Potassium hydroxide, also known as caustic potassium, has the chemical formula KOH and a molecular weight of 56.1. It is an important chemical product that appears as a white powder or flaky solid at room temperature. Potassium hydroxide has the characteristics of strong alkalinity, strong corrosiveness, high melting point, and easy solubility in water. It is mainly used as a raw material for the production of potassium salts and is also applied in fields such as electronics, cosmetics, advanced detergents, advanced alkaline batteries, and food additives.
In recent years, the domestic potassium hydroxide market has been booming, with increasing production capacity. In 2020, the domestic potassium hydroxide production capacity was 1.267 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 1.9%. In the future, with the resumption of domestic potassium hydroxide production and the continuous increase of new projects, the domestic potassium hydroxide production capacity will maintain a continuous growth trend, and it is expected that the domestic production capacity will approach 1.6 million tons in 2023.
From the perspective of downstream application markets in the industrial chain, potassium salt is currently the largest application market for potassium hydroxide in China, accounting for 46.2% of the total consumption of potassium hydroxide in the domestic market; In recent years, due to the impact of the epidemic, the demand for the pharmaceutical market using potassium hydroxide as raw material has continued to expand, and the pharmaceutical industry has become the second largest application market driving the continuous expansion of the domestic potassium hydroxide market, accounting for 20.3%; Next is the textile industry, accounting for 13.3%; Other application areas account for a relatively small proportion, not exceeding 10%.
In recent years, driven by strong demand in the downstream application market of the domestic potassium hydroxide industry chain, the domestic potassium hydroxide production capacity has been continuously increasing, and the industry has a good development prospect. Driven by market demand growth and strong domestic policy support, China has become a new destination for the transfer of emerging industries such as semiconductors and photovoltaics. In this context, the application field of potassium hydroxide in China will continue to expand in the future, market demand will continue to increase, and the industry still has great development space.
