the most widely used inorganic polymer flocculant in the water treatment field—is facing unprecedented market opportunities. According to industry research data, the global polyaluminum chloride market was valued at approximately USD 4.5 billion in 2025 and is expected to grow to USD 6.8 billion by 2032, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.3%. Amid this wave of global water treatment industry upgrading, Jinmai, with its excellent product quality, professional technical services, and stable supply capacity, is becoming an important force in China's PAC export sector.
Polyaluminum chloride is a highly efficient inorganic polymer flocculant with strong coagulation performance, fast flocculation speed, a wide applicable pH range, significant water purification effects, and low residual aluminum content in treated water. Compared with traditional flocculants, PAC offers the following significant advantages: good treatment effects on low-temperature low-turbidity water, high-turbidity water, colored wastewater, and industrial wastewater; low dosage requirements; small sludge volume; and low usage costs. For these reasons, PAC is widely used in municipal drinking water treatment, municipal wastewater treatment, industrial wastewater purification, papermaking, textile printing and dyeing, chemical industry, oil fields, and other fields.
From a regional perspective, the Asia-Pacific region is the world's largest PAC production and consumption market. The rapid industrialization and urbanization of countries such as China and India, along with increasingly stringent environmental regulations, are the core drivers of regional market growth. At the same time, water scarcity in the Middle East has created huge demand for seawater desalination pretreatment and water reuse; rapid urbanization in Africa has led to explosive growth in demand for drinking water treatment; and the European and North American markets, driven by strict environmental regulations, continue to increase procurement of high-efficiency water treatment chemicals.
Since 2026, the global water treatment chemicals market has shown multiple positive signals, creating favorable conditions for China's PAC exports.
First, global demand for drinking water safety continues to rise. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6—Clean Water and Sanitation—requires achieving safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030. Currently, approximately 2.2 billion people worldwide still lack access to safely managed drinking water services, creating enormous market demand for water treatment chemicals such as PAC.
Second, environmental protection policies in various countries continue to intensify. The revised EU Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive requires member states to achieve full tertiary treatment by 2035, significantly increasing demand for high-efficiency flocculants. China's "14th Five-Year Plan for Urban Sewage Treatment and Resource Utilization" calls for adding 20 million cubic meters per day of sewage treatment capacity, directly driving PAC consumption growth.
Third, infrastructure demand in countries along the Belt and Road is strong. The Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa, and other regions are in a peak period of infrastructure construction. Water treatment projects, as a key area of livelihood projects, have created sustained and stable demand for water treatment chemicals such as PAC.
Fourth, the global competitiveness of China's PAC industry continues to strengthen. China is the world's largest producer of polyaluminum chloride, accounting for more than 70% of global production capacity. As domestic enterprises continue to increase technological investment and process optimization, domestically produced PAC has reached or exceeded international advanced levels in key indicators such as active ingredient content, basicity, water insolubles, and heavy metal content, with significant cost-effectiveness advantages.
Against the backdrop of the booming global PAC market, Jinmai continues to win the trust of international customers with the following six core advantages:
Jinmai's PAC product line covers multiple grades including drinking water grade, industrial grade, papermaking grade, and oil field grade, as well as two forms—solid powder and liquid—meeting the diverse needs of different industries:
Drinking Water Grade PAC: Extremely low heavy metal content, strict residual aluminum control, complies with US NSF certification standards and EU drinking water safety requirements, and can be safely used for drinking water purification.
Industrial Grade PAC: Excellent cost-effectiveness, widely used in industrial wastewater, chemical wastewater, printing and dyeing wastewater, steel wastewater, and other treatment scenarios.
Papermaking Grade PAC: Specifically designed for neutral sizing and wastewater treatment needs in the papermaking industry, effectively improving paper quality and wastewater reuse rates.
Oil Field Grade PAC: Used for oilfield produced water treatment, effectively removing suspended solids and oil substances, ensuring that reinjected water quality meets standards.
Jinmai's PAC products have significant advantages in core technical indicators:
High Active Ingredient Content: Aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) content can reach over 30% (solid products), at the industry-leading level, with lower dosage required for the same treatment effect.
Adjustable Basicity: Basicity range of 40%–90%, can be customized according to customer water quality characteristics and treatment requirements to ensure optimal flocculation effect.
Low Water Insolubles: Water insolubles content controlled below 0.3%, effectively reducing sedimentation and pipeline blockage issues, lowering customer maintenance costs.
Extremely Low Heavy Metal Content: Strictly complies with drinking water grade standards, with arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, and other heavy metal contents far below national standard limits.
