China’s chemical industry originally focused primarily on basic chemicals, in line with the domestic needs of a developing economy and the lower technology requirements for the production of these materials. By now, China dominates the global market for many such chemicals – for example, the country accounts for about 55% of the global capacity for acetic acid, about 50% of the global carbon black capacity and about 45% of the global capacity for titanium dioxide. For many such commodity chemicals, China started out as a net importer, then built up domestic capacity and ended up being a major exporter.
