On November 6, Fuhai issued the second public notice for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the Tangshan Petrochemical methanol-naphtha coupled olefins project. The project is located in Caofeidian District, Tangshan, with total investment of more than RMB 30 billion. It will build a 1 million t/y methanol-naphtha coupled cracking unit and downstream chemical units.
Compared with the first public notice disclosed in July 2025, the most notable change is the adjustment to the unit list. The downstream supporting units have been reduced from 17 to 12. The five removed units are VCM, PVC, EVOH, CHPPO and polyether polyol.
Project Content
| No. | Unit | Capacity | Process Route / Technology |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Methanol-naphtha coupled cracking unit | 1,000,000 t/y | Methanol-naphtha coupled cracking: methanol-naphtha coupled cracking-to-olefins process jointly developed by DICP, CAS and China Shenhua; steam cracking + olefin separation: CBL cracking technology developed by SEI with Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry and Tianhua (Nanjing) Intelligent Manufacturing Co., Ltd. |
| 2 | Pyrolysis gasoline hydrogenation unit | 700,000 t/y | Sinopec ST center-fraction hydrogenation process |
| 3 | Aromatics extraction | 450,000 t/y | Sinopec ST sulfolane liquid-liquid extraction (SAE) process |
| 4 | Butadiene extraction | 120,000 t/y | Sinopec ST acetonitrile extraction process + selective hydrogenation of alkynes |
| 5 | MTBE/butene-1 unit (including selective hydrogenation and full hydrogenation sections) | 220,000/50,000 t/y | MTBE/butene-1: Sinopec MTBE catalytic distillation package; hydrogenation sections: Sinopec ST C4 full hydrogenation technology and full hydrogenation technology |
| 6 | FDPE unit | 500,000 t/y | Hangzhou Shuang'an Technology gas-phase process |
| 7 | POE unit | 100,000 t/y | Hangzhou Shuang'an Technology ethylene/1-butene/1-octene copolymerization process for polyolefin elastomer (POE) |
| 8 | α-olefins unit | 50,000 t/y | Merrill's ethylene selective oligomerization co-production process for 1-octene and 1-hexene |
| 9 | EVA unit | 300,000 t/y | LyondellBasell tubular polymerization process |
| 10 | PP unit | 300,000 t/y | Sinopec ST third-generation loop polypropylene process |
| 11 | 1,3-PDO (propanediol) unit | 100,000 t/y | CNOOC Tianjin Chemical Research and Design Institute acrolein process for 1,3-PDO |
| 12 | PTT unit | 100,000 t/y | Technip process for producing polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) from 1,3-propanediol (PDO) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) |
Among the removed units, VCM and PVC correspond to the most mature chlor-alkali general-purpose plastics segment, while CHPPO and polyether polyol are general polyether products upstream of polyurethane. A company originating from Shandong local refining has, at a scale of more than RMB 30 billion, narrowed its product portfolio and concentrated resources on categories with the lowest domestic localization rates.
Continuing to compete on the scale of general-purpose plastics in a million-tonne olefins project faces limited room under existing capacity. By contrast, α-olefins, POE and PDO/PTT, which currently rely heavily on imports, offer more differentiated positioning for new capacity.
Among the retained units, the scale base consists of the 1 million t/y coupled cracking unit, 500,000 t/y FDPE, 300,000 t/y PP and 300,000 t/y EVA. The four smaller units are the main sources of project differentiation. The 50,000 t/y α-olefins unit mainly produces 1-octene and 1-hexene and aims to ease constraints in high-end POE feedstock supply. The 100,000 t/y POE unit targets photovoltaic and automotive materials markets where import dependence remains relatively high. The 100,000 t/y 1,3-PDO and 100,000 t/y PTT units form an integrated upstream-downstream chain and enter the specialty polyester segment.
The EIA public notice clarifies the positioning of the Caofeidian project: rather than general-purpose product categories, it focuses capital and technology on high-end new materials for import substitution.
