Sweeteners China News

Welcome to the April issue of Sweeteners China News (Vol. 4 Issue 4 2014) published by CCM, a professional consulting company which has been extensively and intensively focusing on the dynamics of China's sweetener industry.

A rise in sucrose imports and a fall in sucrose sales price greatly affected performances of some sucrose enterprises in 2013. Because of profit received from sucrose import business, COFCO Tunhe saw a noticeable improvement in its performance in 2013. By contrast, other sucrose companies, like Nanning Sugar and Guitang, were adversely affected in 2013. Profit margins of their sucrose businesses were pushed down by the fall in sucrose price.

Starch sugar manufacturers were also impacted by declined sucrose price. Global Sweeteners disclosed a drop in its both sales volume and profit margin of starch sugar in 2013. However, some other large companies, like China Agri saw an YoY rise in sales volume of starch sugar. The recession of China's starch sugar industry provided opportunities for these companies to improve their market shares as they have scale advantage and strong ability of resisting risk.

Similar integration also happened in China's acesulfame-K in 2013. Accumulative export volume of the top 3 producers' acesulfame-K increased in 2013 following the price war.

Development of China's oligosaccharide producers slowed down in 2013, as shown in the annual reports of some companies including QHT and Longlive Bio-technology. Except for the product structural adjustment, some company like Longlive Bio-technology began to explore overseas market. Besides, Shandong Bailong recently signed a cooperation agreement with Healingbio (a South Korean biotech company).

To be noticed, the RMB/USD exchange rate in this issue is is 6.15 while HKD/USD is 7.757 (source: The People's Bank of China), and all the prices mentioned in this newsletter include the VAT unless otherwise specified. If there are any specific topics you would like us to cover or any subjects you would like us to investigate in more details, please contact us by +86-20-3761 6606, or econtact@cnchemicals.com.