From 2011 to 2018, the demand for PEEK products in China keeps increasing. In 2011, the demand for PEEK products in China was 1,274 tons, and in 2018, the demand for PEEK products in China increased to 2,601 tons. From 2011 to 2018, the compound growth rate reached 9.33%.
PEEK technology was developed in China in the 1980s, and put into small-batch commercial production in the early 1990s. After nearly 20 years of work, our country has developed with independent intellectual property rights of PEEK resin synthesis production line, the main performance reached the level of similar foreign PEEK resin, and all materials and equipment based on domestic, reduces the cost of production, domestic PEEK resin and the development of profiles and independent production, to break the Victrex company exclusive monopoly situation.
In the international market, PEEK typically sells for $35 to $40 per pound for the standard grade, which limits its range of applications. Because the raw materials and equipment of domestic PEEK are all based on domestic, the production cost is reduced, so that the market price of domestic PEEK can be significantly lower than the international market price. After domestic PEEK was put into production, it soon replaced import and occupied the domestic market. It not only saves a lot of foreign exchange for the country, but also drives the development of PEEK resin products industry in China. As the research and production of polyether-ether-ketone itself was promoted by the environment of arms race at that time, the purpose of production was simply to meet the needs of the military industry. As time goes on, polyether-ether-ketone decreased from 1000 yuan per kilogram to 500 yuan per kilogram now. Moreover, the domestic production capacity and consumption level have achieved the effect of extensive application.
With the progress of technology and process improvement, the demand for special engineering plastics is increasing, especially for materials with excellent comprehensive performance, such as PEEK, which will have a certain market development space. With the increasing demand in the field of electronics, many special engineering plastics are in short supply.
Although PEEK resin has achieved mass production in China, its quality has reached the level of similar foreign products, and its price is significantly lower than the current price in the international market, so it has certain export competitiveness. But it also should be known that there is a big gap between domestic PEEK resin and foreign. Therefore, at the same time of industrialization of PEEK in our country, we should pay close attention to the trend of foreign research and development, speed up the production and application research of PEEK, or cooperate with well-known foreign enterprises, so that PEEK products in our country can enter the international market as soon as possible.
