What is the current situation and future trend of modified plastics/engineering plastics?
Modified plastics are materials with uniform appearance obtained by filling, toughening, strengthening, blending, alloying and other technical means with primary form resin as the main component and additives or other resins that can improve the mechanical, rheological, combustion, electrical, thermal, optical, magnetic and other aspects of performance.
According to the modified function, the modified plastics include flame retardant resins, reinforced and toughened resins, plastic alloys, functional color masterclasses, etc. Each type can be further subdivided according to different materials, and due to their respective performance differences, the application field is also different.
Modified plastics as a new material product, belongs to the national strategic emerging industry category, the relevant national laws and regulations and policies for the development of modified plastics technology to establish the direction, the modified plastics industry by the national policy to encourage and support, the relevant state departments for modified plastics, especially the high concern for the development of high-performance modified plastics industry, will promote the development of modified plastics industry continued to improve.
The overall development level of China's modified plastics industry is low, the production scale of enterprises in the industry is relatively small compared with foreign companies in the same industry, and the market situation of products also shows the characteristics of low-end products, mid-end products are unstable, and high-end products are lacking, which is far from meeting the needs of China's economic development in the 21st century. Therefore, modified plastics, as an important part of the field of new chemical materials, have also been listed as one of the key development of science and technology fields by the state. China's automotive modified plastics market is mainly occupied by foreign enterprises, and domestic modified plastics enterprises occupy less than 1/3 of the market share. Because the products of domestic enterprises are mostly limited to the low-technology content and low-standard level, the development ability of those areas with high performance demand is obviously insufficient. The downstream of modified plastics is mainly for the automotive, electronic and electrical appliances and home appliances industries, which account for more than 50%. In recent years, the introduction of automobile preferential policies has greatly promoted the development of the industry, in addition, the policy orientation of energy conservation and emission reduction has also promoted automobile companies to reduce the weight of cars and thus achieve energy conservation and emission reduction, which has greatly promoted the development of the modified plastics industry.
After years of rapid development, China's modified plastics industry has shown an upward trend in output and market size. From 2015 to 2021, China's production of modified plastics increased from 13.07 million tons to 26.5 million tons.
Despite the rapid development of the domestic plastics industry, the scale of plastic application in China is still small. China's plastic modification rate (that is, the proportion of modified plastic production in total plastic production) has steadily increased. The global plastic modification rate is nearly 50%, and the plastic modification rate in China has increased from 16.3% in 2011 to 21.7% in 2020, which is still a large room for improvement compared with the global level.
Modified plastics industry in many developed countries has many years of development history, large international chemical enterprises such as BASF, LANXess, DuPont, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, Celanis, etc., in the supply of raw materials, business scale, technology accumulation advantages are obvious, in the high-performance special modified plastics formula research and development, processing and manufacturing, brand quality and other aspects of the leading position. The products are widely used in high-end fields. In contrast, most of the domestic modified plastics enterprises from the 1990s after the development of domestic home appliances and automotive industry began to rise, although the rapid development in recent years, but the comprehensive competitiveness and the international large chemical enterprises still have a certain gap, the current domestic high-end modified plastics market is still mainly imported.
New materials are the basis of national industrial development, in recent years, in China's development of high-end manufacturing, strategic emerging industries, the construction of "domestic cycle" strategy and the realization of economic transformation under the background, modified plastics as an important new material type, is an important industry to achieve the current plan, the development of domestic high-end modified plastics is an important step to achieve import substitution in China.
Compared with ordinary plastics, modified plastics play a vital role in the safety and stability of electronic and electrical products by enhancing toughness, flame retardant, high temperature resistance, aging resistance and scratch resistance. With the above properties, modified plastics have largely replaced traditional metals and inorganic non-metallic materials and become one of the main materials for electronic and electrical products. As people pay more and more attention to safety and health, strict requirements are put forward for the fire safety of plastic materials at home and abroad, and the demand for high-end modified plastics will continue to grow in the future. At present, electronic and electrical products are also transiting to the development of a new generation of products characterized by intelligence, miniaturization and modularization, and the demand for modified plastics-related products will continue to increase.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that after rapid growth, China's electronic and electrical industry has entered a stage of stable development after 2015, with an annual retail value of about $100 billion. From the point of view of the industry, the performance growth rate of each category has slowed down to different degrees. Statista predicts that by 2024, the retail sales of China's electronic and electrical industry will reach $101.4 billion.
After years of rapid development, China's modified plastics industry has shown an upward trend in output and market size. From 2016 to 2020, China's modified plastics production increased from 15.63 million tons to 22.5 million tons, with a compound annual growth rate of 9.54%. China Business Industry Research Institute predicts that the output of modified plastics will reach 28.84 million tons in 2022. Despite the rapid development of the domestic plastics industry, the scale of plastic application in China is still small. China's plastic modification rate (that is, the proportion of modified plastic production in total plastic production) has steadily increased. The global plastic modification rate is nearly 50%, and the plastic modification rate in China has increased from 16.3% in 2011 to 21.7% in 2020, which is still a large room for improvement compared with the global level.
There are thousands of enterprises engaged in the production of modified plastics in China, but the number of large-scale enterprises (with a capacity of more than 3,000 tons) is not large. At present, the market concentration of China's modified plastics industry is low, and the top four enterprises only account for 11.5% of the overall market. According to the production of modified plastics, the market share of Jinfa technology accounted for the largest proportion, up to 7.1%; Huitong stock market share reached 1.6%; Prit's market share reached 1.4%; The market share of Guoen shares reached 1.4%.
