Summary
High barrier materials can block the penetration of small molecular gas (such as O2, CO2, N2, water vapor), aroma and other organic solvent vapor prominently. By virtue of better barrier performance, polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC), ethylene / vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) and polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) are mainly used to produce thin films and containers, and utilized in such fields with higher requirements on barrier properties as food, medicine, military products, cosmetics, pesticides, precision instruments and high-grade fine chemicals; additionally, they are also suitable for the production of vacuum insulation panel materials.
In the world, only a small number of companies are capable of producing PVDC, EVOH and PEN which require high-quality raw materials and strict process control, so that the current PVDC, EVOH and PEN markets are dominated by a few oligopolists.
PVDC raw materials exist in the forms of PVDC resins and latexes. Global PVDC resin producers embrace Dow Chemical (USA.), Solvay (Belgium), Kureha (Japan) and Asahi Kasei (Japan). The global PVDC resin capacity reached 228Kt/a in 2013, and will hit 242Kt/a in 2014. New capacity is mainly contributed by Chinese PVDC manufacturers (but the capacity is not fully released).
As of 2014, there has been only two PVDC resin production enterprises in China, namely Zhejiang Juhua and Nantong SKT. Both companies produce PVDC resins used in casing films. In recent years, Juhua has increased investment in PVDC, so that the capacity jumped from 3Kt/a in 2009 to 28Kt/a in 2013 and will further rise to 33Kt/a in 2014. Nantong SKT primarily supplies PVDC resins to Henan Shuanghui(i.e., Shineway Group) for the purpose of casing film production. By the end of 2014, Nantong SKT will add the capacity of 3.6Kt/a PVDC resins, so the total capacity will reach 13.6Kt/a.
View Complete Report @