Cyclohexylamine    

Air Products, Pensacola, FL

Total

PRODUCER

CAPACITY*

10

Air Products, Wichita, KS

10

Celanese, Bucks, AL

30

50

*Millions of pounds per year. Commercial production of cyclohexylamine is by reaction of cyclohexanol with ammonia or by hydrogenation of aniline. The latter method has been favored in recent years as it is the lower cost route. Hydrogenation facilities are multipurpose and may be used to manufacture other products.

Profile last published 11/16/98; this revision 5/28/01.

DEMAND
1999: 15.5 million pounds; 2000: 15.5 million pounds; 2004: 15.5 million pounds, projected. Demand equals production plus imports less exports. Since the mid 1990s, demand has been relatively stable, fluctuating up or down no more than one-half million pounds, around 15.5 million pounds. Trade data on cyclohexylamine is not collected by the U.S. Department of Commerce. CMR estimates that imports are less than 1 million pounds per year and exports vary from 3 to 5 million pounds per year.

GROWTH
Historical (1995 - 2000): 0 percent per year; future: 0 percent per year through 2004.

PRICE
Historical (1995 - 2000): High, $1.52 per pound, list, tech., tanks, delivered; low, $1.40, same basis. Current: $1.52, same basis.

USES
Boiler water treatment, 55 percent; rubber chemicals, 30 percent; miscellaneous, 15 percent.

STRENGTH
Exports of cyclohexylamine to Asia have held up well, with product moving primarily to China and Indonesia for use in production of cyclamate sweeteners.

WEAKNESS
Cyclohexylamine’s market has become stagnant as its major applications are growing at less than GDP and it has lost some ground in boiler water treatment and rubber chemicals through displacement by other amines, especially morpholine.

OUTLOOK
Since the ban in the U.S. on cyclamate sweeteners in 1970, cyclohexylamine’s largest market at the time, there has been considerable overcapacity in the market. This situation will carry into the future as the market has stagnated with the surviving applications and there are no new uses on the horizon. Raw materials, aniline and hydrogen, are plentiful, but their prices are sensitive to the uncertainties fuel price variations.

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