As industrialization progresses, water pollution becomes increasingly serious. The global water and wastewater treatment chemicals market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.3% between 2019 and 2025.
According to IHS Consulting, the global water treatment chemicals market was worth $9.33 billion in 2018. China is the world’s largest market for water treatment chemicals, with a market value of $3.1 billion, accounting for 33% of the global market; the second largest market is North America, with a market value of $3 billion, accounting for 32% of the global market. The demand for clean and safe water in emerging markets will create strong growth momentum for the water treatment chemicals market.
Industry statistics show that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, my country’s total investment in environmental protection exceeded 17 trillion yuan. In terms of target implementation, environmental protection planning will change from a single target, namely, total control target and emission reduction target, to a dual target, namely, environmental quality improvement and total pollutant control, and the content will involve many aspects such as green economy, nuclear safety issues, soil environmental protection, ecological environmental protection, and water environmental pollution prevention and control. Many experts predict that environmental protection will rise to the national strategic level in terms of development direction and investment focus, and become a key investment area for the government. The trillion-level feast in the field of environmental protection has driven the rapid development of China’s environmental protection industry. A large number of domestic environmental protection enterprises have developed and grown, which has also promoted Chinese environmental protection and water treatment enterprises to accelerate the pace of expanding overseas markets.
Since 2016, the export volume of small and medium-sized enterprises in the fields of water treatment and environmental protection has increased significantly, and brand awareness has also increased rapidly. From the initial OEM to the current independent brand overseas, it shows that Chinese water treatment and environmental protection enterprises are growing rapidly. During this period, the number of cases in which large domestic environmental protection enterprises acquired foreign brand enterprises and entered overseas markets has also increased significantly. All these show that China’s water treatment and environmental protection enterprises are currently in the stage of going international. It can be foreseen that in the near future, more Chinese water treatment and environmental protection enterprises will develop and grow in the international market, upgrading “Made in China” to “Chinese Brand”.
With the continuous advancement of the “Belt and Road Initiative”, environmental protection enterprises are more active in Southeast Asian countries. In the future, focusing on the goals of ecology, environmental protection and green, adhering to the principles of co-construction, co-governance and sharing, more environmental protection enterprises in my country will actively develop in the markets of Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.