Guangzhou China Jan. 12, 2011- At present, there are tech-grade, food-grade, feed-grade and pharmaceutical-grade glycine production in China, and tech-grade glycine production has occupied the dominant position in domestic market. As glyphosate is in great demand since 2007, glycine industry has developed rapidly in domestic market. The capacity of glycine has expanded sharply and the output has increased rapidly in the past two years. However, by the end of 2008, the supply of glycine had exceeded its demand, and the oversupply became more serious. From 2009 to 2010, the operation rate of Chinese glycine industry fell below 50%, and the output was only 180,000 tonnes in 2009. However, the capacity of glycine is close to 500,000 t/a.
Since 2009, the glyphosate industry remains in doldrums again, which has a great influence on the glycine industry. Some small and medium-sized manufactures didn't have a normal operation, and most enterprises were hard to get profits and even at a loss. After continuous expansion in the past years, Hebei Donghua Chemical Group has become one of the largest glycine manufactures in the world, with the capacity of 200,000 t/a. The glycine produced by Hebei Donghua has taken up 40% of market share. Almost all the glycine manufactures in domestic market adopt chloroactic acid ammonolysis process to produce glycine, only Sanxia Yingli adopts natural gas-HCN process. Therefore, Sanxia Yingli's glycine production lines have to be shut down, as Yingli's glycine has no advantages in the drastic competition.
According to the development trend of glycine, CCM's researcher Ricky thinks that as the recovery of the global economy and expansion areas of glyphosate-resistant transgenic crops, glyphosate shows uptrend both in demand and price. Driven by glyphosate industry, the demand for glycine will still increase in the coming 5 years.
Source: CCM International