Panoramic analysis of the development of chemical fiber industry in China

First, chemical fiber industry overview

1. Definition and classification of chemical fibers

Chemical fiber is the use of natural or synthetic polymer compounds as raw materials, through chemical and physical methods to process the general name of the fiber, it can be continuous filament, can also be uncut tow and cut into a certain length of short fiber. Because of the different sources of polymer compounds used, chemical fibers can be divided into synthetic fibers and man-made fibers. Synthetic fiber is petroleum as the main raw material by chemical synthesis, artificial fiber is the use of cellulose or protein and other natural polymer materials such as wood, bagasse, reed, soybeans, cheese and other raw materials by chemical and mechanical processing.

2, chemical fiber industry chain

The upstream industry of the chemical fiber industry is the petrochemical industry, and raw materials such as PTA, MEG and PET made from petroleum processing are made into chemical fibers through polyester, slicing and spinning processes. Chemical fibers are made into chemical fiber fabrics after weaving, dyeing, finishing and other processes, and chemical fiber fabrics are eventually used in the manufacture of clothing, home textiles and other products.

In view of the strategic position of petroleum energy, the entry threshold of the upstream raw material industry is high, the concentration and monopoly are strong, and the bargaining power of chemical fiber enterprises to the upstream is weak. Affected by international oil prices, PTA, MEG and other raw material prices continue to fluctuate, resulting in chemical fiber industry profits fluctuate within a certain range.

As a kind of high-tech fiber manufacturing industry, the chemical fiber industry has a very high correlation with the downstream textile industry, and the development speed and product grade of the textile industry directly determine the development prospects of the chemical fiber market.

3, chemical fiber industry business model

The main profit model of the chemical fiber industry is to obtain gross profit through relatively stable processing fees. Since its downstream is fully competitive textile, printing and dyeing, clothing and home textiles and other industries, the pricing of chemical fibers mainly depends on the price of raw materials, market supply and demand. On the one hand, enterprises in the industry continue to increase technological innovation, expand product structure, improve product differentiation rate, and maximize the added value of products on the basis of processing fees. Chemical fiber enterprises in the fierce market competition gradually realized that relying solely on the competition of a single industry, the ability of enterprises to resist risks is relatively weak, and the volatility of corporate profits is relatively large. With the progress of technology and the further enhancement of the comprehensive strength of leading enterprises in the industry, leading enterprises in the industry have extended to the upstream and downstream industries of their existing industries, enlarged and strengthened the industrial chain to resist the risk of industry fluctuations, and the trend of creating an integrated industrial chain is becoming more and more obvious. The complete industrial chain helps enterprises to realize resource sharing in various production stages, thus effectively reducing production and management costs, and thus improving profitability, and has a strong competitive advantage in the industrial chain.

4. Development history of chemical fiber industry

The beginning of the chemical fiber industry (1949-1978). Before the reform and opening up, China's chemical fiber industry was a "0" to "1" process. During this period of time, China's chemical fiber equipment has taken the road of old plant transformation, technology introduction, reasonable digestion and absorption, and localization of some equipment; In the development of chemical fiber varieties, at the beginning to viscose fiber based, and later developed into viscose fiber and synthetic fiber, initially solved the problem of Chinese people's dressing raw materials. In the 1970s, the "four major chemical fiber" bases built in China successively included Shanghai Petrochemical Plant, Liaoyang Petroleum Chemical Fiber Plant, Tianjin Petroleum chemical fiber Plant and Sichuan Vinylon Plant, with a total scale of 350,000 tons/year. Through the combination of "the introduction of equipment technology plus domestic equipment", the technical level and self-sufficiency of China's chemical fiber production have been greatly improved. In the late 1970s, China's synthetic fiber varieties and production technology have been able to basically reach the level of chemical fiber production in developed countries.

