Kingfa signs framework agreement about promoting its biodegradable agricultural film

On Dec. 5, 2013, Kingfa Sci & Tech Co., Ltd. (Kingfa) announced that it signed a framework agreement with the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), to promote over 467,000 ha. of its biodegradable agricultural film (using PBSA as biomaterial) in XPCC's crop ecological region within the next three years. Generally, 467,000 ha. of biodegradable agricultural film will consume approximately 20,000 tonnes of biodegradable plastic every year, according to CCM’s Biomaterials China News issued in January.

The framework agreement is reached based on the developmental direction of both organisations. In short, as the spring ploughing   period   approaches, biodegradable agricultural film with good performance has become the first choice for cotton farmers of XPCC, since they have witnessed the good degradation of biodegradable agricultural film in their cotton fields and obtained a cost-recovering reduction last year. Specifically, approximately 3,300 ha. of biodegradable agricultural film was promoted by XPCC in 2012. Kingfa, a leading biodegradable plastic producer in China, is actively preparing for the domestic market for biodegradable agricultural film after the No.1 Proposal was released in March 2013 (the No. 1 Proposal for strengthening the development of green agriculture will set the direction of the Chinese government's major tasks this year).

Kingfa possesses a leading position in the development of China's biodegradable agricultural film industry. Firstly, the company's biodegradable agricultural film has a performance that is comparative with PE material. Moreover, its biodegradable agricultural film has proved to be completely biodegradable and has passed the EU-based EN13432 certification and the US-based BPI certification (ASTM D6400).

Kingfa has even drafted a national standard of the new material industry—the "biodegradable plastic used for blown film" (standard label: GB/T 29646-2013) has got the approval by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China and the Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China in Sept. 2013. The national standard is scheduled to be implemented from Jan. 31, 2014.

According to an insider of Kingfa, the amount of biodegradable agricultural film will not compress the orders of existing packaging film. It may, however, increase the sales of its biodegradable plastic.

At present, the development of China's biodegradable agricultural film industry is mostly limited by the high price and disordered industrial standards.

On one hand, the price of biodegradable agricultural film is much higher than that of PE film, making it unaffordable for the majority of farmers.  According to related statistics, the price of traditional agricultural film is about USD2,445.8/t, while the price of biodegradable agricultural film will be over USD3,261.1/t (verified by Zhong Luhua, the chairman of Shenzhen Ecomann Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Ecomann)).

On the other hand, China has no strict industrial standards for the degradable agricultural film industry, which can cause disorder in the industry. For example, many enterprises including Guangdong Shangjiu Biodegradable Plastic Co., Ltd. (Guangdong Shangjiu) produce their biodegradable film just by mixing PE with starch. Once the starch is decomposed, the PE residue can hide in the soil and still do harm to the environment.

Related preferential policies need to be published to encourage more enterprises to enter the biodegradable agricultural film industry and help ease the problem of white pollution in China.

Table of Contents of Biomaterials China News 1401:

China's PHA industry shows good momentum of development

Biological PE industry achieves progress in 2013

WPC brings business opportunities to domestic enterprises

Glory Biomaterial's biological PDO program put into operation

Kingfa signs framework agreement about promoting its biodegradable agricultural film

Shenzhen Union Red Kite Holding launches new bio-based NPG 100% degradable plastic

Hexing Chemical's PBS project receives governmental support

China's corn price decreases in Oct. but increases in Nov. 2013

New production capacity of 20,000 tonnes is put into SA industry

China's PLA import volume up while export volume down in Nov. 2013

China's import volume of fresh cassava increases sharply in Nov. 2013

China's import volume of castor oil and its derivatives decreases in Nov. 2013

BPFRG warns about biodegradable bags tax exemption

BASF produces its first commercial quantities of bio-based BDO

Futaste's polyol pilot service center project passes inspections

QIBEBT, CAS joins US-based BTB2C

Avantium produces 100% bio-based PEF T-shirts from recycled PEF bottles

Biomaterials China News, with 12 to 14 topics in one issue, published by CCM on 8th every month, will bring you the latest information on the market dynamics, company dynamics, new biomaterials products, new biomaterials technology development, new legislations as well as policies and raw material supply dynamics, which are shaping the significant market intelligence of the industry.

