| |
This report focuses on the industrial market sector for phosphates and the major raw materials and products serving it. Emphasis is on industrial-grade phosphoric acid, whether thermal (furnace) acid or purified wet-process acid, and on the ammonium, calcium, potassium and sodium phosphate salts derived therefrom.
Production of industrial phosphates in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Western Europe, Japan and China is estimated to be about 2.6 million metric tons on a P2O5 basis. The total fob value of this production is roughly estimated to be on the order of $3.0 billion. The decline that occurred after 1993 as a result of the phasing out of sodium phosphate use in the detergent builder market continued slightly in the United States, and in Western Europe turned into stagnation, whereas in other world regions, consumption of industrial phosphates is increasing. Overall growth is expected to continue on a global scale. In Europe, Japan and the United States, stagnation in the detergent segment and moderate growth in other applications is expected, whereas in China, South America, the Middle East and India, growth is expected to be healthy, driven by increasing use of phosphate-based detergents.
The two major types of processes for production of industrial-grade acid are thermal (or furnace) acid, which is based on combustion of elemental phosphorus, and purified wet acid, which is based on solvent extraction or precipitation/neutralization processes. Thermal acid technology was developed first and thermal plants are generally older. At the high cost of energy, which is not projected to lower significantly in the foreseeable future, operating costs for thermal acid plants are much higher than for purified wet acid plants.
In China, where almost all capacity is thermal acid, high energy costs have led to a drastic decrease in exports. In 1999–2003, exports more than doubled, from about 110 thousand metric tons to over 220 thousand metric tons, but exports fell to an estimated 156 thousand metric tons in 2004. This trend is expected to continue, unless investments in wet-process acid capacity are made.
The following pie chart shows consumption of industrial phosphates in the major regions:
STPP (sodium tripolyphosphate) use as a detergent builder no longer accounts for the majority of phosphoric acid consumption in the United States, Canada or Japan. It remains, however, the largest market in Western Europe (about 54%) and in Mexico (about 85%). Phosphates are excellent builders, but they are also plant nutrients, and phosphate wastes entering surface water systems can result in excessive growth of algae. This eutrophication is a significant problem in a number of regions and in particular in the developed countries. Although detergent phosphates are not normally the major source of phosphate contamination (fertilizer runoff and animal or human wastes are typically larger sources), they can be readily controlled by restricting use. As a result, alternative builders are required (in Japan, Germany, Switzerland and the United States) or phosphate levels in detergents are restricted (in Canada and Sweden). In some parts of Asia (the Republic of Korea, Taiwan and Thailand) where rising standards of living are leading to higher use, zeolites rather than phosphates are the most commonly used builder system, displacing potential export demand for phosphates produced in North America or Europe. Environmental concerns will continue as a strong determinant of phosphate demand in detergents in Western Europe and North America and accordingly, consumption will stagnate, if not decline. Growth is expected in India, China, other Asian countries and South America, where the detergents in the mid and premium segments increasingly gain market share and typically contain phosphate builder systems.
|
