Opportunities and challenges coexist in the phosphorus chemical industry, and the market still has huge room for development

Phosphorus chemical industry refers to the chemical sub-industry that uses phosphate ore as raw material and processes the phosphorus elements in the ore into products through chemical methods such as wet and thermal methods. Currently, the main phosphorus chemical products on the market include monoammonium phosphate, diammonium phosphate, calcium hydrogen phosphate, sodium tripolyphosphate, sodium hexametaphosphate, etc., which are mainly used in agriculture, industry, food, medicine and other fields. Since 2015, my country has become a major producer and seller of phosphorus chemical products in the world. In recent years, driven by the increasing intensity of environmental protection policies and changing market demand, the domestic phosphorus chemical industry has gradually entered a period of green transformation and upgrading.

From a policy perspective, the “14th Five-Year Plan for Industrial Green Development” released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in December 2021 proposed that by 2025, the green and low-carbon transformation of industrial structure and production methods will achieve remarkable results, and green and low-carbon technology and equipment will be widely used. application, the efficiency of energy resource utilization has been greatly improved, and the level of green manufacturing has been comprehensively improved. Against the background of the continuous transformation and upgrading of the phosphorus chemical industry in the direction of greening, except for glyphosate, the output of other phosphorus chemical products has declined compared with 2016. According to the “In-depth Market Research and Investment Strategy Suggestions Report on the Phosphorus Chemical Industry 2022-2026” released by the Industrial Research Center, in 2021 Domestic output of monoammonium phosphate is 12.556 million tons, diammonium phosphate is 13.565 million tons, yellow phosphorus is 778,000 tons, and glyphosate is 613,000 tons.

Phosphate rock is an important raw material for the phosphorus chemical industry. In recent years, domestic phosphate rock production has shown a downward trend year by year. According to data from the China Bureau of Statistics, its production dropped from 144.398 million tons in 2016 to 88.933 million tons in 2020. However, in 2021 Affected repeatedly by the new coronavirus epidemic, global food prices have risen, the prosperity of the phosphate fertilizer industry has increased, and market demand has gradually recovered, which has led to a rebound in phosphate rock production. In 2021, domestic phosphate rock production will reach 102.899 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 15.7%. At present, the overall supply of phosphate rock exceeds demand, and the tight supply of raw materials has restricted the development of the phosphorus chemical industry.

The main application fields of phosphorus chemicals include industry, agriculture, medicine, food, etc. Among them, agricultural phosphate fertilizer is its main application market, accounting for more than 75% of the market. Phosphate fertilizer requires low phosphorus purity. The main products include monoammonium phosphate, diammonium phosphate, calcium magnesium phosphate fertilizer, superphosphate, etc. In recent years, against the background of high prosperity in the phosphate fertilizer industry, the domestic phosphorus chemical market has continued to expand. In 2021, my country’s monoammonium phosphate market consumption will be 7.946 million tons, diammonium phosphate will be 5.672 million tons, and phosphate fertilizer will be 7.635 million tons.

Industrial Analyst personnel said that after development in recent years, my country’s phosphorus chemical production technology has become mature and the global market share has continued to increase. At present, The industry has gradually entered the green transformation and upgrading stage from the mature development stage. During this period, domestic environmental protection efforts continued to increase and market demand gradually changed. As a result, the output of major phosphorus chemical products was mostly lower than the peak. At the same time, limited by the tight supply of raw materials, the development of the industry faced huge difficulties. However, under the influence of the new crown epidemic in 2021, the domestic phosphate fertilizer market is in a high prosperity situation; at the same time, benefiting from the development of new energy fields such as power batteries and energy storage, the market demand for lithium iron phosphate continues to increase. Driven by demand, the domestic phosphate chemical industry usher in new opportunities for development.