Analysis of current situation and prospect of new chemical materials industry in 2023

Analysis of the development status of China's advanced chemical materials industry

In view of the development of China's advanced chemical materials, the relevant departments have conducted in-depth research, and the results found that only in more than 30 large-scale backbone enterprises required for the production of 130 kinds of key materials, 32% of the domestic blank, 54% of the performance guarantee ability is poor, only 14% can be completely self-sufficient.

The development of foreign advanced chemical materials is ahead of the domestic as a whole, and even has formed an absolute advantage in individual subdivisions. First of all, the development of foreign advanced chemical materials focuses on system coordination, industrial chain supporting, innovation and industry integration, and more original technical solutions. Secondly, foreign advanced chemical materials pay attention to the protection of intellectual property rights, and are good at using intellectual property strategies to form reasonable product development programs, so as to maintain long-term leading advantages. Third, the development of foreign advanced chemical materials is closely integrated with the upstream and downstream industries, which is conducive to promoting the implementation of overall technical solutions. If the domestic advanced chemical materials do not have a competitive advantage, then the high-end manufacturing industry can not be long-term and stable development, which will seriously affect the transformation and upgrading of China's industry, especially the protection and improvement of the development level of the national defense industry. As an important representative of advanced chemical materials, the current situation of "low-end surplus, mid-end acceptable, high-end shortage" in China is particularly prominent, although great progress has been made in recent years, but in the field of high-end products is still lagging behind. In terms of high-end materials such as high-performance polyolefin, fluorine-containing polymer materials, polyimide, carbon fiber and resin, the gap between China and the international advanced level is still obvious.

1. Production of new chemical materials

With the development of science and technology, the application field of new materials is increasing day by day, in addition to being widely used in high-tech fields such as aerospace, it can also be used in sporting goods, textile machinery, medical equipment, biological engineering, building materials, chemical machinery, transportation vehicles and other aspects. With the continuous expansion of the application field of new chemical materials, the output of new chemical materials continues to rise, and the output of new chemical materials in China will reach 33.23 million tons by 2022, an increase of 12.07%.

2. Sales of new chemical materials

With the continuous expansion of the application field of new chemical materials, the consumption of new chemical materials continues to rise. According to the data, the sales volume of new chemical materials in China from 2016 to 2022 shows a rising trend, and the sales volume of new chemical materials in China in 2022 reached 41.36 million tons, an increase of 2.09%. In 2022, the domestic consumption of new chemical materials is about 8 million tons higher than the output, which proves that there is still a lot of room for growth in domestic new material production.

3. Competition pattern of China's new chemical materials industry

(1) Market echelons

After years of development, in China's new chemical materials industry, has gradually formed a foreign enterprises, state-owned enterprises and private enterprises as the main body of the enterprise pattern, the difference between different levels of enterprises is large, first of all, BASF, Wanhua Chemical and Huafeng Chemical and other foreign and domestic large enterprises ranked in the first market echelon. With the advantages of production equipment, technical level and experience base, it occupies a leading position in the industry; Secondly, state-owned enterprises such as Juhua Group and Xinhecheng and large private enterprises are located in the second market echelon, with a certain scale of installation scale and technology and talent accumulation; Finally, other domestic small and medium-sized private enterprises with low technical level rank in the third market echelon.

(2) Number of enterprises

Data show that in recent years, the number of newly registered enterprises in China's chemical new materials continues to grow, as of the end of April 2023, the number of domestic chemical new materials related registered enterprises has exceeded 30,000, and the number of newly registered enterprises in 2022 is the largest, reaching about 6,300, an increase of about 2,000 over the same period last year. The number of newly registered chemical new materials enterprises was about 3,000, showing an increase in the same period of last year.

(3) Province distribution

From the perspective of regional pattern, the current Chinese chemical new materials enterprises are mostly concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and other regions and provinces, as of the end of April 2023, Shandong, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces, the number of chemical new materials related enterprises ranked the top three, the number of enterprises accounted for about 15%, 14% and 11%, respectively. In addition, the number of new chemical materials enterprises in other provinces accounted for about 60% of the proportion in the same period.

4. The development advantages and strategies of large international chemical new materials companies are the key

In recent years, the development of the global chemical new materials industry as a whole has entered a stage of high-tech leadership, rapid product iteration, and continuous expansion of industrial scale and demand. From a global point of view, the United States, Japan, Europe and other countries and regions are leading the development of new materials. International companies such as Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil, BASF and Mitsubishi Chemical have the advantage in terms of core technology and market share. As one of China's emerging strategic industries, new materials still have a large room for improvement under the requirements of high-quality development.

