[Industry Focus]：Why epoxy projects have been added faster in recent years

As of July 2023, the total scale of epoxy resin in China has exceeded 3 million tons per year, showing a high growth rate of 12.7 in recent years, and the industry growth rate has exceeded the average growth rate of bulk chemicals. It can be seen that in recent years, epoxy resin projects have increased rapidly, and many companies have invested in construction and plan to build a huge project. According to statistics, the scale of epoxy resin construction in China will exceed 2.8 million tons in the future, and the growth rate of the industry will continue to increase to about 18%.

epoxy resin is produced by the polymerization of bisphenol A and epichlorohydrin. It has high mechanical properties, strong cohesion, compact molecular structure, excellent bonding performance, and low curing shrinkage (product size is stable, internal stress is small, It is not easy to crack), good insulation, good corrosion resistance, good stability, and good heat resistance (up to 200 ℃ or higher), so it is widely used in coatings, electronic appliances, composite materials, adhesives and other fields. The production process of

epoxy resin is generally divided into one-step and two-step methods. The one-step method is the direct reaction of bisphenol A and epichlorohydrin to generate epoxy resin, which is commonly used to synthesize low molecular weight and medium molecular weight epoxy resin; the two-step method is that the low molecular resin continues to react with bisphenol A. High molecular weight epoxy resins can be synthesized by a one-step process or by a two-step process.

one-step process is to shrink bisphenol A and epichlorohydrin under the action of NaOH, that is, the ring-opening and ring-closing reactions are carried out under the same reaction conditions. At present, the E-44 epoxy resin with the largest domestic output is synthesized by one-step process. The two-step process is that under the action of a catalyst (such as a quaternary ammonium salt), bisphenol A and epichlorohydrin are reacted in the first step to generate a diphenol-based propane chlorohydrin ether intermediate by addition reaction, and the second step is carried out in the presence of NaOH to generate an epoxy resin. The advantages of the two-step method are short reaction time, stable operation, small temperature fluctuation, easy to control, short alkali addition time, can avoid the large yield of epoxy chloro alkane. E -54 epoxy resin was synthesized by a two-step process.

Epoxy Resin Industry Chain Chart
Image Source: China Industrial Information

According to relevant statistics, many enterprises will enter the epoxy resin industry in the future. For example, 50000 tons of Hengtai electronic materials/year equipment will be put into production in late 2023 and 150000 tons of Huangshan Meijia new materials/year equipment will be put into production in October 2023. Zhejiang Zhihe New Materials 100000 tons/year equipment is planned to be put into production by the end of 2023, South Asia Electronic Materials (Kunshan) Co., Ltd. plans to put into production 300000 tons/year equipment and equipment around 2025, and Yulin Jiuyang High-tech Materials Co., Ltd. plans to put into production 500000 tons/year equipment around 2027. According to incomplete statistics, it will double in 2025.

Why is everyone building epoxy engineering? The reasons are as follows:

First of all, epoxy resin is an excellent electronic packaging material

electronic sealant refers to a series of electronic glues and adhesives used to seal electronic equipment, including sealing, sealing and potting. The packaged electronic equipment can play the role of waterproof, shockproof, dustproof, anti-corrosion, heat dissipation and confidentiality. Therefore, the glue that needs to be packaged has the characteristics of high temperature resistance, low temperature resistance, high dielectric strength, good insulation, environmental protection and safety.

epoxy resin has excellent heat resistance, electrical insulation, sealing, dielectric, mechanical properties and small shrinkage and chemical resistance. After matching with the curing agent, it can have better operability and all material characteristics required for electronic material packaging, and is widely used in electronic material packaging and other fields.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the scale growth rate of the electronic information manufacturing industry in 2022 will increase by 7.6 year-on-year, and the consumption growth rate of some electronic materials will exceed 30%. It can be seen that China's electronics industry is still in a trend of rapid growth, especially the semiconductor, 5G and other forward-looking electronics industries. In areas such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, the growth rate of market size has been far ahead.

At present, some epoxy resin companies in China are changing their product structure and increasing the product share of epoxy resin brands related to the electronic materials industry. In addition, most of the epoxy resin companies that intend to build in China mainly lay out electronic material product models.

Secondly, epoxy resin is the main material of wind turbine blades.

epoxy resin has excellent mechanical properties, chemical stability and corrosion resistance, and can be used as blade structural parts, connectors and wind power generation coatings. Epoxy resin can provide high strength, high stiffness and fatigue resistance, and ensure the stability and reliability of the blade, including the support structure, skeleton and connectors of the blade. In addition, epoxy resin can also improve the anti-wind shear performance and impact resistance of the blade, reduce the vibration and noise of the blade, and improve the efficiency of wind power generation.

in the wind power blade coating, the application of epoxy resin is also very important, by coating the surface of the blade with epoxy resin, can improve the wear resistance and UV resistance of the blade, prolong the service life of the blade. At the same time, it can reduce the weight and resistance of the blades and improve the efficiency of wind power generation.

Therefore, epoxy resin needs to be widely used in many aspects of the wind power industry. At present, epoxy resin, carbon fiber, polyamide and other composite materials are mainly used for wind power blade materials.

China's wind power generation is in the leading position in the world, with an average annual growth of more than 48%. The manufacturing of equipment related to wind power generation is the main force driving the rapid growth of epoxy resin product consumption. It is expected that the speed of China's wind power industry will maintain a growth rate of more than 30% in the future, and the consumption of epoxy resin in China will also show an explosive growth trend.

three is customized, special epoxy resin will be the mainstream of the future.

epoxy resins have a wide range of downstream applications. Although driven by the development of the new energy industry, the scale of the industry is developing rapidly, but the development of customization, differentiation and specialization will also become one of the main development directions of the industry. The development direction of

epoxy resin customization has the following application directions. First of all, halogen-free copper circuit boards have potential demand for the consumption of linear phenolic epoxy resin and bisphenol F epoxy resin; second, the consumption demand for o-methyl phenolic epoxy resin and hydrogenated bisphenol A epoxy resin is growing rapidly; Third, food-grade epoxy resin is a product of further purification of traditional epoxy resin, which is used in metal cans, beer, carbonated beverages and juice cans, and has certain development prospects; fourth, the multi-functional resin production line is a production line that can produce all epoxy resins and raw materials, such as clean low-grade combined resins. β-phenol type epoxy resin, liquid crystal epoxy resin, special structure low viscosity DCPD type epoxy resin, etc., these epoxy resins in the future will have a broad space for development. On the one hand,

is driven by consumption in the downstream electronics field, on the other hand, a wide range of applications and many high-end models have emerged one after another, which has brought many potential consumption spaces to the epoxy resin industry. It is expected that the consumption of epoxy resin industry in China will maintain a rapid growth of more than 10% in the future, and the development of epoxy resin industry can be expected.