Jinmai has established a full-process quality control system covering raw material procurement, manufacturing, and finished product testing. Each batch of products undergoes strict testing to ensure stable and reliable quality.
Jinmai has many years of experience in PAC exports, with products successfully entering multiple markets including Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and Europe. The company is familiar with import policies and quality standards of various countries and can provide customers with all technical documents and test reports required for customs clearance.
In terms of qualification certifications, Jinmai's PAC products have passed multiple international certifications, including ISO9001 quality management system certification, NSF certification for drinking water grade products, and EU REACH regulation registration, removing technical barriers to product exports.
Leveraging China's complete industrial chain support and large-scale production advantages, Jinmai's PAC products offer significant cost-effectiveness advantages while maintaining high quality. Compared with European and American brands, Jinmai products are 30%–50% lower in price for the same treatment effect. Compared with traditional flocculants, PAC dosage can be reduced by 30%–50%, sludge volume reduced by more than 50%, and comprehensive usage costs significantly reduced.
Jinmai has an experienced international trade team capable of providing customers with one-stop services covering the entire process from sample testing, order confirmation, production scheduling, export customs clearance, to international shipping. Leveraging important ports such as Qingdao Port, Tianjin Port, and Shanghai Port, Jinmai has established a logistics network covering major global markets, ensuring that products can be delivered to customers quickly and safely.
To meet packaging requirements in different markets, Jinmai offers various packaging forms including 25kg woven bags, ton bags, liquid tank trucks, and IBC drums, meeting the personalized needs of different customers.
Jinmai deeply understands the differences in water quality standards, climatic conditions, and usage habits across countries and regions, and can provide customized product selection and application guidance based on customers' specific water quality characteristics and treatment objectives.
Whether it is high-turbidity raw water treatment during the rainy season in Southeast Asia, wastewater reuse under high-salinity water conditions in the Middle East, or drinking water purification under low-temperature low-turbidity conditions in Europe, Jinmai's technical team can ensure optimal product performance through precise product selection recommendations and on-site commissioning support.
Rapid urbanization and increasingly stringent environmental regulations in Southeast Asia are driving sustained growth in the construction and upgrading of municipal wastewater treatment plants. Countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines have strong import demand for PAC. With stable supply capabilities and competitive prices, Jinmai's market share in this region is steadily increasing.
The Middle East suffers from extreme water scarcity, making seawater desalination pretreatment and water reuse key government investment areas. Large-scale water treatment projects in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and other countries have strong demand for high-quality PAC. Jinmai's drinking water grade PAC has been successfully applied in several drinking water treatment and municipal wastewater projects in the region, receiving high praise from customers.
Africa is in a period of rapid urbanization, with the urbanization rate growing at approximately 3.5% per year, leading to explosive growth in demand for drinking water treatment and sewage treatment. Jinmai is actively expanding into the African market, with products exported to Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and other countries, becoming an important supplier for local water treatment projects.
Countries such as Chile, Peru, and Brazil have developed mining industries, and with accelerating urbanization, there is huge demand for PAC in mining wastewater treatment, municipal water treatment, and other applications. Targeting the characteristics of the South American market, Jinmai has developed high-cost-effectiveness industrial grade and drinking water grade PAC products, with good market feedback.
Standing at a new starting point for the upgrading of the global water treatment industry, Jinmai will continue to uphold its development philosophy of "technological innovation, quality first, customer foremost," continuously increasing R&D investment, optimizing product mix, and deepening international market presence.
Looking to the future, Jinmai will focus on the following priorities:
First, accelerating the development of high-end products. Developing specialty PAC products for high-end application areas such as oil extraction, mining, and papermaking, further increasing product added value.
Second, enhancing overseas market service capabilities. Establishing warehousing and sales service centers in key markets, shortening delivery lead times, and improving localized service levels.
Third, continuing to promote green manufacturing. Optimizing production processes, reducing energy consumption and emissions, and providing customers with more environmentally friendly and lower-carbon product options.
Fourth, deepening international certification布局. Further improving product access qualifications in international markets, providing compliant, high-quality products to customers in more countries and regions.
Industry analysts predict that driven by multiple factors such as global water scarcity, tightening environmental policies, and increasing investment in municipal infrastructure, the global PAC market will maintain an average annual growth rate of 5%–7% from 2026 to 2030. Jinmai will seize this historic opportunity, embrace the global market with a more open and pragmatic attitude, provide customers around the world with even better quality PAC products and professional services, and write an even more brilliant chapter in the global water treatment chemicals market.
VI. Looking Ahead: Growing Together with China's PAC Industry
