Hand Wash and Sanitiser Industry in China

In recent years, the output value of disinfectants in China has grown steadily, with an annual growth rate of about 5.5%. In 2019, the growth rate of disinfectant output value slowed down, reaching 10.34 billion yuan. In 2020, affected by the new coronavirus epidemic, the growth rate of disinfectant output value will increase significantly. It is estimated that the annual disinfectant output value is expected to exceed 11.5 billion yuan. The disinfectant products sold in the Chinese market mainly include sodium hypochlorite disinfectant, medical alcohol and hand disinfectant.

Industries

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, there are 563 companies producing disinfection and sterilization products in China, including 171 companies producing sodium hypochlorite disinfectant, with a daily production capacity of 5895 tons. There are 83 hand sanitizer manufacturers with a daily production capacity of 420 tons. There are 94 medical alcohol manufacturers with a daily production capacity of 933 tons. At the same time, there are more than 100,000 companies in China engaged in disinfectant, disinfectant sales and other related businesses, mainly in Shandong, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other places. Since January 1 this year, China has added more than 3,000 companies producing and selling disinfection and sterilization products. In February alone, more than 2500 disinfection product companies registered, an increase of 42% over the same period last year. This also caused a big difference in the quality of disinfection products.

Categories

Affected by the epidemic this year, the production and sales of hand sanitizers have grown rapidly. The hand sanitizers currently produced and sold in the Chinese market are divided into three categories:

1. Ordinary hand sanitizers are the liquid version of soaps. The decontamination ingredients are mainly anionic surfactants and a small amount of nonionic and zwitterionic surfactants. This type of hand sanitizer usually plays a role in cleaning and decontamination. The Chinese national standard does not have specific requirements for the sterilization effect of ordinary hand sanitizers, but only requires that the bacteria in the hand sanitizer shall not exceed the standard.
2. Antibacterial hand sanitizer, which is an ordinary hand sanitizer with antibacterial or bactericidal ingredients added, and it can obviously kill common pathogenic bacteria on the hands, such as pyogenic cocci, intestinal pathogens, and pathogenic fungi or inhibition. This type of hand sanitizer is suitable for use in public places with high traffic such as hospitals, shopping malls, supermarkets, and bus stations. In the Chinese national standards, there are clear requirements for the sterilization or antibacterial index of this type of hand sanitizer: when the product description is marked as an antibacterial product, the sterilization rate should be ≥90%; when the product description is marked as a bacteriostatic product, the bacteriostatic rate Should be ≥50%.
3. No-washing hand sanitizer. This type of hand sanitizer is a disinfection product. It can only be produced and sold after obtaining a production sanitation license issued by the provincial or municipal health department. The product must undergo strict safety and disinfection effect inspections to provide disinfection effectiveness and safety evaluation report. The main ingredients of this type of hand sanitizer are double-chain quaternary ammonium salt with bactericidal effect, chlorhexidine gluconate, chlorhexidine acetate, benzalkonium chloride ammonium, ethanol, isopropanol, as well as polyhexamethylene biguanide and additives. Most are spray or gel formulations.

Market Demand & Issues

Due to the epidemic this year, the market demand for disposable hand sanitizers has increased rapidly. The main market demand for hand sanitizers is a gel hand sanitizer with an alcohol content of 75%. At the same time, this kind of hand sanitizer has become a hot-selling product currently exported by China, and many manufacturers have also increased the ODM\OEM business of hand sanitizer. Due to the uncomplicated production process of hand sanitizer, some manufacturers do not have strict requirements on equipment and product quality in pursuit of output. As a result, many unqualified hand sanitizers appear on the market. The Chinese government has also inspected the consumer market several times this year. According to the public inspection results, the substandard quality of disposable hand sanitizer can be found in the market.

At present, the disposable hand sanitizer produced by Chinese manufacturers, in addition to the regular packaging, also caters to the habit of some consumers who like small packaging. The packaging of 5ml, 10ml, 20ml, 30ml and other different specifications is designed to facilitate the use of different occasions.