About CCM

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For more information, please visit http://www.cnchemicals.com.

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China's PHA industry enters new stage of development

Metabolix, a bioscience company focused on delivering sustainable solutions for plastics, chemicals and energy, announced on March 26, 2013 that it has signed a distribution agreement with Tianjin GreenBio Materials Co., Ltd. (GreenBio). Under the terms of the agreement, Metabolix will distribute GreenBio's SoGreen™ heat shrink film in Europe and will be the exclusive distributor in America. In addition, they have also signed a supply agreement for PHA biopolymers, according to CCM’s latest monthly report, Biomaterials China News issued in June.

According to Bob Engle, the vice president of the business & commerce department of Metabolix, the distribution and PHA supply agreements will extend the range and availability of Metabolix's PHA products. Lu Weichuan, chairman and chief executive officer of GreenBio, said that working with Metabolix can gain greater exposure for GreenBio's products in America and Europe. The cooperation between GreenBio and Metabolix will be an encouragement for the domestic PHA industry, indicating that China's PHA industry enters a new stage of development.

Actually, China is a leader in the research and commercial production of PHA in the world. According to the secretary general of Shenzhen Plastics Industry Association, PHA is a general name of polyhydroxyalkanoates materials, and there have been four generations for industrial PHA products at present. A representative product of the first generation is PHB homopolymer, and the brittleness limits the large-scale use of this product. In order to improve the processing ability of PHA, other generations of PHA have been developed, such as PHBV, PHBHHX and P34HB.

At present, domestic major institutes involved in the development of PHA include Tsinghua University, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, CAS, and Shantou University. The major companies engaged in industrial production of PHA include GreenBio, TianAn Biologic Materials Co., Ltd. (TianAn Bio), Shandong Ecomann Technology Co., Ltd. (Ecomann) and Shandong Lukang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Lukang Pharmaceutical). These institutes and companies have cooperated with each other in recent years to achieve significant improvement in the PHA industry. The above-mentioned companies have put several production lines into operation, but currently they are cautious toward the PHA capacity expansion.

It's believed that three factors may prompt the biodegradable PHA plastics to be gradually accepted by consumers. Firstly, the production cost of PHA plastics is close to that of petroleum-based plastics. Generally, the cost of bio-degradable plastics is several times higher than that of general plastics, but now the technological improvement helps cut the cost of bio-degradable plastics. Secondly, the properties of some PHA plastics are similar to those of the general PP and PE, such as Ecomann's P34HB plastics. Besides, there are more than 150 kinds of PHA monomers which can be used to produce various kinds of plastics, meeting special demands for elasticity and plasticity, so the application scope of PHA plastics is nearly as wide as that of general plastics. Thirdly, the people's awareness of environmental protection improves, helping increase domestic demand for biodegradable materials, such as agricultural film which can be degradable in the soil. It's reported that Ecomann's PHA agricultural film and pesticide packaging have been promoted in Jining, Shandong Province with the help of local government in the first half of 2013.

PHA is mainly used to produce tableware, lunch box, pharmaceutical packaging and agricultural film. Currently, domestic consumption volume of PHA is about 3,000t/a, while domestic PHA capacity is about 22,000t/a. In this context, the cooperation between domestic PHA producers and foreign companies will help promote the large-scale application of PHA products and accelerate the development of the domestic PHA industry.

Table of Contents of Biomaterials China News 1306:

China's PHA industry enters new stage of development

A breakthrough in China's bamboo fiber industry in May 2013

China's PAM industry faces disorder competition in 2012

Latest development of China's PLA industry in 2013

YFY Yangzhou's straw-based paper passes biodegradation test

Arkema successfully launches bio-based nylon 1010

Sichuan Vinylon launches PVA derivatives

The first phase of Jinhui Groups's PBS program enters pilot production

China's natural rubber price decreases sharply since Feb. 2013

Castor oil price may remain low in the next three months

China's import volume of fresh cassava decreases sharply in April 2013

China's PLA foreign trade improves in April 2013

A bio-based materials lab founded in Qingdao

Junxiu Biotech develops biodegradable artificial nerve material

CHINAPLAS 2013 held in Guangzhou from May 20 to May 23

Hainan and Guangdong jointly establish Bio-plastics Industry Alliance

Myriant achieves commercial production of bio-based succinic acid

Biomaterials China News, with 12 to 14 topics in one issue, published by CCM on 8^th every month, will bring you the latest information on the market dynamics, company dynamics, new biomaterials products, new biomaterials technology development, new legislations as well as policies and raw material supply dynamics, which are shaping the significant market intelligence of the industry.

