The dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) market has regained new opportunities. In the future, local companies will need to accelerate the development of key technologies.

Dimethyl terephthalate, referred to as DMT, is an organic compound with the chemical formula C10H10O4. Dimethyl terephthalate is a polyester monomer with a colorless crystal appearance. It is insoluble in water and soluble in organic solvents such as hot ethanol, methanol, ether, and chloroform.

There are two main methods for producing dimethyl terephthalate. One is to use terephthalic acid (PTA) and methanol as raw materials and concentrated sulfuric acid as a catalyst under low temperature and low pressure conditions to produce crude terephthalic acid through a chemical reaction. The method of producing DMT from dimethyl ester through drying, vacuum distillation and other processes has the disadvantages of serious pollution and low equipment efficiency; second, using terephthalic acid and methanol as raw materials, under high temperature and high pressure conditions, The method of directly obtaining DMT after refining has the advantages of high product yield and simple process, and has now become the mainstream production process of DMT.

According to the “2023 Domestic Dimethyl Terephthalate (DMT) Industry Development Status and Investment Strategy Suggestions Report” released by the Industrial Research Center shows that globally, companies with mass production capabilities for dimethyl terephthalate mainly include Teijin Co., Ltd. of Japan, JSC Mogilevkhimvolokno of Belarus, Invista of the United States, Eastman of the United States, and SK Group of South Korea. With the continuous upgrading of production technology, the current global production capacity of dimethyl terephthalate is 5 million tons per year.

Dimethyl terephthalate is a type of fine chemical product that is widely used in resins, films, engineering plastics, coatings, polyester paints and other fields. It is an important chemical in modern industrial production. In the early days, dimethyl terephthalate was mainly used as a key raw material for the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). With the emergence of purified terephthalic acid, PTA relied on higher production efficiency and lower production costs. Cost has become a key raw material for PET. As a result, the DMT market was impacted and industrial development was stagnant.

However, in recent years, under the background of continuous in-depth research on domestic polyester, the production of high-performance polyester monomer 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol (CHDM) through hydrogenation method using dimethyl terephthalate as raw material has become an industry research topic. focus areas. CHDM has excellent comprehensive properties and is a key raw material for the production of new polyesters such as PCT, PETG and PCTG. The market demand is relatively broad. In the future, with the rapid development of CHDM application fields, the demand for DMT, a key raw material of CHDM, will continue to increase, and the market development prospects are good.

Industry analysts said that dimethyl terephthalate is an important type of fine chemical product. Synthetic resins, films, engineering plastics and other fields have broad application prospects. In the early days, DMT was mainly used in PET production scenarios. However, with the emergence of high-quality substitute PTA, its market has gradually shrunk. In recent years, with CHDM gradually becoming an important monomer in the polyester field, it has been used as a key raw material for the production of CHDM. Obtain market development opportunities and have broad future development prospects. At present, the global DMT production capacity is mainly concentrated in the hands of international chemical companies. The number of domestic production companies is relatively small, and the technology is relatively backward, small in scale, and highly dependent on imports. In the future, local companies will need to accelerate the acquisition of key technologies and promote the continuous acceleration of the domestic substitution process. .