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Adipic Acid
|
PRODUCER |
CAPACITY* |
|
DuPont Canada, Maitland,
Ontario |
330 |
|
DuPont, Orange, Tex. |
450 |
|
DuPont, Victoria, Tex. |
760 |
|
Inolex, Hopewell, Va. |
60 |
|
Solutia, Pensacola, Fla. |
850 |
| Total |
2,450
|
*Millions of pounds per year.
Commercial production is through nitric acid oxidation of a
cyclohexanone-cyclohexanol mixture called KA oil (ketone-alcohol). DuPont and
Solutia derive KA oil from cyclohexane feedstock, while Inolex uses phenol as a
starting material.
In 1999, Inolex purchased
AlliedSignal’s adipic acid business, and last year expanded production in
Hopwell, Va., to 60 million pounds per year.
Since this profile’s previous
publication, Solutia has debottlenecked the Pensacola plant twice, bringing
capacity to a total of 850 million pounds.
DuPont is in an expansion program
that will add more than 330 million pounds of adipic capacity at its three North
American plants at Maitland, Ont., and Orange and Victoria, Tex. The expansion
program is expected to be complete in 2003.
Profile last published 6/15/98; this
revision 7/9/01.
DEMAND
1999: 1975 million pounds; 2000: 2022 million pounds; 2004:
2240 million pounds, projected. Demand equals production plus imports (1999: 107
million pounds; 2000: 121 million pounds) less exports (1999: 147 million
pounds; 2000: 154 million pounds).
GROWTH
Historical (1995 - 2000): 3.2 percent per year; future: 2.6 percent per year
through 2004.
PRICE
Historical (1995 - 2000): High, $0.725 per pound, list, resin grade bulk, hopper
cars, frt. equald.; low, $0.66, same basis. Current: $0.725, same basis. Market
pricing is about $0.10 per pound less.
USES
Nylon 66, 87 percent (fibers, 62 percent; resins, 25 percent);
polyurethane resins, 7 percent; plasticizers, 4 percent; miscellaneous,
including unsaturated polyester resins and food applications, 2 percent.
STRENGTH
Global demand for nylon resins, used especially in engineering plastics,
has grown 8 percent to 10 percent per year during the past decade, pressuring
suppliers of adipic acid.
WEAKNESS
With 62 percent of the adipic acid take, a slowdown in nylon
fiber production retards the adipic market. Production of nylon fibers has
slowed to about 1.7 percent annual growth with the cooling economy and flat
housing. Although May housing starts were up 3 percent compared to same time
last year, at a seasonally adjusted rate of 1,622,000 units, this is only 0.7
percent above the 1999 rate. Nylon fibers are highly sensitive to the
performance of the housing sector.
OUTLOOK
Many producers have expanded adipic capacity by debottlenecking their plants to
meet demand growth of engineering resins. Producers, however, have not committed
to building new plants. The market anticipates that the substitution of nylon
engineering plastics into automobile parts is becoming saturated and will soon
begin to slow. Overall growth for adipic acid is projected to be 2.6 percent per
year, through 2004.
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