Yantai Wanhua Polyurethane Co., Ltd., a leading domestic company, is located at the polyurethane production facility in Ningbo Daxie Development Zone.
The key raw materials are sufficient The main raw materials used in polyurethane production are MDI, TDI, polyether polyols and so on. MDI and TDI are the key raw materials for polyurethane production, and its manufacturing technology is also the core technology for manufacturing polyurethanes. Whoever masters the core manufacturing technology of MDI and TDI will master the initiative of the polyurethane market. In recent years, China's MDI and TDI are in short supply. According to statistics from China Polyurethane Industry Association, in 2008, China's MDI production was 503,000 tons, and apparent consumption was 814,000 tons. In 2008, China's TDI output was 220,000 tons, and apparent consumption was 394,000 tons.
With the continuous progress of domestic leading enterprises, the situation that the supply of polyurethane key raw materials is in short supply will be greatly improved.
Yantai Wanhua Polyurethane Co., Ltd. is a leading manufacturer of MDI in China. Jin Yanli, an analyst at the company’s marketing department, said in an interview with reporters: “Yantai Wanhua currently has a total capacity of 500,000 tons of MDI in both Yantai and Ningbo and is the largest MDI supplier in Asia. It is expected that Ningbo Wanhua 30 The second phase of the MDI project will be completed in 2010. By then, the total MDI capacity of Yantai Wanhua will reach 800,000 tons, and Ningbo will become the world's largest MDI production base."
Li Hongling, manager of the Polyurethane Department at China Northern Chemical Industry Corporation, told reporters: “This year, China’s TDI production capacity is 290,000 tons. In 2010 and 2011, China’s TDI industry will usher in a qualitative leap, and its production capacity will continue to reach 440,000. Tons and a new level of 690,000 tons."
Huang Maosong, chief engineer of the Shanghai Polyurethane Industry Development Promotion Center, said in an interview with reporters: “The Yangtze River Delta region centered on Shanghai is currently the most developed region in the domestic polyurethane industry. The production capacity of polyurethane raw materials and products in this region has accounted for more than half of the country’s domestic production. Among them, MDI production capacity has now reached 890,000 tons/year, accounting for 82% of the country.The Bohai Rim area with Yantai as the center is currently the main production area of ​​MDI and TDI in China, with Yantai Wanhua producing 200,000 tons of MDI annually and Cangzhou Dahua. (Including Huanghua Company) Annually producing 150,000 tons of TDI projects. Northeastern China, centered on Huludao, is one of the regions where TDI and polyether polyol resources are concentrated in the country. The Lanzhou-centered Northwest Region has Gansu Yinguang Group's TDI products. In addition to the MDI projects that the company plans to build, etc. In addition, the developed regions of China's polyurethane industry include the Pearl River Delta region centered on Guangzhou, the southwest region centered on Chongqing, and the Haixi region centered on Fujian Quanzhou. The formation of distribution pattern is an important symbol of the rapid development of China's polyurethane industry."
The downstream market is going to live. In 2008, the consumption of polyurethane products in China was about 4.8 million tons (including 1.6 million tons of solvents), and the output has accounted for about 30% of the global total. China’s production of building materials, spandex, textiles, and synthetic leather ranks first in the world. Automobile production will also become the largest in the world. China also produces 95% of the world’s total refrigerated containers, 60% of shoes, and 70% of toys. In addition, a number of new highlights have also emerged.
Huang Maosong believes that the country has introduced ten industries related to revitalization planning. Apart from logistics, the other nine industries include automobiles, steel, textiles, equipment manufacturing, shipbuilding industry, electronic information, light industry, petrochemical and non-ferrous metals, and polyurethanes. Industry is closely related. The revitalization of these industries has greatly stimulated the development of the polyurethane industry and effectively relieved the negative impact of the financial crisis.
The "home appliances going to the countryside" policy has brought new business opportunities to polyurethane rigid foam products. Refrigerators, freezers, containers, solar water heaters are the main application areas of polyurethane rigid foam in China. Forecasts from the Ministry of Finance show that “home appliances to the countryside†can realize sales of 480 million units of “home appliances to the countryside†within four years of implementation, involving a total consumption of 920 billion yuan. "Family appliances to the countryside" is the main type of refrigerator, if the next four years, "home appliances to the countryside," the refrigerator consumer market annual average growth of 30%, you can pull the demand for polyurethane growth of about 8%.
In terms of transportation, the National Medium- and Long-Term Railway Network Plan points out that by 2020, the total length of the country’s railway operations will reach 100,000 kilometers, of which more than 16,000 kilometers will be dedicated passenger lines with a speed of 200 kilometers or more. In order to meet the requirements of high-speed trains for speed increase, the development of polyurethane sleepers to replace or partially replace concrete sleepers is bound to be the future development trend. In Western Europe, this technology has more mature research and application experience; in Japan, polyurethane sleepers have been applied on the high-speed train Shinkansen track. Polyurea elastomer coatings also have great business opportunities in high-speed rail applications. The data shows that the protection project for polyurea materials in the Beijing-Tianjin High-speed Rail project is 950,000 square meters, and the amount of polyurea is more than 2,000 tons; the total length of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway under construction is 13,18 kilometers, and 20,000 tons of polyurea elastomer coating is required. There are 868 tons of aliphatic polyurethane surface coatings and 6,707 tons of polyurethane waterproof coatings. The total project value is 2 billion yuan.
