Glycol ether has a wide range of application fields and the competitiveness of Chinese enterprises is continuing to improve.

Ethylene glycol ether is one of the important derivatives of ethylene oxide and an important series of glycol ether products. There are many types of products, including ethylene glycol methyl (ethyl and butyl) ether, diethylene glycol methyl ether and (B, butyl) ether and triethylene glycol methyl (B, butyl) ether, etc. Among them, the varieties with higher consumption mainly include ethylene glycol methyl ether, ethylene glycol butyl ether, and ethylene glycol ethyl ether, especially ethylene glycol butyl ether, whose consumption accounts for more than 60% of the total consumption of ethylene glycol ether.

According to the “2023-2028 Glycol Ether Industry In-depth Market Research and Investment Strategy Suggestions Report” released by the Industrial Research Center, Glycol ethers are an important class of chemical solvents that can interact with a variety of chemical substances at the molecular level, making them easier to handle and react. They are widely used in water-based coatings, paints, metal cleaners, and electronic cleaning fluids. , cosmetics and other product production scenarios; at the same time, glycol ether can also be used as a surfactant in the production scenarios of dye auxiliaries, agricultural pesticides, and agricultural fungicides. Glycol ether has a wide range of applications. In recent years, with the rapid development of the downstream market, its demand has been continuously released.

From the production side, in terms of production technology, currently glycol ethers are mainly prepared through addition reactions using ethylene oxide and alcohol as raw materials. Ethylene oxide is a key raw material for the production of diethanol ether. In recent years, my country’s ethylene oxide production capacity has made steady progress, and its total domestic production capacity will exceed 7.4 million tons in 2022. The sufficient supply of upstream raw materials has created favorable conditions for the development of the glycol ether industry.

In terms of production companies, my country’s glycol ether production companies mainly include Jiangsu Dana Chemical, Jiangsu Yida Chemical, Jiangsu Hualun Chemical, Xi’an Zhehua Chemical, Zhejiang Shenghui Chemical, Zhejiang Xinhua New Material Technology, Hebei Guangrun Chemical, Zhongshan Zhongsheng Chemical, Chongqing Zheyi Chemical, Tianjin Fuyu Fine Chemical, Yiwu Jialian Chemical, etc. In recent years, with the continuous improvement of the technology of local enterprises, my country’s glycol ether production capacity has gradually been released, and it has now become one of the world’s major producing countries.

However, due to the late start of the domestic industry, there is still a large gap in technology and performance between domestic glycol ethers and international advanced products. Therefore, part of my country’s current demand for glycol ethers still relies on imports. Companies such as Dow Chemical of the United States, BASF of Germany, Shell of the Netherlands, and Ineos of Switzerland are the world’s leading suppliers of glycol ethers.

Industry analysts said that glycol ether is a type of chemical solvent widely used in coatings, It is widely used in electronics, pesticides, medicine and other fields. From the perspective of the global glycol ether market structure, the current market is still dominated by international chemical leaders such as BASF and Dow Chemical. In comparison, Chinese companies only occupy a small share of the market. However, in recent years, as local companies continue to introduce advanced equipment and increase technology research and development, my country’s glycol ether production capacity has continued to improve, the overall competitiveness of enterprises has continued to strengthen, and the industry development trend has been improving.