Qingdao Bay 400,000 tons/year PVC project officially put into operation

The PVC industry is different from the general petroleum derivatives industry. For a long time, PVC production has been coexisting with two raw material routes, one is the ethylene method using petroleum as the initial raw material, and the other is the calcium carbide method using coal as the initial raw material. At present, clean ethylene production methods are commonly used internationally. However, limited by the resource endowment of rich coal, poor oil, and little gas, the high energy consumption and high pollution calcium carbide method has developed rapidly in our country. In recent years, due to the high international crude oil prices, * * It has raised the production cost of the ethylene process, while the calcium carbide process has an absolute cost advantage due to low coal prices and low environmental protection thresholds. Especially for coal, electricity and chemical integrated enterprises in the western region, the advantages are more obvious, causing my country's calcium carbide process to enter a period of disorderly expansion. In 2012, my country's PVC production capacity reached 24.5 million tons per year, of which the calcium carbide method accounted for 80%. However, the actual production and sales volume that year was only 13.478 million tons, the operating rate was only 53.8%, and there was serious overcapacity. In the past two years, the production capacity of calcium carbide method has increased, and it is conservatively estimated to be more than 2 million tons. The competition in the domestic PVC market is extremely fierce, and the competition is mainly based on price reduction, so that the entire industry has fallen into a loss situation.

In the past two years, the production capacity of calcium carbide method has increased, and it is conservatively estimated to be more than 2 million tons. The competition in the domestic PVC market is extremely fierce, and the competition is mainly based on price reduction, so that the entire industry has fallen into a loss situation. However, the high cost disadvantage of the ethylene process is prominent, and it has fallen into a serious loss situation. Many ethylene process companies were forced to reduce or limit production and barely maintain their operations at the minimum load. Some ethylene process companies simply closed down, and even some large petrochemical companies decided to completely withdraw from the PVC business. As crude oil prices fell sharply, the operating conditions of some ethylene process companies improved, and companies that had previously suffered minor losses began to make profits. Some experts predict that international crude oil may fall further, and may even fall below $60. Even if oil prices rebound in the future, the intensity will be limited and the difficulties will be very great in the short term. First, the rapid development of shale oil and gas exploration in the United States and Canada has reduced the amount of imported oil. At the same time, the United States is gradually relaxing oil export restrictions and expanding refined oil exports, which will have an impact on international oil prices. Second, the economic growth of emerging economies has weakened and oil demand has dropped sharply, which has a greater impact on oil prices. At the same time, emerging economies are increasingly paying attention to the pollution caused by fossil energy, and reducing disposable energy consumption is the future trend. Third, in recent years, due to high market expectations, a large amount of capital has poured in, forming an oil price bubble. Market expectations are now lowered and oil prices are gradually returning to rationality.

However, the decline in crude oil will not have a large transmission effect on my country's PVC prices. First, the industry is dominated by the calcium carbide method, and the ethylene method has a relatively small market share. Second, the current PVC price is basically at the bottom and has hit the bottom line of survival. Third, market demand has slowed down. Compared with the ethylene method, the calcium carbide method consumes 1.8 more tons of standard coal for each ton of PVC produced. The entire industry consumes 18 million to 20 million more tons of standard coal a year, causing great harm to the environment. In addition, the calcium carbide method uses mercury chloride as a catalyst and is the industry with the largest consumption of mercury, accounting for 60% of the country's total consumption. The Minamata Convention, an international mercury ban, will enter into force in 2016. As my country is one of the contracting parties, it will be more difficult to implement the treaty in a timely manner. Currently, international oil prices are falling and domestic PVC market prices are rising steadily, which will enhance the competitiveness of ethylene process companies. At the same time, relevant departments should strengthen guidance, limit the expansion of the calcium carbide process, accelerate transformation and upgrading, encourage the ethylene process, increase market share, change the current industry structure, and promote the healthy development of the PVC industry.

China's dependence on foreign crude oil is already very high. If we vigorously develop ethylene-based PVC, there will be greater pressure on the import volume and apparent consumption of crude oil. The ethylene process consumes 6.25 tons of crude oil for every ton of product produced. Last year, my country's calcium carbide method PVC output reached 13.7 million tons. If all were changed to the ethylene method, it would be equivalent to consuming an additional 100 million tons of crude oil a year. It is simply impossible for China to import another 100 million tons of crude oil. First, there are no sources and channels of raw materials. Second, the transportation volume is large. Once energy security issues occur, it will pose a great threat to China's crude oil imports. In addition, China has a shortage of ethylene itself and needs to import it. If a large amount is used to produce PVC, the supply of ethylene will be even tighter, thus forming a vicious cycle in the industry.

