2023 China plastic pipe industry development status and trend analysis

First, plastic pipe industry development overview

1. Definition and classification

Plastic pipe refers to the general name of the pipe made of plastic material, which is one of the important branches of chemical building materials. Compared with the traditional cast iron pipe, galvanized steel pipe, cement pipe and other pipes, plastic pipes have the advantages of energy saving, environmental protection, light weight, high strength, corrosion resistance, smooth inner wall without scaling, easy construction and maintenance, long service life and so on. According to the differences in raw materials, plastic pipes can be divided into polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes, polyethylene (PE) pipes, polypropylene (PP) pipes, polybutene (PB) pipes, ABS pipes, etc., and PVC pipes, PE pipes, PP pipes are mainly used.

Comparison of the characteristics of three main plastic pipes

2. Development history

The development of plastic pipes in China has roughly experienced three stages of research and development, promotion and application and industrial development. In 2008, under the stimulus of the "four trillion" policy, the plastic pipe industry ushered in a stage of rapid growth, and China surpassed the United States to become the world's largest producer of plastic pipes. In recent years, with the slowdown of the urbanization process, the overall development has entered a stable period.

China's plastic pipe industry development stage

Second, plastic pipe industry development policy

The plastic pipe industry belongs to the industry encouraged by the state, in order to encourage and promote the development of the plastic pipe industry, the state has introduced many policies and regulations in recent years, clarified the development planning direction of the plastic pipe industry, and created a better policy environment for the development of the industry.

Third, the development status of plastic pipe industry

In the past two years, affected by the environment, coupled with raw material price fluctuations, market shocks in the application field, phased energy shortages, enterprise operating costs and other factors, the development of the plastic pipe industry has encountered greater challenges, the overall pressure forward, most enterprises are more difficult to develop, and the overall profit level is low. The total output of domestic plastic pipes in 2021 is about 16.6 million tons, an increase of about 1.5%, and the total output of the industry in 2022 is about 16.45 million tons, a decrease of 0.9%. Although the development of the industry has been a little bumpy, the overall development trend has been steady.

Fourth, plastic pipe industry chain

The upstream of the plastic pipeline industry chain is mainly PVC, PE, PP and other polymer materials and some metal materials, of which PE and PP raw materials are mainly from oil and natural gas, and PVC raw materials in China are mainly from coal; Middle reaches for pipe fittings processing industry; The downstream is the plastic pipe application market, which is mainly used in the three major fields of infrastructure, real estate and agriculture.

2. Upstream

Polyethylene resin is one of the main raw materials for plastic pipes. The capacity of China's polyethylene industry continues to expand, driving production to increase year by year. In 2022, due to the high price of crude oil, the profits of production enterprises are compressed, and some enterprises reduce load production, resulting in a slowdown in production growth compared with 2021. According to statistics, in 2022, China's polyethylene production totaled 25.32 million tons, an increase of 8.72%.

Five, plastic pipe industry competition pattern

1. Market share

At present, there are thousands of large-scale plastic pipe production enterprises in China, with an annual production capacity of more than 30 million tons, of which there are about 300 enterprises with an annual production capacity of more than 10,000 tons, and more than 20 enterprises have an annual production capacity of more than 100,000 tons, and the concentration of plastic pipe industry continues to increase, and the sales volume of the top 20 has reached more than 40% of the total industry. In 2022, the plastic pipe industry CR6 is about 32%, of which China's Lianso market share is about 15%, ranking first.

2. Key enterprises

China Lianso is a large domestic pipeline building materials industry group, the business mainly covers pipeline, building materials furniture, environmental protection, supply chain service platform, etc. The company has a wide variety of products, around the main business of pipe horizontal extension, pipe products are mainly used in the field of municipal engineering. The company's products cover various categories of building materials and furniture. In the first half of 2023, the production and sales of plastic pipe products accounted for 80% of the company's total revenue. There are many categories of plastic pipes sold, which basically include common materials in the market, of which PVC pipe accounts for about 60% of business income.

Six, the development trend of plastic pipe industry

1. Application field expansion.

The application field of plastic pipeline products has gradually expanded, not only in the traditional construction and municipal water supply and drainage, gas, heating and agriculture and other fields of application continues to increase, but also in the emerging communication, transportation, chemical, nuclear power and other application fields have also made great breakthroughs.

2. Industry concentration is improved.

In recent years, the phenomenon of two-level differentiation in the industry is more obvious, large-scale enterprises that pay attention to brands and excellent quality have stronger anti-risk ability in adversity, the survival difficulty of small enterprises has further increased, and some have even stopped production, changed production, and went bankrupt, and the industry concentration is further improved.

3, the level of intelligence is improved.

Affected by factors such as rising labor costs, industry enterprises pay more and more attention to intelligent development and digital empowerment, pay more attention to production efficiency and automation, machine replacement, remote control and other intelligent construction efforts and scale gradually expanded, not only reduce production costs, improve production efficiency, but also ensure the stability of production quality.

4, innovation ability continued to strengthen.

Due to the increasing demand in the application field and the intensification of market competition, the enthusiasm of enterprises for new product research and development continues to increase. Basic research and technology development have been further strengthened, more attention has been paid to scientific and technological achievements and new technologies, and more efforts have been made to tackle key generic technologies, cutting-edge leading technologies, and application-oriented technologies. Many enterprises have established research and development centers, accelerated the depth of industry-university-research integration, increased patented technologies, and accelerated research and development of high-performance new products and system supporting levels.