DONGGUAN COWINT NEW MATERIAL TECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD
No.2,West Industrial Road of Jiaoli,Zhongtang Town,Dongguan
Tel: +86-769-88882603 Web:www.cowint2.com
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Polyurethane, an emerging organic polymer material, is known as the "fifth largest plastic", and is widely used in many areas of the national economy due to its excellent performance. At present, China is the world's largest producer of polyurethane, accounting for about 45% of global polyurethane production. There are many types of polyurethane products, and polyurethane elastomer is one of them. Polyurethane elastomer is a series of elastomer materials containing more urethane groups on the polymer main chain. It is a kind of polymer material that can be restored well after the external force applied to it is eliminated.
Polyurethane elastomers can be divided into thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers (TPU), castable polyurethane elastomers (CPU) and mixed polyurethane elastomers (MPU) according to different processes. Among them, TPU has the largest scale. The TPU industry is at the downstream of the entire chemical industry chain, closer to the end consumer market.
1. Classification of polyurethane elastomers
TPU is a polyurethane elastomer product. The raw materials such as polyol, MDI, BDO, adipic acid, ethylene glycol, etc. required for its production are all petroleum derivatives or by-products, which are downstream products of petrochemical industry. TPU is a branch of thermoplastic elastomer material. It is a polymer material polymerized from three basic materials: diisocyanate, macromolecular polyol, and chain extender (low molecular diol).
Compared with general plastic and rubber materials, TPU has a wide range of hardness, outstanding mechanical properties, excellent high/low temperature resistance, good processing performance, excellent environmental performance, strong plasticity, strong designability, and excellent transparency. It has both the high elasticity of rubber materials and the high strength of engineering plastics.
2. TPU material characteristics
TPU was first successfully developed by Bayer of Germany in 1958, and major chemical companies in Europe and the United States have successively developed and put into production. In the 1970s, Japan introduced German TPU production equipment and introduced TPU production technology to Taiwan. Mainland China has been exposed to TPU production technology since the 1980s, but has not achieved breakthroughs in R&D and technology. After the 1990s, as the market demand for TPU materials increased, after European, American, and Taiwan-funded enterprises entered the mainland, some mainland enterprises began to produce and sell TPU.
3. Global and China TPU industry development history
Thanks to its excellent product performance, TPU's market demand in various national economic fields such as consumer goods, industrial production, medical and health, national defense and military industries has increased significantly. In recent years, my country's new TPU production capacity has been released one after another, and the TPU operating rate has steadily increased in 2018 and 2019. The compound annual growth rate of domestic TPU production from 2014 to 2019 is as high as 15.46%. In 2019, the scale of my country's TPU industry continues to expand, with an output of about 512,900 tons. my country has gradually surpassed Europe and the United States to become the world's largest TPU producer and consumer, and its average annual consumption has maintained a rapid growth of about 10%.
4. China's TPU downstream application pattern
my country is the world's largest footwear producer and exporter, and its output accounts for more than 50% of the global total. The technological innovation of sole materials is an important innovation point in the shoe industry. Compared with traditional shoe sole materials, TPU has obvious performance advantages, and its dosage is increasing day by day. Among them, ETPU has outstanding resilience and shock absorption advantages, and the made sole can effectively absorb the impact of the ground on the foot and provide a high-quality cushioning effect.
On the whole, the TPU industry has the characteristics of a relatively high proportion of raw material costs, fast product updates, a wide variety of specifications and models, and distinct customer needs. Therefore, the profit level of the industry is affected by various factors such as fluctuations in raw material prices, new product development capabilities, and customer service levels. With the successive introduction of domestic policies and measures for residents’ sports and health, and the improvement of residents’ consumer spending on sports goods, the growth in consumer demand for high-tech sports shoes is conducive to increasing the application space of the TPU industry. On the other hand, in the high-end market Such as calender grade TPU, medical TPU, high temperature resistant TPU and other varieties, the domestic mainly relies on imports. With the long-term technology accumulation and R&D investment of domestic TPU companies, it is expected to break the monopoly of foreign companies and expand the domestic substitution space.