At present, most of China's new electronic and electrical consumption comes from the replacement demand, showing the characteristics of individuation, high-end, intelligent and healthy. In order to present a stylish and colorful personalized appearance, more and more electronic and electrical production lines have introduced spray free modified plastics, which can directly achieve metallic texture, natural texture, black and bright, flicker, extinction and other effects through injection molding. Emerging smart homes, smart phones, etc., not only have a thinner and more stylish appearance, but also a closer and more orderly arrangement of the internal lines, which also requires the shell material to meet the conditions of high searing wire, high leakage marking, etc., to adapt to long-term safe operation in a high temperature environment.
New energy batteries mainly include power batteries, super capacitors and other products. Among them, the power battery is the power source of vehicles such as cars. A large part of the weight of electric vehicles comes from the battery, in the case of a certain battery energy density, the number of cells is certain. Therefore, in order to reduce the weight of the vehicle to reduce energy consumption and improve the endurance of new energy vehicles, the weight reduction of the battery structure and the box is an essential link. Combined with the use of automotive products, the box and structure of the power battery must be able to withstand mechanical shocks such as drops, impact resistance, vibration resistance, extrusion puncture. In addition, it is also necessary to meet the requirements of corrosion resistance, high and low temperature resistance, fire and moisture resistance, flame retardant heat conduction, etc., to ensure that it can be used in harsh environments for a long time.
With the continuous development of the new energy vehicle industry, China has become the world's most important supply base for new energy batteries and new energy vehicles, and special materials for new energy vehicles, especially materials for power batteries, have put forward higher requirements for modified plastics. The commonly used modified plastics for new energy power battery structure are flame-retardant PPE, PPS, PC/ABS alloy and flame-retardant enhanced PA; Most of the box materials currently use high-strength steel, light metal, many manufacturers are trying to replace metal with SMC composite materials, such modified plastic materials have good design and technology, and high strength, accurate size, corrosion resistance, good stability. Modified PPO (polyphenyl ether) material has good corrosion resistance to lithium cobalt acid, lithium manganese acid and other lithium battery electrode materials, and has excellent flame retardant, low temperature resistance and impact resistance, which is one of the ideal materials for making lithium battery protective shell.
According to the relevant data of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's new energy vehicle sales in 2021 completed 3.521 million, an increase of 157.57%. In addition, with reference to the development vision of about 20% of new energy vehicle sales in 2025 in the New Energy Automobile Industry Development Plan (2021-2035), combined with favorable conditions such as the expected goal of green economy, improved technology maturity, further decline in costs and rising consumer demand drivers, It is expected that the sales of new energy vehicles in China will exceed 7 million in 2025. Accordingly, with the continuous improvement of the structure and quality of new energy vehicles, as well as the launch of new models, the demand for new energy vehicle power batteries will accelerate.
Due to the development of modification technology, some general plastics can improve their original properties through modification technology, and indicators such as heat resistance and mechanical strength have been significantly improved, thus having a certain nature of engineering plastics, and the application field has been greatly expanded. For engineering plastics, due to the continuous improvement of raw material performance requirements in the domestic automotive, electronic and electrical industries, the original engineering plastics have been unable to fully adapt to the requirements of the downstream market, engineering plastics have been modified, and various physical property indicators are more excellent to meet the market demand with more stringent performance. . High-performance special engineering plastics can be applied to cutting-edge technology fields such as electronic appliances, automobiles, and aerospace due to their high temperature resistance, good performance, and dimensional stability, but the market capacity of cutting-edge products is small. In order to further expand the application field of modified special engineering plastics, it is necessary to adopt a low-cost route and expand the market with a lower cost.
Modified plastics are currently widely used in automotive, communications, electronic appliances, new energy batteries, home appliances, medical, rail transit, precision instruments, home building materials, security, aerospace, military and many other national pillar industries and emerging industries, of which home appliances and automobiles are the most important downstream application industries of modified plastics.
In addition, modified plastics with its lightweight, corrosion resistance, flame retardant, heat resistance, insulation and other properties, has been more and more used in various fields of society. In the field of health protection, modified plastics can be used in food packaging, medical protection and other scenarios; In the field of rail transit, modified plastics can be used in interior and exterior decoration, structural parts and buffer materials; In the field of home building materials, modified plastics are also an important part of power tools, security equipment and other products; In aerospace, military and other fields, modified plastics also have a wide range of applications.
Modified plastics industry in many developed countries has many years of development history, large international chemical enterprises such as BASF, LANXess, DuPont, Saudi Basic Industries, etc., in the supply of raw materials, business scale, technology accumulation advantages are obvious, in the high-performance special modified plastics formula research and development, processing and manufacturing, brand quality and other aspects of the leading position. The products are widely used in high-end fields.
In contrast, most of the domestic modified plastics enterprises from the 1990s after the development of domestic home appliances and automotive industry began to rise, although the rapid development in recent years, but the comprehensive competitiveness and the international large chemical enterprises still have a certain gap, the current domestic high-end modified plastics market is still mainly imported, import substitution demand is larger.
In recent years, domestic enterprises in the industry continue to increase research and development investment, and the technology gap with large international enterprises is gradually narrowing, some enterprises to research and development of functional, high-performance products as the starting point, and gradually penetrate the high-end market.
On the other hand, as China's upstream petrochemical enterprises continue to strengthen the independent research and development of products, it also drives the overall innovation speed of the domestic modified plastics industry. In recent years, China has continued to promote economic transformation and industrial upgrading, and the import substitution demand for medium and high-end modified plastics has become increasingly urgent, providing good development opportunities for domestic industry enterprises with strong technical strength.
