September 29, 2024 – Akoli Corporation has announced the successful completion of the primary construction, equipment installation, and debugging for its thousand-ton high-transparency material, Cyclic Olefin Copolymer (COC), production line. After rigorous evaluation by a panel of experts, the trial production plan for this high-transparency material has been approved and filed with the relevant authorities, marking the imminent commencement of its trial production phase.
Akoli has taken a solid step forward in advancing the localization of COC materials. The company initiated sustained research and development (R&D) investments in this material back in 2014. Through nine years of relentless efforts, it successfully transitioned COC from the laboratory scale to the R&D amplification stage in 2020. In 2021, the company further achieved the establishment of a thousand-ton raw material production line and completed the synthesis and verification of COC at the laboratory level.
According to Color Masterbatch Industry News, cyclic olefin polymers, as a category of high-value-added thermoplastic engineering plastics, find extensive applications in various fields such as optics and pharmaceuticals. Notably, they hold significant market potential in emerging areas like VR/AR and flexible packaging battery aluminum-plastic films. However, the global COC/COP market has long been monopolized by foreign enterprises, resulting in a relatively concentrated supply landscape. To break this monopoly, multiple domestic companies have intensified their layouts and vigorously promoted the localization process of COC/COP.
Currently, several domestic companies are comprehensively advancing the localization of COC/COP from monomer and polymerization pilot tests to industrial construction. Among them, Zhejiang Toxi Technology and Liaoning Luhua Hongjin New Material Technology Co., Ltd. have already achieved thousand-ton industrial mass production. Akoli’s entry into the trial production stage of thousand-ton COC will undoubtedly further enhance China’s COC supply capacity, providing the market with more options.
Moreover, recent domestic developments related to COC have been abundant. Donghua Engineering Science & Technology Co., Ltd. has issued an inquiry and procurement notice for a continuous experimental platform for the development of cyclic olefin copolymer catalyst synthesis and polymerization technology. Toxi Technology’s 3,000-ton/year special cyclic olefin copolymer project’s first phase has successfully commenced production, and the second phase is steadily progressing. Kingfa Science & Technology has successfully completed the pilot and medium-scale trials of medical-grade and optical-grade COC materials through independent R&D. Liaoning Luhua Hongjin New Material Technology Co., Ltd.’s cyclic olefin polymer plant was successfully commissioned in February this year and has passed the completion environmental protection acceptance. Meanwhile, Wanhua Chemical publicly exhibited its COC/COP products at the “CHINAPLAS 2024 International Rubber and Plastics Exhibition” this year.
It is foreseeable that, with domestic companies continuously increasing R&D investments and advancing the industrialization process, China’s supply of COC/COP materials will become more abundant, and market competition will intensify in the future.