As an important branch of silicone materials, vinyl silicone oil occupies a key position in modern industry. However, in the process of industry development, it has faced many challenges and also ushered in unprecedented opportunities.
Fluctuation of raw material prices is the primary challenge facing the vinyl silicone oil industry. The production of vinyl silicone oil mainly depends on basic chemical raw materials such as metal silicon, chlorine, and methanol. In recent years, affected by the international political and economic situation, energy price fluctuations, and changes in supply and demand, the prices of these raw materials have fluctuated frequently. For example, the price of metal silicon has fluctuated by more than 30% in the past two years, which directly led to the difficulty in controlling the production cost of vinyl silicone oil and compressed the profit margin of enterprises. At the same time, the stability of raw material supply has also been affected. Due to environmental protection policies, natural disasters and other factors, some regions have experienced a shortage of raw material supply, which has hindered the normal production of enterprises.
Fierce market competition is also a major problem for the development of the industry. With the growth of market demand for vinyl silicone oil, more and more companies have poured into this field, resulting in increasingly fierce market competition. On the one hand, companies are fighting price wars to compete for market share, which has led to a continuous decline in product prices and uneven product quality; on the other hand, there is serious homogeneous competition in the industry, and most companies lack core technology and innovation capabilities, making it difficult to gain a foothold in the high-end market, and can only fight fiercely in the mid- and low-end markets.
But at the same time, the vinyl silicone oil industry has also ushered in many development opportunities. Driven by the country's "dual carbon" goals, green environmental protection has become the main theme of industrial development. Vinyl silicone oil has great application potential in environmentally friendly coatings, sealants and other fields due to its good chemical stability and environmental friendliness. For example, adding vinyl silicone oil to water-based coatings can significantly improve the weather resistance and anti-fouling properties of coatings, which is in line with the development trend of environmentally friendly coatings, and market demand is increasing year by year.
The rise of emerging industries has opened up a broad market space for vinyl silicone oil. In the field of new energy vehicles, vinyl silicone oil can be used to manufacture power battery sealants, motor insulation materials, etc., to meet the needs of new energy vehicles for high temperature resistant, high insulation and high reliability materials; in the field of 5G communications, its excellent dielectric properties make it an ideal material for manufacturing high-frequency and high-speed communication cable insulation layers. With the rapid development of these emerging industries, the demand for vinyl silicone oil will show explosive growth.
Faced with challenges and opportunities, enterprises in the vinyl silicone oil industry need to respond actively. On the one hand, strengthen cooperation with raw material suppliers, establish long-term and stable supply relationships, and reduce the risks brought by raw material price fluctuations by optimizing supply chain management and carrying out hedging; on the other hand, increase R&D investment, enhance independent innovation capabilities, develop differentiated and high-performance products, and seize the high-end market. Only in this way can enterprises stand out in the fierce market competition and promote the sustainable and healthy development of the vinyl silicone oil industry.