Current status and development of China's modified plastics industry

Modified plastics are currently widely used in home appliances, automobiles, communications, medical, electronic and electrical, rail transit, precision instruments, home building materials, security, aerospace, military and other fields. From 2010 to 2019, my country's modified plastics also achieved a rapid increase, from an annual output of 7.05 million tons in 2010 to about 19.55 million tons in 2019; the modification rate increased from 16.2% in 2010 to 2019 Of 20.4%.

Modified plastics are widely used downstream

As one of the three major polymer compounds, plastics are formed by the polymerization of various resins formed by the petrochemical industry through addition polymerization or condensation polymerization. They are currently widely used due to their light weight, high strength, insulation, light transmission, and wear resistance. In various production activities of human society.

With the characteristics of light weight, high strength, insulation, light transmission, and wear resistance, plastics are currently widely used in various production activities in human society and have a wide range of downstream applications. But the plastic itself has poor heat resistance, large thermal expansion coefficient, easy to burn; poor low temperature resistance, it becomes brittle at low temperature; it is prone to aging under the action of the atmosphere, sunlight, long-term pressure or certain media. The above shortcomings limit the plastic Further extensive applications.

Therefore, in some industries or usage scenarios that require high material performance, plastics need to be modified to meet the performance requirements. Plastic modification refers to the addition of suitable additives, fillers or other polymer components on the basis of general plastics, engineering plastics or special engineering plastics, and processing and modification by means of filling, toughening, and reinforcement to improve the plastic Some aspects of performance. The plastic processed by the above modification technology is called modified plastic. Generally speaking, the performance of modified plastics is better than plastics in terms of flame retardancy, strength, impact resistance, and aging resistance. The main plastic modification methods are as follows:

The upstream of polymer modified materials is the petrochemical industry, the upstream raw materials are generally various synthetic resins and various additives and modified filling materials, etc., and the downstream mainly covers home appliances, automobiles, communications, electronic and electrical, medical, rail transit, precision instruments , Home building materials, security, aerospace, military and other fields.

There is a certain overlap in the application industry of modified plastics and plastics. Customers choose suitable materials according to the specific requirements of different products or components: When the material performance requirements are relatively single and the conventional plastics can meet the requirements, customers usually use standardized Conventional plastics: When conventional plastics cannot meet customer customization requirements due to insufficient performance in certain aspects, or customers seek to reduce the cost of using conventional engineering plastics or special engineering plastics, modified plastics are required to meet the requirements.

Although there is no strict division between the downstream application industries of modified plastics and plastics, the two occupy a dominant position in different fields. In industries such as daily necessities and product packaging, unmodified plastics are currently mainly used as raw materials; while in areas with complex usage scenarios and high material performance requirements such as automobiles, electronics and communications, most conventional plastic varieties cannot Directly used in the manufacture of products, modified plastics are widely used.

The plastic modification rate continues to increase

Modified plastics originated abroad. The development of modified plastics in my country began in the 1990s. With the continuous advancement of "plastics to replace steel" and "plastics to wood" and the rapid development of the domestic economy, modified equipment and technology continue As it matures, the entire modified plastics industry system has also been continuously improved, which has strongly promoted the important transformation of the plastics processing industry from focusing on consumer goods to rapidly entering the field of means of production, which has greatly promoted the upgrading and development of the plastics processing industry.

According to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics, my country's modified plastics also achieved a rapid increase from 2010 to 2019, from an annual output of 7.05 million tons in 2010 to about 19.55 million tons in 2019; 16.2% in 2010 increased to 20.4% in 2019.

Automobiles and home appliances are the largest application areas

The home appliance industry is one of the most important downstream industries in the modified plastics industry. Modified plastics have excellent safety, non-toxic, energy saving, environmental protection, antibacterial and anti-mildew properties, and can meet people's needs for lightweight and healthy home appliances. Modified plastic materials are mainly used to manufacture parts such as housings, blades, and exteriors of home appliances. With the rapid economic development and the rapid improvement of people's living standards, the domestic market for home appliances is rapidly expanding. In addition, the export of my country's home appliance industry continues to grow, and its status in the global home appliance industry continues to improve, making it one of my country's highly globalized industries. Domestic and foreign market demand promotes the vigorous development of my country's home appliance market, and at the same time brings rapid growth in the upstream demand for modified plastics industry. The use of modified plastics in the field of home appliances in my country has increased from 3.6 million tons in 2015 to 4.6 million tons in 2019, maintaining continuous growth.

Modified plastics are widely used in the automotive industry and have a long history. With the development of the automotive industry, people’s requirements for light weight, energy saving, and environmental protection of automotive materials are increasing. Modified plastic materials are used in automotive interiors, exteriors, electronics, etc. Various aspects such as electrical and powertrain have been widely used.

