China's ethylene glycol industry status in 2020: strong downstream demand

With the completion and commissioning of ethylene glycol production facilities of many enterprises, China's ethylene glycol production capacity has steadily increased in recent years. In 2019, China's ethylene glycol production capacity reached 10.76 million tons and its output reached 7.39 million tons.

Coal to ethylene glycol develops rapidly

From the perspective of production technology, the ethylene glycol production capacity of the naphtha / ethylene process in 2019 reached 5.352 million tons, accounting for 47.7%; with the concentrated implementation of coal-to-ethylene glycol since 2012, coal-to-ethylene glycol It has achieved rapid development in China. In 2019, the coal-to-ethylene glycol production process accounted for 41.7%, with a production capacity of 4.49 million tons; the ethylene glycol production capacity of the MTO method reached 920,000 tons, accounting for 8.6%.

Domestic raw materials for ethylene glycol production have become diversified. In addition to naphtha cracking ethylene, there are coal-based syngas and methanol. Although ethylene to ethylene glycol is still the main process route for ethylene glycol production in China, its share of total production capacity is declining. The rapid development of coal-to-ethylene glycol is also in line with the characteristics of China's "rich coal, poor oil and little gas".

The mainstream price of ethylene glycol in East China and South China shows a downward trend

From 2017 to 2020, the mainstream ethylene glycol prices in East and South China showed a downward trend, among which the mainstream price of diethanol in East China fell from the highest price of 8475 CNY/ton to 2890 CNY/ton; / Ton fell to 3100 CNY/ton. As of May 1, 2020, the mainstream prices of diethanol in East China and South China were 3265 CNY/ton and 3325 CNY/ton respectively.

Strong downstream demand, soaring imports

In recent years, China's apparent demand for ethylene glycol has gradually increased. As of 2019, China's apparent demand for ethylene glycol has reached 17.33 million tons. Due to the large demand for ethylene glycol, domestic production cannot meet the needs of downstream industries. Relying on imports, ethylene glycol imports reached 9.95 million tons in 2019. From January to March 2020, the import volume of ethylene glycol was 2.8 million tons, an increase of 7.5% over the same period in 2019.