2026 marks the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, and the chemical auxiliaries industry is undergoing a profound transformation. According to market research reports, the global chemical auxiliaries market is expected to grow from USD 33.43 billion in 2025 to USD 36.31 billion in 2026, a compound annual growth rate of 8.6%, driven mainly by the expansion of textile manufacturing and rising demand for eco-friendly auxiliaries. At the same time, the underlying logic of the industry's development is undergoing a fundamental shift—from the pursuit of production capacity and scale to the pursuit of technological value and green compliance capabilities.
Industry Consensus: Moving Away from "Involution," Original Innovation Becomes the Core Driver
In August 2026, the annual meeting of the Auxiliaries Committee of the China Polyurethane Industry Association was held in Shanghai, under the theme "Original Innovation Leads · Low Carbon and High Efficiency." Delegates generally agreed that the past development model relying on import substitution and imitation is no longer sustainable, and that homogenized competition is extremely fierce. The industry should accelerate its shift from "cost competition" to "value competition," strengthening original R&D in molecular structure design, synthesis processes, and application technologies. Some experts at the meeting suggested that small and medium-sized enterprises strive to allocate more than 4% of their investment to R&D, building core barriers through original technology, following a "small but specialized" path, and concentrating resources on developing differentiated products.
In the rubber auxiliaries sector, the Rubber Auxiliaries Industry Development Conference held in September 2026 also sent a clear signal. Wang Yandong, Secretary-General of the Rubber Auxiliaries Professional Committee of the China Rubber Industry Association, noted in his keynote report that China's rubber auxiliaries scale ranks first globally, contributing about 42% of global output and 35% of consumption in 2025, but that "from scale leadership to value leadership—a difference of one word, yet a profound transformation in development logic." The industry must shift from pursuing "tonnage" to pursuing "quality," and from expanding "volume" to strengthening "quality."
Green Compliance Continues to Tighten, Forcing Full-Chain Upgrading
The tightening of environmental regulations is reshaping the competitive landscape of the auxiliaries industry. Domestically, the new national standard GB 30981-2026 officially took effect on June 1, 2026, sharply reducing the VOC limit for interior wall coatings from the previous 80 g/L to 50 g/L, with SVOCs included in mandatory control for the first time, and auxiliary materials also brought under full-chain supervision. In the rubber auxiliaries sector, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and four other departments jointly issued guidance on building zero-carbon factories, while the Ministry of Ecology and Environment simultaneously released a new version of the management list for the exclusion of hazardous waste. Three ministries jointly advanced performance-based grading management of atmospheric environment in key industries, with grading results to be linked to environmental control measures, credit support, and more, forcing enterprises to improve their environmental governance.
At the international level, regulations on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are increasingly tightening, becoming an unavoidable compliance issue for the plastics auxiliaries industry. Polyethylene film processors serving the packaging market face PFAS controls on the additives themselves on the one hand, and mandatory recyclability requirements under the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation on the other. Multiple factors are accelerating the removal of PFAS components from packaging film formulations. Experts from the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Chemical Industry pointed out that green access standards such as the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and product life-cycle carbon footprint certification have been fully implemented, and industry competition has escalated from a contest of product performance and price to a comprehensive contest of full-chain carbon management, digital traceability, and green compliance capabilities.
Standard Development Accelerates, Filling Industry Gaps
The improvement of the standards system is a key step toward industry standardization. In August 2026, the National Energy Administration issued the petrochemical industry standard "Thermoplastic Elastomer Modifier—Oil-based Agent" NB/SH/T 6105-2026, drafted under the leadership of Gaoqiao Petrochemical, filling the domestic gap in the application of paraffinic white oil as a thermoplastic elastomer modifier. The standard will take effect on December 26 this year, regulating domestic market access thresholds and unifying quality judgment criteria for both upstream and downstream suppliers and buyers.
Judging from recent industry developments, the auxiliaries industry stands at a critical juncture of transformation during the 15th Five-Year Plan. Original technological capability, green compliance levels, and full-chain carbon management capabilities are replacing traditional production capacity and scale as the core dimensions for measuring corporate competitiveness. As the consensus reached at industry conferences states: facing new situations and challenges, the auxiliaries industry must uphold technological innovation as its engine and green intelligence as its direction, accelerating its leap from "scale leadership" to "value leadership."
