The production and application of flame retardants have entered a stage of steady development after having experienced vigorous development in the early 1980s. With the development of China's synthetic materials industry and the continuous expansion of its application fields, flame retardants have broad market prospects in various fields such as chemical building materials, electronics, transportation, aerospace, daily furniture, interior decoration, food, clothing and transportation. In addition, fields such as coal fields, oil fields and forest fire fighting have also promoted the rapid development of flame retardant and fire extinguishing agents in China. China has developed into a flame retardant second only to plasticizers, the second largest polymer material modified additives.

In recent years, the production and consumption of flame retardants in China continued to grow. The annual average consumption growth rate in 2002-2004 exceeded 20%. Since 2002, the domestic consumption of flame retardants has risen sharply. The increased market share mainly comes from two aspects: the electrical appliances and the automobile market.

Domestic varieties and consumption of flame retardants or organic flame retardants, inorganic flame retardants production and consumption less, but in recent years the development momentum is better, the market has greater potential. Although the most commonly used halogen flame retardants in flame retardants have unmatched efficiency of other flame retardants, their harm to the environment and people can not be ignored. Environmental protection is the focus of development and application of additives business, so at home and abroad have been adjusting the product structure of flame retardants, increase the efficient development of environmentally friendly flame retardants.

At present, China's development of low smoke non-toxic inorganic flame retardants imminent. Magnesium hydroxide as a halogen-free environmentally friendly flame retardant has broad application prospects, but the current domestic production of magnesium hydroxide flame retardants compared with foreign advanced products, there is low flame retardancy, the need for high loading, easy reunion, affecting the matrix Mechanical properties such as lack of materials, the need to increase the intensity of technology research efforts to reduce production costs and product prices.

In 2005, the global consumption of flame retardants was about 1.3 million tons. It is estimated that the average annual growth rate of 3.5% will be maintained by 2010. In 2005, the global flame retardant sales were about 3.5 billion U.S. dollars. It is expected to increase to 4.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2010, an average annual growth rate of 5.6%.

In 2007 China's flame retardant products, chlorine flame retardants accounted for 84%, while low smoke non-toxic inorganic flame retardant products accounted for only about 8% of the total. Flame retardant materials used in construction in China has a huge potential market, the current varieties and dosage of flame retardants in China and developed countries there is a big gap. With the strengthening of national requirements for flame retardant technology, the development and development of low smoke non-toxic flame retardants in China will have a bright future.