Total production capacity of the world’s seven largest producers of superabsorbent polymers has increased 13% from 2.184 tons to 2.468 tons from August 2012 to August 2013. Of the seven, three companies—Nippon Shokubai, BASF and Evonik Industries—have produced more than 500,000 tons of material each per year and the total capacity of these three companies comprises 65% of the total output.

Production capacity at Nippon Shikubai dropped from 100,000 tons to 60,000 tons in the U.S. because it shutdown one plant capable of making 40,000 tons per year. Meanwhile, the company’s Indonesian facility’s capacity has increased from 30,000 tons to 90,000 tons per year. Also, the company plans to expand its production capacity in Belgium from 100,000 tons to 160,000 tons by 2018 and increase Japanese output from 320,000 tons to 370,000 tons by the end of 2016.

Meanwhile, BASF is adding a new site, capable of making 60,000 tons of capacity per year, in Brazil in 2015.
On the other hand, Sumitomo Seika Chemicals is going to start up a new facility capable of making 40,000 tons per year in Japan in April 2015 and has announced it will build a new facility, capable of making 59,000 tons of material per year, in Korea in 2016.

SDP Global plans to operate a new facility making 80,000 tons in China by July 2015 and is scheduled to establish a production base in Southeast Asia in 2017 and North America by 2018-2019. In fact, the company has a strategy of reaching 600,000 tons capacity by 2020.

In the meantime, LG Chemical Company will start making 80,000 tons of superabsorbent in Korea in 2015. Already this company’s capacity is set to increase 2.5 times in less than two years, from 106,000 tons in February 2014 to 260,000 tons by the end of 2015.
When the above-mentioned enlargement of the companies is accomplished as scheduled, the manufacturers’ total production capacity would reach 2.7 million tons per year by the end of 2015. And, the production capacity at the end of 2016 would be 2.8 million tons per year. Although there are some local SAP manufacturers in China, the operating rate is low in general. Besides, chemical companies in Thailand and Taiwan have been investing as new entries to the SAP market. n