Polypropylene (PP) is a kind of general-purpose plastics with large output and favorable performance. The modified PP is extensively applied in automobiles, building materials, electrical and electronic components, various pipes and fittings, etc. However, since PP is a flammable macromolecular material, it is limited in occasions requiring flame retardancy. In order to meet the requirement, in current Chinese market, flame-retardant PP is produced by combining organic substance containing halogen with antimony trioxide. Plastic products containing halogen flame retardant will produce a lot of toxic and corrosive gas when flaming, which may do harm to the respiratory tract and other organs of human body, and even cause suffocation and be life-threatening. Currently, some developed counties have begun to prohibit the use of various plastic products containing halogen flame retardant. With the improvement of the environmental standards in China, it will be a trend of the plastics industry to reduce or avoid using halogen flame retardant.
With the increasing enhancement of global environmental awareness, people's flame-retardant requirement for plastic products is increasingly high. Halogen-Free Low-Smoke Low-toxic environmental-friendly flame retardant has been people's target.
In China, low-smoke halogen-free flame-retardant PP is mainly applied in such fields as electric apparatus, electric cable, and automobile. The proportion of electric apparatus is about 40%, the largest followed by that of electric cable which includes communication cable, data cable, control cable, etc. with the share accounting for about 30%, and the following is that of automobile which is mainly used in the connection of interior trims and parts, the consumption demand of which is continuously on the rise, and exceeded 15% in 2010 with the development of domestic automobile industry. In addition to the above fields, chemical container, furniture decoration, etc. are also the application fields.
Since 2008, China's halogen-free modified plastics industry has become large-scale, and the demand for the halogen-free flame-retardant market has seen a qualitative change. In 2008, the market scale was about CNY 480 million, increasing by about 10% YOY. In 2009, influenced by the global financial crisis, the downstream demand was hindered but still maintained the growth rate of above 10% as well as the market scale of CNY 540 million when the domestic demand was stimulated by the Chinese government. In 2010, the market scale was about CNY 610 million and the domestic market demand was 30,000 tons.
At present, 1/3 of China's low-smoke halogen-free flame-retardant PP materials depend on import. In 2010, the import volume exceeded 10,000 tons. It is predicted that in the next few years, the demand for China's low-smoke halogen-free flame-retardant PP market will be on the rise and the import volume will maintain the steady growth. On the other hand, the production capacity of domestic producing enterprises enhances, and the consumption proportion of imported low-smoke halogen-free flame-retardant PP in domestic market presents the yearly downtrend.
In China, the market demand of low-smoke halogen-free flame-retardant PP downstream industries such as electric cable, electronic apparatus, and automobile for low-smoke halogen-free flame-retardant PP has maintained the annual growth rate of above 10% in recent years. Therefore, the market prospect of this industry is favorable, and there will be an increasing number of investors entering it.
