Total investment of nearly 21 billion! The 3 million tons per year PTA plant of Tongkun is set to start construction!

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Amid the current trend of promoting integrated refining and petrochemical production in China’s petrochemical polyester industry, the handling capacity of ports and wharves is of critical importance. Following Hainan Island, Dalian Changxing Island, and the Zhoushan Islands in Zhejiang, large-scale fiber enterprises are now turning their attention to Qinzhou in Guangxi for expansion. Total investment of nearly 21 billion! A new project is planned in Qinzhou: The 3 million tons/year PTA plant by Tongkun is set to break ground soon! Recently, the Management Committee of the Qinzhou Port Area of the China (Guangxi) Free Trade Pilot Zone conducted the first public announcement regarding the environmental impact assessment for the chemical new materials project in the first phase of the Tongkun Qinzhou Green Chemical Industry Base operated by Guangxi Tongkun Petrochemical Co., Ltd. It is reported that the project mainly involves the construction of a PTA plant with an annual capacity of 3 million tons, a PDH plant with an annual capacity of 600,000 tons, and an HPPO plant with an annual capacity of 300,000 tons, among other facilities; the total investment amounting to 20.97 billion. Regarding other aspects of this project, the editor has learned from public sources that it has been included in Guangxi Province’s list of key projects for 2022. The construction period is from November 2022 to December 2024, and preliminary preparation work is currently being carried out actively. It is expected that the annual output value of the project once it is operational will reach 20 billion yuan. Nantong’s 5 million tons and Qinzhou’s 5 million tons of Tongkun PTA annual production capacity are set to increase rapidly to 15 million tons! In fact, as early as August 27, 2019, ** in Qinzhou City, Guangxi, and Zhejiang Tongkun Holding Group Co., Ltd. signed the \"Project Investment Contract for the Tongkun Qinzhou Beibu Gulf Green Petrochemical Integration Industrial Base\" in Nanning. Under the investment agreement, Tongkun Group will invest approximately 51 billion yuan to build the Beibu Gulf Green Petrochemical Integrated Industrial Base in Qinzhou, Guangxi, with an annual production capacity of 2.8 million tons of aromatics and 5 million tons of PTA. Tongkun Group is one of the leading enterprises in China’s textile and fiber industry. In recent years, it has carried out vertical integration across the entire industrial chain ranging from refining and chemical production to PTA, polyester production, spinning, and texturing, further strengthening its vertical structure within this chain and thus enhancing its overall competitiveness. In fact, Tongkun Group became a shareholder in 2015 of Zhejiang Petrochemical’s integrated oil refining and chemical project with an annual production capacity of 40 million tons. In the first half of 2017, Tongkun Co., Ltd. acquired a 20% stake in Zhejiang Petrochemical held by Tongkun Group; this stake was then incorporated into the listed company’s assets. In the PTA sector, Jiaxing Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Tongkun Shares, first put into operation the first phase of its facility with an annual production capacity of 1.2 million tons of PTA. By the end of 2017, the second phase of Jiaxing Petrochemical, with an annual production capacity of 2 million tons of PTA, was also completed and brought online. Currently, its actual annual PTA production capacity has reached 4.2 million tons, which is mainly used for internal consumption, giving a self-sufficiency rate of over 94%. The Tongkun Beibu Gulf Green Petrochemical Integrated Industrial Base project represents an important step in Tongkun Group’s efforts to further deepen its strategic layout across the entire industrial chain, building on its participation in the Zhejiang Petrochemical integrated project. It is a manifestation of the group’s continued investment in the petrochemical sector, as well as an expansion of the annual PTA production capacity based on the Jiaxing Petrochemical project. Looking at the current competitive landscape in China’s PTA market, Yisheng Petrochemical currently has an annual production capacity of 13.5 million tons of PTA, with another new project with an annual capacity of 6 million tons under construction. Hengli Petrochemical has achieved a production capacity of 6.6 million tons of PTA per year; two new PTA projects with a capacity of 2.5 million tons each are currently under development, bringing the total capacity to 5 million tons per year. At present, Tongkun Group’s annual PTA production capacity is around 4.2 million tons. With the new PTA plant in Nantong, Jiangsu, which has an annual production capacity of 5 million tons, and another PTA plant in Qinzhou, Guangxi, also with an annual capacity of 5 million tons, once these two new plants come online, the group’s annual PTA production capacity will increase rapidly to around 15 million tons. Why did Zhongkun, a leading player in China’s petrochemical polyester industry, choose Qinzhou for its refining operations? Looking at the competition in the domestic petrochemical polyester market, large enterprises currently show a preference for refining and chemical processing projects. In terms of the geographical locations chosen for these projects, the Hengli refining and chemical integration project is located on Changxing Island in Dalian, the Zhejiang Petrochemical project is situated in the Green Petrochemical Base in Zhoushan, Zhejiang, while the Hengyi Brunei PMB petrochemical project is located on Damai Island in Brunei Darussalam. For the transportation of bulk chemical products, sea shipping from ports offers clear advantages such as large capacity and low transportation costs; this is also the underlying reason why the aforementioned large-scale refining and chemical processing projects have chosen ports and islands with strategically important locations. The Tongkun Beibu Gulf Green Petrochemical Integrated Industrial Base project has chosen Qinzhou as its location, drawing the industry’s attention to this small southwestern city in Guangxi. Qinzhou City in Guangxi, located in the southwest, is at the heart of the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone, connecting Nanning, Haikou, Qinzhou, and Fangchenggang. It represents the most convenient route for accessing the sea in the southwestern region. At the same time, Qinzhou is a land-sea node city on the southern route of the Belt and Road Initiative, and an important city in the Beibu Gulf urban cluster. Its deep-water port is Qinzhou Port, which functions as a bonded port. In recent years, on the basis of completing and putting into operation major projects such as Sinopec’s 10-million-ton oil refining facility, the Qinzhou Petrochemical Industrial Park has also attracted a number of leading enterprises including Shanghai Huayi, Zhejiang Hengyi, and Zhejiang Tongkun. Next, Qinzhou City will focus on developing the port-based petrochemical industry aimed at serving ASEAN ** and the southwestern region. It will prioritize the completion and operation of key projects such as CNPC’s integrated refining and chemical processing transformation project, as well as the Huayi Qinzhou new chemical materials integrated base project. The city will also expand its petrochemical industry by developing the aromatic compounds and olefins industries, thereby creating a development framework that makes use of oil, coal, and gas resources. Its goal is to become an important petrochemical industry hub in the southwestern region through high-standard and high-quality development.