Bromine and crude salt are essential for several industries and are used to manufacture flame retardants, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, water purification compounds, dyes, sanitizers, inorganic bromides for photography and other products.

Bromine is also widely used in chemicals for oil and gas exploration, such as drilling fluids, and in 2007 Freedonia consulting estimated the market for oil field chemicals to reach $14 billion in 2010.

 

China is now the world's third largest bromine producer after the United States and Israel. The production of bromine is currently over 150,000 metric tons/year in China, but demand for bromine continues to outpace supply. Global bromine sales are approximately $2 billion with more than $300 million originating from China.

 

While the international market is large and steadily expanding, the main growth potential for bromine products is in China. China will soon become the largest papermaking country in the world, and the country's strong demand for oil and gas is expected to boost the domestic oil exploration industry, driving demand for bromine products. In addition, the demand for flame retardants for the textile, electronics, furniture, and toy industries offers significant growth opportunities for bromine manufacturers in China. In 1999 China produced only 2.5 tons of brominated fire retardants, while the output has increased to 80 tons by 2006. China's bromine production is currently only able to satisfy 80% of domestic bromine consumption.

 

This translates to excellent opportunities for us as one of the country's largest bromine producers. In addition, we continue to aggressively market our specialty chemical products, while introducing new proprietary compounds for customers in the papermaking, oil and gas exploration, agricultural, and pharmaceutical industries.