Future development trend of color masterbatch industry: product functionalization

On September 22-24, the 2015 National Academic and Technical Exchange Conference on Plastic Coloring and Color Masterbatch, hosted by the Color Masterbatch Special Committee of the China Dyestuff Association, was held in Chengdu. The meeting believes that in the face of fierce market competition, during the 13th Five Year Plan period, the focus of the development of the color masterbatch industry is on product functionalization.

The reporter learned at the meeting that the protection period for China's accession to the World Trade Organization expired in July this year. For the color masterbatch industry, the entry of international low-priced products has had a huge impact on the domestic market. With the changing industry environment, popular color masterbatch products are no longer suitable for fierce market competition, and various high-performance, energy-saving and environmentally friendly plastic products produced with functional color masterbatches will have a broad market. Therefore, developing functional color masterbatch products will become the key to enhancing competitiveness. To strive for higher market share, the color masterbatch industry must target high-end markets such as automobiles, building materials, medical and agricultural chemicals, and electronic information technology.

The construction of a standardized system for functional color masterbatch products is underway, becoming an important support for color masterbatch products to move towards functionalization. Qiao Hui, Secretary General of the Color Masterbatch Special Committee of the China Dye Industry Association, stated that the two standards for polypropylene (PP) color masterbatch and high impact polystyrene (PS-HI) color masterbatch have been promulgated and implemented since April 1 of this year. The standards for polystyrene (PS) sheet mixing special color masterbatch and polypropylene (PP-R) pipe special color masterbatch for cold and hot water are expected to be promulgated and implemented by the end of this year. As a supporting industry for color masterbatch, the pigment industry also implemented 13 chemical industry standards for plastic pigment testing on June 1st this year.

Luo Chongyuan, Chairman of Guangdong Shenghengchang Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., believes that the color masterbatch industry should strengthen the integration of industry, academia, and research, expand high-end products, innovate forward-looking products, and provide customers with new solutions. At the same time, attention should be paid to capturing new market opportunities, entering potential markets, achieving industrial application and development of technology, and taking the integrated route of raw material technology, resin synthesis, and product application development. Strive to establish an industrial system with independent innovation capabilities, large scale, and complete industrial supporting facilities by 2020.

Luo Chongyuan pointed out that we should vigorously develop new technologies for the manufacturing of bulk and key synthetic materials, as well as key technologies for high-performance functional color masterbatches. We should increase research and development efforts in the fields of dispersion and coloring, and make efforts in formula reagents and process design. We should choose functional additives and additives reasonably.

The meeting emphasized that the development of functional color masterbatch products must be market-oriented. The color masterbatch industry should attach importance to efficient and specialized marketing networks, and use information technology and modern logistics technology to improve marketing levels. It advocates the mixed industrial model of "Internet plus", product+service, and intensive development. In the future, the functional color masterbatch market will no longer be solely satisfied with product production, but will extend from selling products to selling services, that is, generating data through intelligent and networkable products, providing new digital services, thereby opening up new sources of income, optimizing industrial control and management, maximizing the use of limited resources, and ultimately reducing costs.