The new year is approaching and another year is approaching. This year, the economic situation at home and abroad remained complex and severe. The overall demand in the chemical fiber industry weakened, the contradiction between supply and demand became apparent, market prices fell, and the industry’s profitability declined.
No matter what the chemical fiber market is like, polyester “big guys” will be busy in 2019. In order to gain greater advantages and not miss opportunities in the future, the expansion of multiple sub-sectors represented by leading companies continues. Private refining and chemical projects invested by large polyester companies in the past few years have been put into production one after another, and a number of polyester and polyester projects have been put into operation. , PTA project was put into operation. The “head effect” of the industry is obvious.
Zhejiang Petrochemical has rushed into full production at the end of 2019, and the three major chemical fiber giants: the last link of the industrial chain has been completely opened up !
The most prominent manifestation is that several private refining and chemical projects invested by large chemical fiber companies have been put into operation one after another. Since the beginning of this year, the three major private refining and chemical projects of Hengli Refining, Zhejiang Petrochemical, and Hengyi Brunei have been speeding up their efforts to make the final “sprint” before officially putting into production.
On May 17, in Dalian Changxing Island Industrial Park, the “Hengli 20 million tons/year refining and chemical integration project” was announced to be put into operation. The project has an aromatics complex with an annual output of 4.5 million tons and adopts advanced AXENS process technology. It is the largest in the world and is a benchmark project for the global petrochemical industry in the new century.
On November 3, Hengyi Brunei PMB petrochemical project realized the full process of the factory and was fully put into production, with smooth output Gasoline, diesel, aviation kerosene, PX, benzene and other products.
On December 4, the first ship of PX produced by Hengyi Brunei PMB petrochemical project was unloaded at the self-built terminal of Hainan Yisheng. Following the completion of the entire process and full production on November 3, the project has been close to full capacity in just one month.
On December 30, Rongsheng Petrochemical announced that the 40 million tons/year integrated refining and chemical project (Phase I) was fully put into operation. Up to now, the project’s refining, aromatics, ethylene and downstream chemical products units have been fully put into trial operation, the entire process has been opened up, stable operation has been achieved and qualified products have been produced.
From the perspective of the logic of industrial development, this upsurge in the construction of private large-scale refining and chemical integration projects is different from the previous construction of China’s refining and chemical industry projects. The important differences are: on the one hand, Listed companies including Hengli Co., Ltd., Rongsheng Petrochemical and Hengyi Petrochemical are all giants in the domestic polyester chemical fiber industry, and they are all aiming to accelerate the construction of “crude oil processing-PX-PTA, ethylene glycol-polyester” full industry integration. Collaborative development model is the need for industrial development; on the other hand, these major projects have a high starting point for construction, large overall scale of equipment and individual units, strong synergy of upstream and downstream production capacity, and have the ability to compete in global refining, petrochemical, and polymerization. The production capacity advantage and market foundation of the ester industry chain, which is deeply involved in international competition, are the endowments of market production capacity.
Everbright Securities once pointed out in an industry research report on the rise of private refining and chemical giants that “Mainland Chinese companies have two major advantages: First, the advantages of the entire industry chain, and PX has 80% of the downstream is in the mainland; secondly, the scale advantage and technological advantage of being a latecomer. These two major advantages enable such private enterprises to be in the lowest comprehensive cost position in the world on the aromatics refining route in the next 10 years.”
At present, the polyester and PTA businesses in the middle and lower reaches of my country’s polyester chemical fiber industry chain occupy an absolutely dominant position in the world, with production capacity and output accounting for 60% of the world’s total. – more than 80%, and the upstream aromatics link has always been controlled by others. Domestic dependence on PX imports has reached more than 60%. Therefore, these major private chemical fiber giants are working hard to speed up the construction of integrated refining and chemical fiber projects. With the completion and commissioning of these major projects, the last link in my country’s petrochemical polyester chemical fiber industry chain that is controlled by others will be completely opened up.
Large-scale polyester companies: start a new round of investment in polyester, polyester and PTA projects
On the basis of the successive commissioning of refining and chemical projects, in 2019, represented by large polyester companies, the chemical fiber industry began a new round of investment in PTA projects. At the same time, a number of new polyester and polyester projects were announced to be put into production. , and a batch of new polyester polyester and new material projects were announced.
