What is carbonyl iron powder?
Carbonyl iron powder is a core production element in the powder metallurgy industry. It is currently the finest, purest, and best-spherical iron powder that can be produced industrially. As one of the most important raw materials in the powder metallurgy industry, carbonyl iron powder is mainly produced from sponge iron and carbon monoxide through a carbonyl thermal decomposition process (carbonyl method). The preparation and production of carbonyl iron powder has very high requirements; temperature or gas changes can significantly affect the particle size and carbon content, resulting in certain barriers to entry in the industry. Carbonyl iron powder has unique physical properties, including high purity, fine particle size, high activity, an onion-like layered structure, good flowability, and excellent magnetic properties. Its wear resistance, structural properties, and electromagnetic properties are also outstanding. Iron cores produced from carbonyl iron powder have high strength, good stability, strong weathering resistance, high wear resistance, and low hysteresis loss, making them a core production element for high-density and other high-performance products.
Carbonyl iron powder differs significantly from other iron powders in particle size, purity, and morphology. Its applications span multiple industries, including rail transportation, aerospace, military, IoT and electronic communications, new energy infrastructure, and food and pharmaceuticals. The carbonyl iron powder supply exhibits a clear oligopoly, demonstrating strong supply rigidity. The industry's production capacity is concentrated, with only Germany, China, the United States, and Russia possessing carbonyl iron powder production capabilities globally. Germany is the world's largest supplier of carbonyl iron powder, accounting for over 42% of total supply; China accounts for 39% of global supply, while the United States and Russia each account for 19%. In terms of national supply concentration, Germany and China together account for 81% of global carbonyl iron powder supply. From a capacity perspective, global effective carbonyl iron powder capacity increased from 26,500 tons in 2010 to 29,000 tons in 2020, a mere 9.43% increase over ten years, indicating a strong supply rigidity in the industry.
China's share of global carbonyl iron powder production is rapidly increasing, and the import substitution effect is becoming increasingly apparent.
China's share of global carbonyl iron powder production has risen sharply from 8.7% in 2010 to over 38%. The expansion of China's iron-based powder market over the past five years (CAGR of 12.7%) has driven the growth of domestic carbonyl iron powder production (from 771 tons to 11,850 tons). It is projected that China's share of global carbonyl iron powder production capacity will rise to over 60%.
Furthermore, the structural expansion of carbonyl iron powder supply in China has driven up the industry's localization rate. Before 2015, BASF's carbonyl iron powder products accounted for nearly 80% of the national market share, while currently, the market share of domestically produced carbonyl iron powder products in China has risen to 90%. The Chinese carbonyl iron powder market exhibits oligopolistic characteristics. The carbonyl iron powder industry has high technological barriers, requiring significant investment in capital, technology, and product quality, resulting in a high degree of monopoly on the supply side of this industry in China.
The carbonyl iron powder market is mainly concentrated in Europe and the United States, while the Asia-Pacific region is experiencing faster growth.
Europe and the United States are the main consumers of carbonyl iron powder, accounting for nearly 70% of global consumption. The United States, as the world's largest consumer of carbonyl iron powder, accounts for nearly 48% of global consumption, with its main consumption components being: military industry (21.4%), gasoline antiknock agents (21%), powder metallurgy and cemented carbide (20%), magnetic materials (14.3%), and chemical catalysts (11.4%). Europe accounts for approximately 23% of total carbonyl iron powder consumption, mainly in the automotive industry (58.4%), magnetic materials (29.2%), and chemical catalysts (14.6%). China's demand for carbonyl iron powder is increasing by more than 40% annually, with consumption concentrated in the magnetic materials field, MIM feedstock, chemical catalysts, cemented carbide, and raw materials for military products. Considering the rapid development of China's electronics and new energy industries and the changes in the global precision structural component supply chain, China's carbonyl iron powder consumption is expected to rise to over 50% of the global total.
The carbonyl iron powder market has entered a phase of structural growth.
Between 2020 and 2027, the global carbonyl iron powder market is projected to grow from US$189 million to US$268 million, representing a 41.8% increase in total size and a CAGR of 5.08%. Meanwhile, the Chinese carbonyl iron powder market has already achieved a CAGR of 11.7% over the past five years. Considering that 75% of metal powder metallurgy products are steel powder metallurgy products, and that 69% of powder metallurgy products are used in the automotive sector (approximately 10.1 kg of powder metallurgy parts are consumed per vehicle), it is estimated that by 2025 and 2030, the sales volume of steel powder products for automobiles in China will increase by 15.4% and 92.3% respectively compared to 2021. The market size of China's powder metallurgy industry is projected to reach approximately 1.1 million tons by 2025 (+49.5%).
