The output of my country’s nucleating agent industry is gradually increasing, and the dependence on foreign countries is expected to decrease.

Nucleating agent is a material additive that affects the crystallinity of polyolefin resin materials such as polyethylene and polypropylene during their crystallization process. Nucleating agents have the advantages of good surface gloss, impact resistance, creep resistance, and short molding cycle. They can increase the number of nucleation during the crystallization process of resin materials, thereby improving the optical properties of resin material products and increasing the strength and stiffness of the products. After years of development, the types of nucleating agents have gradually increased, and they can be roughly divided into β-crystalline toughening nucleating agents, transparent nucleating agents, stiffening nucleating agents, etc.

At present, my country’s nucleating agent industry chain has basically been formed. The upstream of the industrial chain is mainly the raw material industry, providing methanol, p-toluenesulfonic acid, cyclohexane and other raw materials; the midstream is mainly the nucleating agent production industry, responsible for the production and manufacturing of different types of nucleating agents; the downstream is mainly the application field, forming Nuclear agents are mostly used to produce high-performance resin materials, modified plastics, etc., and are widely used in medical devices, auto parts, building materials, household appliances, baby products and other fields.

As a key raw material for the production of modified plastics, nucleating agents’ market development is closely related to the modified plastics industry. At this stage, modified plastics are widely used in downstream applications due to their advantages such as heat resistance, corrosion resistance, and good insulation properties, and market demand is growing steadily. With the rapid development of my country’s smart home appliances and new energy vehicle markets, modified plastics are one of the important raw materials, and the market demand has increased accordingly, leading to a gradual increase in the market demand for nucleating agents.

With the gradual advancement of science and technology, the comprehensive performance of nucleating agents has gradually improved, and the application fields have gradually broadened. In the electronic field, nucleating agents can be used to make chips; in the pharmaceutical field, nucleating agents are mostly used in new drug research and development and other aspects. Overall, the market demand for nucleating agents is relatively huge.

According to the “China Nucleating Agent Industry Market Monitoring and Future Development Prospects Research Report 2023-2028” released by the Industrial Research Center , driven by downstream market demand, my country’s nucleating agent production capacity has gradually expanded, and output has increased accordingly. In 2022, my country’s nucleating agent production was 2911.2 tons, a year-on-year increase of 25.2%. However, due to a certain gap between my country’s nucleating agent market demand and production, the nucleating agent industry is in short supply and needs to be imported in large quantities from abroad. As my country’s nucleating agent companies continue to expand their production scale, the output of nucleating agents will continue to grow in the future, and dependence on foreign countries is expected to decrease.

Industry analysts said that at present, the main foreign nucleating agent companies include New Japan R&C, Milliken, Adik, etc., while domestic Larger nucleating agent companies mainly include Zhichu Chemical, Shanghai Qirun, Chenghe Technology, etc. Because foreign nucleating agent companies started earlier, they occupy most of my country’s market with their advanced production technology and excellent product quality. However, in recent years, my country’s nucleating agent companies have developed rapidly, continuously increasing investment in research and development, production technology has been greatly improved, and the speed of local substitution of nucleating agents has gradually accelerated.