First, the industrial chain of butanone industry
Butanone, also known as methyl ethyl ketone, referred to as MEK, is an excellent organic solvent with excellent properties, with excellent solubility and drying properties, can be miscible with a variety of warp solvents, and has a wide range of uses in industrial fields such as magnetic tape, synthetic leather, coatings, adhesives and inks, fragrances, catalysts, antioxidants and corrosion inhibitors. In addition, methyl ethyl ketone is also an important fine chemical raw material, and is used as an intermediate in the production of antioxidants, fragrances and catalysts. Its derivative, methyl ethyl ketone peroxide, is used as a curing agent for polyester fiberglass. The vast majority of the world's methyl ethyl ketone is used in the paints and coatings industry.
Schematic diagram of the industrial chain of the butanone industry
Source: Compiled by Huajing Industry Research Institute
Second, the development status of China's butanone industry analysis
Nearly three-quarters of the global butanone production capacity is concentrated in Asia, mainly represented by China and Japan, the United States was once the main supplier of butanone, but since 2013 stopped all butanone production, the consumption of butanone in the United States is completely dependent on imported products. In terms of domestic output, according to statistics, as of 2019, China's butanone production was 365,400 tons, down 11.3% year-on-year.
Source: Collation of publicly available information
The main downstream industry of methyl ethyl ketone in China is coatings and adhesives, in addition, there is also a certain consumption in the production of lubricant dewaxing tapes, inks, synthetic leather and other chemical products. According to statistics, as of 2019, the apparent demand for butanone in China was 201,000 tons, down 23.3% year-on-year.
At present, the capacity utilization rate of butanone in China is not high, the market is in a state of oversupply, and the gap between the two has been solved by export and export. Before 2010, China is still a net importer of butanone, after 2010 China's butanone orders grew steadily; as of 2018, the European market accident led to a tight supply of butanone, China's butanone exports increased significantly, the price came out of the annual high, by 2020, China's butanone exports were 190,500 tons, an increase of 15.6%; imports were 1015 tons, an increase of 142.2% year-on-year.
Source: China Customs, compiled by Huajing Industrial Research Institute
In terms of import and export amount, according to statistics, as of 2020, China's butanone export amount was 177.37 million US dollars, an increase of 8.3% year-on-year, and the import amount was 1.47 million US dollars, an increase of 75% year-on-year.
Related report: "2020-2025 China Butanone Industry Market Prospect Forecast and Investment Strategy Research Report" released by Huajing Industry Research Institute
Third, the analysis of key enterprises in China's butanone industry
Since its inception, Qi Xiang Tengda (stock code: 002408) has been focusing on the in-depth processing of raw material carbon four, which is transformed into high value-added fine chemical products. At present, four product lines of carbon tetrabutene, isobutene, butane and isobutane components have been formed, and the main products are methyl ethyl ketone, butadiene, male butadiene rubber, maleic anhydride, isooctane, methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), propylene, etc., and realize the full use of carbon tetra-component.
After Qi Xiang Tengda injected into the supply chain business in 2017, its revenue exceeded 20 billion yuan in 2017, an increase of nearly three times compared with 2016, and its revenue in 2018 was 27.9 billion yuan, an increase of 25.6% year-on-year. The supply chain business contributed 17.2 billion yuan in revenue in the supply chain in 2018, an increase of 36.1% year-on-year. As of the first three quarters of 2020, Qi Xiang Tengda's operating income was 16.3 billion yuan, down 32.7% year-on-year.
Source: Company announcement, compiled by Huajing Industry Research Institute
Qi Xiang Tengda's main product methyl ethyl ketone is a large-scale fine chemical enterprise with more advanced technology. The number of manufacturers is small, and the enterprises with large production scale are generally large fine chemical companies. Although the low-end product market shows competitive pressure, the high market concentration makes the competition in the methyl ethyl ketone industry relatively rational, and the bargaining power and cost pass-through ability of major enterprises are relatively strong. The company is the world's largest production capacity of a single set of methyl ethyl ketone device, domestic production and marketing share accounted for about 50%, according to statistics, as of the first half of 2020, Qi Xiang Tengda methyl ethyl ketone business revenue of 1.422 billion yuan, an increase of 26.7% year-on-year.
From the perspective of the main business income structure of Qi Xiang Tengda, in the first half of 2020, the revenue of Qi Xiang Tengda's supply chain management business was 5.913 billion yuan, accounting for 59.66%, and the revenue of maleic anhydride chemical and methyl ethyl ketone business was 1.892 billion yuan and 1.422 billion yuan, accounting for 19.09% and 14.34% respectively.
Fourth, the global butanone industry development trend analysis
From a regional perspective, in the next five years, the growth in demand for butanone in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan will be almost flat, with an increase of only about 0.5%, mainly due to the increasingly stringent environmental regulations in the use of solvents containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in these countries, and the replacement of water-based solvents in various fields. Demand in the rest of Asia, excluding Japan, grew at an annual rate of 2.7 percent. Demand growth will come mainly from China, the largest consumer country, and the fastest-growing countries of India and Southeast Asia. Due to China's macro-control of manufacturing industry upgrading and other factors, in recent years, the footwear, shoe glue, clothing industry, PU pulp and other industries continue to shift to Southeast Asia, it is expected that the demand for butanone in these areas will grow at an average annual rate of 5.4% in the next 5 years. In China, butanone is an alternative to traditional solvents such as benzene, and meets national environmental protection requirements in terms of total organic volatilization and toxicity indicators of solvents. In addition, with the gradual acceleration of China's urbanization process, butanone-related shoe adhesives, synthetic leather, automotive coatings, packaging and decoration printing inks, downstream fine chemicals deep processing and other industries still have a certain room for development, and the growth rate is expected to remain above 2.4% per year.
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