In recent years, markets in developed countries such as North America, Europe and Japan have gradually become saturated, and the growth momentum of the global paper chemicals market mainly comes from Asia. Affected by the financial crisis, the global paper industry has declined, and paper chemicals have also been deeply implicated. However, the demand for paper chemicals used in high-grade paper, specialty paper and other industries has not decreased but increased, and there is still a lot of room for development. Industry experts believe that driven by market demand, Asia will continue to lead the growth of the global chemicals market, with China playing a leading role.

　　Mature markets struggle

　　The paper chemicals market in North America, Europe and Japan is already very mature and occupies a dominant position in the global market, but its average annual growth rate is only 1% to 2%, or even zero growth.

　　In 2008, the output of paper and cardboard in the United States was 79.6 million tons, a decrease of 4.3% compared with 2007; while the output of paper and cardboard in Japan has been stagnant at around 30 million tons since the 1990s, and now it is affected by the financial crisis. This year's output is expected to fall by 8% from the previous year, or about 28.26 million tons. This has somewhat weakened the demand for paper chemicals in these regions.

　　From the analysis of the market situation in recent years, the paper chemical industry is deeply troubled by the price of raw materials, and the crude oil price in the international oil market fluctuates greatly, which has brought huge cost pressure to the global paper chemical manufacturers. In recent years, especially last year, international paper chemical manufacturers announced one after another to increase product prices to cope with the rising cost of raw materials and transportation.

　　Due to the financial crisis and intensified competition in the industry, some international paper chemical companies have strengthened their competitiveness through mergers and acquisitions, expanded investment and divested non-core assets, and some well-known paper chemical companies have even gradually faded out of the historical stage.

　　China drives growth in Asia

　　When the markets of developed countries are becoming saturated, Asia represented by China has become the fastest growing area of ​​the global paper industry, and the rapid development of the paper chemicals market is also benefited from this. In recent years, 50% of the world's paper machine investment is in China, and the world's most modern and largest paper machines are frequently unveiled in China. China has become the "world's first" paper and cardboard producer in 2008, but in terms of per capita consumption, it is still at a relatively low level (about 60 kilograms per capita), which provides a rare opportunity for the development of China's paper chemical industry. opportunity.

　　According to experts from China Paper Chemical Industry Association, the market size of China's paper chemicals will reach 50 billion to 60 billion yuan in 2015.

　　Under the temptation of huge market prospects, global paper chemical suppliers have established joint ventures and wholly-owned enterprises or offices in China one after another. The shares in the joint venture thus achieve controlling status. For example, the United States Hercules Corporation and Shanghai Chlor-Alkali Chemical Company jointly established Shanghai Hercules Chemical Co., Ltd.; Japan's largest paper sizing agent research and manufacturer - Japan Harima Chemical Co., Ltd. and Hangzhou Chemical Industry Research Institute jointly established Hangzhou Hangzhou Harima Paper Chemicals Co., Ltd. specializes in the development and production of rosin-based sizing agents for papermaking; on March 7, the world-renowned chemical manufacturer and seller Kemira and Yanzhou Tiancheng Chemical Co., Ltd. jointly invested 360 million Yuan established Kemira Tiancheng Chemicals (Yanzhou) Co., Ltd.

　　Special products have broad prospects

　　In this financial crisis, the high-grade paper and specialty paper industries were relatively less affected. On the one hand, it is due to the fact that the market demand does not decrease but increases, on the other hand, the price of finished paper is stable due to the decline of raw materials, which reduces the cost and increases the benefit. High-grade paper is a type of paper that relies heavily on papermaking chemicals. Therefore, the paper-making chemical industry strives to seize the development opportunities of special chemicals for high-grade paper and specialty paper.

　　With the development of the economy, the paper chemicals market in China and other places has achieved rapid development in recent years, and the gap with industrialized countries in terms of paper varieties and quality is narrowing. Some paper types that used to rely on a large number of imports have begun to be exported. However, because the varieties and structures of paper are still dominated by medium and low grades, with the growth of demand for high-grade paper and the operation of modern and large paper machines, the development prospects of special-purpose paper chemicals such as high-grade paper and special paper in these countries are broad.

　　In addition, the paper industry is facing environmental pressure. With the introduction of a series of environmental protection measures in various places, the development of various new wastewater treatment chemicals, retention and drainage, energy saving and emission reduction chemicals cannot be slack. In some developing countries, the source of fiber raw materials for papermaking will still be a multi-fiber raw material structure dominated by waste paper pulp in the next few years. From the perspective of resource protection and expansion of raw material sources for papermaking fibers, the development and production of new pulping and papermaking chemicals such as bleaching and deinking are still promising.