2022-05-27 Pageview:382
1. Current situation of PTFE market
Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a polymer of tetrafluoroethylene (TFE), is an important organic fluorine material with excellent dielectric properties and low coefficient of friction. Usually used as engineering plastics, it can be made into polytetrafluoroethylene pipes, rods, belts, plates, films, etc. It is widely used in industry, daily life and other fields, and has the reputation of “plastic king”. In recent years, the global consumption of PTFE has grown rapidly, reaching about 70% of the total consumption of fluororesin. Since 2010, with the transformation of PTFE production capacity in developed countries to high-end and specialization, some of its low-end PTFE Production capacity has moved to my country. At present, my country has become the main producer of PTFE in the world. It is estimated that in 2020, the effective production capacity of PTFE in my country will be 149,600 tons, and the output will be 97,200 tons, accounting for about 60% of the global market.
Common PTFE on the market is generally divided into two categories, namely suspended PTFE and dispersed PTFE. Among them, the suspended polytetrafluoroethylene resin is generally white, and the particle size is relatively large. After specific treatment, powders of various particle sizes can be obtained, which are mainly processed into seals of various specifications. Dispersed PTFE can be divided into two categories, namely powder and concentrated dispersion. Microporous films, fibers, pipes, etc. processed from dispersed resin are also used as high-end materials in the fields of water defense and filtration. Mainly used in various coatings.
2. Downstream application fields
At present, the main application field of PTFE is still the chemical industry, which accounts for 44.5% of the downstream application market of PTFE. PTFE has very good heat resistance, and has a relatively wide operating temperature range, and has outstanding electrical properties, as well as chemical resistance that conventional materials cannot match, and flame retardancy is also very ideal, making it suitable for many applications. It has been applied in various fields, and the core consumption fields include electronics, electrical, petrochemical, aerospace and other aspects. The representative ones include exhaust pipes, steam pipes, high, medium and low pressure pipes, valves, etc. PTFE materials have been widely used in many industries such as petroleum and textile due to their excellent corrosion resistance. Another important application of PTFE is to act as a sealing material. The quality of the sealing effect has a very prominent influence on the overall effect of equipment use. Representatives include heat exchangers, large-diameter containers, and seals for glass reaction pots. At the same time, with the continuous progress of industries around the world, air pollution has gradually evolved into a global problem that cannot be ignored. PTFE itself has the advantages of excellent acid and alkali corrosion resistance, high temperature and humidity resistance, oil resistance, pressure resistance and oxidation resistance, so it has incomparable advantages with other fibers. Expanded PTFE membrane filter material has been widely used. It is used in high-temperature flue gas dust removal and PM2.5 filtration in chemical plants, power plants, carbon black plants, and cement plants.
In mobile communication base stations, the printed circuit board (PCB) copper clad laminate is the core substrate of the printed circuit board. It is a plate-shaped material made of hot-pressed copper foil on both sides. With the rapid development of modern information technology, communication products and information electronic products are gradually developing in the direction of high frequency and high speed. Especially in the military electronics in the cutting-edge field, the frequency band has developed to the millimeter waveband, and the traditional FR-4 copper clad laminate can no longer be used. To meet demand, it is gradually replaced by high-speed and high-reliability substrates. Polytetrafluoroethylene resin is the resin with the lowest dielectric coefficient in the current industrial printed circuit board substrate. The typical value of its dielectric coefficient is about 2.0, and it has good high and low temperature resistance and aging resistance. It is the most suitable for high-frequency substrate materials. At present, PTFE high-frequency copper cladding has been used in 5G communication, artificial intelligence and other fields, but such products are still monopolized by US-funded enterprises, and the market supply is relatively limited. In 2020, the number of 5G base stations for mobile phones in my country will reach 718,000. With the promotion and application of 5G technology and the rapid development of new fields such as autonomous driving and smart cities, the market demand for PTFE high-frequency copper clad laminates will show explosive growth.
3. Market competition pattern
From the perspective of production capacity distribution, the production capacity concentration of PTFE is relatively high. In 2019, there were 12 domestic PTFE manufacturers, and the top five companies in the industry’s production capacity concentration accounted for more than 75% of the total industrial capacity. Most of the PTFE produced in China is general-purpose, medium and low-quality products, with low industry barriers. The industry experienced a blind expansion stage before 2015, with serious excess capacity. The overall operating rate of the industry has been maintained at around 60% for three consecutive years. The top three companies in the industry are Shandong Dongyue, Haohua Technology and Zhejiang Juhua. In the face of the overcapacity in the low-end and mid-end of the industry, relevant industry plans in various places clearly point out the future high-end transformation of fluorine chemicals and the strengthening of fluoropolymer development. development ideas.
Fourth, the import and export of PTFE
Most of the PTFE produced in my country is a general-purpose variety, with low quality and low-end products. Common high-end PTFE varieties mainly include ultra-fine powder PTFE, PTFE emulsion te3859, fusible PTFE, room temperature curing fluororesin coatings, nano-PTFE, expanded PTFE, ultra-high molecular weight PTFE and high compression ratio PTFE dispersion resin. At present, my country has basically occupied the market in low-end products such as PTFE sheets, pipes, gaskets and sealing tapes, but there is still a big gap between high-end products and western developed countries, such as e-PTFE artificial blood vessels, medical seams There are no large-scale industrialized products in my country, such as thread and heart patch, and the products used are mainly imported, and the price is relatively high. The annual export volume of PTFE in my country is basically stable at more than 20,000 tons, while the import volume is about 6,000 tons. As the competition in the low-end and middle-end markets has become fierce, companies such as Xinzhoubang, Walter Group, and Dongyue Group have begun to deploy high-end production capacity to expand the market space.
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