Eating too much sugar can cause obesity, which leads to but is not limited to: metabolic endocrine diseases, chronic cardiovascular diseases, various cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events, tumors, osteoarthropathy, etc.
Authoritative American experts openly argued in Nature magazine that sugar is the biggest public health crisis in the history of the world, "it is like another kind of tobacco, ingesting more is like chronic suicide." According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), there were about 425 million people with diabetes worldwide in 2017, and 1 in 11 people had diabetes. It is predicted that by 2045, 700 million people worldwide will have diabetes.
Humans use sugar substitutes for health. Sugar reduction has risen to the level of national control, and most countries have taxed sugar control. It can be seen that food health and safety has become an important vane for the development of enterprises, which will accelerate the development of the sweetener sugar industry.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > an introduction to the sugar substitute industry</h1>
Sugar substitutes are a type of sweetener, which can be roughly divided into 3 categories: natural sweeteners, sugar alcohols, and artificial sweeteners.
Natural sweeteners are extracted from natural plants, and there are steviol glycosides, monk fruit steteodines, inulin, etc. Corresponding to Rhein Bio: mainly engaged in monk fruit extract, stevia extract, industrial hemp, shibaric acid, Rhodiola rosea extract.
Sugar alcohols, some are natural, some are processed: for example, xylitol, sorbitol, erythritol, maltitol, etc. corresponding to Huakang shares: xylitol, sorbitol, maltitol, fructose syrup;
Artificial sweeteners are artificial chemical synthetic chemicals, characterized by very, very high sweetness, no calories, and no nutritional value: FDA-approved 5 artificial sweeteners are saccharin, ansemius, aspartame, new sweet, sucralose corresponding to Jinhe Industry: sweetener acesulfame potassium, sucralose, flavor A, ethyl maltol, methylcyclopentenolone, liquid ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, ammonium bicarbonate, melamine, formaldehyde, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, diethylene ketone.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > sugar market competition</h1> pattern
When we analyze an industry or company, we inevitably talk about competitiveness, and the most superficial result of competitiveness is market share.
The sugar substitute industry we are talking about today is itself a manufacturing industry, and the industry has relatively standards, so the market share can represent an important reason why the company's products and whether the market is competitive.
1) Plant extract sugar substitute:
Rhein Biotech has nearly 20 years of experience in the plant extraction industry, is a global leader in the plant extraction industry, and is also the first listed company in the domestic plant extraction industry.
From 2010 to 2019, the export volume of China's plant extraction industry continued to show a steady growth trend, from US$768 million to US$2.372 billion, CAGR+13.35%.
2) Sugar alcohols
Market size
Huakang Co., Ltd. is a well-known domestic xylitol manufacturer, production scale and comprehensive strength in the forefront of the industry, has been around xylitol, sorbitol, maltitol, fructose glucose syrup and so on to build a relatively complete industrial chain. In 2018, the company's xylitol production accounted for about 48% of domestic xylitol production in the same period, ranking first; accounting for about 18.9% of global xylitol production in the same period, ranking second. The company has established good long-term cooperative relations with Mars Wrigley, Mondelëz, Bufandi, Ferrero, Hershey, Hollywood and other well-known domestic and foreign food and beverage industry enterprises, and the products are sold to the domestic market and Europe, the Americas, Asia and other major countries and regions around the world.
Potential domestic competitors are: Shandong Futian in Shandong Province, Shandong Lujian and Shandong Tianli.
3) Artificial sweetener
From the currently known materials, it can be seen that the market size of synthetic sweeteners far exceeds that of other sweeteners.
Synthetic sweeteners have been around for six generations, followed by saccharin, cyclamate, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, and neosweet.
As a first-generation sweetener, the safety of saccharin is currently widely questioned, and it has been banned in many Western countries due to its carcinogenic risk. China has implemented fixed-point production, limited production and sales, and total quantity control for saccharin;
The second-generation sweetener cyclamate, due to the carcinogens cyclohexylamine and dipenthexylamine, has been banned in more than 40 countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States. China has also made strict limits on the amount of cyclamate added to food.
Aspartame as a third-generation sweetener, the safety has been improved, but it has also been rejected by the FDA, and its thermal and alkali stability is poor, and it is not suitable for patients with phenylketonuria.
The most mature synthetic sweeteners used are the fourth generation of acesulfame potassium and the fifth generation of sucralose.
Acesulfame potassium does not participate in metabolism in the human body, does not provide calories, is recognized as a cost-effective, high-safety sweetener, has been approved for use in more than 100 countries and regions.
Sucralose, as the only sweetener upstart with sucrose as raw material, has a good coincidence with sucrose in its sweetness characteristic curve, and has the advantages of high safety, low calorific value, high sweetness and wide range of application, which is called the best sweetener of the new generation.
The sixth generation of New Sweet is still in the introduction period, and the market share is relatively small.
