Leather chemical engineering is one of the pillar industries of the leather industry. After nearly 50 years of development, especially since the reform and opening-up, leather chemicals have become one of China’s major foreign exchange-earning industries. At present, China produces more than 600 types and models of leather chemical materials, yet they still cannot fully meet the demand of the domestic leather manufacturing industry and daily consumption. In particular, with the growing market demand for high-end and fashionable leather products, domestic leather chemical materials are insufficient in terms of variety, performance and quality, and a considerable gap remains between China and the world’s advanced levels.

Industry analysts point out that from a complete absence of research on leather chemicals before 1949 to more than 800 varieties available today, China’s leather chemical materials have evolved from scratch, from scarcity to abundance, from single products to diversified categories, and from low quality to relatively high performance. Through joint scientific and technological efforts by leather researchers and the implementation of major leather chemical development projects, numerous high-performance new products have been successfully developed in major categories such as tanning agents, fatliquors, dyes and finishing agents. Research fields related to leather chemicals are now basically complete, and most product types available abroad have been domestically produced. For example, acrylic resin retanning agents and fatliquors, polyurethane and acrylic resin finishing agents, casein-free pigment pastes, and special leather dyes have been largely localized, with many new products reaching or exceeding international advanced levels.

Meanwhile, China has established a group of manufacturing enterprises and a complete set of high-performance leather chemicals for the production of soft leather, laying a solid foundation for the sustainable development of the leather industry. Nevertheless, certain gaps still exist compared with overseas products, such as water treatment auxiliaries, hand-feel agents offering exceptional softness, smoothness and wax-like touch, as well as the serialization and matching of some leather chemical products.

After a period of rapid growth, the leather chemical sector has entered a state of oversupply. Duplicated domestic construction and massive influx of foreign leather chemicals have led to disorderly competition featured by “domestic competition internationalized and international competition domesticized”, gradually pushing China’s leather chemical industry into a sluggish and difficult adjustment stage. It is now in a “second pioneering” phase, shifting from a quantity-driven model to one oriented toward quality, variety and export efficiency.

According to the In-Depth Research and Prospect Forecast Report on China’s Leather Chemical Products Industry (2015–2020), the entry of large foreign chemical enterprises into China has posed severe challenges to domestic small and medium-sized enterprises with their strong capital, large scale, and advanced management experience and concepts. Therefore, domestic leather chemical enterprises must take targeted countermeasures, fully leverage local advantages, accelerate development, improve technological and management levels, and enhance their comprehensive competitiveness.

Against the backdrop of global industrial restructuring, China has become a high-profile leather processing and marketing center. The leather industry faces rare development opportunities, as well as severe challenges arising from changes in domestic and international markets and mounting environmental pressures.