Polycarbonate is a kind of thermoplastic engineering plastics with excellent overall performance. It has excellent electrical properties, low water absorption, good light transmission, and visible light transmittance of more than 90%. It is the only transparent plastic among the five general engineering plastics. The varieties, while having a high strength, ductility and toughness, are widely used in electronic appliances, home appliances, building materials, automobile manufacturing and medical equipment. Currently, the material has become the growth rate of the five engineering plastics. The fastest general engineering plastics.
Since 2005, the consumption of polycarbonate in China has rapidly increased from 600,000 tons to 1.8 million tons, and the average annual consumption growth rate is 10%. It is expected that the demand for PC in China will continue to grow rapidly. The thermal insulation performance of polycarbonate sheet is higher than that of ordinary glass. 25% higher, impact strength is 250 times that of glass, and weight is only 1/2 of the glass, so PC is the ideal lighting material for architectural decoration. PC sheet in various shapes of large area lighting roof, stair railing and high-rise Building lighting facilities and other fields have a wide range of applications.
The automobile is another important terminal application of the PC. The proportion of consumption in the developed countries is about 20%, but the proportion of consumption in the country is only about 5%. The trend toward lighter weight becomes more apparent, and polycarbonate has excellent resistance. Impact strength, easy mold processing, significantly reduced weight compared to traditional materials such as high speed steel and aluminum alloy. In addition, PC film used in the field of optoelectronics, light diffusion PC for LED lighting, radiation resistant PC in medical devices, etc. It is a potential demand hot spot in the future. According to forecast, the future China's polycarbonate market will still maintain 8%-10% growth.
At present, the global supply of polycarbonate is highly concentrated. Due to the high threshold of polycarbonate production technology, production capacity is mainly concentrated in multinational chemical companies, and the supply is highly concentrated. According to the authoritative ICIS and Bayer statistics, the top six companies in the world have a production capacity of up to 94%. Due to the strict control of technology by the international giants, the domestic production of polycarbonate devices is mostly invested by foreign companies or Sino-foreign joint ventures. In 2016, China’s actual production was only 570,000 tons, and imports exceeded 1,319,000 tons.