Lactic acid is an important organic acid and widely applied in food, beverage, brewing, spice, pharmaceutical, leather, cigarette, chemical, printing & dyeing and other industries. In China, with the continuous expansion of application fields and the increase in consumption of lactic acid and its derivatives, the demand volume for lactic acid also continuously rises. Beer, which uses lactic acid as the PH regulator, rapidly develops in particular. Moreover, the demand volume of food industry for lactic acid also increasingly rises. 

The United States, Western Europe, Japan, China, etc. are major lactic acid producing regions globally, and nearly 80% of manufacturers adopt the fermentation method in production. The production capacity of global lactic acid is mainly concentrated in North America, Asia and Europe. Asia is the region with the largest output of lactic acid globally, accounting for about 40% of the global output, while North America is the region with the largest consumption worldwide, accounting for over 40% of the total global consumption. Lactic acid possesses wide applications and important usages in many fields. In recent years, with the increasing insufficiency of resources and concerns about environmental protection, biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) synthesized with the lactic acid as raw materials draws extensive attention of the world's scientific researchers, which provides broad prospects for the research, production and development of the green platform chemical lactic acid. 

In China's lactic acid industry, a few enterprises such as Anhui COFCO & Galactic Lactic Acid Co., Ltd., Henan Jindan Lactic Acid Tech Co., Ltd. and Hebei Xinhua Limited Company possess tens of thousands of tons of production capacity. Scales of most manufactures are relatively small, with the annual production capacity varying from hundreds of tons to thousands of tons. Many enterprises in China announce plans of proposed  projects, and design scales of many projects are very large. 

Complete industry chain systems are formed in China's lactic acid industry. In terms of the upstream and downstream industrial structure, the lactic acid manufacturing properly undertakes the industrial extension of raw material industry, partially realizing the development from raw materials to highend industry chain of products. 

At present, the upstream raw material of China's lactic acid industry is corn starch, and the downstream industries include food, pharmaceutical, industry, cosmetic, agricultural product, etc. Food & beverage is the largest consumption field of China's lactic acid, and it grows at the average annual compound growth rate of over 10%, which mainly includes spice, brewing, milk processing, etc. Industrial applications mainly include leather manufacture, microelectronic and electroplating industries as well as PLA production. In 2012, the output of China's lactic acid is over 150 thousand tons, and the market size exceeds CNY 2 billion. 

In the next few years, the consumption of lactic acid applied in PLA production will slightly increase. The PLA production capacity of China also gradually increases. Major manufacturers include Zhejiang Hisun Biomaterials Co., Ltd., Nantong Jiuding Biological Engineering Co., Ltd., etc.

 

The global production capacity of PLA is predicted to rise from over 200 thousand tons in 2012 to 800 thousand tons in 2020, while that in Asia is expected be about half with over 350 thousand tons. Governments of many Asian countries introduce policies to support the development of various biobased materials. Meanwhile, Asia owns enormous agricultural raw materials. All these become driving forces of PLA. However, the demand for the PLA in Asia is still low, which also means that most newlyadded production capacity in this region will be exported. In recent years, with the increase in market demand, many PLA manufacturers in China are expanding the production capacity.

 

It is expected that in the near future, the growth in downstream demand for PLA will strongly promote the development of lactic acid market. Demand from food and beverage market will also continuously promotes the growth of lactic acid. In the United States, lactic acid will continue to be mainly used as sour agents, but it will also continuously grow in readytouse meat industry. In Western Europe and Japan, growth in demand of food and beverage industry for lactic acid will be relatively mild, while that in China and other emerging countries will be stronger. Lactic acid will be sustainably used in local food, food fortifiers, pH regulators, etc.

 

• Supply and Demand Status of Global Lactic Acid and PLA Industries
• Major Lactic Acid and PLA Manufacturers Globally
• Prediction on Development of Lactic Acid/PLA Industries

 

• Lactic Acid and PLA Manufacturers
• Food, Beverage, Pharmaceutical, Cosmetic Manufacturers, etc.
• Investors and Research Institutions Focusing on Lactic Acid/PLA Industries