TPU: raw material products should work at both ends.

Thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU) has become the fastest growing field in the polyurethane elastomer and even in the polyurethane industry because it is close to the end consumer market and has a wide range of applications. 

However, recently, the TPU industry has released new capacity too quickly and the growth rate of downstream demand has slowed down. 

Recently, at the 2023 annual meeting of the China Polyurethane Industry Association Elastomer Professional Committee and the Polyurethane Elastomer Technology Symposium held in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, experts at the meeting suggested that the TPU industry should develop high-end and differentiated products to better meet market demand. 

"on the whole, China's polyurethane industry has changed from a period of rapid growth to a period of steady development. 

In the future, the market will gradually shift from price competition and production capacity competition to service competition, and at the same time, it will also develop in the direction of globalization and industrial chain. 

This requires TPU and other fields to speed up the independent innovation of key technologies, key auxiliaries, key equipment and key products to further meet the downstream needs and improve the overall competitiveness of the industry. " 

Han Baole, deputy secretary-general of the Polyurethane Association, said. 

Liu Jing, senior engineer of the Polyurethane Association Elastomer Special Committee, said that in recent years, China's TPU industry has developed rapidly, giving birth to 10,000-ton production enterprises such as Wanhua Chemical, Meirui New Materials, Yinoway and Huafeng, as well as a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises. 

However, compared with the international advanced level, there is still a certain gap between China's TPU industry and foreign countries in terms of product quality, production technology and advanced equipment, which is prominently manifested in the low level of continuous synthesis equipment, workshop-style intermittent production, lack of software technology, relatively backward technology and unstable product quality. 

Product quality is single, can not fully meet the market demand, especially high heat resistance, high polar solvent resistance, high dynamic performance requirements and other application scenarios; technological innovation ability is not strong, lack of systematic research and so on. 

In recent years, TPU production capacity has surged, but the growth rate of the downstream market has slowed down. 

According to Ma Yue, a market analyst at Tiantian Chemical Industry Network, from 2018 to 2022, China's TPU production capacity grew at an average annual compound growth rate of 13%, and total demand grew at an average annual compound growth rate of more than 8%. 

In 2022, TPU will have a total production capacity of 1.3 million tons and a total output of 660000 tons. 

In 2022, China's TPU market is generally in the doldrums, with prices falling slowly. 

In addition to the wire and cable industry to maintain a certain growth in the demand for TPU, shoes, pipes and other major downstream areas of the demand for TPU have been weakened in varying degrees. 

Ma Yue said that the TPU products of Chinese enterprises are mainly concentrated in the middle and low-end market, with scattered customers and fierce competition. 

In the field of high-end products, only advanced foreign manufacturers and a small number of local production enterprises participate. 

"at present, the application prospect of TPU pipe is mainly in the replacement of existing materials, TPU film products are gradually replacing the existing polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride film. 

However, the domestic production rate of TPU material for fire hose is relatively low, and the localization rate of 'invisible car and clothing' made of TPU material also needs to be improved. " 

Ma Yue said. 

Zhou Jian, chairman of Suzhou Xiangyuan New Materials Co., Ltd., believes that China should strengthen the development of high-performance polyurethane thermoplastic elastomers (GTPU) and strengthen the research on raw materials, auxiliary formulations and downstream applications, especially the research and development of new non-toxic, non-polluting, high-performance, low-cost and multi-functional TPU chain extenders to meet the needs of high performance, differentiation and special industry. 

It is used in high-end and high value-added application fields such as resource exploration, military industry, medical treatment, electronics and electrical appliances, high-end sports equipment, etc. 

It is understood that the GTPU material developed by domestic enterprises has the characteristics of extremely high tensile strength, high wear resistance, low compression permanent deformation rate, good dimensional stability at high temperature, and can be used in hydraulic seals, hoses, synchronous belts, cables, national defense and other fields, as well as chemical and mechanical polishing mats, which is of great market promotion value. 

Ma Yue expects that with the increase in new demand for TPU, China's TPU demand is expected to maintain a compound growth rate of 9 per cent in the next five years, while capacity investment will remain at a relatively fast pace, with a compound growth rate of 8 per cent. 

By 2027, TPU production capacity will reach 1.94 million tons, with a total output of 1.07 million tons. 

The development and application of TPU high-end products is the key development direction of the industry in the future. The rapid rise of new energy vehicle industry stimulates the construction demand of matching charging piles, which will drive the growth of TPU demand. Geophysical exploration cables usher in new demand in offshore liquefied petroleum gas and wind power. 

In addition, under the strategic goal of "double carbon", TPU materials are also being transformed to bio-based materials.