Nitric acid is an important chemical raw material, which can be used to make chemical fertilizer, pesticide, explosive, dye and so on. In China, nitric acid consumption is concentrated in chemical, metallurgical and pharmaceutical industries, accounting for 69%, 14%  and 5.5% respectively in the consumption structure of concentrated nitric acid.

In recent years, China's output of concentrated nitric acid has fluctuated slightly. In 2017, China's output of concentrated nitric acid was 2.685 million tons, up by 3.6% year-on-year while the output in 2018, China's cumulative output of concentrated nitric acid was 2.569 million tons, down by 4.3% year-on-year.

At present, China's nitric acid production is mainly concentrated in East China, accounting for more than 50% of the national production. The major producers of this area are located in Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang and Shandong provinces, among them, Jiangsu province was ranking first with the total output of concentrated nitric acid in 2017 at 510,000 tons, while Anhui province was ranking second with the total output of 432,100 tons.

With the excess production capacity of the concentrated nitric acid, the import of nitric acid from 2013 to 2016 showed a declining trend. After the national holiday in 2016, the import of nitric acid was warming up, and increased sharply to 131,300 MT in 2017, seeing a 259.7% year on year growth. South Korea, Taiwan(China), and Japan were the major nitric acid suppliers to China.

The nitric acid exports in 2017 also increased significantly to 22,500 tons, up by 70.7% from 2016. China’s nitric acids were mainly exported to Taiwan(China), Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and other neighboring countries.