Green PU
In nature, when we think of green, we think of plants. In daily life, green symbolizes life, development, and sustainable survival. Green is synonymous with environmental protection and the future society, representing hope and goals
Therefore, in the current promotion of environmental protection and energy conservation, people have also begun to take green as the development direction of the polyurethane industry, using plants in the production process of polyurethane. Plant oil polyether polyols, biodegradable plant polyurethane materials, and so on
The PU industry in China should cluster and develop The global polyurethane (PU) industry is developing towards increasingly sophisticated technology, rapid product development, and wider application areas, with the global PU manufacturing and consumption center shifting towards China. China should seize opportunities, scientifically plan, break through bottlenecks, innovate independently, strengthen and refine, and build several PU industry bases with high industrial agglomeration, high technological content, high added value, close industrial chain, and international competitiveness. The Yangtze River Delta is the manufacturing center of China's PU industry, and the first step should be to establish a Chinese PU industrial park in Shanghai. This is the opinion expressed by Huang Maosong, Chief Engineer of Shanghai PU Industry Development Promotion Center, to representatives of more than 100 domestic and foreign enterprises at the 2006 China Polyurethane International Symposium held in Shanghai recently< Affected by the general economic growth, global PU has maintained a high growth rate in the past five years, with a growth rate of 6.7% from 2000 to 2005. In 2005, global PU production reached 13.75 million tons. It is expected that the growth rate will be 5% in the next 5 years, and the global PU production will reach 16.9 million tons by 2010. In the next few years, the annual growth rate of PU in the Asia Pacific region will reach 11%, while the growth rate of the Chinese market will remain at around 15%, making China the core market for global PU. In this context, what are the characteristics facing the development of China's PU industry? Huang Maosong believes that firstly, there is a clear trend towards large-scale and specialized production of PU basic raw materials; Secondly, new materials, technologies, processes, and applications of PU continue to emerge globally, penetrating into various aspects of daily life and fields of the national economy; Thirdly, relying on the advantages of raw materials, market, trade, and talent, PU enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta have formed an industrial group ranging from basic PU raw materials to various products
Huang Maosong said that China is a major producer of PU, but it is still not a strong country. There are many small and medium-sized enterprises, low-end products, scattered distribution, and small scale. The lack of independent innovation capability has become the biggest bottleneck for the future development of China's PU industry. There is still a significant gap in the overall technological level of PU in China compared to economically developed countries such as the United States, Europe, and Japan. This is mainly reflected in the scarcity of products with independent intellectual property rights, high value-added products, self branded products, and products with strong international competitiveness. The main reason is that China's investment in independent innovation of PU products is insufficient and the institutional mechanism is not sound. In response, Huang Maosong proposed that China's PU industry should accelerate its efforts towards group, scale, and specialization. The relevant government departments should strengthen the guidance of industrial planning, encourage the cultivation of PU production bases in key areas, and form a scale agglomeration effect through industrial integration, enterprise restructuring, and structural adjustment. At the same time, cultivate a group of strong group enterprises such as Wanhua, Gaoqiao Petrochemical, Huafeng Group, etc., encourage private capital investment, and overall improve the international competitiveness of the national PU industry
At present, the opportunity to build a PU industry base in China has emerged. Huang Maosong said that the Shanghai PU Industry Development Promotion Center, jointly established by large enterprises, industry associations, research institutions, etc., has proposed the idea of building a PU industry base in the Yangtze River Delta, especially in Shanghai, based on research. The conditions for building the first domestic PU industry park in Jinshan District International Chemical City in Shanghai are ripe
Firstly, Shanghai has unparalleled advantages in raw materials. In the world-class Shanghai Chemical Industry Zone, the 240000 ton/year MDI and 160000 ton/year TDI plants jointly built by BASF, Huntsman, and Shanghai Huayi Group have been put into operation. The 350000 ton/year MDI and 160000 ton/year TDI plant solely owned by Bayer can be built within two years. By 2008, Shanghai will have a production capacity of 590000 tons/year MDI and 320000 tons/year TDI, accounting for 66% and 60% of the total domestic production capacity, respectively. There are also production plants with an annual output of 50000 tons of HDI, 40000 tons of polyether, and 60000 tons of PTMEG in the chemical zone. In this region, Shanghai Gaoqiao Petrochemical is currently the enterprise with the largest production capacity, variety, and export volume of polyether polyols in China; The production and operation of the 160000 ton MDI plant in Ningbo Wanhua undoubtedly plays an important role in the stable development of the PU industry in the Yangtze River Delta. Secondly, the Yangtze River Delta region has a relatively developed economy and is one of the domestic manufacturing centers. It is also the most concentrated area for manufacturing industries such as automobiles and electronic information in China. In addition, the demand for PU rigid foam in domestic building energy conservation has surged, resulting in a huge demand for PU market. Only the PU soft foam and other spare parts enterprises under Shanghai Volkswagen and General Motors had a domestic and export value of up to 15 billion yuan in 2005. At the same time, downstream PU processing enterprises in the region have formed a network, and many of them are quite large-scale. Shengnuoming Group is