Currently, more than 20 provinces in China have issued new “plastic restriction orders”. Under the new trend of substitutes, degradable plastic materials such as PLA, PBAT, PHA, etc. have attracted attention. At the same time, the huge excess capacity of PTA in the future has made PTA companies on pins and needles and urgently needs to find exports to release production capacity. Many domestic polyester leaders Enterprises began to try to launch PBAT projects.
Following Hengli
Another private PTA leader plans the PBAT project
On December 25 last year, Yingkou Kanghui Petrochemical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Kanghui Petrochemical”), a subsidiary of Hengli Petrochemical, launched a PBAT/PBS biodegradable polyester new material project with an annual output of 33,000 tons. The first-time start-up was successful, the project was successfully put into production and qualified products were produced. After the project was put into production, the production capacity jumped to the top three in the country.
On February 1, 2021, Hengli Petrochemical will produce 300,000 tons of PBS biomass annually. The biodegradable plastic project was officially signed. So far, Hengli Petrochemical has signed 933,000 tons of degradable new material projects and will build the largest and highest-capacity degradable new material production base in China.
Recently, Jiangyin Xingjia Plasticizing Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sanfangxiang The environmental impact assessment of the company’s first phase 40,000-ton biodegradation project was announced. It is understood that the project plans to invest 140 million yuan. After completion, it will form an annual production scale of 40,000 tons of degradable new materials (PBAT chips).
In February 2021, Sanfangxiang Group (600370) was made public and its subsidiaries Jiangyin Xingjia Plasticization Co., Ltd. plans to build a PBAT project with an annual output of 120,000 tons. In addition to the previous phase of the 40,000 tons/year degradable new material project, the company will also invest 220 million yuan in the second phase of the 80,000 tons/year PBAT production line and supporting sheet production lines.
PBAT, even Vietnam I’m rushing to get there!
As for recent news, as Vietnam’s leading plastics group, An Phat Holdings (stock code: APH) has 15 subsidiaries. It pays close attention to the core business of plastics and adopts The strategic initiative found a new direction: building the largest green materials manufacturing plant in Southeast Asia. The company’s vice chairman believes that although the supply of green materials is currently in short supply compared with actual demand, the global green materials market is in a booming stage. It is expected that in the next 3-5 years, environmentally friendly products will dominate the market and gradually replace traditional products.
Furthermore, the company has also increased its PBAT production capacity from 20,000 tons to 30,000 tons. In 2019, APH exported green products to 5 countries, and by 2020, this number had quadrupled. They believe that in Vietnam, if only a portion of the traditional packaging product market is converted to biodegradable resin (PBAT), the upcoming factory will be enough to meet domestic production needs. One year after the plant was put into operation, the market output was 30,000 tons.
It is understood that the cost and applicability of the product are the reasons why they chose to invest in PBAT. First, the production cost and price of compostable products with PBAT compounds will be close to those of traditional plastic products. The price gap between these two products is minimal compared to other biomaterials. Secondly, PBAT is a material that can be industrially produced and can be widely used to produce environmentally friendly compostable products, such as knives, spoons, forks, packaging, etc. Moreover, in the past nearly 20 years of business, packaging products have been their core competitiveness.
China’s demand for degradable plastics is huge. At present, China’s annual consumption of degradable plastics is about 550,000 tons, and the market size is about 11 billion yuan. The replacement rate for non-degradable plastics is 1.2%, including 500,000 tons of packaging plastics, 40,000 tons of agricultural film plastics, and 16,000 tons in other fields; it is expected that China’s demand for degradable plastics will reach 2.25 million tons by 2025, replacing non-degradable plastics The rate reached 4.9%, of which 2.07 million tons were consumed in packaging plastics, 167,000 tons in agricultural film plastics, and 16,000 tons in other fields; by 2030, the total demand will exceed 4 million tons, and the market size will reach 80 billion yuan. BPAT will be a mainstream product in the biodegradable plastic market and has broad development prospects.
The cost of PBAT raw materials accounts for a large proportion. The upstream raw materials are PTA, BDO, and AA. To produce 1 ton of PBAT, 0.4 tons of PTA, 0.43 tons of BDO, and 0.35 tons of AA are required. Among the PBAT production costs, raw material costs account for approximately 72%.
Currently, the national PTA production capacity is relatively high. The production capacity and output in 2020 were 56.96 million tons and 49.38 million tons respectively, year-on-year respectively. Increases of 17.3% and 10.3%. The downstream products of PTA are mainly used for polyester filament (52%), followed by polyester bottle flakes (17%) and polyester chips (14%). With the successive commissioning of large-scale refineries, the current PTA production capacity expansion of various companies has reached 33 million tons./year, expanding production by approximately 60% compared to current production capacity. As this part of the production capacity is put into production in the next three years, PTA will gradually enter a period of overcapacity.
PTA downstream proportion in 2019:
2021-2023 PTA Capacity launch plan:
Since PBAT in the degradable plastic category is a petroleum-based raw material, PTA needs to be used. PBAT raw materials are in the field of degradable plastics The proportion is 24%. It is roughly estimated that 600,000 tons of the 2.5 million tons of substitutes by 2025 will come from PBAT. The demand for PTA is estimated based on the consumption of 0.48 tons of PTA for 1 ton of PBAT. Although the popularity of degradable plastics has a small impact on the overall demand for PTA in the overall PTA overcapacity situation, it has brought certain benefits to the production capacity digestion of PTA companies involved in PBAT production. At the same time, for an integrated refining and chemical enterprise like Hengli, Hengli Petrochemical is making plans in crude oil, coal, and degradable materials, and its product profits under cost control are more guaranteed.
Domestic PBAT production capacity is expected to reach new heights New high
It is not easy to get a share of the pie
Currently, my country’s total production capacity exceeds 200,000 tons, with capacity under construction and planned reaching nearly 1 million tons. The “Notice on Solidly Promoting Plastic Pollution Control” clarifies that starting from January 1, 2021, in shopping malls, supermarkets, pharmacies, bookstores and other places in built-up areas of municipalities, provincial capitals, and cities under separate planning, catering packaged takeout services and various During exhibition activities, the use of non-degradable plastic shopping bags is prohibited, but roll bags, fresh-keeping bags and garbage bags are not prohibited for the time being. As a result, degradable materials such as PBAT and PLA have ushered in a broad market space. The growth in demand has promoted the growth of PBAT production capacity and attracted a large influx of industrial capital.
Domestic companies already have PBAT mass production technology. From 2021 to 2022, it is expected that there will be Huafon Group, Hubei Yihua, Hengli Yulin, Kingfa Technology, Wanhua Chemical, Donghua Tianye, Jindan Technology, Yangmei Pingding, Zhejiang Changhong, Dawn Co., Ltd., Shandong Rui More than ten projects including Feng, Sanfangxiang, Tongde Chemical, and Inner Mongolia Huaheng have released over 2 million tons of PBAT production capacity. </p
