With the continuous advancement of science and technology, the downstream demand market will grow accordingly. At the same time, the scope of downstream applications is expected to continue to expand, and downstream demand will maintain steady growth. In the downstream market structure of cellulose ether, building materials, oil exploration, food and other fields occupy a major position. Among them, the building materials sector is the largest consumer market, accounting for more than 30%.

The construction industry is the largest consumer field of HPMC products

In the construction industry, HPMC products play an important role in bonding and water retention. After mixing a small amount of HPMC with cement mortar, it can increase the viscosity, tensile and shear strength of cement mortar, mortar, binder, etc., thereby improving the performance of building materials, improving construction quality and mechanical construction efficiency. In addition, HPMC is also an important retarder for the production and transportation of commercial concrete, which can lock water and enhance the rheology of concrete. At present, HPMC is the main cellulose ether product used in building sealing materials.

The construction industry is the key pillar industry of my country’s national economy. The data shows that the construction area of housing construction has increased from 7.08 billion square meters in 2010 to 14.42 billion square meters in 2019, which has strongly stimulated the growth of the cellulose ether market.

The overall prosperity of the real estate industry has rebounded, and the construction and sales area have increased year-on-year. Public data shows that in 2020, the monthly year-on-year decline in the new construction area of ??commercial residential housing has been narrowing, and the year-on-year decrease has been 1.87%. In 2021, the recovery trend is expected to continue. From January to February this year, the growth rate of the sales area of commercial housing and residential buildings rebounded to 104.9%, which is a considerable increase.

Oil drilling

The drilling engineering services industry market is particularly impacted by global exploration and development investments, with approximately 40% of the global exploration portfolio devoted to drilling engineering services.

During oil drilling, drilling fluid plays an important role in carrying and suspending cuttings, strengthening hole walls and balancing formation pressure, cooling and lubricating drill bits, and transmitting hydrodynamic force. Therefore, in oil drilling work, it is very important to maintain proper humidity, viscosity, fluidity and other indicators of drilling fluid. The polyanionic cellulose, PAC, can thicken, lubricate the drill bit, and transmit hydrodynamic force. Due to the complex geological conditions in the oil storage area and the difficulty of drilling, there is a large demand for PAC.

Pharmaceutical accessories industry

Nonionic cellulose ethers are widely used in the pharmaceutical industry as pharmaceutical excipients such as thickeners, dispersants, emulsifiers and film formers. It is used for film coating and adhesive of pharmaceutical tablets, and can also be used for suspensions, ophthalmic preparations, floating tablets, etc. Since pharmaceutical grade cellulose ether has stricter requirements on the purity and viscosity of the product, the manufacturing process is relatively complicated and there are more washing procedures. Compared with other grades of cellulose ether products, the collection rate is lower and the production cost is higher, but the added value of the product is also higher. Pharmaceutical excipients are mainly used in preparation products such as chemical preparations, Chinese patent medicines and biochemical products.

Due to the late start of my country’s pharmaceutical excipients industry, the current overall development level is low, and the industry mechanism needs to be further improved. In the output value of domestic pharmaceutical preparations, the output value of domestic medicinal dressings accounts for a relatively low proportion of 2% to 3%, which is far lower than the proportion of foreign pharmaceutical excipients, which is about 15%. It can be seen that domestic pharmaceutical excipients still have a lot of room for development, it is expected to effectively stimulate the growth of the related cellulose ether market.

From the perspective of domestic cellulose ether production, Shandong Head?has the largest production capacity, accounting for 12.5% of the total production capacity, followed by Shandong Rui Tai, Shandong Yi Teng, North Tian Pu Chemical and other enterprises. Overall, the competition in the industry is fierce, and the concentration is expected to further increase.