China is a major producer of caprolactam and industry capacity will continue to grow.

Caprolactam is an important organic chemical raw material. It appears as white powder or crystal and has an oily feel. Caprolactam mainly produces polyamide chips (nylon-6 chips) through polymerization, which are then processed into engineering plastics, plastic films, nylon fibers and other products. In addition, caprolactam is also widely used in pharmaceutical intermediates, automobiles, coatings, electronic accessories and other fields.

The raw materials for the production of caprolactam involve sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide, liquid ammonia, cyclohexanone, etc. In terms of preparation technology, there are currently many preparation processes for caprolactam, including toluene method, cyclohexanone-hydroxylamine method, cyclohexane photonitrosation method, Ammonia oxime method, HPO method, etc., among which the cyclohexanone-hydroxylamine method is the global mainstream preparation technology, accounting for approximately 68% of the global total production capacity.

According to the “2022-2026 China Caprolactam Industry Market Supply and Demand Status and Development Trend Forecast Report released by the Industrial Research Center, in the world Within the scope, caprolactam production capacity is mainly distributed in Asia, Europe, North America and other regions, of which Asia’s production capacity ranks first in the world, accounting for approximately 70% of the world’s total production capacity. In Asia, China is the largest producer of caprolactam. The current production capacity of China’s caprolactam industry is about 5.7 million tons, accounting for about 62% of the world’s total production capacity.

Domestically, the regional distribution of caprolactam production capacity is relatively concentrated, mainly in the three major regions of East China, North China, and Central China. The combined production capacity of the above three regions accounts for approximately 97% of the total production capacity. In terms of provinces and cities, caprolactam production capacity in Shandong, Fujian, Jiangsu, Hebei, Zhejiang and other regions ranks among the top in the country.

China is a major producer of caprolactam and one of the world’s major consumers. However, due to the relatively single downstream consumption scenario, with nylon-6 chip consumption accounting for more than 98%, the growth rate of caprolactam market consumption is slightly lower than the growth rate of production capacity. From 2017 to 2021, The average annual compound growth rate of caprolactam consumption in China is around 7%.

Domestically, caprolactam manufacturers include Henan Shenma, Jiangsu Haili, Baling Hengyi, Inner Mongolia Qinghua, Fujian Shenyuan, etc. In recent years, China’s caprolactam production capacity has grown rapidly. As related projects under construction and planned are put into operation, the caprolactam industry’s production capacity will be further expanded. It is expected that in 2023, the new domestic caprolactam industry’s new production capacity will exceed 1.1 million tons. In terms of imports, thanks to the improvement of production capacity, China’s caprolactam import dependence continues to decline. In 2021, China’s caprolactam imports will be around 110,000 tons.

Industry analysts said that caprolactam is an important chemical raw material. In recent years, the production capacity and consumption of China’s caprolactam industry have been growing. situation, but the consumption growth rate is slightly lower than the production capacity growth rate. Against this background, China’s caprolactam supply capacity continues to increase, and its dependence on foreign countries has also declined. China is a major producer of caprolactam. With the release of relevant production capacity under construction, China will have more say in the global caprolactam market.