The second batch of chemical fiber industrial bases was established (1978-1983). Since the reform and opening up, the focus of the work of the whole Party has shifted to economic construction, thus, China's chemical fiber industry has also embarked on the road of rapid development under the promotion of this favorable factor. 1978-1983, on the basis of the "four chemical fibers" project, the Ministry of Textile Industry established the second batch of large-scale chemical fiber factories in the country, this period of China's chemical fiber and textile production has been greatly increased, but also in this period, the management of chemical fiber products gradually from government control to market-oriented transformation.

Private and foreign-funded enterprises emerged one after another (1984-2000). With the reform and opening up of China, private enterprises, Sino-foreign joint ventures and foreign-funded enterprises have emerged in the chemical fiber industry. Some state-owned chemical fiber enterprises have changed into hybrid joint-stock companies and some into private enterprises through enterprise restructuring. The increase of industry investors has driven the improvement of China's chemical fiber production capacity and output, and by 2000, China began to become the world's largest country in chemical fiber production.

New opportunities for "entry" to export markets (2001-2007). China's accession to the WTO has brought a historic opportunity to the entire Chinese chemical fiber industry, and China has become the world's chemical fiber production base and export base. This period is the fastest growing period of China's chemical fiber industry. The production of chemical fiber in China increased from 6.942 million tons in 2000 to 23.931 million tons in 2007, with a growth rate of 245% in seven years. It was also during this period that private enterprises such as Zhejiang Hengyi, Zhejiang Rongsheng, Jiangsu Hengli, Jiangsu Shenghong, and Zhejiang Huafeng Spandex developed rapidly, and private chemical fiber enterprises began to grow bigger and stronger.

Transformation and upgrading of chemical fiber industry to promote intelligent manufacturing (2008 to date). In 2008, the global financial crisis made China's chemical fiber industry encounter the first difficult situation after joining the WTO. In 2009, The State Council of China launched the "Textile industry adjustment and revitalization Plan", and since then the state has repeatedly issued documents to promote the transformation and upgrading of China's chemical fiber industry. China's chemical fiber industry is moving toward an era of intelligent equipment to improve production efficiency and differentiated value-added products.

5, chemical fiber industry policy environment analysis

(1) Industry supervision system

China's macro-control of chemical fiber manufacturing industry is mainly implemented by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The enterprises in this industry operate independently in accordance with the principles of marketization, and the management of the industry by the competent authorities is mainly macro-control.

The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology are responsible for the formulation of chemical fiber industry policies, supervision and inspection of their implementation, research and formulation of industry development plans, guidance of industry structure adjustment, implementation of industry management, participation in industry system reform, technological progress and technological transformation, quality management and other work.

China Chemical Fiber Industry Association is a self-disciplinary organization of China's chemical fiber industry, and undertakes the functions of guiding, contacting, communicating, coordinating, promoting and serving the chemical fiber industry. The main functions of China Chemical Fiber Industry Association include: play the role of bridge and link between the government and chemical fiber enterprises and institutions, guide and promote the orderly, efficient and healthy development of China's chemical fiber industry; To promote the technological progress of chemical fiber industry, strengthen the technical cooperation between enterprises and scientific research institutions, improve the ability of independent innovation, production technology, technical level and research and development strength, promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and accelerate the development pace of China's chemical fiber industry; Strengthen the relevant technical standards; Standardize the industry behavior, enhance the market competitiveness of China's chemical fiber; To carry out research activities on the development of chemical fiber industry at home and abroad; Carry out the promotion and application of chemical fiber; According to the characteristics of the industry, carry out energy saving and clean production, and promote the sustainable development of China's chemical fiber industry; Carry out international and inter-industry exchange activities to improve the position of China's chemical fiber industry in the global competition.

