The in-depth development direction of the chemical industry and its far-reaching significance and impact?

In recent years, as China's economy continues to grow at a rapid pace, the output of various major products in China's chemical industry has maintained a rapid and steady upward trend, but it is still far from meeting the strong growth of domestic market demand. Data show that China's petroleum and chemical industry has entered the peak period of this rising cycle. How much room does China's chemical industry have for subsequent growth? At the 13th China Chemical Industry International Symposium held in Shanghai recently, operators and researchers in the chemical industry at home and abroad judged that multiple pressures from resources, environment, exports, etc. have made China’s chemical industry face severe challenges, but the development trend Nothing has changed, and the prospects for the foreseeable future remain promising. The size of the subsequent development space depends on the integration and innovation of China's chemical industry, as well as the ability to comply with international trends, go abroad to participate in mergers and acquisitions of multinational companies, and find breakthrough points for industrial development.

Four major constraints in high growth cycles. In recent years, my country's petroleum and chemical industry has formed an industrial system with a complete range of categories and is basically adapted to the development of the national economy. China has become a veritable major chemical production and consumer country. Statistics show that in 2006, the total output value of my country's petrochemical industry reached 4.2 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.7%; the industrial added value was 1.2 trillion yuan, an increase of 23.6%; and the realized profit was 437.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.3%. The output of major chemical products such as ethylene, coatings, viscose fiber, and chemical pesticide raw materials all increased by more than 20%. Among them, chemical raw materials had the highest year-on-year growth of 28.8%. However, driven by strong market demand, the development of China's petrochemical industry is far from meeting the current huge domestic market demand, and the import growth rate of petrochemical products is also rising. In 2006, my country's chemical import and export trade totaled US$203.612 billion, a year-on-year increase of 20.7%. However, the import growth rate of 23.3% was much higher than the export growth rate of 16.9%. The cumulative deficit was US$113.072 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13.8 percentage points.

In 2007, the investment and output value of China's chemical industry remained at a high growth stage. Market participants believe that factors such as continued expansion of market demand, continuous improvement of the institutional environment, continued comparative advantages, abundant funds for industrial development, significant improvements in basic conditions, and a more open Chinese economy will support China's petroleum and chemical industry and there is still huge room for development. But at the same time, China's chemical industry is also facing a series of new challenges: First, domestic resources are tight, resulting in increased production costs and certain constraints on the industry. In particular, rising oil prices have led to rising manufacturing costs in the industry; water resources have become increasingly scarce. Secondly, the environmental pressure faced by the petrochemical industry continues to increase. Third, due to the increasing number of foreign anti-dumping measures against Chinese products, coupled with factors such as the substantial reduction in export tax rebates and the continued appreciation of the RMB, the export environment for my country's petrochemical products has become increasingly severe. The EU REACH regulations were implemented on June 11, 2007. Currently, they have strictly controlled the export of more than 1,200 Chinese chemical products, and set up cumbersome export procedures, technological barriers, etc., making it increasingly difficult for China to export chemical products to the EU. . Fourth, compared with developed countries, there is still a big gap in my country's petrochemical industry: there are many companies, small scale and scattered; product technology content and added value are low, innovation capabilities are insufficient, and there are fewer scientific and technological achievements with independent intellectual property rights; international The degree of centralized management is low.

--Factors promoting the sustainable development of China's chemical industry. In recent years, after a lot of practice and exploration, China's chemical industry has initially formed the prototype of sustainable development, which is mainly reflected in the following aspects: First, the domestic chemical industry has formed a new development concept, and many companies have proposed corporate social responsibilities. concept, and include reducing pollutant emissions and achieving coordination between industrial development and environmental protection as corporate development goals. Sinopec, Sinochem International, Shanghai Huayi and other leading companies in the domestic petrochemical industry have begun to implement the "Responsible Care" system. For example, Shanghai Huayi proactively promises to integrate safety, health, and environmental protection into every production and operation practice, and achieve "green development" of chemical production through circular economy. From 2003 to 2006, Huayi invested nearly 1.2 billion yuan as special funds for environmental protection.

It is planned that by 2008, Huayi's main pollution emissions will be significantly reduced compared to 2000. Wastewater will drop from 110 million tons to 25 million tons per year, a drop of 77%; carbon dioxide emissions will drop from 10,300 tons to 1,050 tons per year, a drop of 90 %; the annual emissions of waste gas dropped from 20.5 billion cubic meters to 14 billion cubic meters, a decrease of 68%.

