China’s Chemical Fiber Sector Gradually Changes from Being Large to Strong

During the period of 2002 - 2011, China chemical fiber sector developed by leaps and bounds, further strengthened the structural adjustment, and gained a stage achievement in transformation and upgrading. Looking back on these ten years, China chemical fiber sector experienced enormous changes, and players are more confident about the growth of China’s textile industry.

1. Output grew 16% annually

In 2002, China’s production of chemical fibers continued to accelerate growth. China produced 9.9 million tons of chemical fibers in 2002, including 682.1 thousand tons of man-made fibers and 9.15 million tons of synthetic fibers. Among major varieties of chemical fibers, the domestic output of polyester fibers, polyamide fibers, acrylic fibers and polypropylene fibers was 7.72 million tons, 474.9 thousand tons, 594 thousand tons and 299.2 thousand tons in 2002, respectively, while in 2011 China’s output of chemical fibers reached 33.624 million tons, of which the output of viscose fibers and polyester fibers was 2.07 million tons and 27.9 million tons, respectively. The output of chemical fibers in 2011 was more than 3 times its 2002 levels, growing 16% year on year during 2002-2011. The rapid increase of chemical fiber production is a manifestation of relatively rapid growth of downstream market demand after China's accession to the WTO, and at the same time, also causes the oversupply of some chemical fiber varieties.

2. Import declined and export increased

In 2002, China’s import volume of chemical fibers grew rapidly. The import volume of spandex and polyamide filament fibers has the most rapid growth, being 31.8 thousand tons and 194.2 thousand tons, respectively. The import volume of polyester filament fibers, polyester staple fibers and acrylic fibers reached 351.7 thousand tons, 600.2 thousand tons and 423.1 thousand tons, respectively. One reason for the rapid import growth of chemical fibers is the supply gap in the domestic chemical fiber market caused by the brisk demand in downstream textiles and clothing markets. Another reason is the further opening up of chemical fiber market after China's accession to the WTO.
   Since 2003, the domestic demand for chemical fibers has maintained rapid growth, at the same time, the import volume of chemical fibers has continued to decline, whereas the export volume has increased rapidly. In 2007 the export volume of chemical fibers exceeded the import volume for the first time, and the net export volume was 433 thousand tons. The net export volume reached 891 thousand tons in 2008. In 2010 China imported 902.3 thousand tons of chemical fibers, down 407 thousand tons from 2005, and the export volume reached 1.925 million tons, up 171.2% over 2005. Except for some varieties, major chemical fibers had realized the substitution to imports in both the quality and quantity. In 2011 China imported 350 thousand tons of synthetic fibers for textile, 120.2 thousand tons of polyester fibers, 195.3 thousand tons of polyacrylonitrile fibers and 162.1 thousand tons of polyester filament fibers, respectively, whereas the export volume of chemical fibers reached 2.3631 million tons, of which the export volume of polyester filament fibers and polyester staple fibers was 945.2 thousand tons and 816.1 thousand tons, respectively, accounting for 40.00% and 34.54%.
   In the first seven months of 2012, China’s import volume of chemical fibers totaled 482.1 thousand tons, while the export volume reached 1.434 million tons with an export value of US$3.516 billion.

3. Product diversification

The chemical fibers have very wide applications in the textile sector. In 2011, the proportion of chemical fibers in the total fiber processing volume reached 73%. The variety and quality of chemical fiber products have also been optimized constantly, and the differential rate reached 50% in 2011. Under the situation that the prices of natural fibers like cotton go up and down dramatically, chemical fiber sector has played an important role in the raw materials supply of textile and the smooth operation of textile industry.
   The chemical fiber downstream application mix has been gradually adjusted. In 2011 the output of textiles for industrial use reached 9.102 million tons in the country, up 10.8% year-on-year, and accounting for 21.1% of the total fiber processing volume. The proportion of fibers consumed by clothing, household products and industrial products was adjusted to 50:29:21 in 2011 from 56:28:16 in 2002, and the achievements have been constantly made in the industrial structure adjustment.
   During the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2000 - 2005) and the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006 - 2010), the investments in textile industry were mainly concentrated in the eastern coastal areas with developed textile industry. The amount of the contracted foreign capital used in the textile industry of Zhejiang province, Jiangsu province, Shandong province, Fujian province, Guangdong province and Shanghai, etc. accounted for more than 90% of the total in domestic textile industry. However, in China's central and western regions, the development of textile industry was relatively slow and the output proportion of major textiles in the national total was relatively low. In particular, the output of chemical fibers in China's central and western regions accounted for 3.84% and 2.49% of the national total, respectively in 2008. The industrial regional pattern in China presented the imbalanced situation of being developed in eastern regions and backward in central and western regions. Entering the 12th Five-Year Plan term (2011-2015), the development of textile industry has continually been transferred from eastern coastal areas to the central and western regions. In 2011 the domestic textile industry’s investment in fixed assets (projects with an investment of over RMB5.0 million) totaled RMB679.91 billion, up 36.3% year-on-year. Of which, the proportion of eastern region’s new investments in the sector’s total investment reduced from 61% in 2010 to 56.1% in 2011, while the new investments in the central and western regions accounted for 31.7% and 7.9% of the total, respectively, up 4.1 and 0.7 percentage points over 2010. Industrial regional distribution has been optimized constantly.