(2) Major policies of the industry

In recent years, under the background of the upgrading of the industrial structure of China's textile industry, the state has always attached great importance to the development of the chemical fiber industry, encouraging China's chemical fiber industry to research and develop innovation, and develop high-performance and high value-added fiber materials; Promote the digital transformation of chemical fiber industry and strengthen the research and development and application of intelligent equipment; Improve the green manufacturing system and reduce carbon emission intensity; Build Chinese fiber and enterprise brand. In recent years, the state has introduced a number of development plans or industrial policies to support the development of the chemical fiber industry.

6, chemical fiber industry development status analysis

Chemical fiber fabrics in its thermal, wet comfort, feel, luster and appearance and other properties continue to improve, some chemical fiber imitation cotton, silk, wool-like products of product appearance and clothing performance gradually close to natural fiber fabrics, some properties even better than natural fibers, chemical fiber textiles gradually improve the status, chemical fibers began to be used in a variety of fabrics. In recent years, China's chemical fiber production overall showed a rapid growth trend, according to the National Bureau of Statistics statistics, the total output of chemical fiber in 2013 was 41.603 million tons, to 2022 has reached 66.978 million tons.

The operating income of enterprises above designated size in China's chemical fiber industry shows an overall growth trend. In 2016, the operating income of enterprises above designated size in the chemical fiber industry was 766.28 billion yuan, which will increase to 1090.1 billion yuan by 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.05%. Affected by the fluctuation of crude oil prices and the overall market demand, the total profit of China's chemical fiber industry shows a fluctuating trend. In 2022, the total profit of enterprises above designated size in China's chemical fiber industry was 24.1 billion yuan, down 62.2% year-on-year.

Second, the chemical fiber industry promoting and hindering factors analysis

1, chemical fiber industry promotion factors

Industrial policy provides strong support. In recent years, in the context of the upgrading of the industrial structure of China's textile industry, the state has always attached great importance to the development of functional and differentiated fibers and their textiles and other high value-added textiles, and has introduced a number of development plans or industrial policies to support the development of the industry.

Consumer demand is strong. From the point of view of consumption quantity, with the continuous improvement of residents' income level and the gradual improvement of living conditions, fiber consumption will continue to grow. At present, the consumption concept of China's residents is changing, the consumption structure is gradually upgrading, people's consumption of textile and clothing is no longer just to meet the most basic needs, the pursuit of fashion, environmental protection and functional textiles have become the mainstream of consumption, people's demand for high-end textile and clothing continues to grow. The upgrading of consumption structure will drive the rapid growth of demand for high-end fiber fabrics. From the perspective of consumption power, the growing income of Chinese residents provides a strong purchasing power for the growth of textile consumption in China. With the healthy and stable development of China's economy, the implementation of a series of policies to benefit the people and the continuous improvement of the social security system, the disposable income and consumption willingness of Chinese residents will maintain the growth momentum, and the domestic demand for textiles will continue to grow.

2, chemical fiber industry hindrance factors

The costs of labor, land, energy and environmental protection are rising. With the peak of China's population in the past, China's labor supply structure has changed from labor surplus to labor supply balance and even shortage, China's urban and rural labor shortage phenomenon, which led to the chemical fiber industry labor shortage, labor costs rise, the domestic strength of the leading enterprises have gradually improved the level of equipment automation utilization, improve production efficiency, Reduce unit labor costs. In addition, the increased mobility of employees has increased the difficulty of enterprise management and quality control, which has affected the normal production of enterprises. With the rapid development of China's economy, environmental protection and energy, transportation and other costs rise is another major factor in the increase of enterprise costs, the continuous increase of costs such as can not be synchronized to the downstream, will make chemical fiber enterprises profit pressure increase, further squeeze the profit margin of enterprises.

