On June 15-17, the 2023 China Synthetic Resin New Materials Industry Development Conference and Exhibition was held in Wuxi, Jiangsu. The meeting pointed out that the synthetic resin industry is currently in a changing situation of changing international market competition rules and accelerating the transformation and upgrading of the domestic petroleum and chemical industries, while also facing the challenge of weak demand growth combined with overcapacity. In order to achieve healthy and sustainable development, the industry should build on the existing industry chain, concentrate efforts on research and development, supplement weaknesses, forge strengths, improve quality, and create brands, and start a new era of high-quality development in the changing situation.
Zhao Jungui, Vice President and Secretary General of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, pointed out that synthetic resins, as an important field in the petroleum and chemical industry, are facing changes from both international and domestic perspectives. Internationally, China has transformed from a backward importing country to the world's largest chemical producer, which has greatly changed the competitive landscape of the world petroleum and chemical markets. China has transformed from a former partner to a competitor suppressed by lockdowns, business competition has become a competition for rules, and market competition has become a competition for the track. On the domestic side, the market has increasingly high requirements for raw material specialization, material functionalization, functional compounding, product greening, process low-carbon, and production intelligence. The changes in energy and raw material structure are breeding a new track for chemical new materials.
At the same time, the domestic synthetic resin industry is also facing pressure from weak demand growth and overcapacity. According to Yang Xianghong, an expert from the Expert Committee of the International Production Capacity Cooperation Alliance in the Chinese Petroleum and Chemical Industry, in recent years, there has been a huge investment boom in the synthetic resin industry. The production capacity of ABS, PC, PS, epoxy resin and other products has doubled, and many enterprises have had to face price wars and rapid declines in profits at the same time.
How can the synthetic resin industry find new opportunities for development in the context of changes and severe overcapacity?
Zhao Jungui suggests that firstly, we should focus on market advantages and forge a long board, fully leverage the advantages of China's large synthetic resin market, further optimize, strengthen, and refine, and enhance the international influence and discourse power of the industry; Secondly, we need to extend the industrial chain to address weaknesses, continuously enrich product varieties by strengthening technological innovation and research and development, in order to meet the new needs of downstream customers for industrial upgrading; Thirdly, we need to shape new advantages, expand new tracks, and cultivate new economic growth points by strengthening collaborative cooperation between upstream and downstream industries in the industrial chain; Fourthly, it is necessary to exercise internal skills to prevent risks. Enterprises should not only balance cost control and research and development investment, but also vigorously improve the competitiveness of sustainable development; Fifth, we need to strengthen industry self-discipline, maintain market fairness and order, and enhance the overall profitability of the entire industry.
Only by achieving the linkage between upstream and downstream industries, academia and research, and jointly integrating energy resource advantages, technological advantages, talent advantages, and market advantages, can we jointly explore new application fields of synthetic resins. "Yuan Longhua, former deputy director of the Raw Materials Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out that in the future, the overall chemical new materials industry will show a trend of high-tech leading development. Therefore, the synthetic resin industry needs to strengthen independent innovation and break through a batch of "bottleneck" technologies in the fields of key monomers, intermediates, and fine chemical products. At the same time, it is necessary to meet the application needs of functional materials in different segmented scenarios, and to deeply implement the concept of green development and actively explore new markets.
Li Yaping, Deputy Secretary General of Wuxi Municipal People's Government, Jian Xigao, Wang Yuzhong, Academician of the CAE Member, Yang Wantai, Academician of the CAS Member, and other nine academicians attended the meeting to provide advice and suggestions for the high-quality development of the synthetic resin industry.
This meeting is hosted by the China Synthetic Resin Association. At the same time, the conference held exhibitions and 16 themed sub forums on the development of polycarbonate, polyamide, unsaturated resin, epoxy resin, biodegradable resin, special engineering plastics, and modified plastics industries.