First export of products from Maoming Petrochemical’s olefin production facility

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Recently, a tank truck carrying 144 tons of 1-hexene (also known as “C6 alpha olefin”) departed from Maoming for Dongguan, from where it was exported by sea. This marks the first export of 1-hexene produced by China’s first full-scale alpha-olefin production lines developed entirely based on domestic technology. It is reported that 1-hexene is an important comonomer for producing high-performance high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), as well as a key raw material for manufacturing fine chemicals such as fragrances, dyes, plasticizers, surfactants, and fatty alcohols. According to the relevant officials at Maoming Petrochemical, the 1-hexene exported this time is one of the product grades manufactured by the company’s alpha olefin production line. This production line is China’s first set of fully developed alpha olefin production facilities based entirely on domestic technology. 1-hexene still faces a significant gap in supply. Data shows that the global production technologies and capacity for alpha-olefins are primarily in the hands of well-known international companies such as CPChem, Shell, Sasol, Idemitsu, SABIC/Linde, and INEOS. By the end of 2019, the global total production capacity for α-olefins (excluding 1-butene obtained from C4 separation) was 4.89 million tons per year. The top four α-olefin producers are Shell, CPChem, Sasol, and INEOS; together, their production capacity accounts for 81.3% of the global total, while China’s share of α-olefin production capacity is only 1.5%. Currently, the industry tends to use 1-hexene and 1-octene instead of 1-butene as comonomers. In the rapidly developing metallocene polyethylene in recent years, 1-butene has been abandoned; instead, 1-hexene and 1-octene are used as comonomers to produce polyethylene products with a higher monomer content and superior properties. Due to a severe shortage of domestic 1-hexene and 1-octene copolymer monomers, China has long relied on expensive imports, which has significantly hindered the upgrading of polyethylene products in the country. Currently, HDPE and LLDPE production plants still primarily use 1-butene as the comonomer. This leads to issues such as lower quality of polyethylene products, unreasonable structures, and a shortage of products in specialized grades. Although 1-hexene production facilities have been built and put into operation in recent years, there is still a significant gap.