The application fields of polyurethane rigid foam (rigid foam) continue to expand, and local companies need to speed up their deployment in the high-end market

Polyurethane rigid foam, referred to as polyurethane rigid foam, is one of the subcategories of polyurethane products. It has the characteristics of porosity, low relative density, high specific strength, light weight, good thermal insulation effect, strong electrical insulation performance, and temperature resistance. Excellent, sound insulation and shockproof effect. According to different molding methods, rigid polyurethane foam can be divided into cast foaming polyurethane and spray foaming polyurethane.

Polyurethane rigid foam products have excellent performance and are widely used. The main application areas include automobiles, home appliances, food, industry, building materials, rail transit, aerospace, etc. In the field of home appliances, polyurethane rigid foam is mainly used as insulation materials in refrigerators, freezers and other scenes; in the construction field, it is mainly used as moisture-proof, thermal insulation, UV resistance, and insulating materials in walls, roofs, floors, etc.; in the industrial field, It is mainly used as insulation material in storage tanks, pipelines and other scenes.

At the same time, against the background of continuous technological improvement and performance upgrading, the application field of polyurethane rigid foam continues to expand. Currently, LNG ships are a new growth point in the polyurethane rigid foam market. LNG ships are special ships for low-temperature transportation of liquefied gas. They need to work at extremely low temperatures of -163°C. Therefore, the insulation materials used are required to have low thermal conductivity, low low-temperature expansion coefficient, good water absorption resistance, and strong flame retardant properties. At present, LNG ship insulation materials are mainly polyurethane foam, especially reinforced polyurethane rigid foam materials.

Currently, driven by the continuous expansion and development of the application field of polyurethane rigid foam, its market demand continues to increase and its scale continues to expand. In 2022, the total number of new LNG ships received by my country’s shipping companies has exceeded 4 million CGT (corrected gross tonnage), a year-on-year increase of more than 4 times; according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, domestic refrigerator production has reached 86.644 million units in 2022. In this context, according to the“China Polyurethane Rigid Foam (Rigid Foam) Industry Market Monitoring and Future Development Prospects Research Report 2023-2027” released by the Industrial Research Center 》 Shows that my country’s rigid polyurethane foam market will reach 26.53 billion yuan in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 8.7%. At present, my country has become one of the major consumers of rigid polyurethane foam in the world.

Globally, the major companies in the polyurethane rigid foam market include leading international chemical companies such as BASF of Germany, Covestro of Germany, Pune of Germany, Evonik of Germany, Huntsman of the United States, DuPont of the United States, as well as Wanhua Chemical, Hongbaoli Group , Shanghai Huafeng Puen, Jacques Technology, Boshi and other local companies. Due to high technical and policy barriers, currently only Jacques Technology is qualified to supply enhanced polyurethane rigid foam in China. In the future, local companies will need to continue to break through technical barriers and accelerate their deployment in the high-end market.

Industry analysts said that as a type of chemical product with excellent performance, polyurethane rigid foam is currently expanding and developing in its application fields. Next, its market size continues to expand, and the industry shows good development prospects. However, at present, local polyurethane rigid foam companies are still mainly concentrated in the mid-to-low-end market, and the number of companies in the high-end field is relatively small. In the future, local companies will still need to increase their efforts in key technology research and accelerate the improvement of competitiveness. The industry has huge room for growth.