One article Learn about the fine chemical industry

Classification of fine chemical industry

Fine chemical industry is the general name of fine chemical industry, which is called "fine chemical industry" for short. It has the economic characteristics of high added value and high investment profit. The fine chemical industry has a high degree of technology intensity, high added value of products, high profit margin, and its development depends on scientific and technological innovation. It is the strategic focus of today's world chemical industry development, an important symbol of a country's comprehensive technical level, and one of the fastest growing economic fields.

1. Classification by application field

According to the national economic classification standard, fine chemical industry is divided into four sub industries: pesticide manufacturing, coating, ink, pigment and similar products manufacturing, special chemical products manufacturing and daily chemical products manufacturing.

2. Classification by product category

With the rapid development of China's economy and science and technology after the reform and opening up, China's fine chemical industry has developed rapidly. According to the product category, it can be divided into traditional fields and emerging fields.

(1) Traditional fields of fine chemical industry

Traditional fields of fine chemical industry mainly include pesticide, fertilizer, coating, etc. Through long-term accumulation, China's fine chemical industry has basically met the needs of national economic development in traditional fields, some products have certain international competitiveness, the output of dyes and pesticides has ranked first in the world, and the output of coatings has reached fourth in the world.

(2) Emerging fields of fine chemical industry

The fine chemical products in emerging fields have the characteristics of strong specificity and high technology content, mainly including food additives, feed additives, adhesives, surfactants, paper chemicals, water treatment agents, electronic chemicals, pharmaceutical intermediates and APIs. At present, the overall technical level of China's fine chemical industry is still relatively low, and some fine chemical products in emerging fields still need to be imported in large quantities. The whole industry is in the development stage of optimization and upgrading, and there is still much room for improvement in the fine chemical industry in emerging fields.

Characteristics of fine chemical industry

1. The fine chemical industry belongs to the manufacturing industry and has a high degree of industrial relevance with other industries

The industries that are closely related to the fine chemical industry mainly include agriculture, textile industry, construction industry, paper industry, food industry, daily chemical production, electronic equipment, pharmacy, etc. The development of the fine chemical industry is closely related to these industries.

The upstream of the fine chemical industry is mainly the basic chemical raw material manufacturing industry; At the same time, the products provided by the fine chemical industry are the basic raw materials of many other industries, such as agriculture, construction, textile, medicine and other important industries. The development of agriculture, construction, textile, medicine, electronics and other related industries provides opportunities for the development of fine chemical industry; At the same time, the development of fine chemical industry will also promote the development of upstream industries.

2. Fine chemical industry has certain scale economy characteristics

The production scale of foreign fine chemical production enterprises is more than 100000 tons. In the second half of the 20th century, the global fine chemical production enterprises are representative of the United States and Japan, showing the characteristics of large-scale and specialization, so as to continuously reduce production costs. At present, the concentration of China's fine chemical industry is low, with small enterprises in the majority, and medium and large enterprises, especially large enterprises, account for a relatively low proportion.

3. Fine chemical industry is an industry with high emission of industrial pollutants

According to the 2012 annual report of environmental statistics, the wastewater discharge of the chemical industry accounts for 16.3% of the national industrial wastewater discharge, ranking the second; Waste gas emission accounts for 6% of the national industrial waste gas emission, ranking fourth; The discharge of solid waste accounts for 5% of the national industrial solid waste discharge, ranking fifth; COD emissions accounted for 11.7% of the total industrial COD emissions in China, ranking third.

4. Cyclical characteristics of the industry

The downstream industries targeted by the fine chemical industry mainly include environment-friendly plasticizers, powder coatings, insulating materials, high-temperature curing agents and other industries. The end products are used in various plastic products, building materials, packaging materials, household appliances, automotive machinery, etc., covering many areas of the national economy. The industry itself does not have obvious cyclical characteristics, However, affected by the macro-economy, it will fluctuate to some extent with the change of the overall economic situation, and the industry cycle is basically consistent with the cycle of the entire macro-economy.

fine chemicals

Fine chemicals refer to the chemicals with high technical density, high added value and high purity that can promote or endow a (class) product with specific functions or have specific functions in small batch manufacturing and application, and are the products of further deep processing of basic chemicals.

In 1986, the former Ministry of Chemical Industry divided fine chemical products into 11 categories: (1) pesticides; (2) Dyes; (3) Paint (including paint and ink); (4) Pigment; (5) Reagents and high-purity substances; (6) Chemicals for information (including sensitive materials, magnetic materials and other chemicals that can accept electromagnetic waves); (7) Food and feed additives; (8) Adhesives; (9) Catalysts and various promoters; (10) Chemicals (APIs) and daily chemicals (produced by the chemical system); (11) Functional polymer materials in polymer (including functional films, polarizing materials, etc.). With the development of national economy, the development and application fields of fine chemicals will continue to expand, and new categories will continue to increase.

Fine chemicals have the following characteristics:

(1) A wide range of products and applications

There are 40-50 categories and more than 100000 varieties of fine chemicals in the world. Fine chemicals are used in all aspects of daily life, such as medicine, dyes, pesticides, coatings, daily chemical products, electronic materials, paper chemicals, inks, food additives, feed additives, water treatment, etc. They are also widely used in aerospace, biotechnology, information technology, new materials, new energy technology, environmental protection and other high-tech areas.

(2) Complex production technology

There are many kinds of fine chemicals. The same intermediate product can be extended to several or even dozens of derivatives with different uses through different processes. The production process is complex and the technology is complex. All kinds of fine chemical products need to go through laboratory development, small scale test, pilot scale test and large-scale production. They also need to be updated or improved in a timely manner according to the changes in the needs of downstream customers. The requirements for product quality stability are high, and enterprises need to constantly improve the process and accumulate experience in the production process. Therefore, the core competitiveness of a fine chemical enterprise is its derivative development of fine chemical products in subdivided fields, experience accumulation of production processes and innovation ability.

(3) High product added value

Fine chemical products involve a long production process, which requires multiple and multi unit operations. The manufacturing process is relatively complex, and the production process meets the conditions of mild reaction conditions, safe operating environment, specific chemical reactions, etc. to achieve easy separation of chemicals and high product yield. This requires high-level process technology and reaction equipment. Therefore, fine chemical products generally have high added value.

(4) There are many kinds of compound products

In practical applications, fine chemicals appear as products with comprehensive functions, which requires screening different chemical structures in chemical synthesis and giving full play to the cooperation between fine chemicals' own functions and other coordination substances in the production of dosage forms. The demand for fine chemical products in industrial production is diverse, and a single product is difficult to meet the needs of production or use. Taking the water treatment industry where the company is located as an example, the special chemicals used in this field include bactericidal and algicidal agents, scale inhibitors, corrosion inhibitors, flocculants, etc., and chemical agents for each purpose can be compounded by several chemical agents.

(5) The viscosity of products to downstream customers is high

Fine chemical products are generally used in specific areas of industrial production processes or to achieve specific functions of downstream products. Therefore, users have high requirements for product quality and stability, and are strict with the supplier selection process and standards. Once they enter the supplier list, they will not be easily replaced.

Industrial chain of fine chemical industry

The fine chemical industry is an important pillar industry of the national economy. The upstream includes petroleum, ore and other production raw materials, while the downstream includes agriculture, textile, construction, paper industry, food industry, daily chemical production, electronic equipment and many other industries. The fine chemical industry involves many fields in the national economy and has a high strategic position.