The Development Trend of PVC Industry and Its Impact on the Plastic Pipeline Industry

In recent years, there have been some changes in the development of the PVC industry. Since 2014, there has been a turning point in the development of the industry. In 2016, the PVC industry in China withdrew a total of 1.11 million tons of production capacity, with calcium carbide process accounting for about 80% and ethylene process accounting for about 20%; Among the newly increased production capacity of 890000 tons, the ethylene process accounts for about 50%. At the same time, domestic and foreign policy environments, shale gas technology in the United States, and the restructuring and transformation methods of the industry all affect the development of the PVC industry. For example, the Minamata Convention on Mercury and the Notice of the General Office of the State Council Forwarding the Guiding Opinions of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Other Departments on Strengthening the Prevention and Control of Heavy Metal Pollution list lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, and metal like arsenic as key heavy metal pollutants for prevention and control; Shale gas in the United States is undergoing large-scale basic investment, resulting in a significant decrease in electricity prices and ethylene costs (but PVC prices exported to Asia are priced according to market trends); The PVC industry in China is adjusting and optimizing its product structure, continuously improving the quality of PVC, and moving towards the fields of differentiation, high-end, specialization, and serialization.

From the perspective of industry development in the short term, the import and export of PVC products have a certain impact on the price of plastic pipelines; In the long run, measures taken by PVC resin production enterprises in fulfilling environmental protection obligations, such as purchasing equipment with high investment and limiting product mining after fulfilling relevant conventions, will all lead to increased product costs and will inevitably have an impact on the production cost of plastic pipeline products.

From the perspective of the marketing model of the PVC industry, the changes from spot trading to futures trading and the changes in the competition pattern between industries will make PVC enterprises pay more attention to investment in product and technological innovation, and will also increase the production cost of plastic pipeline products to a certain extent.

At the same time, PVC production enterprises have conducted a series of research and development and related work on raw materials used in the plastic pipeline industry, which will to some extent reduce the production costs of plastic pipeline enterprises, such as the research and development of high thermal stability PVC resin, CPVC, high apparent density PVC resin, high impact PVC resin and other products.

In the future, we hope to further improve the quality and performance of our products through the PVC industry, develop new varieties, and form serialized and specialized resin products to meet the performance requirements of plastic pipeline products in different fields such as energy conservation and environmental protection, fire prevention, bacteria prevention, insulation, oxygen resistance, reinforcement, earthquake resistance, and noise reduction. We also hope to strengthen cooperation and exchange between PVC enterprises and plastic pipeline enterprises; Through various modification methods to improve the comprehensive performance of PVC pipes, establish a communication platform, promote independent innovation and technical services of PVC production enterprises, jointly promote technological progress in the production of related plastic pipe products, and improve competitiveness. I hope to fully leverage the bridging role of the China Plastics Association Plastic Pipeline Special Committee and the China Chloroalkali Industry Association, further strengthen cooperation and exchange, strive to expand the application fields of PVC resin and related plastic pipeline products, expand market share, and achieve win-win development.