Polycarbonate (PC) Production and Market Outlook_Industrial Additives

Driven by the development of the automotive industry and the growing demand for new applications in the field of consumer electronics, the world’s demand for polycarbonate (PC) has grown steadily, and China has become the largest consumer of polycarbonate. However, my country’s polycarbonate production technology is still in its infancy, and its products are mainly currency-based. It is urgent to further enhance its competitiveness in the field of high value-added products.

Polycarbonate (PC) production and market outlook Production focus shifts to Asia

The world’s polycarbonate production capacity has developed steadily in recent years. As of August 2016, the global annual polycarbonate production capacity was 4.921 million tons, with production equipment mainly concentrated in Northeast Asia, North America and Western Europe. In 2016, the total annual production capacity of these three regions reached 3.991 million tons, accounting for 81.1% of the world’s total production capacity.

The industrial production methods of polycarbonate currently include three synthesis processes: interfacial polycondensation, melt transesterification polycondensation, and non-phosgene melt transesterification polycondensation. The first two types are also called “phosgene method”, and the latter two types are also called “phosgene method”. One type is the “non-phosgene method”. In terms of global production capacity, nearly 80% of production capacity uses the phosgene method. Although non-phosgene production capacity accounts for less than 20%, it will become the development direction of polycarbonate production technology in the future.

The non-phosgene method is an environmentally friendly production process that fundamentally gets rid of the toxic raw material phosgene; during the production process, phenol can be recycled for the preparation of diphenyl carbonate, reducing production costs; no drying and washing are required. The investment is reduced and the by-products are less; the product has higher purity, good optical properties and high transparency.

Currently, the growth in demand in Asia has driven the rapid growth of the world’s polycarbonate production capacity, and the focus of production has shifted to Asia, especially developing countries such as China. As of August 2016, my country’s annual polycarbonate production capacity reached 870,000 tons, surpassing the United States to become the world’s largest polycarbonate producer. Similar to the process structure of the world’s total production capacity, my country’s phosgene polycarbonate production capacity accounts for 80% of the country’s total production capacity.

In the next few years, many companies around the world are still planning to build or expand polycarbonate production facilities for thienopyridine. It is estimated that by 2020, the world’s annual polycarbonate production capacity will reach 5.6 million tons. Asia, especially Northeast Asia, is the world’s main polycarbonate production base. Polycarbonate in the world is mainly used in film/sheet, automobile, electronic/electrical, appliance/household products and other fields.

It is expected that world polycarbonate consumption will grow at an average annual rate of 2.9% from 2015 to 2020, with total consumption reaching 4.6 million tons by 2020. In addition to optical media consumption decreasing at an average annual rate of 4.4%, consumption in other areas has increased to varying degrees. The fastest-growing sector is the electronics/electrical sector, where consumption is expected to grow at an average annual growth rate of 4.8%, followed by consumption in the electrical/household supplies sector with an average annual growth rate of 4.6%.

Polycarbonate (PC) production and market outlook Asian production capacity looks at China

The world’s production capacity depends on Asia, and Asia’s production capacity depends on China. Based on my country’s strong polycarbonate market demand, the Chinese market has become a battleground for international polycarbonate giants. Transnational companies such as the Original German Import Company and Saudi Basic Industries Innovation Plastics Company have accelerated the pace of building projects in our country.

In the next few years, my country will plan to build multiple polycarbonate plants. SABIC, the parent company of SABIC, is a joint venture with Sinopec to build a new 260,000-ton/year polycarbonate plant using non-phosgene polycarbonate manufacturing technology. It mainly produces mixed-grade, extruded There are four major categories of polycarbonate products: grade, optical grade and molding grade. Lingyou Engineering Plastics (Shanghai) Company plans to expand its plant capacity in the Shanghai Industrial Park to 200,000 tons/year; Japan’s Teijin plans to expand its polycarbonate plant capacity in Jiaxing, Zhejiang to 230,000 tons/year; Sinopec Mitsubishi Chemical Polycarbonate (Beijing) Co., Ltd. plans to expand the production capacity of its existing equipment to 78,000 tons/year.

