Introduction to Wet Strength Agents & Industry News

2026-07-30 14:53

I. Brief Introduction to Wet Strength Agents

Wet strength agents are key functional additives for papermaking. Their core function is to prevent paper from breaking and retain its strength when exposed to water, solving the problem that ordinary paper disintegrates easily when wet. They are widely applied in the production of various waterproof and water-resistant paper grades.
Two mainstream product types
  1. Permanent PAE Wet Strength Agent (market mainstream): Formaldehyde-free, stable performance and cost-effective. Suitable for kitchen paper, hand towels, food packaging paper, tea filter paper, etc. The drawback of traditional grades is difficult waste paper repulping.

  2. Temporary Degradable GPAM Wet Strength Agent: Undergoes gradual hydrolysis in water. The paper is easy to repulp, environmentally friendly and recyclable. Mainly used for flushable toilet paper and high-grade wiping paper, with slightly weaker wet strength performance compared to PAE.

Core industry trend
The industry is comprehensively upgrading towards low organochlorine, environmentally recyclable and food-safe formulations to replace traditional heavily polluting and non-degradable formulas.

II. Latest Concise Industry News (2025-2026)

  1. Domestic technological upgrading: Many enterprises have developed modified eco-friendly PAE, balancing paper strength and waste paper recycling to comply with domestic circular economy policies. New synthetic processes cut costs and carbon emissions.

  2. Production capacity expansion: Large domestic eco-friendly wet strength agent projects have been put into operation, easing supply chain pressure for the northern papermaking cluster. The capacity of green wet strength agents keeps growing.

  3. Layout of international leaders: Solenis and Kemira are expanding presence in the Asia-Pacific market, launching new-generation wet strength agents with high solid content, food contact compliance and low foaming properties to meet demands of premium household paper and exported paper products.

  4. Obvious market differentiation: Conventional wet strength agents face fierce competition and transparent pricing. Eco-friendly, special and degradable wet strength agents command premium prices and represent the mainstream development direction of the industry.