Bio-based Materials China News

In May 2014, the demand for bio-based materials witnessed increases in China, mainly due to the environmental protection policies and the industrial consumption. Specially in Q1 2014, the imports of PLA presented increases in price and decreases in volume, while the imports of corn starch saw fluctuations and will become stable in the near future, indicating that bio-based materials show sound development as a whole.

In this issue, CCM had interviewed with some experts in the industry to discuss and analyze the domestic situations of bio-based PU and PLA fiber. With sharp price increases in petroleum-based PU, bio-based PU, which has relatively higher production costs, becomes more competitive in the market. Professor Jiang Ruping believed that the market potential of bio-based PU is greater than other bio materials, with superior performance and great application potential. Besides, the strong demand for bio-based PU demonstrates its great potential. The application of bio-based materials also covers the textile industry. The traditional textile industry in China has become a homogeneous market, stimulating the development of bio-based fibers like PLA fiber. Jiang Yu, senior technology consultant in the industry stated that the functionality and comfort of bio-based PLA fiber is similar to that of ordinary chemical fibers. Moreover, its environmental-friendly properties are not evident in chemical fibers, which is also an important competitive advantage of PLA fiber. However, it is still in need of promotion and technological breakthroughs, which is also the problems in the domestic bio-based material industry. With the governmental support and the removal of technology restriction by international leading enterprises, the bio-based materials in China will have a bright future.

In addition, CCM also paid attention to the application of degradable agricultural film in farmland, which still presents some problems in performance, involving unstable and uncontrollable degradation process, low strength and difficulty in thickness decrease. However, supported by the government, the enterprises and R&D institutes together will effectively solve the problems, indicating a bright future for completely biodegradable agricultural film.

The RMB/USD exchange rate in this issue is USD1.00=RMB6.1560 on 5 May, 2014, sourced from the People's Bank of China.

Warming notice: Based on the feedback from customers and suggestions from industry experts, CCM changes the Biomaterials China News into Bio-based Materials China News from this issue. We hope to present you an exhaustive bio-based materials market in China. Also, we want to express our heartfelt thanks to you here, for your close concern and faithful company.