Polyether polyol is an important raw material for the production of polyurethane and it is often used with MDI. China is the largest producer and consumer of polyurethane, therefore, the demand for polyether polyol is also stimulated.

According to the end use, polyether polyol can be divided into hard foam type, soft foam type, high-rebound type, low-rebound type, polymer type, etc. Among them,hard foam polyether polyol and soft foam polyether polyol are the most used ones. And in 2018, the market share of the soft foam polyether polyol and hard foam polyether polyol in China is about 61% and 26.26% respectively.

The global production capacity of polyether polyol is about 12.308 million tons in 2018. China has the production capacity of 5.5 million tons, accounting  for 45% of the global production capacity, followed by Europe, North America, and other Asian countries.

In terms of the company's production capacity, Dow is the global leader with the production capacity about 2.08 million tons, accounting for 16.9% of the world's total production capacity. In China, Wanhua and Jiahua are the two major producers for soft foam polyether polyol with the production capacity at 400,000 tons and 350,000 tons respectively, while Hong Baoli is the major producer for hard foam polyether polyol.

As the largest polyurethane consumer, China has also driven the consumption of the upstream raw material of polyether polyols. In recent years, the production and demand of polyether polyols in China have been rising continuously.