The silicone methyl monomer industry is developing well and the production capacity is expected to reach 7 million tons/year in 2025.

Methyl chlorosilane is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH5ClSi, which belongs to a category of silicone monomers, so it is also called silicone methyl monomer and methyl monomer. Silicone monomer is a key raw material for preparing silicone oil, silicone resin, silicone rubber, silane coupling agent, and formulating silicone adhesives and sealants. The main types include methylchlorosilane (methyl monomer), phenylchlorosilane ( Phenyl monomer), ethyltrichlorosilane, propyltrichlorosilane, methylvinylchlorosilane, vinyltrichlorosilane, etc. Methyl monomer is the most important type of monomer, playing a fundamental and pillar role in the entire silicone industry.

Currently, driven by the rapid development of the domestic silicone industry, the production capacity of methyl monomer is continuously increasing. The organic silicon industry chain is: organic silicon raw materials-monomers-intermediates-organic silicon products-downstream application areas. At present, the main application areas of silicone include construction, photovoltaics, wind power, textiles, new energy vehicles, etc. Benefiting from the rapid development of the downstream market, the output of organic silicone products continues to increase. In 2022, the domestic production of organic silicone gel will exceed 1.5 million tons, which in turn will drive the increasing demand for organic silicone monomers and the continuous increase in output. According to the “China’s Silicone Methyl Monomer Industry Market Monitoring and Future Development Prospects Research Report 2023-2027” released by the Industrial Research Center shows that as the most important category of methyl monomers, its domestic output in 2022 will be approximately 3.284 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 6.8%.

At present, my country has become a major consumer of silicone in the world, and the domestic demand for methyl monomer is showing a rapid growth trend. Limited by factors such as technology and experience, my country’s import dependence on methyl monomers is at a high level. However, in recent years, some overseas silicone monomer production capacities such as Momentive and Dow have gradually withdrawn from the market, overseas methyl monomer supply has shrunk under the influence of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the energy crisis, and domestic methyl monomer production capacity has rapidly expanded. Under the influence, my country’s import dependence on methyl monomers is gradually decreasing, and the industry is showing a good development trend.

Up to now, there are more than ten companies in my country with large-scale production capabilities of methyl monomers. The main companies include Hesheng Silicon Industry, Blue Star Spark, Xingxing Chemical, Energy Investment Silicon Technology, Dongyue Silicone Materials, Sanyou Silicon Industry, Luxi Chemical industry, Hengyecheng Silicone, Yuanling Technology, etc. At the same time, many domestic companies are building or planning to build methyl monomer plants, including Fuhua Agricultural Science Investment, Daqo New Energy, Tiandong Jinsheng Chemical, etc.

Industry analysts said that methyl monomers are the most important type of silicone monomers, accounting for 50% of the total monomers. More than 90% is the foundation and pillar of the entire silicone industry. Currently, driven by the rapid development of the silicone industry, methyl monomer production capacity is continuously increasing. At the same time, against the background of the rapid expansion of production capacity of local methyl monomer companies, the domestic market’s import dependence is continuously decreasing. In the future, under the background of steady development of the domestic methyl monomer industry, it is expected that by 2025, my country’s methyl monomer production capacity will reach 7 million tons/year, and it will gradually grow into a global methyl monomer production power.