Nylon is one of the few materials whose market potential is still huge, and the future market growth rate in China is expected to be more than double digits. It is estimated that the national demand for nylon 66 alone is expected to reach 1.32 million tons by 2025, with an average annual compound growth rate of 25% from 2021 to 2025; By 2030, the national demand will be 2.88 million tons, with an average annual compound growth rate of 17% from 2026 to 2030. In addition, the market of special nylon, such as nylon 12, nylon 5x and aromatic nylon, is expected to double or achieve a breakthrough from 0 to 1.

New fashion in clothing field

Nowadays, people's living standards are constantly improving, but nylon still occupies a lot of space in the clothing industry. Luxury brand Prada particularly favors nylon. Prada's first nylon product was born in 1984. After more than 30 years of exploration, with its strong brand effect, nylon series products have become its iconic fashion label and are widely admired by people in the fashion industry.

At present, Prada's nylon products cover the whole category of shoes, bags and clothing, and launch four design series, which are widely loved by fashion professionals and consumers. The huge profits brought by this fashion trend will often lead to the further development and imitation of many high-end brands, and will bring a new round of trend of nylon in the clothing field.

Traditional nylon as clothing, although wear-resistant and beautiful, but there are also criticisms. For a period of time, nylon socks were also known as "smelly foot socks", mainly due to the poor water absorption of nylon. The current solution is to blend nylon with other chemical fibers to improve water absorption and comfort. The new nylon pa56 has higher water absorption and better wearing experience as a garment, which is expected to be popularized in the future.

New upgrading of transportation demand

In today's era of reducing carbon and emissions, more and more automobile manufacturers take reduction as the basic requirement of automobile design, and plastic is gradually changing from decorative parts to structural and functional parts.

At present, the average amount of plastic on each car in developed countries is 140-160kg. Nylon is the most important vehicle plastic, which is mainly used for power, chassis parts and structural parts, accounting for about 20% of the vehicle plastic. Taking the engine as an example, the temperature difference around the traditional automobile engine ranges from -40 to 140 ℃, and nylon with good long-term temperature resistance can also play a role in lightweight, cost reduction, noise reduction and vibration prevention.

Table 1: application distribution of nylon in different parts of traditional fuel vehicles

In 2017, the average amount of nylon used per vehicle in China was about 8kg, far behind the global average of 28-32kg; Our Hua'an chemical team predicts that by 2025, the average nylon material for each vehicle in China is expected to increase to about 15kg. According to the automobile industry association, the output of vehicles in China will be 30million in 2025, and the consumption of nylon material for vehicles will reach about 500000 tons.

Compared with traditional cars, electric vehicles have a greater demand for plastics. According to the research of electric vehicle network, the electric vehicle mileage can be increased by 6%-11% for every 100kg of vehicle weight reduction. Among them, the battery weight is in contradiction with the endurance. Due to the limitation of battery technology, at present, the battery weight is one kilogram for each kilometer of driving. For example, the battery weight alone is as high as 200 kilograms for the vehicle with a driving range of 200 kilometers. Therefore, electric vehicle and battery manufacturers have strong demands for weight reduction.

Take Tesla as an example. The Tesla models battery pack board is composed of 7104 18650 lithium batteries. The battery pack weighs nearly 700 kg, accounting for nearly half of the weight of the whole vehicle, of which the protective shell of the battery pack weighs 125 kg. By using plastic products, Model3 reduces the weight of electrical parts and structures, and the weight of the whole vehicle is reduced by more than 67 kg. In addition, traditional automobile engines require heat-resistant plastics, while electric vehicles pay more attention to flame retardance.

Considering these factors, nylon is undoubtedly an excellent plastic for electric vehicles. In 2019, LANXESS developed PA (Durethan) and PBT (pocan) series materials specially used for lithium-ion batteries, electric powertrain and charging settings.

Table 2: some applications of nylon in new energy vehicles

According to the fact that each new energy vehicle battery pack requires about 30kg of engineering plastics, it is estimated that 360000 tons of plastics will be required for battery packs alone in 2025. Nylon, which is widely used in traditional vehicles, can continue to shine brightly in new energy vehicles after flame retardant modification.

New scene brings new increment

3D printing technology is a rapid prototyping technology, which is similar to the general printing principle. By reading the cross-section information in the file, these cross-sections are printed layer by layer with various materials and bonded to create a solid, which can produce almost any shape of objects. 3D printing with a sense of the future has maintained rapid growth since its commercialization. The core of 3D printing is materials.

Nylon is an ideal choice for 3D printing applications due to its wear resistance, toughness, high strength and durability. In 3D printing, nylon is very suitable for prototypes and functional components, such as gears and tools. Nylon has high rigidity and flexibility. When using thin-wall printing, the part is flexible, and when printing thick walls, the part is rigid. It is suitable for producing movable hinges with rigid parts and flexible joints. Because nylon is hygroscopic, parts can be easily colored in the dye bath.

Figure 1: Nylon accounts for a high proportion of 3D printing materials

In January 2019, Evonik developed a nylon material (trogamidmycx) containing special aliphatic and alicyclic monomers. It has amorphous transparency, UV resistance, and good processing performance. The transparency is more than 90%, and the density is as low as 1.03g/cm3. It also has wear resistance and durability.

When it comes to transparent materials, we used to think of PC, PS and PMMA, but now amorphous PA can also do it, and it has better chemical resistance and toughness. It can be used for advanced lenses, sun visors of snowboards, goggles, etc.

The development prospect of nylon in China

1、 Supply side: new domestic production capacity or change the global supply pattern

From the global nylon market, nylon 6 and nylon 66 account for more than 95% of the total production capacity and output. According to IHS report, in 2020, the global nylon 6 production capacity was 10.52 million tons / year, and the nylon 66 production capacity was 3.17 million tons / year. Due to the localization of raw material caprolactam, the production capacity of domestic nylon 6 has increased rapidly in recent ten years. In 2020, the production capacity of domestic nylon 6 reached 6.47 million tons / year, accounting for about 62% of the global production capacity. The production capacity of the top 12 enterprises accounted for more than 36%, mostly concentrated in developed regions such as East China and South China.

According to our statistics of Hua'an chemical industry, there will be 2.78 million tons of new capacity in the future. At present, domestic nylon 6 mainly produces fiber materials. In the future, with the expansion of production capacity leading to fierce competition, more manufacturers will set foot in high value-added fields such as engineering plastics.