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On March 22, the News Office of Sinopec reported that China’s first industrial plant for producing 100,000 tons per year of POE (polyolefin elastomer) using a fully domestic solution-based process has entered the critical phase of commissioning trials at Tianjin Petrochemical. Based on the successful operation of Maoming Petrochemical’s first 50,000-ton/year POE industrial demonstration plant with entirely independent intellectual property rights, this set of technologies enables the domestic production and improvement of the entire value chain, including catalysts, process technologies, plant equipment, and automated control systems. At the same time, Sinopec is accelerating the construction of a 100,000-ton/year POE plant at Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Complex, indicating that domestic production technology for POE using the solution method has entered a phase of full-scale expansion. POE is known as the \"industrial gold\" and plays a key role in various strategic emerging industries such as photovoltaics and new energy vehicles. China’s POE consumption increased from 640,000 tons in 2021 to 1.11 million tons by 2025, with an average annual growth rate of over 14.7%. This has made China one of the largest POE consumption markets in the world, accounting for approximately 38% of global POE consumption. However, due to extremely high technical barriers, China has long relied on imports for POE products, with an import dependence rate of around 76% in 2025. In China’s POE industry, three main production methods coexist: the solution method, the gas-phase method, and the supercritical method. These different methods exhibit significant variations in terms of technical characteristics, production capacity, and profitability, allowing them to meet the needs of various market segments. The first method is the solution-based approach, which is the dominant route worldwide. Its maturity in terms of technology and suitability for various products make it the preferred choice for leading companies around the globe. Its main advantages lie in the wide range of available product grades and stable performance. It accounts for over 70% of the existing and planned production capacity in China at present; however, it requires significant investment and generates high energy consumption ； The second method is the vapor-phase approach, which represents a path of independent innovation in China. This method does not require solvents, and its energy consumption is only 60% that of the solution-based method; it is environmentally friendly during production, with low levels of volatile substances in the products, which aligns well with the goals of low-carbon policies. It offers significant cost advantages. However, due to the characteristics of this process, its ability to develop high-end product grades is limited. At present, it is mainly used in the mid-range photovoltaic film and automotive modification markets ； Third is the supercritical method, which yields products with high purity and a significant premium for high-end applications; it is suitable for use in photovoltaic modules and medical supplies that require high standards. However, it has limitations such as limited production capacity and high costs due to the strict requirements regarding raw material purity, which results in relatively restricted market applications. Leveraging its advantage in large-scale operations, Sinopec has, since 2012, organized the Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Technology to carry out relevant research work, and subsequently developed engineering technologies to overcome various technical and engineering challenges related to catalysts, polymerization processes, and more. In particular, the proprietary metallocene catalysts feature high activity and low cost; by controlling the process conditions, it is possible to achieve stable production of POE products with various structural properties. The proprietary devolatilization technology ensures low VOC levels in the products, resulting in odor levels that are at the leading level in the industry. With the entry into the joint commissioning phase, the local production rate of equipment for Tianjin Petrochemical’s POE plant has risen to 99%, which has contributed to an improvement in the level of domestic production of key equipment for high-performance synthetic materials, thereby ensuring full autonomy and control over POE technology. Sinopec stated that in the future, with the commissioning of the POE production facilities at Tianjin Petrochemical and Zhenhai Refining & Chemical, it will have an annual POE production capacity of 250,000 tons. This will help increase China’s self-sufficiency rate in the POE industry by around 23%, reducing the country’s reliance on imports of POE to around 53%, thereby marking a crucial milestone in the process of local production.