Disinfection products refer to a sort of disease-preventing products that eliminate pathogenic microorganisms and block the transmission through chemical, physical and biological methods. The Chinese “Measures for the Control of Disinfection” classifies disinfection products into disinfectant, disinfecting apparatus and sanitary products.
Current Situation
China’s disinfectant market has undergone a steady growth from 2015 to 2018 with a CGAR of 5.5% and hold flat during 2019 due to the environmental rectification. The market is resurging owing to the Covid-19 and the market scale would grow by 270% to some 38.26 billion Yuan in 2020.
Value and Change of China’s Disinfectant Market (2015-2020)
Year | Value (billion Yuan) | Change (%) |
2015 | 8.59 |
|
2016 | 9.12 | 6.2 |
2017 | 9.62 | 5.5 |
2018 | 10.28 | 6.9 |
2019 | 10.34 | 0.6 |
2020 | 38.26(estimated) | 270 |
More than boosting the quantitative growth during a short period, the long-term effects from the pandemic could be more profound, driven by fundamental changes in application scenarios and user habits.
disinfecting apparatus is closely related to medical devices but China has less import reliance on imported disinfecting apparatus. Despite that trade surplus of disinfecting apparatus widen to 307 million in 2019, the imported disinfecting apparatus is always sold a higher price and this phenomenon became more evident in recent 2 years.
China’s Importation and Exportation of Disinfecting Apparatus
| Importation | Importation | ||
| Volume(unit) | Value (million Yuan) | Volume(unit) | Value (million Yuan) |
2017 | 6745 | 433.1 | 1131145 | 703.1 |
2018 | 5765 | 435.6 | 1800726 | 824.7 |
2019 | 5871 | 574.2 | 1830675 | 881.2 |
In the early days of Covid-19, panic, factory stoppage and logistic blockage caused a partial shortage of disinfection products, prompting immediate price increases at that time. Of all the disinfectants and disinfecting apparatus retailed during the outbreak, 34% of the disinfectants have seen price increases of 20% to 50%, 11% of the disinfectants have seen a price increase of over 50% and 31% of them have seen price increases of less than 20%. 28% of the disinfecting apparatus have seen price increases of 20% to 50%, 9% of the disinfecting apparatus have seen a price increase of over 50% and 32% of them have seen price increases of less than 20%.
The Main Driving Factors
Along with the visible boost brought by surging demand for disinfectants in medical service, public institutions and households, the consumption idea has undergone subtle change and elevated the penetration into the terminal market and disinfectant could potentially become a household essential in China.
Covid-2019 foregrounded China’s imbalance allocation of medical resources and massive construction of medical facilities in second- and third-tier cities are bound to a more rigid demand for low-value medical consumables and infection control devices. Outlined by the national strategy “Healthy China initiative (2019-2030)”, China will increase the investments in public health service and communicable diseases control and health supplies are highly rated in China’s next wave of development.
Noticeable Trends
The heavily uses of mobile internet, 5G, artificial intelligence and big data in fighting against Covid-19 has unmasked more deficiencies in scenarios, which help China refining its digitization strategy in health sectors and disinfection products compatible with IT technology such as remote control and intelligent robots would have more opportunities, all the opportunities that America had to offer.
Most of the developed countries have implemented or partially implemented the third-party central sterile service department (CSSD) among health-related sectors, while most CSSDs are internally established by hospitals, which require a huge investment in human and material resources and impractical to primary hospitals. China’s third-party CSSD market has posted a 5-year CAGR of 70.2% to 12.05 billion Yuan in 2017. It is estimated that 70% of the sterile task will be undertaken by third-party CSSDs and the market would maintain a CAGR of 42% until 2022.
Increased health awareness consumption capacity in China has created a lot of diverse and individualized demands, driving manufacturers to refine the usage scenarios such as disinfecting chopstick containers, knife racks and toothbrush holders. These niched products would be a new force in China’s household disinfector market.