On August 30, the environmental impact assessment of the 600,000-ton caprolactam project of Jianyuan Coal Coking Co., Ltd., Etuoke Banner, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia was announced for the first time.
The project, with a total investment of 11.7 billion, is located in Qipanjing Town, Etuoke Banner, Ordos City. The project is constructed in two phases. In the first phase, a 270,000-ton cyclohexanone production device will be built; in the second phase, Construction of 270,000 tons of cyclohexanone, 600,000 tons of caprolactam, 900,000 tons of ammonium sulfate, 15,000 tons of light oil, etc.
On August 8, Hengyi Petrochemical announced that its subsidiary Zhejiang Baling Hengyi Caprolactam Co., Ltd. had invested in the “400,000-ton caprolactam capacity expansion and transformation project” It has been completed and officially put into operation, with the production capacity expanded from the original 200,000 tons to 400,000 tons.
In mid-July, Fujian Shenyuan New Materials Co., Ltd.’s caprolactam and polyamide integrated project with an annual output of 1 million tons began trial production of the first phase of the 400,000-ton caprolactam project.
The second phase of the 600,000-ton caprolactam and polyamide integrated project has started. After the project is fully put into production, the annual output value will reach 25 billion yuan, and the tax revenue will be about 1.5 billion yuan.
Recently, the caprolactam project has seen constant action.
As an important organic chemical raw material, caprolactam is mainly used in the production of PA6 fiber (nylon) and nylon 6 (PA6) engineering plastics and films.
Since the raw materials for the production of caprolactam are liquid ammonia, hydrogen, etc. from traditional coal chemical industry, this project is also an important layout for the transformation and upgrading of the traditional chemical industry and the conversion of old and new kinetic energy.
Total demand is 3 million tons, total production capacity is 6 million tons
With the stable development of my country’s economy, the demand for PA6 in textile, automobile, electronics, transportation and other industries is also increasing, which has led to the active expansion of PA6 polymerization devices in recent years. , which leads to an increasing demand for caprolactam.
By the end of 2018, my country’s caprolactam production capacity had reached nearly 3.7 million tons, as shown in Table 1.
In addition, the current consumption ratio of engineering plastics and films in my country is far lower than the world average and far lower than the level of developed countries, and there is considerable room for development in the future.
It is expected that my country’s total demand for caprolactam will exceed 3 million tons in 2022.
The continuous release of large-scale production capacity and the integrated caprolactam base will also become the new normal.
Table 1: Main caprolactam manufacturers in my country in 2018
In the next few years, my country will still have Zhejiang Baling Hengyi 100,000 tons, Shandong Fangming Chemical 100,000 tons, Hubei Sanning Chemical 100,000 tons, Inner Mongolia Kingho Group 200,000 tons, Fujian Yongrong Technology Co., Ltd. 600,000 tons, Fujian Shenyuan New Materials Phase II 600,000 tons, Fujian Jinjiang Petrochemical 400,000 tons, Pingmei Shenma Group Phase II 200,000 tons, Cangzhou Xuyang Chemical Phase II 100,000 tons, Jiangsu Sanding Petrochemical Technology Co., Ltd. 200,000 tons, etc. New construction or expansion plan.
If these projects can be implemented as scheduled, it is expected that my country’s total caprolactam production capacity will exceed 6 million tons in 2022.
The supply and demand situation of caprolactam in my country
In recent years, with the rapid development of my country’s nylon yarn, cord fabric, polyamide engineering plastics and other industries, the demand for caprolactam has continued to increase.
The supply and demand situation of caprolactam in my country from 2007 to 2017 is shown in Table 2.
Table 2 The supply and demand situation of caprolactam in my country from 2007 to 2017
By Table 2 shows that the average annual growth rate of apparent consumption from 2012 to 2017 was approximately 11.25%. The self-sufficiency rate of corresponding products was 38.98% in 2007, increased to 50.52% in 2012, and reached 90.37% in 2017.
