Silicone: Focus on the Four Directions of the Industry Chain

Silicone materials are not only an important part of the national strategic emerging industry and new material industry, but also an indispensable supporting material for other strategic emerging industries.

With the continuous expansion of application fields, the huge demand potential makes silicone one of the most popular chemical materials.

The largest proportion of domestic silicone consumption is in the fields of construction, electronic appliances, electricity and new energy, medical and personal care. Among them, the construction field is currently the most important terminal scenario for silicone applications, accounting for about 30%.

In addition to the continuous growth in the demand for silicone materials in traditional industries, the development of energy-saving and environmental protection industries such as photovoltaics and new energy, the construction of ultra-high voltage and ultra-high voltage power grids, smart wearable materials, 3D printing and 5G and other emerging industries are all provided by silicone. new demand growth point.

Silicone Overview

Organosilicon is a general term for organic silicon compounds, which are synthesized and hydrolyzed by metal silicon and methyl chloride.

The first step in the synthesis of organosilicon is to generate methylchlorosilane, and then through synthesis and hydrolysis, monomethyltrichlorosilane, dimethyldichlorosilane and trichlorosilane can be obtained. Among them, dimethyldichlorosilane is the most important monomer species of silicone, and its main downstream is silicone rubber and silicone oil.

At present, the production capacity of organosilicon mentioned in China generally refers to the production capacity of methyl chlorosilane, and the current statistics of the output are the output of dimethylsiloxane.

Silicone Industry Chain

The organosilicon industry chain is mainly divided into four parts: organosilicon raw materials, organosilicon monomers, organosilicon intermediates and organosilicon deep-processing products. Among them, there are fewer production enterprises of raw materials, monomers and intermediates, while the downstream deep processing links have many products, and the production capacity is more scattered.

Silicone raw material

In the production process of silicone, raw materials account for a large proportion. The organosilicon raw material is industrial silicon powder, which is industrially prepared by reducing quartz with coke in an electric arc furnace.

The production of industrial silicon consumes a large amount of silicon ore and energy, and also causes great environmental pollution. Therefore, a stable and high-quality supply of industrial silicon raw materials has become the basic guarantee for the production of organic silicon.

According to SAGSI, the global industrial silicon production capacity in 2020 is 6.23 million tons, and China's production capacity is 4.82 million tons, accounting for 77.4%.

Silicone monomers and intermediates

The domestic supply of organosilicon monomers and intermediates accounts for over 50% of the global supply, making it the largest supplier of organosilicon monomers and intermediates in the world. Due to the unstable state of silicone monomers, companies generally synthesize the monomers into intermediates such as DMC (dimethylsiloxane) or D4 for sale.

There are few varieties and specifications of silicone monomers and intermediates.

Dimethyldichlorosilane is currently the most widely used organosilicon monomer, accounting for more than 90% of the total monomer.

The organic silicon industry has a high entry threshold, which has been raised to 200,000 tons, and requires at least 1.5 billion yuan of capital investment. The high industry entry threshold will promote the trend of the concentration of monomer production capacity to leading enterprises.

At present, only a small number of companies have sufficient technology accumulation and achieve large-scale production, and more than 90% of the production capacity is distributed in the top 11 companies.

The concentration of production capacity in the silicone monomer link also gives it more room for bargaining with downstream companies.