China is the driving force of global functional silane development. The proportion of China's capacity and production increased from 18.5% and 14.6% in 2002 to 66.8% and 61.9% in 2018. With the further development of the domestic industry, it is expected that the capacity of functional silane in China will be 564,000 tons in 2023, accounting for 74.0% of the global total capacity, and the output will be 389,000 tons, accounting for 72.3% of the global total output. The industry will further concentrate in China.
Functional silanes are one of the four categories of organosilicate materials and are widely used because of their excellent properties. Functionally, most products are hybrid structures. Most products contain both polar and non-polar functional groups in the same molecule, which can be used as an interface bridge between inorganic materials and organic materials or directly participate in the crosslinking reaction of organic polymer materials, thus greatly improving the material properties. There are many kinds of functional silanes, which can be widely used in the fields of composite materials, rubber processing, plastics, adhesives, coatings and surface treatment due to their excellent performance.
The domestic functional silane industry chain layout is perfect, and the global production capacity has been gradually transferred to China. Silicon powder is the main cost of trichlorosilane, trichlorosilane is the main raw material for the preparation of functional silane, the upstream raw material matching, to build the core cost competitiveness. Foreign functional silane manufacturers are limited by cost pressure, industrial supporting and other factors, the possibility of large-scale expansion of production capacity is low. The main growth driver of global functional silanes is China, which has become the world's largest producer. With the dual promotion of domestic policy and demand, the concentration of domestic functional silane industry has been further improved. It is expected that China's silane products will continue to occupy the leading position in the future market and further increase the international market share.
Functional silanes are widely used, and the continuous growth of downstream fields promotes the development of the industry. Functional silanes benefit from green tires, real estate completion cycles and composites. From 2020 to 2027, the global green tire market is expected to grow at a compound rate of 9.3% to reach $139.2 billion, and the rapid development will drive the demand for green tires. Real estate completion cycle resonance at home and abroad, is expected to stimulate the demand for construction glue. The application prospect of composite materials is huge, and the replacement of steel, aluminum, wood, PVC and other traditional materials by glass fiber promotes the continuous growth of the global glass fiber industry.
Functional silane boom is good, and domestic enterprises are improving from quantity to quality. With the rise of demand in emerging fields, and learning from the development of overseas organosilicon enterprises, the future domestic functional silane industry will be upgraded from quantity to quality.