In recent years, the demand for modified plastic materials in the automotive sector in my country has risen from 3.52 million tons in 2015 to 4.66 million tons in 2019, increasing year by year. With the steady increase in automobile production and sales and the development of automobile lightweight trends, it is expected that the demand for modified materials in the automobile sector will maintain a good upward momentum.

Kingfa Technology leads in production

According to the comparison of the 2019 annual reports of listed companies that released the production data of modified plastics, the production of modified plastics of Kingfa Technology in 2019 was far ahead of peer companies. Its output of modified plastics was 1,289,100 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 6.76%; Guoen shares reforms The output of synthetic plastics was 273,500 tons, a year-on-year increase of 74.7%; the output of Dawn Co., Ltd.'s modified plastics was 191,000 tons, a substantial increase of 152.5%; the output of Silver Jubilee Technology's modified plastics was 119,300 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 23.9%; Tongyi The output of modified plastics by shares was 103,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 82.0%.

In 2019, the sales volume of modified plastics of Kingfa Technology was 1,264,400 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 6.1%; the sales volume of modified plastics of Guoen Co., Ltd. was 273,800 tons, a year-on-year increase of 77.0%; the sales volume of modified plastics of Dawn Co., Ltd. was 181,200 tons, a year-on-year increase 138.4%; Silver Jubilee Technology's modified plastic sales volume was 121,500 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 22.9%, and Tongyi's modified plastic sales volume was 99,700 tons, an increase of 86.3%.

In the future, the development of China's modified plastic industry will show the following trends:

——Strong support from national policies

Polymer modified materials are an important branch in the field of new materials, a key scientific and technological field for my country's development, and an important part of the strategy of manufacturing a powerful country and an innovation-driven development strategy. In recent years, government authorities have issued a series of industrial policies to encourage the development of the polymer modified materials industry. The State Council’s "Thirteenth Five-Year" National Strategic Emerging Industry Development Plan proposes to comply with the development trend of high-performance, multi-functional and green new materials, promote the sustainable development of characteristic resources and new materials, strengthen the layout of cutting-edge materials, and use strategic Guided by the needs of emerging industries and major projects, optimize the industrialization and application environment of new materials, strengthen the construction of new materials standard systems, improve the application level of new materials, and promote the integration of new materials into the high-end manufacturing supply chain. Therefore, polymer modified materials, as a key industry encouraged and developed by the country, have been supported by a number of national industrial policies in recent years, which is conducive to the overall development of the industry.

——Continuous expansion of downstream applications

Modified plastics are an important branch of polymer modified materials. Modified plastics are currently widely used in home appliances, automobiles, communications, electronic and electrical, medical, rail transit, precision instruments, home building materials, security, aerospace, military and many other national pillars Sex industry and emerging industries, of which household appliances and automobiles are currently the most important downstream application industries of modified plastics. In addition, modified plastics have been increasingly used in various fields of society due to their light weight, corrosion resistance, flame resistance, heat resistance, insulation and other properties. In the field of health protection, modified plastics can be used in food packaging, medical protection and other scenarios; in the field of rail transit, modified plastics can be used in interior and exterior decoration, structural parts, and cushioning materials; in the field of home building materials, modified plastics are also used in health facilities An important part of luggage, power tools, security equipment and other products; in aerospace, military and other fields, modified plastics also have a wide range of applications.

-Increased demand for import substitution

The modified plastics industry has many years of development history in many developed countries. Large international chemical companies such as BASF, Dow, DuPont, SABIC, etc. have obvious advantages in raw material supply, business scale, and technology accumulation. The company is in a leading position in formula research and development, processing and manufacturing, and brand quality, and its products are widely used in high-end fields. In contrast, most of the domestic modified plastics companies began to rise after the development of the domestic home appliance and automobile industries. Although they have developed rapidly in recent years, their overall competitiveness still has a certain gap with large international chemical companies. The high-end modified plastics market is still dominated by imports, and there is a large demand for import substitution.

In recent years, large-scale domestic enterprises in the industry have continuously increased R&D investment, and the technological gap with large international enterprises has gradually narrowed. Some enterprises have gradually penetrated into the high-end market by researching and developing functional and high-performance products. On the other hand, in recent years, as my country's upstream petrochemical companies continue to strengthen independent research and development of products, it has also driven the overall innovation of the domestic modified plastics industry to accelerate. As my country continues to promote economic transformation and industrial upgrading in recent years, the import substitution demand for high-end modified plastics has become increasingly urgent, providing good development opportunities for leading domestic companies with strong technical strength.