About CCM

CCM is dedicated to market research in China, Asia-Pacific Rim and global market. With a staff of more than 150 dedicated highly-educated professionals, CCM offers Market Data, Analysis, Reports, Newsletters, Buyer-Trader Information, Import/Export Analysis, and consultancy service. 

For more information, please visit http://www.cnchemicals.com.

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Email: econtact@cnchemicals.com

Screen out investment target with high potential for PE firms

China's strong economic development projects also attracted many foreign private equities' participation. At the same time, the localized private equity investment has developed sufficiently. How to find the companies with high growth potential and real value among hundreds of thousands of companies in China? Who are those urgently seeking for investments while possesing high potential in profit return with relatively low risks? With China's economic expansion continues, a huge number of private companies have been growing fast while facing tight cash flow, thus in bad need of investments, but they find it hard to get loans from China's state-owned banks. At the same time, as a result of the information explosion, it has become increasingly challenging for those investors with abundant funds to find companies with real value to invest in.

With a research team backed by professional research methods as well as years of accumulated industry knowledge, CCM can help investors screen out a list of private companies with high growth potential and urgent needs in fund from thousands of companies in China. CCM carries out the screening by looking into various aspects of the companies, such as company size, company history, product portfolio, capacity, import and export, sales channel, sales strategy, competitors, end users, R&D, sales, management team, etc. CCM provides neutral analysis reports on screened out comparnies, to help PE firms understand the target companies’ investment intentions better.

This service can be carried out in three steps basing on investors’ requests. Step One: Find out potential target companies for investments, namely those with great growth potential, those with intention to invest, those meeting investment requirements (in size, or in industry focus, etc) of PE investors; Step Two: Talk to these private companies to help PE investors understand more of their investment target's businesses; Step Three: Provide an in-depth analysis of the Investment Target before PE investors make decisions to invest.

CCM holds the third-party perspective, and provides objective, scientific, impartial analysis and argument of risk, strategy, prospects, investment environment, and the value of the project. If you want to know more, please visit:
http://www.cnchemicals.com/Imagefiles/files/Revised-Investment Target Screening for PE Firms.pdf

.

About CCM

CCM is dedicated to market research in China, Asia-Pacific Rim and global market. With a staff of more than 150 highly-educated professionals, CCM provides Market Data, Analysis, Reports, Newsletters, Buyer-Trader Information, Import/Export Analysis all through its new proprietary product ValoTracer. For more information, please visit http://www.cnchemicals.com.
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Add: 17th Floor, Huihua Commercial & Trade Mansion, No.80 Xianlie Zhong Road, Guangzhou 510070, China.                                                      

Tel: 86-20-37616606                                Email: econtact@cnchemicals.com

Barriers to Lie on Road of Bio-degradable Plastics

More and more businessmen, politicians and citizens turn their sights on the bio-degradable plastics due to the shortness of fossil fuel and serious living condition. Also, domestic bio-materials have gained excellent score both in production capacity and technology. But will bio-degradable plastics have a smooth sail in the future? Maybe there are barriers lying on the road of bio-degradable plastics' development, according to CCM International’s June issue of Biomaterials China News.

High Price leads to small market

 

China has the largest population and now China's technology is close to that of western developed countries. However, China is still considered as a huge production base, but not a consumer market.

For the public, bio-degradable plastic sounds like a luxury. Take the food-grade film for example,PLA (polylactic acid) ,the most popular bio-degradable plastic, can be sold for USD4,740/t, while price of PE (polyethylene, one of the most general plastics) is only about USD1,896/t. Expensive price makes bio-degradable plastic invisible in general activity and daily life though it can attract many people's sight in large exhibition. Only some famous companies, like Coca-Cola and McDonald, who want to bear more social responsibility, have used bio-degradable plastic as their raw material.