In the area of ​​new energy, polyurethane composite materials can also be used as fan blades to overcome the shortcomings of epoxy composite materials; polyurethane is also an indispensable new material for the development of new solar energy sources, such as thermoplastic polyurethane film new materials for solar cells and solar photovoltaic modules. Polyurethane material for plates and backings.
Building energy efficiency will bring tremendous opportunities to the polyurethane industry. It is understood that the specific objectives of building energy conservation issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development are: By 2010, 50% of new buildings in urban areas will be energy-efficient, and by 2020 new buildings will be built in northern and coastal economically developed areas to achieve energy savings of 65%. China has the largest construction market in the world. At present, more than 95% of our new buildings are still high-energy buildings. Without effective energy-saving measures, 50% of the nation's energy will be consumed in buildings by 2020.
Huang Maosong introduced to reporters: “Building energy conservation will become an important driving force for the rapid development of China's polyurethane industry. Polyurethane rigid foam has superior insulation properties, excellent mechanical properties, waterproof properties and fire performance, is indispensable to achieve national building energy efficiency goals. An ideal building insulation material.According to the new construction area of ​​2 billion square meters per year in China's construction market and the annual energy saving renovation calculation for 2 billion square meters of existing buildings, in the next few years, China's building energy conservation area will need about a year for polyurethane foam insulation materials. With 2 million tons, the energy saving market for polyurethane hard foam building has great potential."
The flame-retardant standard makes it clear that if polyurethane companies still have some concerns, it is the fire-retardant performance problem. In recent years, a series of fire accidents in China have made the application of polyurethane rigid foam in the construction field become a hot spot. In particular, on the evening of February 9 this year, a fire broke out in the CCTV New Building North Annex Building. After investigation and discussion by relevant state departments, on September 25, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly promulgated the “Interim Provisions on the External Fire Protection Systems for Civil Buildings and Exterior Wall Fire Protectionâ€. According to this regulation, for residential buildings with a building height of 100 meters or more, residential buildings with a height of 50 meters or more and curtain walled buildings with a building height of 24 meters or more, the combustion performance of insulation materials must reach class A.
Huang Maosong anxiously told reporters: "According to the expert's demonstration of the fire in CCTV's new building and North Annex building, the internal cause is the use of a polystyrene extruded board with poor fire performance. Although the fire resistance of polyurethane board is better than that of polystyrene. Extruded panels, but fireproof performance of Class A are all non-combustible materials.If this rule is followed, all organic insulation materials, including polyurethane rigid foam, have been blocked in the construction field, and only Class A inorganic insulation materials can be used. In this case, the national architectural energy-saving goal will be significantly affected.Polyurethane hard foam insulation material is the best thermal insulation performance of organic and inorganic thermal insulation materials.In developed countries such as Europe and America, polyurethane is the mainstream of thermal insulation materials. Departments weigh the advantages and disadvantages and formulate comprehensive and reasonable fire protection standards."
Yang Zongji, senior advisor of the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, told the reporter: “The promulgation of new fire prevention regulations in China has pointed out the direction for the flame-retardant application research of polyurethanes: we must strictly observe the flame retardant standards and resolutely implement environmental protection and energy conservation regulations. Both of them must be considered at the same time, and they must not be neglected.China has entered the era of green polyurethane foam development, so forward-thinking companies must vigorously develop low-smoke, halogen-free, low-toxic flame-retardant polyurethane foam, in order to win market opportunities. â€
“The new polyurethane materials have high hopes for external insulation applications in the field of building energy conservation. Enterprises should actively develop new flame-retardant properties, excellent mechanical properties, and low cost. If the cost performance of polyurethane building insulation materials is significantly improved, the company’s harvest It is even more emboldened.†Huang Maosong and Mu Wei, the president of the Association of Experts, Scholars and Designers of the China Door and Window Curtain Wall, agreed that.
Polyurethane: next year or harvest year
As a new industry, polyurethane has always attracted the attention of the industry. More than a year after the financial crisis broke out, the reporter learned from the 2009 China Polyurethane Materials Technology and Market Forum hosted by China Chemical News that the key raw materials for polyurethanes in China are MDI (diphenylmethane diisocyanate) and TDI (toluene diisocyanate). Capacity and production self-sufficiency rate are steadily increasing; polyurethane downstream market will benefit from strong domestic demand and will form a new batch of economic growth points. The delegates agreed that the Chinese polyurethane industry may usher in a bumper year in the coming year.