In 2021, China's acrylonitrile exports will exceed 200,000 tons

According to customs data, China's acrylonitrile exports from January to July this year have reached 127,200 tons, an increase of 186.63% compared with the same period last year, and the cumulative export value reached 266 million yuan. It is expected that the monthly average export volume from August to December will remain between 15,000 and 25,000 tons. In 2021, the annual export volume of acrylonitrile will exceed 200,000 tons, and will exceed the total annual import volume.

China's acrylonitrile export growth itself is a general trend, on the one hand, with the release of new domestic capacity, increasing supply prompted enterprises to actively look for overseas sales channels;  On the other hand, foreign supply has declined rather than increased in recent years, while demand has kept rising, which also gives Chinese products room to digest.

The immediate factor behind the surge in acrylonitrile exports in 2021 was a sharp cut in overseas supply that began in February, particularly as a severe cold spell shut down or restricted production of several acrylonitrile units in the United States, long a net exporter, much of which goes to Asia and Europe.  In addition, many sets of devices in Europe also suffered force majeure production, available for export spot quantity is insufficient.  In India, the biggest demand in South Asia, more than 60 percent of its acrylonitrile purchases come from ocean-going sources, and the disruption in US supplies has prompted Indian buyers to seek spot sources in Asian markets.

In 2021, China's acrylonitrile export destinations are mainly concentrated in South Korea, India, Turkey, China's Taiwan, Thailand, Belgium, Malaysia and other countries and regions.  More than half of the total is in South Korea, where ABS industry demand is growing.  India is the second region, accounting for 32.54%, and the local demand performance affected by the epidemic is not as expected, so the volume of products exported to India is expected to further increase.  

2021 domestic acrylonitrile export enterprises mainly concentrated in jiangsu and Shanghai, specific to the enterprise, mainly for jiang seuss state petrochemical and sinochem plastics, of which the former for the current domestic one of the biggest factory producing acrylonitrile, and the future as a new stage for three or four capacity, state will become the world's largest acrylonitrile production enterprise.  In the process of capacity expansion, Sielbon began to export acrylonitrile overseas in 2019. In 2020, The export volume of Acrylonitrile in China was 72,800 tons, and Sielbon accounted for about 95%.  Sinochem Plastics relies on the overseas channel background accumulated in the import and export field for a long time, seizing the export arbitrage window, second only to sierbang export volume.  

From the fourth quarter of 2021 to 2022, there are still a number of new acrylonitrile units planned to be put into production in China, and there will be no new overseas capacity in the next three years. Therefore, the foreign supply gap will gradually expand, which will stimulate the further growth of China's export volume.