the largest producer of PU soft foam in China. Jiangsu Defa Group, Wenzhou Huafeng Group, Jiangsu Kunshan Yutian Group, and other companies have formed a domestic PU synthetic leather industry cluster. Zhejiang has formed a strong spandex industry chain, and Wenzhou has become the main production base for PU shoe fluid in China. Several large-scale PU coating production factories are concentrated in the southern Jiangsu region. Thirdly, Shanghai is building an international center city. Global PU multinational companies, domestic PU industry, technology and professional media are all focusing on Shanghai, choosing it as a base to promote the development of PU in China and even Asia. In the Zhangjiang High tech Park in Shanghai, dozens of new material research and development centers at home and abroad have been established to provide solutions for customers. There are numerous research institutes in the Shanghai area, and the strength of industry university research cooperation is strong
It is reported that in order to give full play to the advantages of Shanghai's PU raw materials, science and technology, and to give play to the regional characteristics of the developed PU manufacturing industry in the Yangtze River Delta, Shanghai Jinshan District has decided to prepare for the establishment of Shanghai PU Industrial Park. Through several years of efforts, the government, enterprises, industry associations, and scientific research institutions have gathered all forces to implement the strategy of centralization, scale, and specialization, promote the linkage of upstream, midstream, and downstream industrial chains, and gradually build a number of key PU raw materials and product production bases in the park, mainly including non phosgene manufacturing of isocyanates, PU tires, melt spinning polyurethane chips and spinning, building energy saving PU hard foam, fluorine-containing PU materials, high-performance PU elastomer materials, green foam PU materials, and water-based Major projects such as PU material production are planned to reach an economic scale of 5 billion to 10 billion yuan by 2010
Huang Maosong stated that most of the projects in Shanghai PU Industrial Park are independent innovation technology industrialization projects, and some even have world advanced levels. We cannot always follow behind foreign countries, we need to be at the forefront in certain aspects. In the development of the polyurethane industry with Chinese characteristics, it is particularly important to strengthen agglomeration development and hope to receive strong policy support. Domestic enterprises should seize the opportunity and make every effort to improve their independent innovation capabilities and core competitiveness, in order to ensure that they remain invincible in the global competition of the PU industry
Changes in demand for PU additives in major global regions According to the latest report completed by consulting firm IAL Consultants, the growth rate of PU additive demand in Western Europe will slow down, while demand in Eastern Europe will grow rapidly. Currently, the growth rate of PU additive demand in Western Europe is only 2% -3%/year, while the growth rate in Eastern Europe is as high as 6% -7%/year, and the growth rate in the Middle East and Africa is around 8% -10%/year. In the above three regions, polyurethane additives such as foaming agents and flame retardants account for about 82% of the market share, with a total volume of over 237000 tons in 2005, while catalysts, release agents, surfactants, and antioxidants account for 18%
Foreign PU Enterprises in China Sound the "Assembly Number"
PUWORLD (2008/03/03) - At the end of the last century and the beginning of this century, the production of Shanghai Lianheng marked the official entry of foreign polyurethane industry enterprises into the Chinese market. Up to now, in the main products of polyurethane, the production capacity of foreign-funded enterprises accounts for a considerable proportion of the total production capacity. Faced with the increasingly prosperous Chinese polyurethane market, foreign-funded enterprises have already sounded the "Assembly Number" and expanded massively in China
At present, in China, the production of products involving certain technological content and technological property rights is still mainly carried out by foreign enterprises. Taking MDI as an example, the production capacity of foreign enterprises accounts for 70% of China's total production capacity; TDI is almost monopolized by foreign companies. Nevertheless, in 2008, the expansion momentum of foreign-funded enterprises in China continued unabated. Bayer's MDI project in Chongqing was put into operation, BASF's expansion of alcohol production in Nanjing, and Dow's ethylene glycol ether plant in Zhangjiagang was put into operation in the second half of this year... There are countless new projects of major chemical giants in China
From the perspective of downstream products, although the foam industry is dominated by domestic manufacturers at present, the product quality of foreign enterprises is far better than that of domestic manufacturers in terms of soft foam combination. In addition, foreign-funded enterprises also occupy nearly half of the spandex and TPU markets in China
In response to the trend of foreign companies aggressively expanding into the Chinese market, whether there is a risk of monopoly in the Chinese polyurethane industry is also a concern for many industry insiders. To fundamentally change this situation, independent research and development is the only effective strategy
At the annual polyurethane conference recently held by the Polyurethane Industry Federation (API), API predicted that based on the current development speed of production in China, China's PU production will surpass that of the United States by 2010, becoming the world's largest PU producing country
According to statistics, the global PU market consumption reached 30-35 billion US dollars in 2005, with a production of 30.3 million pounds. At present, the annual production of PU in North America is 8.2 million pounds, and the annual production in China is 6.4 million pounds. API is a joint organization composed of American polyurethane manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors who provide polyurethane production equipment and raw materials. Its aim is to manage, coordinate, and solve problems that affect industry development, and promote technological progress in the polyurethane industry