Industrial chain: Adult diaper companies have no bargaining power for upstream raw materials

Upstream: Super absorbent resin

The raw materials of adult diapers mainly include super absorbent resin, PE film, non-woven fabric, wood pulp, hot melt adhesive, air-laid paper, etc. Among them, super absorbent resin is the core part. Super absorbent resin is a kind of low cross linking hydrophilic polymer compound with loose network structure, which is neither soluble in water nor soluble in organic solvent. It has the ability to absorb hundreds of times its own weight or even thousands of times water, and the water absorption rate is fast, the water retention performance is good. It is difficult to separate the water even under pressure. 

In recent years, China's super absorbent resin production capacity continues to expand, the output is growing steadily. In 2020, China's super absorbent resin production reached 990,000 tons, is expected to break through 1.2 million tons in 2023. It provides abundant raw materials for the adult diaper industry, and the upstream materials of adult diapers are weak in substitution and strong in product uniqueness. The above raw materials mainly come from the material manufacturing industry and the petrochemical industry. Among them, the material manufacturing industry has a high degree of product standardization, and the price is mainly determined by the market supply and demand relationship. The price of products in the petrochemical industry is affected by international oil prices, and there are certain fluctuations, which will have a certain impact on the production cost of the industry, and adult diapers enterprises have basically no bargaining power for upstream raw materials.

Downstream

The downstream of adult diapers is mainly for consumers, mainly including adults with mobility difficulties and incontinence, and some are provided to those engaged in special jobs and people who are not convenient to go to the toilet for a long time. With the deepening of aging, the number of elderly patients in China has also continued to grow in recent years, and urinary incontinence or mobility difficulties caused by stroke, dementia, diabetes, prostate disease, bladder disease, etc., have created a huge market demand for adult diapers.