At present, the international oil price is running at a low level, the domestic coal to glycol industry is generally in a loss state, and the industry has entered a stage of deep adjustment and shuffling.
Wang Xiujiang, Deputy Secretary General of coal chemical industry professional committee of China Federation of petroleum and chemical industries, told reporters that the fall in oil price has a great impact on domestic coal to ethylene glycol. In addition to the impact of foreign low-cost ethylene glycol imports, a large number of domestic coal to ethylene glycol enterprises are basically in a loss state at present.
Zhou Wei, deputy chief engineer and director of R & D center of Donghua Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., said that the transaction price of glycol in East China last week was less than 4000 yuan / ton. Among them, on March 18, the average spot transaction price in East China was even 3695 yuan / ton, which was inevitable for the industry to shuffle. &"The cost of glycol in most coal enterprises in Henan, Shaanxi and Shanxi is about 5000 yuan / ton, while the price is only 4500 yuan / ton. Most enterprises are below the break even point. Now many enterprises have to stop production, reduce production and repair. &Yao Yuangen, director of the research center of Yinghua, Fujian Institute of material structure, Chinese Academy of Sciences and general manager of Guizhou Xinchun Energy Technology Development Co., Ltd., said.
Yao Yuangen pointed out that the market capacity of glycol is second only to ethylene and propylene. In 2018, the apparent consumption in China has exceeded 13 million tons, the demand gap is about 8 million tons, and the long-term dependence on imports is more than 60%. Compared with the oil route, the coal based route has a more obvious cost advantage than the oil route when the oil price is between 50-60 US dollars.
However, as we all know, the current price of glycol futures and spot market both fell below 4000 yuan / ton, resulting in the loss of most domestic coal-based glycol units, while the domestic oil head glycol ushered in a favorable situation and increased its competitiveness.
In this regard, Jia Yinggui, marketing manager of Shanghai Pujing Chemical Technology Co., Ltd., analyzed that China is the main consumption area of polyester in terms of demand. With the continuous improvement of the return to work rate, demand has been boosted; However, due to the global spread of the epidemic, the export volume of ready-made clothing and other terminals may decline, and by the end of 2020, there will be about 5 million tons of new ethylene glycol capacity in China. The growth rate of ethylene glycol capacity has exceeded that of polyester, especially the trend of refining and chemical integration, which has reduced the demand of downstream foreign procurement of ethylene glycol, resulting in the loss of coal-based ethylene glycol in 2020 will continue to increase.
In this regard, Wang Xiujiang suggested that we should guide and standardize the access of coal to glycol industry, improve and strengthen the construction of standard system.
Yao Yuangen suggested that at present, four aspects of work should be done well: first, pay close attention to the cost of raw materials; second, seriously tap the technical potential; third, reduce the consumption of power steam; fourth, actively carry out joint research on product quality, improve the UV transmittance of products, and improve the application of coal to ethylene glycol in the downstream.
In addition, industry insiders suggest that enterprises should actively make a good layout of high-end fine chemicals downstream of glycol to improve the added value of products. At the same time, the State shall implement quota management for imported glycol to protect the interests of domestic enterprises.