4. Rapid development of high-tech fibers as well as the equipment

As of 2011, China had realized the industrial production of high-tech fibers (including meta-aramid 1313, carbon fibers, polyphenylene sulfide, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fibers and continuous basalt fiber, etc.) as well as biomass fibers like bamboo pulp fibers and hemp pulp fibers, etc.  The series varieties are being further developed, the application field is being expanded, and the majority of technologies and products have reached the international advanced level. The development of para-aramid 1414 and new solvent-process cellulose fibers already has achieved initial results, filling up the domestic blank. China has made a breakthrough in the pilot test for the synthesis of new-type polyester polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT), and the fiber grade polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) polymerization and fiber production processing as well as product development have developed toward industrialization.
   In recent years, high-tech fiber material has become the development focus in chemical fiber sector. High-tech fiber materials, which include the industrial chain series varieties such as high performance fibers and new-type fibers, are the key materials relating to the national defense construction and national economic development and supporting the national high-tech industrial development. New-type biomass materials technology is an important guarantee for dealing with the gradually exhausted petroleum resource and realizing the sustainable development of textile industry. Functional and differential fiber has become the inevitable choice of high-grade textile fabrics, an important mean for strengthening the competitiveness of textiles, and also an inevitable choice to meet the market demand. The improvement of fiber’s differential and functional rate has become the key to improve the competitive advantages of textiles.
   In the past ten years, China also made a breakthrough in the development for technology and equipment of chemical fibers. Prior to 1999, the development of China’s chemical fiber sector was mainly through importing complete sets of technology and equipment from developed countries such as Germany, Italy and Japan. By 2005, in the newly added polyester capacity, 75% used China-made technology and 25% used the imported technology. However, in the use of imported technology, there was still 60%-70% of capacity adopting China-made equipment.
   During the term of 2000-2005, China’s chemical fiber sector further integrated innovation, and focused on developing technology, equipment and engineering with independent intellectual property rights during 2006-2010. China-made technology and equipment of new polyester as well as matching filament fibers and staple fibers with the international competitiveness feature large capacity, high starting point and low cost, have been widely used in the sector, and are completely upgrading toward the new technology of a new generation direct spinning polyester with ultra large scale, flexibility, precision, and energy-saving and emission-reduction. The scale of a complete set of equipment has expanded from the original imported 60 thousand t/a to 400 thousand t/a. The complete sets of China-made new megaton-level PTA (purified terephthalic acid) technology and equipment have been developed successfully. The 45 thousand t/a viscose staple fiber engineering system integration technology with the independent research and development has the largest single-line capacity in the world and the lowest raw material consumption, reaching the international advanced level.
   The technology and equipment show that the single-line capacity of the units expands rapidly, the investment reduced drastically, the unit comprehensive energy consumption decreases apparently, the product processing cost greatly reduced, and the ability for the development and application of China-made equipment improves significantly. China-made technology and equipment have greatly reduced the investment of the new projects, significantly improved the production efficiency and effectively promoted the rapid development of chemical fiber sector.
Table 1 China’s Output of Chemical Fibers (million tons)
Year    Output    Growth (%)
2002    9.912    17.8
2003    11.812    19.2
2004    16.998    43.9
2005    16.648    -2.1
2006    20.732    24.5
2007    24.138    16.4
2008    24.533    1.6
2009    27.473    12.0
2010    30.897    12.5
2011    33.624    8.8
Source: the National Bureau of Statistics of China