 

Mr. Dan Sawyer, Manager of NatureWorks LLC in the Asia-Pacific region, said on April 19, 2012 that the quantity of consumed PLA worldwide increased by 20%, but regions responsible for the increase are Europe and America. In 2005, they entered into the Chinese market, and in 2011, their sale quantity is still about 4,000t, while the capacity of NatureWorks is 140,000t/a.

 

Domestic leading enterprises of bio-degradable plastics, such as Wuhan Huali, Guangdong Shangjiu, Kingfa, etc., complained about the similar problem, expressing that domestic bio-degradable plastic market is very small.

New Market is difficult to expand

 

Besides expensive cost, Mr. Hu, Chief Scientist of Wuhan Huali, explained that the difficulty to expand market has tormented bio-degradable plastic salesmen for a long time. He said that domestic companies have already formed a fixed network by purchasing and selling, while as a new product, bio-degradable plastic is still difficult to enter their network, for most enterprises are afraid to bear extra risk and don’t want to break down the cooperation with their traditional partners.

 

Attacks from low-end products and fake commodities

 

Attributed to government's weak regulation, many cheap fake commodities disturbed the market. When Wuhan Huali tried to expand market, they often have to face the situation exactly as what's said by Mr. Hu, "it just needs some recycled plastic and some calcium carbonate to produce fake commodities which are similar to ours, but these fake commodities can be sold at a very cheap price. If fake commodities can’t be banned effectively, the real environmental bio-degradable plastic industry will not have a bright futrue, which is dangerous (for the industry) at present.

R&D expenditure is insufficient

 

Innovation is the key factor for a company’s development, especially for those high technology industries, such as bio-degradable material. And private enterprises are an important source for innovation as they are sensitive to new technology and new market. But in China, most private enterprises’ R&D expenditure is insufficient. Mr. Bian, Senior Engineer of Shenghong Group, says that the R&D in China is just about how to make new technology applicable to industrial production, and one reason is that their R&D expenditure is limited by company’s budget, the other reason is that they dare not to start a long-term research since they are afraid of market changes. Mr. Hu, Chief Scientist of Wuhan Huali, who has been engaged in Chemical Department of Natural Science Foundation Committee, says that Chinese government should publish more policies to encourage colleges and research institutes conducting application and mass production research, as private companies are not able to apply for NSFC (Natural Science Foundation of China).

 

Raw material needs reformation

 

China has a huge population with relatively little land resources. Undoubtedly, Chinese government has to restrict food and grain application on non-food industries to guarantee domestic food supply. Nevertheless, corn and some grain crops which have abundant starch are still important raw materials of bio-degradable plastic, the problem may not have stood out yet. The total food-and-grain usage in this industry is not huge now. However, once bio-degradable plastics become main material in the future,  the problem can’t be ignored. Luckily, straw and other organic waste can replace grain crop as raw material. Corn deep processing industry can be a reference for the select of raw material, as corn deep processing industry consumed too much corn, which promotes corn price. At last, government published a serious of policies to squeeze their profit continuously.

 

Process technology is not mature

 

Through the development of several centuries, the process technology of fossil fuel plastics is very mature, and fossil fuel plastics can be widely used in almost all industries. But bio-degradable plastics still have many disadvantages, especially in process technology, which leads to bio-degradable plastics’ application focusing on package, medicals and disposable table ware.

 

Recycle and degradation may require a new system

 

In fact, most degradable plastics can’t decompose in nature environment. For example, PLA may exist 100 years or more without controlled-composting environment, which is made up of special facility, special microbe, and temperature of 60 celsius degree for more than 10 days. Besides, garbage workers can’t distinguish PLA from PET efficiently. A new system is required to recycle PLA, according to the dilemma on PLA’s recycle in America in 2009 that rubbish recycle station refused people to use PLA bottlers since PLA can bring great trouble for American Rubbish Recycling System that USA has spent 20 years on the system’s construction.

