In last several years, acrylic acid industry in our country made great change. The output of acrylic acid has increased from 96.4 thousand tons in 1996 to 154.8 thousand tons in 2003.

    Since 1990s, demand of acrylic acid and acrylate increased year by year, so lots of acrylic equipments were built to meet the demand. Our acrylic acid throughput has reached 1.01~1.09 million tons.

    Our country produced 109.7 thousand tons in 2003, which was a fast development. However, the apparent consumption in our country has risen from 214.1 thousand tons in 2001 to 263.2 thousand tons in 2003. In our country, acrylic acid is mainly used in producing acrylate, which takes up 80%. Acrylate, especially butyl acrylate, is mainly used in adhesive, coating and leather industry. In 2002 and 2003, we separately imported 189.1 thousand tons and 211.1 thousand tons acrylate.

    Among downstream products, the most potential product is SAP, whose main raw material is high purity acrylic acid. It is estimated that China need 20~30 thousand tons SAP in 2003, and the number will reach 60~80 thousand tons in 2010.

    Sodium polyacrylate, quanternary salt polyacrylate and their copolymers have excellent coagulative ability, so they are the common flocculants in exploiting oil fields.

    It is estimated that before 2005, demand for acrylic acid in our country will increase at the rate of 10.5%, and we need 447.9 thousand tons in 2005. After finish of BASF-YPC, the gap between supply and demand will decrease sharply. Our acrylic acid market will develop steadily in 2005~2010.

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