Analysis of Functional Sugar Alcohol Market

1. The rapid development of China's functional sugar alcohol industry

As the global economy grows steadily and people's health concepts continue to increase, functional sugar alcohols are widely used in food processing, beverages, medicine, daily chemical and other industries. The field of food and health products is expected to become the largest application field of the functional sugar alcohol market. According to the QYResearch report, 77% of the functional sugars were used in food and beverages in 2018. The popularity of healthy eating concepts will increase the demand for functional sugar alcohols. According to data from Meticulous Research, the global functional sugar alcohol market will reach US$3.268 billion (approximately RMB 21.2 billion) in 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of 4.8% from 2017 to 2022. After entering the 21st century, the rapid development of China's functional sugar alcohol industry broke the monopoly of the functional sugar alcohol market by European and American countries. The Asia-Pacific region represented by China replaced Europe as the world's largest producer of functional sugar alcohols.

Sugar alcohol is a polyol compound obtained by reducing the aldehyde group, ketone group or hemiacetal hydroxyl group of sugar by Hydrogen. Sugar alcohols can be made from corresponding sugars, such as hydrogenation reduction of glucose to produce Sorbitol, and reduction of xylose to produce xylitol. At present, the sugar alcohols developed in the market in my country are all sugar carbohydrates with special effects. According to the structure, they can be divided into monosaccharide alcohols such as Erythritol, xylitol, sorbitol, mannitol and polysaccharide alcohols such as maltitol, Lactitol. Because sugar alcohols have special functions different from sucrose in the process of human metabolism, they are also called functional sugar alcohols.

Huakang Group started from xylitol and gradually deployed multiple types of functional sugar alcohols by relying on technology research and development and capacity expansion. It is an internationally leading functional sugar alcohol manufacturer. In 2018, the company's xylitol production accounted for approximately 48% of the domestic xylitol production in the same period, ranking first, accounting for 18.9% of the global xylitol production in the same period, ranking second. The company has maintained rapid performance growth by expanding production capacity and optimizing business structure. The company's net profit attributable to the parent company has increased from RMB 29 million in 2016 to RMB 307 million in 2020, representing a compound annual growth rate of over 80%.

Huakang Group is engaged in the subdivision of functional sugar alcohol and starch sugar manufacturing. The main series of products include: xylitol, crystalline sorbitol, maltitol, fructose syrup, etc. The company has become one of the world's major xylitol and crystalline sorbitol manufacturers. In 2018, the company's xylitol accounted for approximately 48% of domestic xylitol production in the same period.

2. Upstream and downstream markets for functional sugar alcohols

The upstream of the functional sugar alcohol industry is mainly plantation and chemical industry, mainly composed of suppliers of raw materials such as starch, corn cob, xylose, hemicellulose, etc.; the downstream of the industry is mainly food, beverage, medicine, daily chemical and other industries. The functional sugar alcohol industry is the middle link of the entire industrial chain. The upstream connects planting and chemical industry, and the downstream undertakes product development and application.

With the change in the overall consumption concept of the society and the improvement of people's material level, people's dietary consumption tendencies are becoming more and more healthy and nutritious, and healthy and low-calorie foods have become the current consumption hotspot and development focus. As an important sugar-free and low-calorie food raw material, functional sugar alcohols are expected to be recognized and favored by more and more consumers. Functional sugar alcohols have broad development space in the fields of food processing, health care, and medicine.

3. Market scale: global tens of billions of space, China is an important producer

According to data from MeticulousResearch, the global functional sugar alcohol market will reach US$3.268 billion (approximately RMB 21.2 billion) in 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of 4.8% and 4.8% from 2017 to 2022, maintaining a steady growth trend.

As one of the most mainstream functional sugar alcohol products on the market, xylitol is mainly used to produce chewing gum, ice cream and other popular foods to replace sucrose or other sweeteners.

According to Imarc’s survey, the global market demand for sorbitol reached 2.519 million tons in 2018. In the future, sorbitol will continue to increase due to the development of downstream markets such as food, medicine, and daily chemicals. By 2024, the global market demand for sorbitol will increase. Increased to 2.798 million tons, an increase of 11.08%11.08% compared with 2018, showing a trend of steady growth.

At present, my country is an important producer of global functional sugar alcohol products. After 2000, with the continuous improvement of the technical level of my country's functional sugar alcohol industry, the output of functional sugar alcohols continued to increase, and imports showed a downward trend, and the overall export volume maintained an upward trend, and began to occupy xylitol, sorbitol and other fields. leading position. In recent years, my country's exports of xylitol, sorbitol and other products have shown a steady growth trend as a whole.

4. The market concentration of the global functional sugar alcohol industry continues to increase

After years of development in the functional sugar alcohol industry, the concentration of the global industry market has continued to increase. In terms of xylitol, the global xylitol production companies mainly include Danisco (Denmark, Huakang Pharmaceutical, Shandong Futian, etc.; in terms of crystalline sorbitol, the main production companies include Huakang Pharmaceutical, Roquette France, Mingyue Seaweed Group, Shandong Lvjian and so on.

After entering the 21st century, with the rapid development of the functional sugar alcohol industry in the Asia-Pacific region represented by China, it began to break the monopoly of the functional sugar alcohol market by European and American countries. The Asia-Pacific region gradually replaced Europe as the world’s largest functional sugar alcohol. Origin of alcohol.

After years of development, China’s functional sugar alcohol manufacturing industry has shown a certain geographical concentration distribution. From a regional perspective, China's functional sugar alcohol manufacturing industry is mainly distributed in East China, North China, Northeast China and other regions

The owner's business of Huakang Pharmaceutical is the production and sales of functional sugar alcohols and starch sugars, with its headquarters in Zhejiang;

Shandong Foton’s main products include xylitol, maltitol, and sorbitol, headquartered in Shandong;

Shandong Lvjian’s main products include xylitol, maltitol, sorbitol, etc., headquartered in Shandong Province;

Mingyue Seaweed Group mainly produces mannitol, sorbitol, and alginate, and is headquartered in Shandong.