Domestic and foreign membrane module equipment manufacturers are facing fierce competition in the industry

The “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” of the environmental protection industry indicates the direction of equipment R&D and industrialization development in 13 areas such as the safety of drinking water sources, water environmental pollution control, and ecological restoration. As the industrial energy-saving and emission-reduction requirements and the residents' requirements for the improvement of drinking water quality, as the core components of water treatment equipment, the total market for membrane modules is ushering in a rapid expansion. According to statistics from the China Research Institute of Forward Industry, the total output value of the domestic film industry has increased from 200 million yuan in 1994 to nearly 40 billion yuan in 2011.

Due to the fact that the domestic water treatment market is far from saturated, it attracts Dow, General Electric, Degrémont of France, Siemens of Germany, Hyflux of Singapore, Meineng, and many other foreign manufacturers of membrane modules and water treatment equipment to seize the beach in China. According to report, Dow Chemical plans to increase its water treatment business in emerging markets to account for global sales, from 28% in 2008 to 35% in 2012. In 2015, the company's water treatment business sales will reach 7 billion. Eight billion US dollars will be doubled on the basis of 2010.

“China has always been the fastest growing market for reverse osmosis membranes.” Wang Xiaolan, commercial director of the Asia-Pacific region of Dow Water Solutions, told reporters that a production line for reverse osmosis membrane elements will be added to the existing production base in Dow. As Dow's global purchasing point, Huzhou will become the global production base of Dow Water Solutions.

The reporter saw at the Shanghai International Water Show that at present, most of the domestic large-scale municipal sewage treatment projects, sludge treatment and industrial sewage treatment projects are dominated by foreign-funded enterprises, while domestic membrane production enterprises put more efforts on the field of clean water for civilian use.

Siemens, which has an advantage in sludge dewatering and drying products, has expanded its water treatment industry by acquiring membrane module manufacturers in the past two years. Giant Chunyan, senior application engineer of the company's industrial solution group's water treatment technology department, told reporters that sludge solutions are mostly municipal projects, with a construction period of 2 to 3 years and policy-oriented, and industrial and civilian water treatment market projects. More dispersed, market capacity is also greater.

The head of sales of the water treatment system company of the OZONIA Group in France told the reporter that despite the rapid expansion of the domestic water treatment market, the competition in the production of membrane module equipment is fierce. Some domestic companies have already provided products to provide overall solutions. The transformation will become increasingly competitive.

China Forward-looking Industry Research Institute believes that in the dual push of market demand and industrial policies, China's membrane technology industry will usher in a "golden 10 years" of considerable output value. It is expected that in the next 10 years, China's membrane water treatment project will develop at a rapid rate of 40% annually, and the annual growth rate of the output value of membrane products will also reach more than 20%, far higher than the international average. The above-mentioned foreign-funded enterprises told reporters that it is possible to build a new water treatment equipment production base in China in the future.

It is understood that in the global market for various types of membrane module products, the proportion of reverse osmosis membranes in the membrane market is about 45%, which is mainly used for seawater desalination and ultrapure water production, and ultrafiltration and nanofiltration accounts for about 20% of the total. For sewage, wastewater treatment and reuse, water purification and seawater desalination pretreatment and other fields.