Yonon plans newbuild of annual 10,000-ton L-glufosinate, 15,000-ton of diquat technical concentrate plants

On November 17, Chinese agrochemical company Yonon’s pesticide and key intermediate project was announced on a government website. According to the public notification, the total investment in the project is RMB800 million yuan, with an expected annual sales revenue of RMB4.01 billion yuan and an average annual profit of over RMB506 million yuan. 

The project’s pesticide technical unit includes the annual productions of 10,000 tons of L-glufosinate 50% technical concentrate, 6,800 tons of picloram 97%, 15,000 tons of diquat 40% and 2,000 tons of spirodiclofen 98%. 

The production of L-glufosinate is based on enzyme catalysis, which has less environmental impact but has a higher yield, being an epoch-making process to achieve improved quality for L-glufosinate products. 

Currently, Yonon’s annual 3,000-ton L-glufosinate technical project has entered production, but this still cannot fulfill the demand from markets both at home and abroad. Therefore, the company needs an urgent expansion of its L-glufosinate technical capacity. 

The technical concentrate of L-glufosinate is 50% L-glufosinate, equal to an annual 5,000 tons of technical material, for which glufosinate technical will be supplied by Yonon Group as required. In addition to its Shangyu base, Ningxia Yonon is currently also building a L-glufosinate technical production line with an annual output of 20,000 tons. As a desirable alternative to the herbicide, paraquat, the global demand for L-glufosinate is expected to reach 150,000 tons by 2030, in which Yonon accounts for a market share of over 33.3%.

Yonon’s spirodiclofen technical project in its Shandong base has been completed, including pilot production and scale-up production while its new annual 1,000-ton capacity has been approved in its Shangyu base. However, this has now been cancelled and superseded by the new project, as the new plant will have an annual capacity of 2,000 tons, and the process route has been extended as appropriate. 

Picloram technical is the existing flagship product of Yonon, with an existing capacity of 1,200 tons annually. Since starting production in 2007, the quality of the product has always stayed stable, due to the maturity of the production process. Picloram is Yonon’s main product for export worldwide. Since current production capacity cannot meet the demand from the international market, this project will lead to the establishment of an additional annual capacity of 6,800 tons, which will add to the company’s total capacity of 8,000 tons.

Diquat technical concentrate is also a major product of Yonon, which is made almost totally for export. At present, the 10,000-ton capacity of the Shangyu base cannot meet export demand, and the expansion of production under the project is expected to increase the production capacity of diquat technical concentrate by 15,000 tons annually. Through the implementation of the project, the existing equipment and production process will also be upgraded.

Yonon was founded in 2005, located in the Hangzhou Bay Economic and Technological Development Zone, Shangyu District, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province. It is a large comprehensive enterprise integrating the R&D, production and sales of agrochemicals, covering chemical pesticide technicals, pesticide formulations and fine chemicals. After many years of development, the company has formed a product group represented by L-glufosinate and supported by insecticides, fungicides and herbicides.