of the consumer, it's going to be a problem," he says. The outlook would be much better if you were targeting high-end consumers." For example, cosmetics, children's products, health care products and women's underwear are potential applications. In an interview with the plastic news, he said, due to the high cost of poly (lactic acid) (PLA), therefore must turn to good market, consumers will be willing to buy, and the price is for the sake of health or natural products, low sensitivity to price. He believes these high-end apps are superior to low-end products such as the agricultural film, because farmers may be reluctant to pay a premium for polylactic acid. He also believes that technology and scale are limiting the development of China's polylactic acid industry. "There are a lot of technical challenges that can be won if they can be solved. The cost factor is really there, but if you go into the high end of the market you can get around the cost/price factor. This requires some technical problems, but many companies are reluctant to invest in research and development, just complaining that the cost of raw materials is too high. The company is keeping a close eye on market development and hopes to build a production base in China within the next five years, according to the company. The company produces lactic acid in Thailand and supplies it to China's polylactic acid production companies. He said the 17 per cent import tax was a shock to prices. The speakers also said that jilin province's promotion of bioplastic bags boosted industry confidence. "Only the government can solve environmental problems. The government has the ability to quickly create the whole market." "In the long term, as the scale of global production expands, the cost competitiveness of bioplastics will be enhanced, and downstream products will become more efficient in their production processes," zhen said.