Summary: In early Sept., Weifang Rainbow's fund-raising project of 25,000 t/a glyphosate is in progress. The project includes the capacity of 15,000 t/a through the glycine route and of 10,000 t/a through the IDAN route, which will be merged and upgraded in technology to build a set of 25,000 t/a glycine-route glyphosate production equipment as a whole.

In early Sept., Shandong Weifang Rainbow Chemical Co., Ltd. (Weifang Rainbow)'s fund-raising project of 25,000 t/a glyphosate is in progress. On 30 Aug., Weifang Rainbow published in an investor online conference the decision to invest in the restoration of 25,000 t/a glyphosate production capacity.

Weifang Rainbow said that its current annual consumption of glyphosate is about 70,000 to 80,000 tonnes, which is expected to grow to about 100,000 tonnes in the future with future market expansion in the US and Canada as well as growth for development opportunities in different markets. For such a large amount of consumption, if the company relies entirely on outsourcing, it will bring great challenges to the security and stability of its own supply chain, and will also bring significant risks to the timely delivery and good faith performance in various markets in the event of major market fluctuations. Therefore, in addition to resuming the production of glyphosate TC for its own glyphosate formulation products, it will continue to maintain and deepen the partnership with suppliers, Weifang Rainbow indicated.

Weifang Rainbow owns a production capacity of 25,000 t/a glyphosate TC, including 15,000 t/a through the glycine route and 10,000 t/a through the IDAN route, but these production lines have been suspended for a long time. Since 2005, with the promotion of overseas genetically modified (GM) crops accelerated and their planting area increased dramatically, the demand for glyphosate improved and drove its price to increase. Following the high boom, the company exported pesticides overseas through the traditional model of exporting TC and its performance grew rapidly. The lucrative earnings laid the foundation for the company's subsequent business development; In 2008, the economic crisis broke out, and the vigorous expansion of domestic production capacity resulted in glyphosate's overcapacity. Weifang Rainbow switched its position from a TC manufacturer to a crop solution provider and shut down its production of glyphosate TC. After that, the production line, while occasionally producing, was essentially stopped for most of the time. In order to resume normal volume production, the company needed to invest in a retrofit.

In 2022, Weifang Rainbow drew up the transformation plan. On 29 June, it announced that the company intended to close the project of 10,000 t/a high-end formulations and would invest the remaining funds raised into the construction of 30,000 t/a glyphosate SG project, the process of which is derived from the existing 20,000 t/a glyphosate SG processing facility. In October, the company proposed to change ″20,000 t/a 2,4-D, 2,000 t/a clethodim and 500 t/a haloxyfop-R-methyl project″ to ″25,000 t/a glyphosate continuous technological transformation project″—the two sets of glyphosate through different routes will be merged and upgraded in technology, to build a set of 25,000 t/a glycine-route glyphosate production equipment as a whole.