Demand For Water Treatment Products In China To Exceed 34 Billion Yuan In 2010

Cleveland, OH — Demand in China for water treatment products -- chemicals, equipment and supplies -- is projected to increase 14.1 percent per year to 34 billion yuan in 2010. For nearly every product and every market, growth will be faster in China than in any other industrialized nation. This is due in large part to the continued economic expansion in China, which is currently unparalleled elsewhere in the world and creates growth in demand for industrial water treatment chemicals and other products. These and other trends are presented in "Water Treatment in China," a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry market research firm.

A number of other factors will also contribute to a large and fast-growing market for water treatment in China. Until recently, water was not well-managed by the government, and water usage was fairly indiscriminate. As a result, China still uses much more water to produce a ton of paper or steel than do the industrialized nations of Western Europe, the United States and Japan. Industrial users had generally discarded wastewater in the most expeditious manner without regard for short- or long-term environmental impact. Water supplied by municipal providers has generally been either untreated or undertreated, and water considered "fully treated" is often not safe to drink without first being boiled.

The Chinese government has begun to adopt policies, enunciated in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, that promote more efficient use of water, greater rates of water recycling in industrial settings, more aggressive treatment of wastewater, and provision of safe water to a larger number of citizens via municipal water supply facilities. As a result of historical neglect and the newfound commitment to better water management practices, it is expected that demand for water treatment products will continue to post exceptionally strong gains despite relatively modest changes in industrial and municipal water usage. Gains for nonchemical treatment equipment and supplies are expected to be somewhat faster than for treatment chemicals due to the overall expansion of the water supply infrastructure in China, which will prompt growth for filtration and separation equipment and supplies.

SOURCE: Freedonia Group, Inc.