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Operational Status of Coal-to-Olefins Projects in China in the First Half of 2017 Author/Source: Date: 2017-07-26 Clicks: 10 Recently, reporters obtained information on the operational status of some coal-to-olefins projects during the first half of 2017; these projects continued to operate well in 2017, just as they had in 2016. As of June 25, 2017, the coal-to-olefins project of Pucheng Clean Energy Chemical Co., Ltd. had produced 335,000 tons of polyolefin products, accounting for 55.83% of the annual production target; the company generated revenue of 3 billion yuan, thus meeting ahead of schedule the goal of achieving half of its annual production target by the end of the first half of the year. The project began operations in 2016; over that year it produced 632,700 tons of polyolefin products, generating revenue of 5.28 billion yuan and a profit of 353 million yuan. As of around 12:00 on June 26, 2017, the comprehensive utilization project of coal, oil, and gas resources at Yanchang China Coal Yulin Energy Chemical Co., Ltd. had produced over 550,000 tons of polyolefin products in the first half of the year, thus completing 50% of the annual target four days ahead of schedule ； A total of 325 million kWh of electricity has been generated, accounting for 50% of the annual target; thus both the time target and the volume target have been met. It is estimated that the company’s profits for the first half of the year will exceed 560 million yuan. In 2016, this project produced 1.7848 million tons of chemical products, of which 1.0303 million tons were polyolefins. It generated sales revenue of 10.5 billion yuan, a profit of 845 million yuan, and paid 873 million yuan in taxes and fees. In the first half of 2017, the Shenhua Baotou coal-to-olefins project sold a total of 171,800 tons of polyethylene and 170,400 tons of polypropylene, representing increases of 32.6% and 36.5% respectively on a year-on-year basis. In 2016, the project took various measures to produce 579,600 tons of polyolefin products and sell 574,700 tons of such products, generating main business revenue of 4.293 billion yuan and thus fully meeting the annual production and operation targets. Clearly, despite the dual pressures of low international oil prices in 2016 and a continuous sharp rise in domestic coal prices starting from the third quarter, coal-to-olefins projects continued to operate steadily and achieved good profits. Driven by positive expectations regarding the economics of coal-to-olefins projects, enthusiasm for building such projects in China has remained strong over the past few years. By the end of 2016, China had built and put into operation 28 coal-based olefin and methanol-based polypropylene production facilities, with a total polyolefin production capacity of 11.73 million tons per year. This accounted for 28.94% of China’s total polyolefin production capacity of 40.53 million tons that year. In the first quarter of 2017, numerous coal-to-olefins projects began construction, including the coal chemical integration project of Anhui Zhongan United Coal Chemical Co., Ltd., Phase II of the Ordos deep coal processing demonstration project of Zhongtian Hechuang Energy Co., Ltd., Feihong Chemical Co., Ltd. belonging to Shanxi Coking Coal Group, Jilin Cornell Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., Shandong Jiutai Energy Group, and Qinghai Damei Coal Industry Co., Ltd. By the end of 2017, it is expected that the share of coal-based polyolefin production in the total domestic polyolefin production capacity will rise further to 32.53%. Including other plans and projects set to be launched, the annual growth rate of domestic coal-based olefin production is expected to reach around 2.3 million tons over the next 5 years. By the end of 2022, the total domestic production capacity for coal-based olefins will reach 25.6 million tons per year, accounting for over 40% of the total domestic olefin production capacity at that time.