The intensification of trade friction has a certain impact on textile exports. With the continuous expansion of China's trade scale, the international market against China's anti-dumping and trade protection further intensified, technical barriers, green barriers, health technical standards and other serious trade protectionism tendency to rise, the restriction of China's export more prominent. On the one hand, it will promote enterprises to pay attention to ecological protection, promote industrial upgrading, and improve the added value of products. On the other hand, it will also increase the testing cost of textile and apparel exports, increase the cost, and its products are likely to be shut out of the EU market due to the lack of price competitive advantage. In addition, textile research institutes in some European countries have jointly organized the development of environmental and ecological textile standards, which have also formed an increasing impact on Chinese textile and garment exports to the EU. The restrictive behavior generated by technical standards is more legitimate and more hidden than trade protection methods such as anti-dumping.

The appreciation of RMB has a certain impact on textile exports. In recent years, the appreciation of RMB generally shows a trend of appreciation, and the appreciation of RMB has a great impact on the profit of export enterprises. The appreciation of RMB will not only squeeze the profit margin of enterprises, but also increase the risk of overseas orders received by export-oriented enterprises, and bring serious impact to export processing enterprises.

The security and stability of the industrial chain and supply chain need to be further improved. China's chemical fiber basic raw materials are highly dependent on foreign countries, petroleum-based chemical fiber accounts for more than 90%, petroleum raw material imports about 70%, wood pulp imports 85%; There are shortcomings in the core technology of key links, such as chemical fiber winding head, control software, functional additives, and oil agent dependence on imports, which may lead to data security and industrial chain security problems.

Third, chemical fiber industry barrier analysis

(1) Product development barriers

Chemical fiber production enterprises need to continue to develop high-tech and differentiated products in order to meet the special needs of downstream customers for green, differentiated, personalized consumption upgrading, and so on, so there are high product development barriers. Specifically, first of all, enterprises need deep technical precipitation and industry experience, accurately identify customer needs and carry out technical translation and conversion, and develop customized products that meet specific applications. Secondly, the research and development of chemical fibers requires professional knowledge such as polymer materials science, the research and development process needs to go through repeated trials and formulation debugging, and the research and development personnel are required to have rich experience in order to ensure the smooth completion of product development. At the same time, in order to make chemical fiber products achieve specific colors and functions, the production process needs to be precise control of technical equipment and process parameters, and the technical support of the research and development database is required, so the research and development of chemical fiber to the process is more difficult. Therefore, the ability to develop high-tech and differentiated products will become a barrier for new entrants.

(2) Production process barriers

The production process barriers of chemical fiber products are high, which is reflected in the following aspects: First, the production of high-performance index products requires fine control of spinning temperature, pressure, cooling wind temperature, wind speed and other parameters, requiring enterprises to be equipped with advanced production equipment, constantly optimize the production process, and accumulate production experience. The second is the focus of chemical fiber types, technology enterprises are mostly small batch, multi-variety production mode, enterprises also need to optimize the process to improve the flexibility of production. Therefore, new entrants will face high production process barriers.

(3) Customer market barriers

The upstream and downstream of the chemical fiber industry usually form a relatively stable supply chain relationship, which forms a certain barrier to new entrants. On the one hand, due to the subtle differences in the quality and technical indicators of the fibers produced by different enterprises, for downstream textile enterprises, this difference in raw material indicators will lead to changes in their production process parameters. Therefore, downstream textile enterprises usually choose relatively stable chemical fiber suppliers to avoid frequent adjustment of process parameters. To improve production efficiency and ensure the stability of product quality. On the other hand, for the development and application of differentiated products, the technical exchanges between the two sides have been deepened after the establishment of the cooperation relationship, and the cooperation relationship is relatively stable, and downstream enterprises will not easily change suppliers. Therefore, there are customer market barriers in the chemical fiber industry.

(4) Financial barriers

Chemical fiber industry is a capital-intensive industry. The procurement of raw materials and production and operation of enterprises need a large amount of working capital for turnover; On the other hand, enterprises need to invest a lot of money to buy production lines and testing equipment, and later equipment maintenance is very critical, and it also requires a large capital investment. The above two aspects have higher requirements for the company's capital. Therefore, the chemical fiber industry has a high financial barrier.

