First, the overview of the sucralose industry
Sucralose, commonly known as sucralose, is a high-power sweetener, a new type of sweetener jointly developed and patented by the British Taylor Company and the University of London in 1976.
The sucralose synthesis process mainly has two types: single group protection method and whole group protection method, and the whole group protection method has no industrial value. The sucralose process is mainly divided into three stages: esterification, chlorination and alcohol lysis: (1) esterification stage, the use of organotin method to produce sucrose-6-ethyl ester (A sugar), high product yield, while dibutyltin oxide can be recycled, greatly reducing production costs; (2) chlorination stage, the use of thionyl chloride and DMF reaction to produce well's reagent to selectively chlorinate A sugar, the formation of sucralose ester (B sugar), improve the reaction efficiency. (3) In the alcohol lysis stage, the B sugar and methanol are stirred at a certain temperature until the B sugar is dissolved, and the PH value (generally PH≥7) after the B sugar is dissolved is measured, that is, sucralose and methyl acetate are generated.
The basic flow of sucralose production process
Source: Collation of publicly available information
Background of the development of sucralose
Compared with sucrose, artificial sweeteners have low costs. Usually, the cost performance of the sweetener is measured by the 'sweet price ratio', the sweetness of the definition of sucrose is 1, and through comparison, it is found that under the same price, the sweetness of the artificial sweetener is more than 10 times that of the sucrose, and the addition of artificial sweetener can greatly reduce the production cost of beverage products. Among them, the sweetness-price ratio of sucralose is about 3.3.
Synthetic sweeteners have been around for six generations, followed by saccharin, cyclamate, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, and neosweet. As a first-generation sweetener, the safety of saccharin is currently widely questioned, and it has been banned in many Western countries due to its carcinogenic risk. China has implemented fixed-point production, limited production and sales, and total quantity control for saccharin; the second-generation sweetener cyclamate, due to its carcinogens cyclohexylamine and dipenthexylamine, has been banned in more than 40 countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States. China has also made strict limits on the amount of cyclamate added to food. Aspartame as a third-generation sweetener, the safety has been improved, but it has also been rejected by the FDA, and its thermal and alkali stability is poor, and it is not suitable for patients with phenylketonuria. The fifth generation of sucralose performed better overall. The sixth generation of New Sweet is still in the introduction period, and the market share is relatively small. At present, China is the world's largest producer of synthetic sweeteners, the domestic market is still mainly based on cyclamate and saccharin and other first- and second-generation synthetic sweeteners, sucralose and other accounts for a relatively small proportion, of which sucralose accounts for 4%. With the steady growth of the global food industry, the future market demand for sweeteners has a guaranteed foundation. As a global producer of synthetic sweeteners, China's future sweetener market has broad prospects.
Third, the current situation of sucralose
1. Production capacity
In 2020, it is conservatively estimated that the demand for sucralose will increase by about 500 tons, and this part of the new demand is mainly supplemented by the improvement of the operating rate of Jinhe's 3,000 tons/year production capacity. It is expected that the existing production capacity of Jinhe Industry will not be able to meet the new demand in the market in 2021, and the price of sucralose is expected to rebound. At the end of 2022, Xinhecheng plans to put into operation 2,000 tons / year of new production capacity, which may alleviate the tight demand situation.
2. Competitive landscape
From the perspective of global sucralose competition, the British Taylor is the first enterprise to carry out sucralose research and development and mass production, accounting for 20% of the global market supply in 2020, and the highest proportion in China is Jinhe Industry, which is 17%. However, there is a problem that some production capacity cannot be released smoothly due to various problems such as environmental protection. At present, the price of sucralose is 180,000-220,000 / ton, which is lower than the cost of most small and medium-sized manufacturers. In the future, with the suppression of cost lines and the tightening of environmental protection, the market share of Jinhe Industry is expected to continue to increase. In the long run, there are relatively many market participants at present, and with the gradual withdrawal of production capacity with a cost higher than the market price, the competitive structure of sucralose will show a gradual concentration.
Fourth, the export status
As far as China's sucralose import and export situation is concerned, China is a large exporter of sucralose, the import scale is small, the export amount has declined since 2017, and the export amount of China's sucralose in 2018-2020 is basically stable, and the export amount in 2020 is 197 million US dollars, a decrease of about 2 million US dollars compared with 2019.
Data source: General Administration of Customs, compiled by Huajing Industry Research Institute
With the development of science and technology and the transformation of consumer awareness, people's demand for synthetic low calorific value, high sweetness sweetener is increasing, more safe and hygienic, high-quality, natural flavor products are bound to replace the old generation of products, sucralose products these characteristics, just to meet the needs of the development of this era. In terms of the distribution of China's main export sources of sucralose, mainly Anhui and Shandong, accounting for about 57% of the total, of which Anhui is the highest, with an output of 2.9 million tons in 2020, about 67 million US dollars, and Shandong ranks second with an output of 2.05 million tons.
Sucralose sweetener is now widely used in major beverages and baked foods, the United States, Europe and other developed countries are the most widely used, the addition of sucralose to food will not make the eater obese, while not damaging consumer teeth. China is a large exporter of sucralose, and the main export regions are North America, Latin America, Asia and Europe, accounting for more than 95% of the total, of which the highest proportion is North America, at 29.3%. The United States is China's largest exporter, accounting for more than a quarter of China's sugar exports.
Huajing Information Network is affiliated to Huajing Industry Research Institute, focusing on industrial economic intelligence and research in Greater China, and currently mainly provides products and services including traditional and emerging industry research, business plan, feasibility study, market research, special report, customized report, etc. It covers the fields of culture and sports, logistics and tourism, health and pension, biomedicine, energy and chemical industry, equipment manufacturing, automotive electronics, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, etc., and also deeply studies emerging fields such as smart city, smart life, smart manufacturing, new energy, new materials, new consumption, new finance, artificial intelligence, and "Internet +".
This article was published by "Focus", May 27, 2021