At present, the development model of many chlor-alkali enterprises in the central and western regions has evolved from the simple production of chlor-alkali products in the past to a park-based, integrated, and large-scale circular economy model, forming a resource-saving and environmentally friendly entire industry chain structure. Western companies, including Sichuan Yibin Tianyuan Company, all have good product chain designs. Compared with the past, today's chlor-alkali enterprises have undergone profound changes. Especially after solving the problem of mercury pollution, calcium carbide-based PVC can continue to develop in China.

The environmental pollution of calcium carbide PVC must be solved by technological progress. In recent years, Zhongtai Fukang's average PVC production has reached 2,400 tons/day, and it also produces 7,000 tons of carbide slag with a water content of 40%. In order to reduce pollution, Zhongtai Fukang converts 100% of it into cement raw materials. At the same time, during the construction of the 800,000 tons/year PVC project, Zhongtai Fukang also invested 100 million yuan and took the lead in the chlor-alkali industry to conduct underground anti-seepage treatment for vinyl chloride units to prevent groundwater contamination. In addition, Zhongtai Fukang has launched two systems, conventional analysis and in-depth analysis, to recycle all waste acid. For wastewater, Zhongtai Fukang has also equipped with a mercury-containing wastewater concentration and evaporation process to treat and reuse the wastewater to achieve zero discharge.

The environmental pollution of calcium carbide PVC must be solved by technological progress. In recent years, Zhongtai Fukang's average PVC production has reached 2,400 tons/day, and it also produces 7,000 tons of carbide slag with a water content of 40%. In order to reduce pollution, Zhongtai Fukang converts 100% of it into cement raw materials. At the same time, during the construction of the 800,000 tons/year PVC project, Zhongtai Fukang also invested 100 million yuan and took the lead in the chlor-alkali industry to conduct underground anti-seepage treatment for vinyl chloride units to prevent groundwater contamination. In addition, Zhongtai Fukang has launched two systems, conventional analysis and in-depth analysis, to recycle all waste acid. For wastewater, Zhongtai Fukang has also equipped with a mercury-containing wastewater concentration and evaporation process to treat and reuse the wastewater to achieve zero discharge.

Sinochem News reporter learned from my country's calcium carbide/ethylene and vinyl-PVC-downstream industry chain analysis meeting held by China Chlor-Alkali Network on March 26 that with the decrease in imported ethylene prices and the diversification of ethylene raw material sources, 1.5 million tons/year of ethylene-based polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production capacity will be added in China from 2020 to 2022. According to the relevant person in charge of the China Chlor-Alkali Network, there will be an increase in ethylene process PVC expansion projects in the next two years, including Yantai Wanhua's 400,000 tons/year ethylene process PVC device that uses propane cracking to produce ethylene and propylene, as well as Qingdao Bay Chemical Phase II 400,000 tons/year and Huayi Qinzhou 400,000 tons/year ethylene process PVC projects. It is understood that domestic ethylene-based PVC companies that previously used imported ethylene, dichloroethane, and vinyl chloride monomer as raw materials were limited by the high cost of raw materials and the distribution of domestic resources and energy. The annual production capacity is about 4.78 million tons, accounting for only 19% of the total domestic PVC production capacity, while the calcium carbide PVC production capacity accounts for 81%.

The person in charge analyzed that there are two major reasons for the expansion of domestic ethylene-based PVC production capacity. One is the increase in ethylene production capacity and the diversification of raw material sources. From 2018 to 2022, the world's ethylene production capacity will gradually increase. Among them, the United States increased its ethylene production by 5.44 million tons in 2018 and 2.2 million tons in 2019. From 2021 to 2022, it will increase its production by 2.5 million tons and 4.5 million tons respectively, and the total increased ethylene production will reach 14.64 million tons; In 2020, 2021 and 2022, Northeast Asia will increase ethylene production by 3.63 million tons, 2.6 million tons and 800,000 tons respectively; the Middle East will increase production by 880,000 tons, 2 million tons and 1 million tons respectively; China will also increase production by 480,000 tons, 544,000 tons and 760,000 tons of ethylene in the next three years.