The field of building materials is the main demand area for cellulose ethers. Cellulose ether has excellent properties such as thickening, water retention, and retarding, and is widely used to improve and optimize the performance of building materials including pre mixed mortar (including wet mixed mortar and dry mixed mortar), PVC resin manufacturing, latex paint, putty, tile adhesive, insulation mortar, flooring materials, etc., to meet energy-saving and environmental protection requirements, improve the construction efficiency of buildings and decorations, and indirectly apply it to masonry plastering construction, interior and exterior wall decoration of various types of building projects. Due to the large investment scale in the field of construction engineering, various types of construction projects are scattered, diverse, and have significant differences in construction progress. Building material grade cellulose ether has the characteristics of wide application range, high market demand, and dispersed customers.

Among the building materials grade HPMC of middle and high-end models, the building materials grade HPMC with a gel temperature of 75 ℃ is mainly used in dry mixed mortar and other fields, which has strong high-temperature resistance and good application effect. Its application performance is irreplaceable for the building materials grade HPMC with a gel temperature of 60 ℃, and high-end customers have high requirements for the quality stability of this type of products. At the same time, the production of HPMC with a gel temperature of 75 ℃ has certain technical difficulties. The investment scale of the production plant is large, and the entry threshold is high. The product price is significantly higher than the building material grade HPMC with a gel temperature of 60 ℃.

High end PVC specific HPMC is an important additive for the production of PVC. Although HPMC is added in small quantities and accounts for a low proportion of PVC production costs, its product application effect is good, so its quality requirements are high. There are few manufacturers producing PVC specific HPMC domestically and internationally, and the price of imported products is much higher than that of domestic products.

Development trend of building materials grade cellulose ether industry

The stable development of China's construction industry continues to drive the market demand for building material grade cellulose ethers

According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2021, China's urbanization rate (the proportion of urban population to the national population) reached 64.72%, an increase of 0.83 percentage points from the end of 2020, and an increase of 14.77 percentage points from the 49.95% urbanization rate in 2010, indicating that China has entered the middle and late stages of urbanization development. Correspondingly, the growth of total demand in the domestic real estate market has also entered a relatively stable stage, and the differentiation of demand in different cities is becoming increasingly evident. For example, the demand for improved medium to large-sized housing in small and medium-sized cities with population outflow is growing, while the housing demand of new citizens in large cities with a large influx of population continues to increase. In the future, with the decrease in the proportion of manufacturing industry and the increase in the proportion of service industry in China, the increase of flexible employment forms such as innovation and entrepreneurship, and the development of flexible office models, new requirements will be put forward for urban commercial, residential space, and work life balance. The demand for real estate products will become more diversified, and the domestic real estate and construction industries will enter a transitional and transformational period.