Secondly, the industrial layout is accelerating agglomeration. According to statistics, nearly 600 chemical industrial parks have been established in my country, and there are more than 60 chemical industrial parks under construction. The construction of these chemical industry parks provides a strong guarantee for the professional development of China's chemical industry and is an effective way to achieve sustainable development of the industry. In the past 10 years, Shanghai Chemical Industry Zone has broken the tradition of decentralized infrastructure configuration for each household and gradually realized integrated development and circular economy. There are chemical production facilities built by dozens of large enterprises such as Huayi, BP, BASF, Bayer, Sinopec, Degussa, and Dow in the industrial zone. The integrated function of the park is gradually coming into play, and the synergy effect of agglomeration has initially emerged. Third, based on my country's energy status of "more coal, less gas, and lack of oil", coal-based chemical industry is constantly developing. China's coal resource reserves reach 1 trillion tons, with proven recoverable reserves of nearly 200 billion tons and a recoverable life of nearly 100 years. The development of coal-based chemistry using coal as raw material is accelerating in China. Shanghai Huayi is an early domestic enterprise that entered the field of coal-based chemicals. It has many large-scale and advanced coal gasifiers and has now built the largest coal-based methanol production unit in China. It is expected that by 2010, it will have nearly 1 million tons per year. Methanol production capacity; at the same time, it has also developed dimethyl ether manufacturing technology, and is conducting research in cutting-edge fields of coal-based chemicals such as MTP. Fourth, technological innovation continues to accelerate. China's petrochemical industry is moving towards the goal of sustainable development through innovation, accelerating technology development, adopting clean processes and deep processing. Advanced processes such as oxo synthesis technology, acrylic acid complete process technology, and bulk polymerization ABS technology have been successfully developed. Some large enterprises have significantly increased their R&D investment. For example, Shanghai Huayi Group invested RMB 490 million in technology development in 2006, accounting for more than 10% of sales revenue.

Three paths for the breakthrough development of China’s chemical industry. Participants at the 13th China Chemical Industry International Symposium believed that in order for China's chemical industry to achieve breakthrough development, it should face the following paths: First, respond to environmental protection policies head-on and follow the path of cleaner production. From the promulgation of the Environmental Impact Assessment Law and the Cleaner Production Promotion Law in 2002 to the recent review of the Circular Economy Law by the National People's Congress, my country has paid more and more attention to the impact of industrial production on the environment. The legislative direction of national environmental protection has shifted from pollution control to the sustainable use of the environment and resources. The "Circular Economy Law" that is currently under review will further promote the recycling of resources throughout society, with the chemical industry bearing the brunt. A series of important decisions such as the "State Council's Decision on Implementing the Scientific Outlook on Development and Strengthening Environmental Protection" recently issued by the country have a huge impact on the chemical industry. According to the "Interim Provisions on Promoting Industrial Structural Adjustment" issued in recent years, the investment direction of governments at all levels will be adjusted to encourage and support the development of advanced production capabilities and limit and eliminate backward production capabilities.

According to this regulation, 27 chemical projects such as large-scale ethylene construction are included in the encouraged development category; 41 categories of chemical products and production equipment such as those with an annual output of less than 100,000 tons and DMT polyester equipment are listed into the restricted category; 29 categories of chemical products, processes, and devices such as dry granulation carbon black production equipment with an annual output of 10,000 tons and below are included in the elimination category; those whose quality is lower than the minimum standards stipulated by the state or the industry, and whose energy consumption is large products will be phased out within a time limit. It can be seen that if China's chemical industry wants to achieve further breakthroughs on the road to sustainable development, it must pay attention to the country's environmental protection policies, develop advanced production capacity, follow the recycling route, and pursue cleaner production. The second is to accelerate industrial integration. Industry insiders believe that China's chemical industry needs to change the structure of the industry through the integration of internal resources and move towards an industry pattern with free flow of resources and integrated allocation. On the one hand, we eliminate backward processes and equipment within the industry to improve the competitiveness of the industry; on the other hand, we create a group of leading companies with significant influence through industry integration. At the same time, through internal integration of industries, the resource advantages of eastern and western China can be complemented. The third is to try cross-border mergers and acquisitions. The merger and reorganization of multinational companies and the integration of upstream and downstream production equipment have become the mainstream of the development of the global chemical industry.

In the current international industrial landscape, petrochemical companies in developed countries have promoted intensive operations and upstream and downstream integration through continuous mergers and reorganizations, forming a large number of very large multinational groups, exacerbating technology monopoly and market competition. compete. Integration can optimize raw material costs, reduce transportation and terminal sales costs, improve device utilization, and increase revenue. In the future, integrated chemical companies and chemical companies with low-cost raw materials will dominate the industry.

Therefore, in addition to paying attention to the country's environmental protection policies and following the trend to implement sustainable development strategies, China's chemical industry must also actively take the road of "going out", participate in competition, and form international competitive advantages. China National Chemical Corporation has successfully completed three overseas mergers and acquisitions in recent years, providing useful inspiration for Chinese chemical companies to “go global”. In addition to obvious economic benefits, overseas mergers and acquisitions have also enabled Sinochem Group to have a globally competitive industrial base and market share, gain a platform for technology introduction, digestion, absorption and re-innovation, and comprehensively improve its technological level. Currently, the strategic adjustments of multinational companies have created conditions for Chinese chemical companies to acquire high-quality overseas companies, but the improvement of Chinese companies' own strength is the basis for overseas mergers and acquisitions.