Expansion of Coal-based Polyethylene Team

In recent years, the domestic coal-based polyolefin industry has achieved rapid development, and has become a new bright spot in the olefin industry. As far as polyethylene is concerned, since 2014, the capacity expansion of coal (methanol) olefin plant has been concentrated, resulting in the continuous increase of polyethylene production capacity. Coal chemical plants have been put into operation for five consecutive years from 2014 to 2018, with coal production capacity increasing by 4.24 million tons. Due to the abundant coal resources in the central and western regions and the convenience of local material acquisition, domestic coal chemical enterprises are mostly concentrated in the central and Western regions. As of March 2019, the total domestic polyethylene production capacity reached 18.44 million tons, of which the domestic coal-based polyethylene production capacity reached 454, accounting for 24.6% of the total domestic polyethylene production capacity.

Production Plan of New Polyethylene Plant in 2019

According to statistics, there are 8 PE units planned to be put into operation in China in 2019, involving a capacity of 3.68 million tons per year. The production units are mainly concentrated in LLDPE/HDPE varieties. From the source of raw materials, coal production capacity is still the main force of capacity expansion, accounting for 41.6% of the total capacity, oil production capacity accounted for 31.2%, LPG accounted for 27.2%. At present, Inner Mongolia Jiutai Co., Ltd. 600,000 tons of coal to olefin project on March 20 upstream MTO plant trial run, full density device follow the test run, has not yet produced products, is expected to open in mid-April.

Coal chemical enterprises usually adopt the marketing mode of combining online bidding and offline planning. In terms of production, coal chemical enterprises generally adopt extensive production scheduling, once the production cycle is generally longer, the output is large, which has a greater impact on the market supply. In recent years, coal chemical enterprises have made breakthroughs in research and development of technology, equipment and catalysts. New brands of coal-based polyolefins have emerged in endlessly. With the continuous enrichment of coal chemical products, the market share of coal-based olefins products has further increased. Generally speaking, the production capacity of coal-based polyethylene enterprises will continue to increase in the later period, and the impact on the market can not be underestimated.