Modified plastic, refers to the general-purpose plastics and engineering plastics based on the filling, blending, reinforcement and other methods of processing modified plastic products to improve the performance of flame retardancy, strength, impact resistance, toughness and other aspects. Modified plastics are now widely used in home appliances, automobiles, communications, medical, electrical and electronic, rail transportation, precision instruments, home building materials, security, aerospace and aviation, military industry and other fields.

Status of the modified plastics industry
During 2010-2021, the rapid growth of modified plastics in China, from 7.8 million tons in 2010 to 22.5 million tons in 2021, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.5%. With the expansion of modified plastics applications, the future of China’s modified plastics is still a large space for development.

At present, the demand for modified plastics market is mainly distributed in the United States, Germany, Japan and South Korea. The United States, Germany, Japan and other developed countries modified plastics technology is more advanced, the application of modified plastics earlier, the demand for modified plastics in these areas is far ahead, in recent years, with the progress of China’s modified plastics technology and the promotion of the application of modified plastics, China’s modified plastics market size has also been increasing.

In 2021, the global demand for modified plastics industry is highly variable, about 11,000,000 tons or so. After the end of the new crown epidemic, with the recovery of production and consumption, modified plastics market demand will have a large increase, the future global modified plastics industry market demand growth rate will be about 3%, is expected to 2026 global modified plastics industry market demand will reach 13,000,000 tons.

China’s reform and opening up, the application of plastic modification technology has also gradually emerged, but due to the late start, the domestic plastic modification processing industry has a weak technology, small-scale problems, high-end product varieties mainly rely on imports. Data show that in 2019, China’s industrial enterprises above the scale of modified plastics production reached 19.55 million tons, and it is expected that in 2022, China’s industrial enterprises above the scale of modified plastics will reach more than 22.81 million tons.

Development trend of modified plastics industry
With the development of 3D printing, Internet of Things, 5G communication, artificial intelligence and other technologies, the application of modified plastics downstream areas continue to enrich the scene, the scope of application continues to expand, which brings development opportunities for modified plastics at the same time, the modified materials also put forward higher requirements.

In the future, the development of China’s modified plastics industry will be the following trends.

(1) the upgrading and progress of downstream areas will promote the upgrading of modified plastics industry

With the rapid development of 5G communication, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, 3D printing and other technologies, the rise of smart home, new energy vehicles, etc., the market demand for material performance continues to improve, the development of innovation in the modified plastics industry will continue to increase. At present, China’s high-end modified plastics foreign dependence is still relatively high, high-end modified plastics localization is inevitable, with low density, high rigidity, high toughness, high temperature resistance, low volatile organic compounds of plastic products will be more and more widely used.

With new energy vehicles, smart homes and other new market demand will also give rise to more demand for high-quality modified plastics, differentiated high-end modified plastics will usher in the spring of development.

(2) the progress of modification technology to promote the upgrade of modified plastics materials

With the application of demand, the modified plastics industry is also actively developing new modification technology and material formulations, promoting the rapid development of modification technology, in addition to the continued development of traditional enhancement, flame retardant technology, composite modification technology, special functionalization, alloy synergistic application technology will also increase, the modified plastics industry shows the trend of diversification of modification technology, engineering of general-purpose plastics, engineering plastics high-performance.

General-purpose plastics engineering that is, general-purpose plastics through modification gradually have some of the characteristics of engineering plastics, so that it can replace part of the engineering plastics, and thus will gradually seize part of the traditional engineering plastics applications market. Engineering plastics high performance is through the improvement of modification technology, modified engineering plastics can reach or even exceed the performance of metal parts, in recent years, along with China’s information and communication, new energy automotive industry booming, high-performance modified engineering plastics demand has risen sharply, can adapt to the harsh working environment with ultra-high strength, ultra-high heat resistance and other properties of high-performance modified engineering plastics will be good applications.

In addition, by the social awareness of environmental protection and the guidance of national policies, the market demand for environmentally friendly, low-carbon energy-saving, recyclable and degradable modified plastics is also rising, the market demand for high-performance environmentally friendly modified plastics is rising, especially low odor, low VOC, no spraying and other technical requirements may cover the entire industry chain upstream and downstream.

(3) intensified market competition, industry concentration will further improve

At present, China’s modified plastics production enterprises are numerous, the industry competition is fierce, compared with large international enterprises, the overall technical capacity of China’s modified plastics industry still exists a certain gap. Affected by the U.S.-China trade war, the new crown pneumonia epidemic and many other factors, China’s manufacturing industry is paying more and more attention to the construction of the supply chain, requiring a stable and reliable supply chain, emphasizing independent and controllable, which also creates new opportunities for China’s modified plastics industry, with market opportunities and national industrial support, China’s modified plastics industry will rise to a new level, the emergence of a number of outstanding enterprises that can compete with large international enterprises.

At the same time, the homogenization of technology, lack of independent research and development capabilities, product quality and inferior enterprises will also face the situation of being gradually eliminated from the market, and further increase in industrial concentration will also become the overall development trend.