**Supply tightness will lead to technological breakthroughs

China is currently the world’s third largest ** production base and one of the major bromide producing countries. In the last 10 years, driven by domestic consumption and foreign markets, China’s bromine and bromide industries have developed rapidly, and in 2007 China’s production volume It reached 160,000 tons, the highest in history. Since 2008, China's production has decreased year by year, and domestic supply is difficult to meet the needs of downstream industries, especially industrial inorganic bromides. ** Prices have also continued to rise in the past two years. In the second half of this year, it has reached a level that many companies cannot afford.

Brominated flame retardants, organic intermediates and oilfield chemicals are the three main areas of application. The consumption of bromine in 2009 accounted for 49%, 19% and 15% of the total consumption. Regarding the problems and development trends in the Chinese industry, Tsai Li, an information researcher of Western America, believes that if the supply of bromine resources cannot be solved, the high price of ** prices will become a normal state in the coming years. Both Dead Sea Bromide and Albemarle have stated that China’s future imports of ** will not exceed 10,000 tons, so imports cannot solve the problem of domestic ** supply shortages. To solve this problem, in addition to strengthening the government's scientific planning and supervision, it is more important to seek breakthroughs in bromine extraction technology. The brominated flame retardants will continue to be the mainstay of consuming in the next few years, but their growth rate is gradually slowing, and there may even be negative growth. Brominated organic intermediates have become a new driving force for the development of the bromine industry and will continue to grow in the future, but the speed will not be excessive.