Not only foreign capital and joint ventures are taking action, domestic companies are also planning to build new production facilities. Qingdao Hengyuan Chemical Company of Yangmei Group plans to build a new 100,000 tons/year production unit in Yantai.Huahua Polyurethane Company plans to build a new 100,000-ton/year production unit, Shandong Lihuayi Group plans to build a 100,000-ton/year production unit, Fujian Global United Chemical Company plans to build a 130,000-ton/year production unit, and Quanzhou Ganghe Chemical Company plans to build a new 100,000-ton/year production unit. 100,000 tons/year polycarbonate project, etc. If these devices can be implemented as planned, it is expected that my country’s annual polycarbonate production capacity will reach 1.6 million tons by 2020.

my country’s domestic supply of polycarbonate will increase significantly, while imports are showing a downward trend. However, due to my country’s lack of independent mature technology support, new device products will still be dominated by mid-to-low-end materials, and if the product is difficult to stabilize in the short term production, it is difficult to quickly and effectively replace imported materials. Therefore, in the future, my country will still need to import a certain amount of polycarbonate products to meet domestic demand, especially high-performance polycarbonate products.

In terms of the technology used, although the non-phosgene method is a green process that meets environmental requirements, has low investment, low operating costs, and high product quality, it is the future development direction. However, since the current technology holders do not easily transfer the technology to the outside world, the improved phosgene method will still be the main production method of polycarbonate for a period of time in the future. Although other new technologies, such as the direct synthesis of polycarbonate by bisphenol A oxidative carbonylation, have many advantages, they are still far away from industrial production.

At present, although my country has researched and developed some polycarbonate production technologies, such as Zhejiang Dacheng Company’s domestically produced industrial production equipment has been completed and put into production, these technologies are still in their infancy, and large-scale application still needs time to be tested. Therefore, in the short term, my country’s polycarbonate production technology will still be mainly imported.

Polycarbonate (PC) Production and Market Outlook Improving technical level is the core

Although the production capacity and consumption of polycarbonate in my country continue to increase, the products are generally basic materials and are mainly used in packaging and film/sheets. The application scope is relatively narrow and the profit is low. However, it is used in automobiles and home appliances. High value-added products such as alloy modification and plastic modification in the fields of electronic products and electronic products rely on joint ventures such as German original imports and Teijin. my country’s polycarbonate industry lacks independent core technologies. Most of the existing companies that synthesize fluorophlogopite are wholly foreign-owned, and most of the devices to be launched are Sino-foreign joint ventures. The lack of independent core technologies restricts the development of the industry. Domestic production enterprises need to increase independent research and development of domestic production technologies while introducing mature foreign technologies. Manufacturing companies need to cooperate with downstream manufacturers or related R&D centers to develop new demand areas.

At present, my country’s polycarbonate industry is still in short supply and requires a large amount of imports every year. In the next few years, although there will be many new polycarbonate production projects in my country and domestic supply capacity will be greatly enhanced, it will still be unable to meet demand. Therefore, we should continue to accelerate cooperation with large foreign companies and build several large-scale polycarbonate production units to fundamentally eliminate the contradiction between supply and demand in our country and ensure the healthy and steady development of related industries. Since the main raw material for the synthesis of polycarbonate is bisphenol A, it is best to build a device for the raw material bisphenol A to maximize benefits and enhance the ability to withstand market risks.

Although the non-phosgene method is the future development direction, since the phosgene method is still the main production method of polycarbonate at present, the phosgene method will still exist for a certain period of time, and the phosgene method should be continuously strengthened in the future. Improvement and innovative development of technology to reduce environmental pollution and extend the service life of equipment, improve product quality, and make it more environmentally friendly and economical. Regarding the non-phosgene method, the process route using carbon dioxide as raw material can make full use of the carbon dioxide resources that produce the greenhouse effect. The process is green and environmentally friendly, and the resulting product is of good quality, which should be paid attention to.

Information source: China Petrochemical News