Global PBAT Industry Market Status in 2022

At present, traditional starch-based partially degraded plastics still account for 38% of the degradable plastics used worldwide, and starch-based plastics are still the largest variety due to historical reasons. While PLA and PBAT account for 25% and 24% of the global market respectively, both of which occupy the majority of the total biodegradable plastics market. PBS accounts for 8% of the market share, but due to its overall weak commercial appeal, there are fewer manufacturers developing PBS than PLA and PBAT.

2, PBAT film material main body, PBAT cost and price
PBAT not only has good ductility, elongation at break, heat resistance and impact resistance, but also has excellent biodegradability, so it is the main body of membrane materials. It is widely used in plastic packaging film, agricultural plastic film and other film materials.
There are three esterification methods to prepare PBAT: co-esterification, split esterification and series esterification. At present, the development of PBAT production process is the earliest and most mature German BASF, BASF (PBAT) product name ECoflex; Italy Novamont company is the world's earliest biodegradable plastics industrialization enterprise, Novamont PBAT trade name is Origo-BI. In addition, the PBAT production technologies of Chinese enterprises such as Hengli Petrochemical, Jinfa Technology, Changhong High-tech (Zhongke Qianceng), Ruifeng High-tech (Juyou Chemical) are also relatively mature.

PBAT is formed by the polymerization of terephthalic acid (PTA), adipic acid (AA) and butanediol (BDO). One ton of PBAT requires about 0.35 tons of adipic acid, 0.6 tons of BDO and 0.4 tons of PTA.
According to the calculation of the annual output of 100,000 tons of PBAT plastic particles, the raw material cost after deducting the revenue from by-products is 17,645 yuan/ton, and the complete production cost is 19,415 yuan/ton (the skyrocketing price of BDO this year makes the proportion of BDO cost in the raw material cost increase sharply). According to the price of 22,000 yuan per ton of PBAT particles, the price-cost difference of each ton of PBAT is 2,585 yuan (excluding VAT). After deducting the cost, it is estimated that the net profit of each ton of PBAT plastic particles is about 2,000 yuan at the current price.

3. China has the largest PBAT production capacity
China has the leading production capacity of PBAT, most of which adopt direct esterification process. At present, the global PBAT production capacity is about more than 500,000 tons, among which the largest manufacturer is Tunhe Blue Mountain in Xinjiang, China (120,000 tons), followed by Novamont in Italy (100,000 tons/year PBAT production capacity) and BASF in Germany (74,000 tons/year PBAT production capacity).
In conclusion, PBAT, as one of the three major segmented products of degradable plastics, is mainly used as the main body of membrane material due to its performance, and now the production technology has been developed and mature. Compared with the global PBAT production capacity, China has the global PBAT production capacity of enterprises, Xinjiang Blue Mountain Tunhe PBAT annual capacity of 120,000 tons, more than the world's leading enterprises - Novamont of Italy and BASF of Germany.