Though the bio-degradable plastic industry still has many problems to be solved, it’s still a great progress to decrease the rely on fossil fuel and strengthen environmental protection. The current situation is that more problems may be hidden, since the industry has just taken its first step. Nevertheless, the overseas market demand is greatly over its capacity, so the domestic market potential is predicted to be great in the future.

Source: Biomaterials China News 1206

http://www.cnchemicals.com/Newsletter/NewsletterDetail_245.html

Main content of Biomaterials China News 1206:

Barriers to lie on road of bio-degradable plastics

Numerous bio-material enterprises enter agriculture film market

Development of PLA recycle in China

 PBS may enjoy bright future in China

Kingfa tries to double its sales within four years

Domestic first low-temperature special water soluble fiber successfully developed

JAAS successfully developed degradable straw pot

Corn stock of northeast ports continues rising

Price of global wheat may be pushed to a higher record due to drought

… …

(Guangzhou China, June 12, 2012)

Biomaterials China News, with 12 to 14 topics in one issue, published on the 8th every month, will bring you the latest information on the latest market dynamics, company dynamics, new biomaterials products, new biomaterials technology development, new legislations and policies and raw material supply dynamics that are shaping the market.

About CCM

CCM is dedicated to market research in China, Asia-Pacific Rim and global market. With a staff of more than 150 dedicated highly-educated professionals. CCM offers Market Data, Analysis, Reports, Newsletters, Buyer-Trader Information, Import/Export Analysis all through its new proprietary product ValoTracer.

For more information, please visit http://www.cnchemicals.com.

CCM International Ltd.
Guangzhou CCM Information Science & Technology Co., Ltd.
17th Floor, Huihua Commercial & Trade Mansion, No.80 Xianlie Zhong Road, Guangzhou 510070, China

Tel: 86-20-37616606

Email: econtact@cnchemicals.com

Source: http://www.cnchemicals.com/PressRoom/PressRoomDetail_w_1098.html

Booming Agriculture Investment in China

Agriculture has played a predominant role in the Chinese economy and will become increasingly important in the foreseeable future. The potential high growth of China’s future agriculture industry has attracted more and more investors, with modes including capital investments and new real investments.

Ding Lei, founder and CEO of the leading China-based internet technology company NetEase.com, Inc., proposed his idea of pig breeding project in 2009, which aroused great public concerns. Now the pig breeding project is underway smoothly, and the first patch product of 10,000 pigs will be put into the market at the beginning of 2012. 

Financial capital investors have paid much attention to China’s agriculture industry in recent three years. In 2010, PE (private equity) fund to Chinese agriculture projects approached USD1,489 million, more than the total value in 2006–2009. In 2011, the number of companies to be listed and their major businesses including agriculture industry increased by 30% over 2010, with PE/VC investment of more than RMB1,000 million.

According to the data from Zero2IPO Group, 10 VC funds with total value of USD173.4 million have invested in agriculture industry in Q3 2011, ranking fifth among industries. And 12 VC funds with total value of USD170.3 million in food/ drink industry, ranking the sixth among industries.

It can be estimated that there are more commercial opportunities in China’s agriculture investment business. Aiming to present you a comprehensive investment environment in China’s agriculture industry, CCM International has newly launched AgriChina Investor, published on 25^th  every month. By evaluating the potential player or industries, this newsletter can help you discover new investment opportunity and find out the profitable node in the value chain of agriculture industry. If you are interested in this newsletter, please contact us for the free sample.

About CCM International

CCM International is dedicated to market research in China, Asia-Pacific Rim and global market. With a staff of more than 150 dedicated highly-educated professionals. CCM offers Market Data, Analysis, Reports, Newsletters, Buyer-Trader Information, Import/Export Analysis all through its new proprietary product ValoTracer. For more information, please visit http://www.cnchemicals.com.

CCM International Ltd.
Guangzhou CCM Information Science & Technology Co., Ltd.
17th Floor, Huihua Commercial & Trade Mansion, No.80 Xianlie Zhong Road, Guangzhou 510070, China

Tel: 86-20-37616606

Email: econtact@cnchemicals.com

Source: http://www.cnchemicals.com/PressRoom/PressRoomDetail_c_962.html