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The majority of furfuryl alcohol is used primarily in the production of furan resins for foundry sand binders in the metal casting industry. Furan is a generic term for binders containing furfuryl alcohol and either urea or phenol-formaldehyde, or mixtures of both. Today, furfuryl alcohol is used mainly in binders for the traditional furan no-bake system and in smaller quantities in furan hot-box, warm-box, and gas-hardened processes. In its main application—the foundry business—furfuryl alcohol competes primarily with phenol, the feedstock for phenolic resins.
China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of furfuryl alcohol, accounting for 67% of worldwide supply and 32% of worldwide demand in 2007. A huge trade surplus of furfuryl alcohol in China in 2007—representing over half of worldwide demand outside of China—challenged producers around the globe by putting prices under pressure.
The following pie chart shows world production of furfuryl alcohol:
Furfuryl alcohol prices have a fairly broad fluctuation bandwith, mainly because about 40% of the buyers are small domestically operating companies that buy the material on the spot market. Price movements around the globe are largely dictated by Chinese producers and mainly influenced by the Chinese domestic supply/demand situation.
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