China’s PVA products need to be high-end and differentiated Copy1
Click:0    DateTime:May.12,2023

By Liu Hongji, PetroChina Guangxi Petrochemical 

Meng Lingzhen and Wang Yuying, PetroChina Jilin Petrochemical

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) – a kind of important chemical raw material – is widely used in many industries like textiles, food, pharmaceuticals, etc. At present, most domestic PVA producers adopt calcium carbide acetylene process.

Production

Given limited new PVA projects, China’s PVA capacity has been relatively stable in recent years. There was no new capacity in 2022, with 10 main producers and a total capacity of 1.135 million t/a (see Table 1 for details).More specifically, six producers chose calcium carbide acetylene process, accounting for domestic capacity’s 67% or 760 000 t/a; three chose petroleum ethylene process, taking up 18.9% or 215 000 t/a; Sinopec Sichuan Vinylon Plant utilized natural gas acetylene process, contributing 14.1% or 160 000 t/a.

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At present, Inner Mongolia is China’s largest PVA production area, with 330 000 t/a capacity in 2022, 29.1% of the domestic total, higher than 20.3% of the second largest Ningxia, capacity of which reached 230 000 t/a in 2022. In the first half of 2022, export growth, tight supply and profits stimulated both operating rates and output of PVA enterprises, reaching 68% on average and 386 000 tons (up 12% YoY), respectively. In the second half of 2022, falling demand decreased average operating rate to 55% and output reached 312 000 tons. Table 2 shows China’s PVA capacity and output in recent years.

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Import and export

As a net PVA exporter, China increased net export volume of PVA year by year, except 2020, when the volume fell due to the coronavirus (see Table 3 for more details). In 2022, the net export volume was up 19.2% YoY to 149 000 tons.

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In 2022, China imported 46 000 tons (up 7% YoY) of PVA – mainly in the form of general trade – and mainly from Japan. Export volume for the same year was up 16.1% YoY to 195 000 tons – mainly sold to India (taking up 10.7% of the volume), Malaysia (7.3%), South Korea (7.2%), etc. Around 98% of PVA was exported through general trade. Considering factors of rising costs, China’s stricter environmental policies, some downstream industries like textile industry relocated to Southeast Asia, which will spur PVA export.

Consumption

After more than 50 years of development, China has become a large PVA producer and consumer (see Table 4 for details). In 2022, China’s main PVA consumption areas were polymerization promoters (consuming 38% of PVA), fabric stock (20%) and adhesives (13%). In addition, vinylon fiber consumed 11%, papermaking stock and coating 8%, architectural coatings 5%, and other fields 5%.

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New technologies, new products and new applications are all propelling domestic PVA industry. A number of infrastructure projects provide opportunities for PVA adhesives. Research on new PVA products is very necessary, given that: 1) electronics, papermaking, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals industries develop stably; 2) domestic demand for high-end textiles and related export both grow; 3) oil exploitation industry develops more rapidly; 4) demand for shatterproof glass used in automobile and construction areas soars.

Prices

PVA prices are greatly impacted by prices of VAC, ethylene and calcium carbide. PVA prices fell to RMB16 000-17 000/t (taking prices of PVA 1788 in East China for example) in December 2022, and tend to be stable at the beginning of 2023. Figure 1 shows more details.

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Figure 1 PVA price trend in 2022 (PVA 1788 in East China)

Technologies

Focusing on product blending and modification, domestic PVA technical research tries to expand application areas of PVA, and enable PVA to meet requirements from different fields. Anhui Wanwei Updated High-Tech Material Industry Co., Ltd.(Anhui Wanwei)developed a PVA technology, leading to PVA films with many advantages (e.g. high transparency) and better performance during thermoplastic processing. Further, related departments researched PVA modified or blended materials that are more suitable to produce 3D support materials, and applied for a number of Chinese invention patents. As for equipment improvement, Anhui Wanwei developed a set of equipment to recycle – effectively, conveniently and cheaply – liquid wastes from PVA production.

Conclusion

Currently China’s PVA industry develops soundly, with weak enterprises exiting market and industrial concentration improving. Large companies with high market shares, advanced technologies, low production costs and good profitability will play a bigger role. However, domestic PVA products are generally low-end and homogeneous, and therefore can hardly compete with foreign goods. Other problems mainly include low production efficiency, inefficient use of resources, etc. Hence, domestic PVA enterprises should invest more to research high-end and differentiated products, enrich applications, improve competitiveness, etc.