The market prospects of ethyl methyl carbonate are optimistic and there will be many new projects in the next few years.

Ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC) is divided into two categories according to purity: industrial grade ethyl methyl carbonate (99.9%) and battery grade ethyl methyl carbonate (more than 99.99%). Industrial grade ethyl methyl carbonate is mainly used for industrial organic synthesis and solvents ;Battery-grade methyl ethyl carbonate has higher process requirements and is mainly used as an electrolyte solvent for lithium-ion batteries. Due to its small steric hindrance and asymmetry in its structure, it can help increase the solubility of lithium ions and increase the battery’s capacity. Density and power have become one of the five main solvents for lithium battery electrolytes.

The downstream application field of ethyl methyl carbonate is mainly lithium-ion battery electrolyte. As one of the four major materials of lithium-ion batteries, electrolyte is vividly called the “blood” of the battery. In recent years, with the rapid development of the new energy automobile industry, my country’s lithium-ion battery electrolyte industry has ushered in a period of rapid development. The localization rate of electrolyte has increased significantly, basically realizing import substitution, and driving the market demand for methyl ethyl carbonate in my country. Faster growth. According to the “China Methyl Ethyl Carbonate Industry Market In-depth Research and Development Prospects Forecast Report 2022-2026” released by the Industrial Research Center, In 2021, China’s demand for methyl ethyl carbonate will be 139,500 tons, a year-on-year increase of 94.7%.

At present, the domestic production capacity of methyl ethyl carbonate industry is mainly concentrated in a few companies such as Shandong Shida Shenghua Chemical Group Co., Ltd., Shandong Haike Xinyuan Material Technology Co., Ltd., Yingkou Hengyang New Energy Chemical Co., Ltd., Liaoyang Ganglong Chemical Co., Ltd. , the products of these companies have high stability and can meet domestic demand. Some of them are exported to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other countries and regions, occupying most of the domestic market share of methyl ethyl carbonate. Other manufacturers mostly have small-scale installations of less than 10,000 tons and have poor market competitiveness. Overall, my country’s methyl ethyl carbonate market is highly concentrated, and the major shares are in the hands of the above-mentioned large companies.

In the future, thanks to the rapid development of new energy vehicles, the lithium-ion battery electrolyte industry has good development prospects, providing good conditions for the growth of domestic demand for ethyl methyl carbonate. From the production side, in the next few years, Shida Shenghua and Hualu Hengsheng will have new methyl ethyl carbonate projects. Among them, Shenghua New Energy Technology (Dongying) Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shida Shenghua, plans to invest in the construction of 100,000 tons/ The ethyl methyl carbonate plant project is expected to be completed and put into operation in December 2023. Hualu Hengsheng’s high-end solvent project is planned to be built in Dezhou Canal Hengsheng Chemical Industrial Park. It will use transesterification reaction technology to build a 300,000 tons/year methyl ethyl carbonate device and is expected to be put into operation in 2025. If the above-mentioned projects can be implemented, the production capacity of China’s ethyl methyl carbonate industry will increase significantly.

Industry analysts said that at this stage, key domestic companies in the ethyl methyl carbonate industry are actively building new projects and expanding production capacity. After all new projects are completed within the year, the production capacity of the methyl ethyl carbonate industry will increase significantly, and there may even be the risk of overcapacity. Therefore, new entrants need to focus on factors such as project approval, construction cycle, and difficulty in developing downstream customers during the investment process of new projects to avoid the risk of market failure due to blind expansion.