During the year, Tongkun Group continued to deepen its development and actively expanded its strategic layout. Multiple projects were launched intensively and new projects were started in many places. On February 14, Tongkun Group Co., Ltd. announced that it had signed an investment agreement with Jiangsu Rudong Yangkou Port Economic Development Zone, with a planned investment of 16 billion yuan, and medium-term planning to build a PTA project with an annual output of 2×2.5 million tons, 900,000 tons of FDY, 1.5 million tons POY project.
In August, the polyester plant of the Hengteng Phase 4 project under Tongkun Group was successfully launched; the Hengchao intelligent super-simulation fiber project with an annual output of 500,000 tons (expected to be launched in 2020 Put into operation in September), the boiler ultra-low emission energy-saving renovation project, and the relocation and expansion project of Youchang Packaging’s annual output of 10,000 tons of foam boards, 60,000 tons of liquid titanium dioxide and 4,000 tons of ethylene glycol antimony catalyst have also started intensively.
On October 12, Tongkun Group’s Haiyan high-tech new materials industrial base project was signed in Haiyan, Zhejiang. The project is located in Haiyan, after the simultaneous expansion of PTA production in 2020, the PX-PTA-polyester industry chain will be highly integrated, and the competitive advantages brought by industrial synergy will also be stronger. In the future, many domestic small-scale PX and PTA devices with single supporting equipment will face elimination. The aromatics-polyester industry chain may eventually move towards an oligopoly structure of six major companies, and market competition will shift from product competition in the past to industry chain competition.
The continuous commissioning of new production capacity by private enterprises will quickly reduce the market share of polyester raw materials of traditional enterprises! what to do?
Considering the overall competitiveness of domestic petrochemicals, it is recommended to strengthen the overall coordination and linkage of the industrial chain to further form competitive synergies. At present, the domestic polyester industry chain is in the stage of expansion and integration, especially the larger polyester companies in the industry, such as Tongkun, Rongsheng, Hengli, Hengyi, Shenghong, Sanfangxiang and Xinfengming, etc. It is constantly adding or acquiring polyester production capacity, and at the same time extending its industrial chain to the upstream raw material industry. Among them, Yisheng and Hengli are already the first and second largest PTA manufacturers in China. Rongsheng’s wholly-owned Zhongjin Petrochemical can produce PX, Zhejiang Petrochemical invested by Rongsheng and Tongkun, and Hengli Petrochemical invested by Hengli are both expanding into the upstream refining industry chain and can produce PX and MEG, becoming increasingly self-sufficient. Judging from the current scale and technical situation of PX, PTA and MEG devices of traditional enterprises, the technical level and scale (except for a few devices) are obviously lagging behind private enterprises in all respects. Their competitiveness is at a disadvantage and they have eliminated production capacity.
From the perspective of the overall planning of the polyester industry chain of traditional enterprises, we can give full play to the advantages of talents, technology and other advantages that the industry chain is still relatively complete and have accumulated over many years, and further in-depth research and discussion on PX– PTA – the development model of the polyester industry chain, systematically integrates resources, relies on the upstream, increases raw material production capacity and polyester production capacity, improves the internal ability to digest polyester raw materials PX, PTA and MEG, ensures the health and safety of the industry chain, and uses the advantages of integration to reduce cost, improve market share and competitiveness.
1. Continue to increase PTA production capacity and polyester production capacity in markets or resource gathering areas, and digest PX, PTA, and MEG production capacity nearby.
2. Dismantle the existing small-scale equipment and build a new large-scale PTA equipment with advanced technology to absorb the remaining PX production capacity of some enterprises.
3. Study and leverage the supporting advantages, regional advantages and logistics advantages to build intelligent polyester and polyester equipment in the self-owned petrochemical industrial park.
4. Strengthen the development of differentiated high value-added polyester products. Focus on the development of multi-component copolymers (such as PETG, cationic dyeing) and new polyester products (such as PTT/PEN/PBT, etc.). Through new investment and construction, while upstream production capacity is appropriately expanded, the level of device technology will be improved to reduce product production costs; while downstream production capacity is further increased, the proportion of upstream and downstream production capacity in the industrial chain will be optimized and adjusted to enrich the polyester product structure. This will continue to enhance the competitiveness of the traditional enterprise PX-PTA-polyester industry chain and maintain the market position of the aromatics industry chain. </p
