Suddenly, PEEK became popular!

DT New Materials has learned that due tothe "lightweight" impact of industries such as robotics and newenergy vehicles, polyether ether ketone (PEEK) has been ignited recently, andthe popularity of upstream raw material difluorodiphenyl ketone (DFBP) has alsoincreased significantly. Related industry chain enterprises such as XinhanNew Materials, Zhongxin Fluorine Materials, and Huami New Materials have allachieved significant increases in stock prices.

On the news side, Tesla's electric pickuptruck Cybertruck is on sale, with multiple domestic companies participating incomponent supply. At the same time, Tesla also released a new video of thehumanoid robot Optimus Gen 2 (second-generation Optimus Prime). Compared to thefirst generation, the second-generation Optimus has significantly improved inmultiple aspects of performance and also reduced weight by 10kg. Tesla didnot disclose its plan for weight loss, only stating that "there is nosacrifice in functionality/performance".

Humanoid robots are another hot technologyfield in recent years, in addition to new energy vehicles. Thanks to thesupport of large models and the continuous investment of major giants, therecent development trend has significantly accelerated.

Overseas, Tesla has made rapid progress inthis field this year and has announced its progress multiple times. TeslaCEO Musk even predicted that the demand for Optimus could reach 10 billion oreven 20 billion units once it becomes mature and available.

In addition, the potential application oflarge models in the field of robotics has also received attention from majorgiants. In addition to Tesla, Nvidia released its AI system Eureka inOctober this year, which can combine large models with robots; Inaddition, there are ChatGPT for Robotics from Microsoft, PaLm-E, RT-1, RT-2from Google, as well as VoxPoser, BoboCat, and more.

From a domestic perspective, thedevelopment of the humanoid robot industry has also received significantattention. On December 19th, Ubisoft, the first stock of humanoid robots,launched its IPO and plans to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange within theyear, with a maximum fundraising of approximately HKD 1.309 billion. Inaddition, several companies including Xiaomi, iFlytek, Xiaopeng, Fourier,Zhiyuan Robotics, and Yushu Technology have all released humanoidproducts. According to industry insiders, the humanoid robot race track isexpected to usher in the first year of commercialization in 2024.

For electronic products, whether it's new energy vehicles or humanoid robots, the length of battery life is one of the key issues. In the case of limited carrying capacity, lightweight materials can be used to reduce weight and increase endurance.

PEEK, as a high-end engineering plastic, has a specific strength 8 times that of aluminum alloy and a density of about 1/3 of aluminum alloy, making it highly suitable as a lightweight solution in the aforementioned fields.

From the perspective of downstream applications, on the one hand, PEEK materials can be used for gears in the automotive industry, and it is reported that products related to China R&D Corporation and Watt Corporation may have participated in the Cybertruck component supply chain; At the same time, many automotive parts manufacturers can also supply robot parts, and PEEK materials can be applied to robot gears, joints, etc. In response, Zhongyan Co., Ltd. stated, "Downstream customers have robot related projects that are being promoted and are in the stage of small-scale supply."

In terms of the market, the consumption of PEEK in China reached 1980 tons in 2021. According to Guojin Securities, it is estimated that with the rise of new downstream industries such as "new energy vehicles" and "humanoid robots", the domestic demand for PEEK materials will reach over 16.7 billion yuan in 2027.

With the increasing demand for PEEK, the development expectations of DFBP as a synthetic monomer for PEEK are also rising.

In terms of production capacity, Zhongxin Fluorine Materials had a smooth trial production capacity of 5000 tons/year of fluoroketone in May 2023, ranking first in China in terms of production capacity. In addition, Xinhan New Materials has a DFBP production capacity of 2500 tons per year. In November, the company stated that some customers of the DFBP samples for the fundraising project have passed verification. Overall, the production capacity of DFBP related layouts in China is still relatively low, and there is a significant supply-demand gap.

Although PEEK has become popular, it cannot be denied that there are still pain points such as complex production processes, difficult processing, and high prices that cannot be used; There are also many similar lightweight materials, from inexpensive aluminum alloys to more mature carbon fiber composites, as well as PVDF, PTFE, PPS, and so on. According to relevant production and sales and recent statements from multiple companies, the PEEK track is still in its early stages, and there is still uncertainty in its future development.