The reason why Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil, BASF and other international large companies can become the leader of the global chemical new materials industry is that the key lies in the surprising new materials business strategy, which includes the following aspects.

First, the raw material cost is relatively low and the whole life cycle evaluation is carried out. Dow Chemical and ExxonMobil give full play to the advantages of ethane raw material resources in North America to reduce the production cost of basic chemical raw materials such as ethylene and downstream new materials; At the same time, the whole life cycle of new materials such as raw material source, synthesis process, processing design, use process, waste recovery, recycling is evaluated, and green and low-carbon technologies are integrated into it to provide customers with leading sustainable development solutions for new chemical materials.

The second is to maintain technology leadership and full chain service strategy. Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil, BASF, Mitsubishi Chemical can continue to strengthen research and development innovation in their own areas of advantage, form representative technologies with international competitiveness, and maintain a leading position in the world. Through the establishment of the polyolefin business packaging master network, polyurethane business comfort science and technology laboratory and automotive materials business platform, Dow Chemical works closely with scientists, brands, processors and packaging designers around the world to link the entire packaging value chain, providing customers with a total solution from product production, processing and application to technical services.

The third is to pay attention to the full series of products, branding. Major companies generally attach importance to the development of new materials with different properties and uses, form a rich portfolio of differentiated products, build product brands, and constantly expand market share. Basf brings together more than 400 of its polyamide products (nylon) in Ultramid? Under the brand, we can provide users with a full range of nylon resin and its modified products, and become the main supplier of high-end nylon products in the world. The company is dedicated to tailor-made system solutions or functional materials for users and brings more than 300 new products to market each year.

Fourth, the industrial chain collaborative innovation strategy. Major international companies attach great importance to the collaborative innovation of the whole industry chain from raw material production, material synthesis to downstream processing applications. Exxonmobil has increased investment in upstream oil and gas extraction, downstream refining and chemical integration research and development, using downstream research and development technology and products to feed upstream, providing new materials for upstream in hydrogen fuel cells, lithium batteries and carbon capture, and promoting upstream carbon reduction. At the same time, a goal-oriented classification research and development system has been established to expand new material varieties through technology research and development, and expand the market through application development and technical services.

Fifth, the strategy of integration, collaboration and digital transformation. Through the high integration of raw materials, plants, energy and materials, logistics and on-site infrastructure, BASF achieves self-sufficiency in raw materials for the production of new chemical materials, energy saving and consumption reduction, reducing emissions and logistics costs. Facing the forefront of new materials industry disciplines, Dow Chemical focuses on the transformation to digital intelligence, and applies machine learning, material genetic engineering, artificial intelligence and other applications to the biological development and production of new materials to improve research and development efficiency.

Sixth, open cooperation and innovative business model strategy. The company attaches great importance to the strategic cooperation with universities, professional research institutions, peer companies and industry giants, the establishment of interdisciplinary research and development system, especially in the basic research of new materials to strengthen cooperation with universities. Exxonmobil, for example, has test sites and laboratories in several countries around the world and works with more than 80 universities to commercialize scientific research. At the same time, all companies attach great importance to business model innovation, strengthen the venture capital system and technology incubation. For example, two subsidiaries, BASF New Industries and BASF Ventures, specialize in venture capital and technology incubation, supporting start-ups and developing attractive markets and new business models for BASF.

Seventh, business optimization and reorganization strategy. Strengthening business optimization and restructuring is a common practice of large international companies, among which the business restructuring of Dow and DuPont has been widely concerned. The two companies merged in 2017 and split into three separate publicly traded companies focused on agriculture, materials science and specialty chemicals. Through resource integration and synergies, the industrial and capital structure has been optimized, expenditure has been reduced, and innovation capabilities and market development capabilities have been improved.

5, the development prospects of new chemical materials

At present, the overall development level of new chemical materials in China still has a certain gap with developed countries such as Europe, the United States and Japan. There are problems such as unreasonable industrial structure, insufficient research and development and innovation in the industry, low coordination degree of the overall industrial chain, and lack of high-tech high-level talents, which directly or indirectly lead to low self-sufficiency rate in some fields, and high-end technology research and development has become the key to restricting the development of new chemical materials in China. It is necessary to deploy the innovation chain around the key links of the industrial chain, cultivate the main enterprises of the industrial chain, increase the training of domestic chemical new material talents, and form a sustainable talent supply model, in order to improve the international competitiveness of domestic chemical new materials with long industrial chain and high technical barriers, get rid of international dependence, and promote the improvement of industry efficiency.