Fourth, industry competition pattern analysis

The agglomeration effect of China's chemical fiber textile industry has become prominent, forming the agglomeration area of chemical fiber textile industry mainly in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Fujian. The domestic chemical fiber industry market competition is more full, the industry concentration is low, the number of enterprises in the industry is large, mainly small and medium-sized enterprises. According to national statistics: by the end of 2022, the number of enterprises above designated size in China's chemical fiber industry has reached 2,167.

In recent years, more and more chemical fiber enterprises have extended their development tentacles to the capital market, and have become bigger and stronger with the power of the capital market. Up to now, there are more than 30 listed chemical fiber companies, such as Rongsheng Petrochemical, Hengyi Petrochemical, Hengli Petrochemical, Tongkun Shares and other enterprises with leading corporate revenue. In recent years, the concentration of China's chemical fiber industry has been further improved, and the total capacity of 10 leading enterprises in the industry has accounted for more than 60% of the total scale.

Fifth, the development trend of chemical fiber industry

(1) The overall technology of chemical fiber has made remarkable progress

China's high performance chemical fiber technology level, industrial development has made significant progress, the future will further improve the production and application technology of key varieties of high performance chemical fiber, further improve the stability of the performance index of chemical fiber, while expanding the application of high performance fiber in aerospace, Marine engineering, advanced rail transit, new energy vehicles and electric power and other fields.

(2) The application field of chemical fibers is constantly expanding and penetrating

With the increase of residents' disposable income, the improvement of living standards, the increasing attention to environmental protection, the chemical fiber application market continues to expand, has successively developed a high-strength, flame retardant, anti-static, anti-pollution, anti-ultraviolet, anti-aging, far-infrared, conductive and other differential chemical fibers, as well as fine denier, ultra-fine denier, shaped cross-section chemical fibers.

In recent years, with the rise of cutting-edge technologies such as nanotechnology, microcapsule technology and electronic information technology, smart fibers have developed rapidly. The development of smart chemical fibers can not only give traditional fibers new functions, but also open up the application of fibers in high-tech fields such as solar cells, aerospace, and biomedicine.

(3) Low carbon emission is an important development direction of chemical fiber manufacturing technology

At present, the technology combination of carbon capture coupled with new energy, new materials and new equipment is becoming an important driving force to achieve low-carbon development of the entire economic system. As a material carrier and the source of industry, the breakthrough of low-carbon technology is of great significance for the realization of low-carbon and circular development of the entire industry. As environmental costs become more transparent and measurable, low-carbon constraints extend from companies themselves up and down the chain to stakeholders. To promote the low carbon emissions of the whole life cycle of products has become a trend.

(4) Green environmental protection to promote the development of chemical fibers

In recent years, the state has vigorously promoted the development of green industry, and the environmental protection requirements have become stricter, and the green manufacturing of chemical fibers will usher in new development opportunities. If the masterbatch is used for pre-spinning coloring, the specific color can be obtained after spinning molding, so that there is no need for printing and dyeing in the downstream production process, avoiding the pollution of the waste liquid generated by the dyeing process to the environment, and significantly improving the degree of green environmental protection of textiles. In addition, people pay more and more attention to the ecological environment, green fiber will be more likely to be favored by consumers. Under the background of green environmental protection, the chemical fiber industry will enter a new period of development.

(5) Chemical fiber enterprises accelerate digital transformation.

With the growth of the industry's production capacity, the demand for digital construction is also increasing, and the industry's leading enterprises have already begun to explore the road of digital construction, from the list of "digital factory" and "chemical fiber industrial Internet platform" in Zhejiang Province, it can be seen that it has begun to take effect. In the future, China's chemical fiber enterprises will strengthen the research and development and application of intelligent equipment, break through the break point of digital key technologies, and further improve the digital level, and the digital penetration rate of enterprise operation and management will reach 80% by 2025, and the numerical control rate of key processes will reach 80%.