Analysis of China’s Butyl Sealant Market Application Areas and Market Development Prospects in 2023

Sealant refers to a sealing material that deforms with the shape of the sealing surface, is not easy to flow, and has a certain degree of adhesion. It is an adhesive used to fill configuration gaps to achieve a sealing effect. According to the base material, it can be divided into rubber type (polysulfide type) Rubber, silicone rubber, polyurethane rubber, chloroprene rubber and butyl rubber, etc.), resin type (epoxy resin, unsaturated polyester resin, phenolic resin, polyacrylic resin, polyvinyl chloride resin, etc.) and oil-based type (linen oil, castor oil, tung oil, etc.). Butyl sealant is a rubber-type sealant produced by using butyl rubber (IIR) as the main material and adding polyisobutylene. It has good air tightness, water tightness, chemical stability and thermal stability. Butyl sealant mainly includes two products: butyl tape and butyl hot melt adhesive.

The “2023-2027 China Butyl Sealant Market Monitoring and Future Development Prospects Research Report compiled and released by the Industrial Research Center shows , butyl sealant has good waterproofing, sealing, aging resistance, and electrical insulation, but has poor processing performance and slow vulcanization. It is mainly used in photovoltaic components, wind turbine blades, building materials, automobiles, electric power, high-speed rail, communications, etc. field. In terms of photovoltaic modules, butyl sealant can be used as backsheet coating material, frame sealing material, and cell adhesive material, and is widely used in the production of photovoltaic modules. In terms of wind turbine blades, butyl strips can be used to seal the edges of the release cloth during blade infusion molding. In the field of building materials, butyl sealant can be used to seal insulating glass. Insulating glass is a product that uses two pieces of glass separated by a spacer frame and sealed with sealant. It has the characteristics of heat preservation, sound insulation, and good lighting. Butyl sealant is used in hollow glass. The glass field is widely used and the market size continues to grow.

In recent years, with the development of new photovoltaic cell technologies, the industrialization of new battery products such as HJT and perovskite has accelerated, which has also driven the market demand for butyl sealant products. Products such as HJT and perovskite batteries have higher requirements for waterproof performance in component packaging. Butyl sealant, as the current best waterproof sealant product, has great application potential in the field of new batteries and brings new market demand. It is expected that in the next few years, driven by the demand in traditional building materials, automobiles and other fields as well as the incremental demand in emerging fields such as photovoltaic modules, the market demand for butyl sealant products will grow rapidly and the market size will expand rapidly.

The main raw materials for the production of butyl sealant products are butyl rubber and polyisobutylene, and the products are mainly imported. Global butyl rubber production capacity is overcapacity, mainly concentrated in Europe and the United States. Domestic butyl rubber is mainly concentrated in the low-end field, and high-end production capacity is insufficient. Polyisobutylene product production capacity is mainly concentrated in North America, Western Europe and other fields. Chinese polyisobutylene production companies mainly include Nanjing Yangzi BASF, Jinzhou Jinglian, Jilin Petrochemical, Shandong Yuhuang and other companies. Polyisobutylene products are widely used and can be used in sealants, medical patches, fillers, lubricants, etc.

The main manufacturers of butyl sealant products include Komelin and Konex. Domestic companies such as Kangda New Materials also have butyl sealant related products. However, at present, the field of photovoltaic butyl sealant is mainly dominated by foreign companies such as Komelin and Konex. The domestic company Kangda New Materials has already laid out its layout in photovoltaic butyl sealant. It is expected that in the next few years, with the development of new photovoltaic cell technologies, butyl sealant for photovoltaics will become the fastest growing segment of butyl sealant. Domestic companies should seize the opportunity and accelerate domestic substitution.