From November 8th to 12th, the opening meeting of the third phase PTA project of Zhejiang Dushan Energy Co., Ltd. was successfully held in Dushangang Petrochemical Industrial Park, Pinghu City. Zheng Yongwei, Vice President of Xinfengming Group and General Manager of Dushan Energy, Du Qunlong, Asia Director of Koch Technologies UK Ltd. (KTS), Liu Wei, Assistant General Manager of Jingding Engineering Construction Co., Ltd. and other relevant leaders and members of the tripartite project team attended the meeting. Xiao Haifeng, deputy general manager of Dushan Energy, chaired the meeting.
The meeting first introduced the development background of the Dushan Energy Phase III PTA project, and then the participating parties discussed the project team and construction The preparations were introduced in detail, and various technical clarifications, opinions exchanges and on-site Q&A were conducted, and the overall design criteria, work scope and project progress of the project were clarified. The meeting required all construction personnel to closely focus on the actual work and planned arrangements of the project, clarify goals and tasks, strengthen division of responsibilities, refine measures and methods, seize nodes, work hard, unite sincerely, and cooperate closely to ensure high-quality completion of project construction tasks. , living up to the trust of the group company.
The smooth convening of the opening meeting of the Dushan Energy Phase III PTA project not only pressed the “start button” for the substantive construction of the project, but also enabled Xinfengming Group to realize the “three Thousand” strategic goal pressed the “fast forward button”.
According to the minutes of the Xinfengming meeting held by the securities company on September 6, Xinfengming’s basic plan is to produce 12 million tons of polyester and 11 million tons of PTA in 2024, and achieve this goal in 2025. The production target of polyester is 12 million tons and that of PTA is 11 million tons. The PTA Group’s current volume of 5 million tons is also BP’s first external technology transfer, and it has obvious late-mover advantages. Currently, there are 5 million tons of PTA, and 4 million tons are planned for the next step, which can actually reach 5-6 million tons. Next, PTA’s production capacity will be put into operation in two phases. The third phase will be put into operation in the first half of 2023, and the fourth phase will be put into operation in the second half of 2024.
The total domestic PTA production capacity is expected to exceed 90 million tons in 2025
The PTA industry is closely related to the petrochemical industry and chemical fiber textile, two important hubs of the pillar industries of the national economy, are at the core link between the past and the next in the industrial chain.
PTA reacts with upstream petrochemical products such as ethylene glycol produced from ethylene to mainly produce polyester (PET). Polyester can be processed into fibers, films and plastic products, and is widely used in the packaging industry, electronic appliances, medical and health, construction, automobiles and other fields.
According to statistics, PTA production capacity will increase by 7.2 million tons in 2020, including 5 million tons in the fourth and fifth phases of Hengli Petrochemical and 2.2 million tons in the second phase of Xinfengming. The production capacity exceeds 60 million tons, an increase of 13.6%. As of now, Hengli Petrochemical’s total production capacity has reached 11.6 million tons, ranking first in the world.
At the beginning of 2021, the commissioning of Fujian Baihong’s 2.5 million tons unit took the lead in launching the first round of the new year, followed by Jiangsu Hong The port was put into operation, and the subsequent phases of Ningbo Yisheng, Jiujiang Tongkun and Xinfengming have plans to put into production, and the production capacity may exceed 10 million tons within the year.
After 2022, new devices at Hengli Huizhou, Xinfengming Phase IV, Jiangsu Tongkun, and Guangxi Tongkun will be launched one after another. It is expected that the total domestic PTA production capacity will exceed 9,000 by 2025 Thousands of tons.
Amid the production capacity blowout, the average annual processing fee of PTA fell below 500 yuan/ton, reaching a new low in the past five years
While the leading polyester company is rapidly expanding its PTA production capacity, processing fees this year have been challenging the “lifeline” of polyester companies. As of now, the average processing fee for PTA this year is 495 yuan/ tons, a new low since 2017.
Different from previous years, as the price of acetic acid continues to soar, the cost of processing fees has increased significantly this year, which has continued to erode industrial profits, causing the profitability of manufacturing companies to worsen.
According to CCF senior analyst Shen Yinjiao, the price of acetic acid has been around 6,000-9,000 yuan/ton since March. If one ton of PTA consumes 35 kilograms of acetic acid, the cost will be 210. —310 yuan/ton, so taking into account the cost of acetic acid, the PTA processing fee is reduced to 267 yuan/ton. This processing fee puts most PTA companies under pressure to lose money. A small number of new installations are at breakeven due to low energy and material consumption. “Therefore, we have seen an increase in the number of PTA devices with long shutdowns this year. Currently, there are 8.315 million tons of PTA devices in the long shutdown state in China, accounting for 12.6% of the total production capacity.”
According to Pang Chunyan, in the first half of this year due to huge social inventory pressure, PTA processing margins continued to decline, but acetic acid prices rose sharply, resulting in an increase in PTA factory production costs and the industry falling into large-scale losses. , companies were forced to reduce or suspend production. In the second half of the year, as social inventories were digested, the PTA processing gap was repaired. In some cases, the spot processing gap returned to a high of 700 yuan/ton. In addition to acetic acid, high coal prices were also eating into the profits of the PTA industry.
“Recently, as PTA returns to the accumulation cycle, the processing fee has been compressed to a near-marginal value, around 500 yuan/ton. Considering the increase in acetic acid this year, Price, the current processing fee is a relatively reasonable processing fee area under the accumulated inventory cycle.��. “Zheshang Futures analyst Zhu Lihang said that in the context of clear expectations for future accumulation, it is difficult for low processing fees to achieve breakthrough growth.
Low processing fees are beneficial to enterprises. Generally speaking, they are faced with the problems of inventory accumulation, falling product prices, and declining efficiency. Low processing fees mean huge losses for high-cost companies. Overall, it is more difficult for the industry to achieve stable operations through the traditional model. Reporter It is understood that PTA companies usually take maintenance measures when faced with low processing fees.
The same is true this year. From March to April this year, PTA’s processing fees dropped significantly. The price is mostly maintained at 300-400 yuan/ton. More companies choose to overhaul, and some less competitive devices are gradually shutting down. Entering October, most devices have completed overhaul.
This year’s “maintenance card” has been played. For enterprises, overcapacity is foreseeable in the future. How will polyester factories cope with lower and lower processing fees?</p
