Benefiting from the rebound in my country’s automobile production and sales, EPP (expanded polypropylene) market demand continues to grow

Expanded polypropylene (EPP) is an anti-cushion insulation material with superior performance. It has the advantages of non-toxic, environmentally friendly, high strength, good toughness, and good thermal insulation effect. It is currently widely used in automobiles, construction, home appliances, and packaging. It has been widely used in other fields and has high market demand.

As a green insulation material, EPP has a high demand in the manufacturing of takeaway boxes. In addition, EPP has a high demand in the automotive field due to its non-toxicity, oil resistance, heat resistance, and shock resistance, and can be used in bumpers. , sun visors, steering wheels, safety seats and other fields, it is an important material in the automotive industry.

According to the different EPP foaming processes, EPP can be divided into blended EPP, cross-linked EPP, and high-melt EPP. Among them, high-melt EPP (HMSPP) is the mainstream production process due to its simple process and strong operability. EPP production has high technical barriers. Currently, there are few domestic companies that can produce EPP. The domestic production scale is about 45,000 tons/year. Representative production companies include Shanghai Zhongtong, Wuxi Huitong, and Suzhou Delong. Globally, EPP production capacity is about 160,000 tons/year, of which Japan’s JSP is the leading company. Wuxi Huitong is the largest EPP manufacturer in China, with an annual production capacity of approximately 16,000 tons/year. It is the first domestic enterprise to fully master EPP production technology. Followed by Suzhou Delong, which has an EPP production scale of 3,000 tons/year.

In terms of domestic EPP production areas, Jiangsu is currently the largest production area, accounting for about 86% of production capacity, followed by Zhejiang and Shanghai. The distribution of EPP production capacity is mainly related to the distribution of automobile, packaging and toy industries. As far as EPP consumption is concerned, the automotive industry currently has a high demand for EPP consumption. About 75% of the EPP in the market is used in the automotive industry. With the growth of domestic automobile production and sales, the EPP industry has developed rapidly.

According to the released “China Foamed Polypropylene Industry Market Monitoring and Future Development Prospects Research Report 2021-2025” shows that in In the automotive industry, EPP is mainly used as bumper and door cushioning materials, and there is currently no alternative material. At present, domestic automobile consumption of EPP is about 26,000 tons, of which the application demand in the bumper field is about 17,000 tons, accounting for about 65% of the total demand of the automobile industry. According to the current development trend of the automobile industry, it is expected that the demand for EPP in my country’s automobile industry will reach 60,000 tons by 2030, of which the demand in the bumper field will be 33,000 tons and the demand in the side door panel field will be approximately 15,000 tons.

Industry analysts said that EPP, as a green and environmentally friendly foam material, is currently mainly used in the fields of packaging, toys and automobiles. The application demand in the automotive field is high. In recent years, as automobile production and sales continue to rise, the demand for EPP applications has increased, and the industry has developed rapidly. In terms of production, due to the high technical threshold for EPP production, there are currently few production companies and the market is relatively concentrated. Overall, although EPP has a wide range of applications, the market space is limited and the market is relatively concentrated, so the future industry development space is limited.