1.Global Production Consumption Grows Stably
Fluororubber (FKM) is featured by high temperature resistance, oil resistance and a variety of chemical erosion resistance, and it is an indispensable material in modern aircraft, missile, rocket, aerospace and other cutting-edge science and technology fields. In recent years, with the continuous increasing requirements for reliability and security in automobile industry, the consumption of FKM in automobiles has also grown rapidly. The growth rate of FKM production basically keeps in 6% ~ 7%, already becoming a global industry.
Global producers of FKM mainly include DuPont High Performance Elastomer Company, 3M Subsidiary Company Dyneon, Italian Solvay Solexis, Japan’s Daikin, Asahi Glass and Russian HaloPolymer (KCKK), etc. And the major manufacturers of Fluorinated silicone rubber include Dow Corning, Shin-Etsu, Momentive, etc. Dupont Company is the world's largest producer of FKM. Until now, there have been more than 50 varieties of FKM in the world.
2.The FKM Production in China Still Needs Enhancing
Since 1958, China had developed a variety of FKM and then developed newer kinds of ethylene-propylene FKM and FFKM, etc. These varieties are firstly based on the complete set of national defense needs such as aviation and spaceflight, and then gradually are applied to civilian industry departments. China's phosphorus Nitrile rubber fluoride was successfully made in 1980, but it has small output and is expensive, which is often applied in aerospace and defense industry sectors and difficult to be used in general industries.
With the development of China's automobile industry, there is rapid growth in demand forFKM. In addition to Zhonghao Chenguang Chemical Research Institute, the major production enterprises also include the Dongyue Group, Shanghai 3F Fluoro-chemical Industry Co,Myland Chemical Industry, etc. But domestic enterprises mainly produce low-end products such as low-grade raw rubber as a result of fluorine rubber products in China is relatively backward to foreign countries in terms of quality and product types. In 2013, there were seven enterprises engaged inFKMproduction in China, as shown in Table 1.
3.Downstream Development Flourishes
China began to develop FKM in the 1950s, and until 1990s FKM was mainly used in military field. However, currently FKM and its related products are mainly applied in automobile manufacturing industry, chemical industry, petrochemical industry, aerospace, light industry, machinery manufacturing industry and home appliance industry, as shown in the Figure 1.
Automobile industryis the largest consumption filed of FKM. With the constantly increasing of the requirement for reliability, environmental protection and energy-saving in automobiles, the compound use of rubber materials, products structure optimization, heat resistance improvement, low temperature resistance, long term ageing resistance, oil resistance, leakage resistance, long-term fatigue resistance of materials and how to further reduce the cost have all become major topics in the development of rubber. FKM, other special rubbers as well asthermoplastic elastomer will still be the mainstream direction of the development of automobile rubber in the future.
The production and sales volume of automobile in recent years in are shown in Table 2.
Petrochemical industry FKM is commonly applied in petroleum and chemical industry equipment. FKM sealing articles are used in the devices of drilling machinery, pipeline, refining equipment, gas desulfurization, the contact of pipe system, diaphragm valve, pump, fuel hose, rubber roller, flange gaskets, plugging plate and protective coating of chemical equipment.
Aerospace industry requires safety and reliability under the extremely strict conditions and FKM shows long-term reliable service life in the field. Besides, it can be used at high temperature in a short period of time. In addition, it have great wear resistance and great sealing performance even under demanding condition of vacuum (10-9mmHg), which is also an important reason why it is applied in the field. It has been applied in the typical components of aircrafts and missiles.
Since thermal power plant gradually use more and more sulphur coal, FKM is widely used in waste gas desulfurization device, light industry, machinery manufacturing, and electrical appliance industry, as well as in building materials and many other fields.
4.The prices in the market will remain high
The price trend of FKM product 2602 in China from 2008 to 2013 price is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 Price Trend of FKM Product 2602 in China from 2008 to 2013
The factors influencing FKM price mainly include market factors and technical factors as below.
(1) Supply.FKM production capacity in China should be analyzed from two aspects. The majority of the enterprises in China produce low-end FKM, and sometimes the processing performance is not so stable. Most of the products in China are compression molded; while the foreign brands can be injection molded and can be processed into more sophisticated parts. The expansion of FKM capacity has negative impacts on prices. As for the higher-end grade, China cannot be completely self-sufficient.
(2) Demand.Automobile industry is the largest consumption field of FKM in China, followed by petrochemical industry and aerospace, electronic industries. The great demand in the market keeps FKM product price relatively stable.
(3) Raw material and Cost. The price increase of upstream products causes the pressure of increase in the price of FKM products. Meanwhile, enterprises’ other cost such as labor and transportation are also at a rising trend, thus these factors will become the momentum of the increase in the price of FKM.
(4) Technology.FKM industry has a higher technical threshold, and the requirements for process equipment and operating are of the same importance. The products created by the enterprises with mature technology, advanced equipment and strict operation specification are of high quality and stable process performance, and also relatively in higher speaking price.
In the long term, FKM prices will continue to be high. Firstly, the global demand for FKM will increase gradually, as well as and the FKM exports of China. Secondly, the costs of FKM production, especially raw materials are rising. On the premise of great demand, factories have the ability to raise prices, so as to offset the pressure of rising cost. Thirdly, the manufacturers in China gradually produce and develop more high-end products, which can help to improve the product level and prices.