Huge development potential of ASA resin market attract a large number of enterprises

The ASA refers to a ternary polymer consisting of acrylic, styrene, and acrylic rubber. ASA resin is a blend product of acrylonitrile-styrene copolymer and ASA high rubber powder, in which the ASA high rubber powder is core-shell rubber, the core is butyl acrylate, methyl methacrylate and isocyanate acrylate crosslinked polymer, shell is acrylonitrile-styrene copolymer grafted on the rubber core. According to different performance, ASA can be divided into ordinary grade, extrusion grade and heat resistant grade. Among them, the ordinary grade has the simplest production process and the lowest price, and occupies a relatively high market share, accounting for 55% of the market in 2020. ASA resin with high weather resistance, heat resistance, chemical resistance and other advantages, will become a substitute for ABS, the industry has a good development prospect.

The main production process of ASA resin is the mixing of ASA high rubber powder with SAN resin (styreneacrylonitrile copolymer). However, the supply of ASA high rubber powder is insufficient in China, which limits the production and consumption of ASA resin. It is very important to develop high adhesive powder production technology and supporting advanced equipment in the future. In 2020, our ASA high rubber powder production capacity of about 10,000 tons, production enterprises are Anqiu Donghai Plastic Industry, Guangzhou Entropy Energy, Zibo Huaxing Auxiliary and etc.. As the domestic production could not meet the production demand, the import demand of ASA high rubber powder was high and mainly import from Kumho, Lotte, LG, and etc..

According to the " In-depth research and investment outlook forecast analysis Report 2021-2026 of ASA resin industry market " released by Xinsi Industry Research Center, ASA resin is mainly used in building materials, automotive interior and exterior decoration, electronics and electrical, sporting goods, household appliances and other fields, especially in the automotive field of high application demand, accounting for about 52%. Next is building materials account for 40%. Due to the recovery of global automobile shipments, the demand for ASA resin market continues to rise. In 2020, the global production and sales volume of ASA resin was about 380,000 tons, and the market size was $1 billion. The current market demand for ASA resin is low, which is only about 4% of the consumption of ABS resin. In the future, the ASA resin industry still has great room for improvement. It is expected that the global consumption demand for ASA resin will reach about 520,000 tons by 2025.

At present, the annual output of ASA resin in China is about 78,000 tons, and the market is relatively scattered. There are about 20 companies with a production capacity of more than 1,000 tons, such as Kumho Rili, Xinxiang Chuangmei, Dakoneng, Qingdao Future, Aiyulon, etc. The largest is Kumho Rili, with an annual output of about 15,000 tons, accounting for 18% of the market. The ASA resin manufacturers in the overseas market include Lotte, LG Chem, Kumho and Ineos.

In 2020, the output of ASA resin in China is about 78,000 tons, but the market demand is about 115,000 tons, and the supply and demand gap is 37,000 tons. It is estimated that the market demand for ASA resin in China will reach 163,000 tons by 2025, and there will still be a supply and demand gap of about 40,000 tons by then. Therefore, the development potential of ASA resin market in China is huge.

Xinsi industry analysts said that ASA resin performance is superior, ASA can substitute for ABS resin in the automotive, building materials and other fields of high application demand, driven by the development of downstream industry, ASA resin industry has been rapidly developed. At present, ASA resin market demand is small, accounting for less than 5% of ABS rubber demand, the future market development potential is huge. In terms of production, limited by the small production of raw material ASA high rubber powder, the development of domestic ASA resin industry is slow. In the future, the integrated production of ASA resin and ASA resin will become the development trend of the industry.