Energy-saving and favorable policies bring opportunities for polyether polyols

With the promotion of the national "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" energy-saving and emission reduction targets, the energy efficiency standards for two terminal energy products, namely, refrigerators and household solar hot water systems, have been introduced, and the innovation of wall thermal insulation materials has also been continuously improved. A series of favorable policies have been given. The polyurethane industry has brought new opportunities for development. As one of the important raw materials for polyurethane production, polyether polyol also welcomes opportunities for development.

At present, 80% of China's polyether polyols are used in the polyurethane field, and are mainly used for the production of polyurethane foams, polyurethane rigid foams, and CASE systems. From the market share, polyurethane foam accounts for about 70%, rigid foam is about 25%, and CASE class is less than 5%.

From the perspective of downstream consumption structure, polyurethane foams are mainly used in the fields of furniture and car seats. Rigid foams are mainly used in refrigerated insulation, construction industry and solar water heaters. The CASE system mainly refers to coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers. Field applications. In the past two years, with the national energy conservation and emission reduction, and the increasing emphasis on environmental protection, the demand for rigid foam polyether in the construction field and soft foam polyether in the automotive sector is expected to maintain a strong momentum of development. However, as a whole, China's soft foam polyether has excess capacity, is relatively saturated, and its future growth rate should be lower than that of rigid foam polyethers.

At present, the consumption of rigid foam polyether in China is still concentrated in the refrigeration industry, accounting for about 58% of the total consumption of rigid foam, and the construction industry is only about 22%. In Europe and the United States, the proportion of rigid foam in the field of building energy conservation is as high as 50%. In the coming years, with the end of the period of rapid development of refrigeration and heat preservation and solar water heaters in China, the building energy-saving market will become the fastest growing demand for polyurethane rigid foam.

In recent years, the rapid development of the polyurethane industry has driven the growth of raw material polyether polyols. Domestic polyether production capacity is like springing up and expanding rapidly. According to statistics, China's total polyether production capacity in 2011 was about 2.6 million tons, and the apparent consumption was about 1.8 million tons. Compared with 2009, the production capacity has increased by about 1 million tons, while the apparent consumption has only increased by about 300,000 tons, and the overcapacity is beyond doubt. Under the influence of the national real estate macro-control policies and the external economic downturn, the domestic demand for refrigerators and building insulation materials in 2012 was low, and the demand for the entire polyether market, especially the rigid foam polyether market, was not optimistic. The soft foam furniture market slowed down due to the impact of factors such as the “Four Standards for Upholstered Furniture” released at the beginning of the year and the cooling of the property market. Affected by this, the market price of polyether polyol was once in the cost line.

Even so, the pace of domestic capacity expansion has not yet slowed. From 2012 to 2013, the polyether industry plans to add more than 500,000 tons of new production capacity. Including Bluestar Dongda 100,000 tons, Fushun Jiahua 100,000 tons, Jiangsu Zhongshan 100,000 tons, and Jinpu Kumho 100,000 tons.

With fierce competition in the domestic market and supply saturation, manufacturers have set their sights on foreign markets and sought new breakthroughs. According to the import and export data of the past three years, it can be seen that China's polyether exports show an increasing trend year by year. From January to June 2012, the export volume increased by 20.6% compared with the same period of last year, and the import volume decreased by 16.2%. As China's R&D power is relatively weak, domestic polyether varieties are mainly concentrated in the low-end general-purpose type, and some high-end products and special-purpose polyethers still need to be imported.

Although China's polyether polyol industry has good support from policies such as the national energy-saving emission reduction and wall material innovation, due to the irrationality of its own industry development, the situation of partial overcapacity has begun to take shape, and the current market can be described as an opportunity and a challenge. coexist. The expansion of overseas markets, the adjustment and upgrading of industrial structures, and the continuous improvement of R&D technologies are the inevitable ways for companies to get out of their difficulties. I believe that through the efforts of domestic companies, polyurethane as an environmentally friendly sunrise industry, will surely usher in a new opportunity for development.