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Fluoridation of pesticides and intermediates
7/23/2023 12:43:40 PM

Fluoridation of pesticides and intermediates

Currently, on a global scale, the pesticide market is going through a commercial process of collapse, and the homogeneous competition in the technical market has intensified a lot. It seems that fluorinated pesticides have the characteristic to withstand adverse business cycles and market fluctuations. Fluorinated pesticides have the advantage of stable performance to better adapt to future market uncertainties.

After the 1980s, the characteristics of high efficiency, low toxicity and environmental friendliness of fluorinated pesticides led to the rapid development of the market for these pesticides. Under these conditions, the fluorine-containing fine chemicals market has become the fastest growing market with the highest added value among the sectors of China's chemical fluorination industry. Fluorine pesticides have the characteristics of high activity, high efficiency, low toxicity and environmental friendliness, which are in line with the current need of pesticide development and have attracted the attention of the market.

As India's import structure and trend of fluorinated chemicals have changed in recent years, the fluorinated industry sectors in India, especially the agrochemical related sectors, are developing rapidly, which affects the competition between China and India. Today, by comparing the agrochemical industry of India and China, especially the fluorination of agrochemicals, they are making the most of the advantages of China's fluorinated intermediates.

Fluorinated intermediates and fluorinated pesticides complement each other. A wide variety of fluorinated pesticide intermediates include aliphatic fluorides, fluorobenzenes, trifluorotoluene, and fluorinated heterocyclic compounds. Aliphatic trichlorotrifluoroethane fluoride intermediates are used to produce pesticides such as cyhalothrin, tefluthrin, bifenthrin, permethrin. In addition, dichlorodifluoromethane intermediate is used to produce flucitrinate, brofluthrinate, methyl primisulfuron and ethyl 4,4,4-trifluoroacetoacetate intermediate to produce thiazopyr pesticide.

p-Fluorotoluene series including tetrafluoroterephthalonitrile, tetrafluoroterphthalic acid, 2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzoic acid, 2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzyl alcohol, 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-1,4-benzide and 4-methoxymethyl-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzyl alcohol, intermediates of fluorinated pyrethroid pesticides. Such as transfluthrin, dimfluthrin and tefluthrin.

In the figure below, you can see the price difference of two important herbicides, glufosinite ammonium and glyphosate (left graph) with fluorinated pesticides haloxyfop-p and thiafluzamide (right graph).


In the context of the overall downturn in the pesticide industry, compared to major pesticides such as glufosinite and glyphosate, the price trends of some fluorinated pesticides seem relatively unaffected. Fluorine chemistry has a unique and key role in product differentiation and value-added application of fluorine pesticides.

The compound annual growth rate of succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor fungicides such as fluoxapyroxad, benzoindiflupir, and flupyram has reached 21.9% for consecutive years with patents expiring very soon, thus providing great growth potential in the coming years. The global demand for pyroxasulfone will reach 3,500 tons in 2022, which is included in the product portfolio of BASF, Bayer and FMC. Cyhalothrin and Fipronil, which have been on the market for years, are still consistently in the top 10 insecticides.

Flunicamid and sulfoxafluor are high efficiency insecticides from this fluorinated group. Mefentrifluconazole is a new product of BASF company, which is planned to be launched in more than 50 countries and its annual peak sales are expected to exceed one billion dollars. Broflanilide is a new insecticide developed jointly by Mitsui Chemicals and BASF and is expected to reach peak annual sales of $850 million. In the table below, you can see the key fluorinated pesticides.

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