Early in 1985, China has started glyoxylic acid (GA) production with oxalic acid electroreduction method, which marked the start of GA industry in domestic market. However, the production scale of most GA producers in China was quite small then and their production technology was also very laggard. Because of the poor quality and high price of the product, the development of GA industry was limited.
GA is an important raw material for production of allantoin and vanillin. In the 1990s, domestic demand of allantoin and vanillin increased rapidly, which promoted the rapid development of GA industry. However, the development of GA production technology could not catch up with the rising demand, which led to the slowly expanding production scale of GA producers.
GA industry has developed rapidly in China since the early 21st century, and many GA producers increased their investment in R&D and started to expand their production capacity in China. After several years' development, the quality of China's GA has improved markedly. The gross actual output in China was less than 1,000 tonnes in 2002. Nevertheless, after nearly 8 years' development, the total actual output has amounted to 68,969 tonnes (calculated by 50%) in 2010. As of March 2011, China's GA active capacity has reached 134,880t/a, and it is estimated to reach 135,380t/a by the end of 2011.
In 2010, 58,039 tonnes (calculated by 50%) of GA are consumed to mainly produce p-hydroxylphenylglycine, DL-p-hydroxy phenylhydantoin, allantoin, vanillin, 2-hydroxyl-phosphine acetic acid and other chemical products in China. The fast increase in GA consumption in China is mostly driven by demand from its downstream products, especially P-hydroxylphenylglycine, DL-p-hydroxy Phenylhydantoin and vanillin.
Besides the above points, this report will also focus on:
- GA supply situation and its price trend
- The history of GA in China
- Analysis on the products from raw material to downstream products of GA
- GA consumption patterns
- In-depth analysis on key factors influencing the development of China's GA industry
- Introduction and comparison of different production technology routes of GA
- Major producers' capacity and output of GA and oxaldehyde
- Forecast on output and consumption of GA in China in the next 5 years