In recent years, my country’s caprolactam has not added new consumption areas. The entire industry is still dominated by downstream consumption such as civilian spinning, film and engineering plastics, and cord fabrics. However, downstream consumption The proportion of consumption has changed significantly.
The proportion of civilian spinning decreased slightly, from 60% in 2012 to about 52% in 2017, while the proportion of film and engineering plastics dropped from 2012 to 2017. 18% increased to about 23% in 2017, nylon 6 cord fabric accounted for about 17%, and other uses accounted for about 8%.
With the stable development of my country’s economy, the demand for PA6 in textile, automobile, electronics, transportation and other industries is also increasing. It is expected that my country’s total demand for caprolactam will reach 3 million tons in 2022.
In April this year, caprolactam was included in the “2019 Key Chemical Products Production Capacity Early Warning Report” issued by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation.
According to this report, the caprolactam production capacity utilization rate was 66% in 2017, 74.9% in 2018, and is expected to be 63.2% in 2019; in 2018, domestic caprolactam production and domestic appearance The consumption ratio is 94%.
Affected by the depreciation of the RMB, the new capacity of caprolactam downstream companies is much higher than the new capacity of caprolactam. The export volume of the main downstream product polyester spinning increased significantly in 2018 compared with 2017, and the demand The support is obvious and the industry’s profit level has increased significantly. This may be one of the reasons why caprolactam attracts investment.
However, with the explosive growth of caprolactam production capacity and the impact of the Sino-US trade war, corporate profits will definitely be affected.
The era of Red Sea competition is coming
In the future, the development of caprolactam in the world will continue to shift to Asia as the center, especially the increase in production capacity in mainland China, which is the key to the growth of world production capacity. main area.
Competition in the Asian market will become more intense.
Caprolactam production capacity in Europe and the United States and other countries or regions has not increased, and may even be gradually shut down, which provides more potential opportunities for my country’s caprolactam exports.
Although my country’s caprolactam production capacity will continue to grow, the product quality is mostly in the mid- to low-end, and most civilian silk high-speed spinning factories have relatively high raw material requirements. Currently, high-quality The output of the product cannot yet meet the actual domestic production demand. Imports will still be needed in the future, but the import volume will gradually decrease.
With the diversification of investment entities, the proportion of state-owned caprolactam enterprises in my country will gradually decrease, and the proportion of private enterprises and joint ventures will become larger and larger, and will gradually become the The main force in caprolactam supply. The contradiction between supply and demand in major downstream consumer areas such as Fujian and Jiangsu will continue to be alleviated.
With the continuous growth of production capacity, my country’s caprolactam industry has moved from short supply to oversupply. In addition, product homogeneity is more serious, and most of them are mid- to low-end products. Therefore, the industry Starting to enter the era of low profit or micro profit, market competition will be very fierce.
Early layout of Deus Ex
Intensify efforts in technological transformation, reduce energy and material consumption of existing equipment, and improve product quality to meet the caprolactam quality requirements of downstream products such as PA6.
Through technological progress and transformation and upgrading, increase the research, development and application of new energy-saving and emission-reducing technologies in the production process of caprolactam to save energy, reduce costs and reduce environmental pollution, Achieve environmentally friendly production.
Rational capacity expansion and reasonable layout. For companies planning to enter the caprolactam industry, they should comprehensively consider raw materials, technology, public engineering conditions, logistics, industrial chain and other factors, and objectively evaluate themselves construction conditions and industry risks to avoid disorderly competition.
While building a large-scale caprolactam production device, we will also establish a production and sales operation model integrated with downstream products to avoid market risks.
Improve the core competitiveness of the industry, curb the dumping behavior of similar foreign products in my country, consolidate anti-dumping results, and create a fair competition environment for domestic caprolactam.
Actively expand exports, resolve the contradiction of domestic overcapacity, and ensure the healthy and steady development of the caprolactam industry.
Accelerate the development of new applications of downstream products and expand the market capacity of caprolactam.
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