So at present, we mainly look at the production of four or five generations of products.
At present, the only enterprises with large-scale production capacity in the world are Jinhe Industry, Germany's Nutrinova, Beijing Victor, Jiangbeiyang and other four enterprises.
Jinhe is also the only company in the world that produces both acesulfame potassium and sucralose.
The company has a production capacity of 4000 tons / year of sucralose, with a market share of about 20%, ranking first in domestic production capacity, and the global production capacity is second only to the British Taylor's 4500 tons / year. It is expected that by December 2020, after the company's new production capacity of 5,000 tons / year is put into operation in Lai'an, the sucralose production capacity will reach 9,000 tons / year, ranking first in the global production capacity, and the good competitive pattern of Acesulfametic is reproduced.
Always speaking, we can see that the market size of synthetic sweeteners is currently the largest in terms of market size.
From the perspective of the competition pattern, the number of participants in plant extracts does not have obvious barriers, and the market size is not large; xylitol market participants are relatively good, showing a situation of how strong the competition, Huakang shares have a certain lead, but the market size is not large; the market competition pattern of synthetic sweeteners is clearer, and the corresponding market size is larger.
It can be seen that the competitiveness of Jinhe shares is stronger and the corresponding market scale is stronger. So next we focus on the competitiveness of Jinhe shares.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > the competitiveness of Jinhe shares</h1>
What is a competitive company means that its market share accounts for the top three in the world and has the ability to serve high-end customers.
As we mentioned above, the market share of Jinhe shares has reached a staggering 57% in the world's four generations, and the fifth generation is about to become the world's first.
However, the synthetic class is ultimately manufacturing, which reminds me of the growth path of Wanhua Chemical, which also grows through continuous cost reduction and capacity expansion. Therefore, the low cost of manufacturing is an important competitiveness.
The technical barriers and entry barriers of the four-generation acesulfametic industry are relatively high, and only a few new entrants try to break through, such as Shandong Yabang and Vinegar Chemical Shares.
According to the EIA report of Acesulfame potassium, Huaan Chemical calculated the complete cost of Jinhe Industry and competitors A and B, which were 23478, 36547 and 28629 yuan / ton, respectively. Compared with competitors, Jinhe has a cost advantage of 13069 and 5151 yuan / ton, respectively.
The most important component of acesulfame potassium costs is di-vinyl ketone (29%), followed by labor and manufacturing costs (24%) and sulfamic acid (8%). The main reason why Jinhe has a cost advantage is that it can use its own production cost as the largest raw material - diethylene ketone, which is the advantage of integration and the integrity of the industrial chain. Competitor A's production capacity is less than expected, and shipments are very small, mainly export-oriented, accounting for about 60%. Assuming that competitor A has an operating rate of 60%, an output of about 2000 tons / year, and its complete cost is about 42669 yuan / ton, which is the marginal production capacity of the acesulfametic market and has a better support for product prices.
The five-generation sucralose synthesis process mainly has two types of single group protection method and whole group protection method, the whole group protection method has no industrial value, and the single group protection method production process is very long, involving multi-step chemical reaction, and the process parameter control and experience operation requirements are very high.
On the basis of the success of producing the same type of product acesulfame, the company began to use the single group protection method to mass-produce sucralose in 2016, through the continuous optimization of process technology, according to the statistics of China Industry Information Network, the product yield increased to 45%, much higher than the domestic average of 30%-35% yield, second only to the British Taylor 50%.
The company's sucralose process mainly has the following three stages:
1) Esterification stage: the use of organotin method to produce sucrose-6-ethyl ester (A sugar), the product yield is high, while dibutyltin oxide can be recycled, greatly reducing production costs;
2) Chlorination stage: the use of vilhiol chloride and DMF reaction to produce a Wynth reagent selective chlorination of A sugar, the formation of sucralose ester (B sugar), improve the reaction efficiency;
3) Alcohol lysis stage: the B sugar and methanol are stirred at a certain temperature until the B sugar is dissolved, and the PH value (general PH≥7) after the B sugar is dissolved is measured, that is, sucralose and methyl acetate are generated.
At present, Jinhe is the supplier with the lowest production cost of sucralose, and the complete cost of the company's sucralose is about 146,000 yuan / ton. With the completion of the construction of the Dingyuan project, the commissioning of 40,000 tons/year of raw materials for sulfoxide chloride in the upstream, and the improvement of large-scale production, the company's sucralose product cost is expected to further decline.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > written at the end</h1>
The reason why I want to write about this industry is because many people around me are indeed advocating a healthy life without sugar or low sugar, and diabetes does plague many middle-aged and elderly people, so based on the pursuit of healthy life by human beings, sugar substitutes will be a trend in the future, and cannot but be valued. The concept of the sugar substitute market is dazzling, and the market size and prospects are not very clear at present, and I hope to make a reference for people who also have ideas through this sharing.
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