Production and Application of  Plastic
             Building Materials and Auxiliaries
1. Present status
Plastic building materials mainly include plastic doors and
windows,  pipes,   floorings,   wall  paper  and  sanitary
equipment. Plastic doors and  windows  and  plastic  pipes
occupy a big proportion of the total.
The total output of plastic building materials was close to
400 000 tons in 1995, accounting  for  around  7%  of  the
total plastic output.
(1) plastic pipes
There were nearly 200 plastic pipe producers  in  China  in
1996. The total capacity reached 430 000 t/a. 10 producers
had a capacity of over 10 000 t/a and their total capacity
was 172 000 t/a, accounting for around 40% of the national
total. Table 1 shows the detail.
China can produce more than 10 varieties of  plastic  types
in nearly a hundred specifications. The major  variety  is
PVC pipe.
Rigid PVC pipes used in water drainage  of  buildings  have
  the  best  momentum  in   development   and   application
dissemination, and the  consumption  has  been  increasing
fast in the recent years.  They  have  been  used  in  200
million m2 residential buildings in more than 20 provinces
,   autonomous  regions  and  municipalities.   PVC   flame
-retardant wire sleeves have been used  in  around  10%  of
civil buildings. The application of  rigid  PVC  pipes  in
urban tap water pipelines is also expanding. More  than  3
000 km rigid PVC pipelines have been  used  in  tap  water
systems in over 30 cities  including  Tianjin,   Shenyang,
Jinan, Qingdao, Fuzhou and Nantong,  as  well  as  several
dozen small towns. Experiments have been conducted on  the
application of rigid PVC pipes in water supply of  10  000
m2 residential building in Shanghai,  Fujian  and  Harbin.
Experiments have also been conducted on the application of
high density polyethylene  fuel  gas  pipes  in  Shanghai,
Harbin, Wuxi, Chengdu and Shenzhen.  Around  300  km  HDPE
fuel gas pipelines  have  been  laid  in  urban  fuel  gas
systems in Harbin.
(2) plastic doors and windows
China has more than 1 000 production lines of plastic  door
and window materials with a capacity of around 300 000 t/a
. There are more than 2 000 assembly lines of plastic doors
and windows with a capacity of over 30 million m2,  enough
to meet the need in 60 - 100 million  m2  buildings.   The
output of plastic door and window materials was around 150
000 tons in 1995.
(3) plastic floorings
Several dozen production lines of  plastic  floorings  have
been introduced from abroad since  the  80's.   The  total
annual capacity has  reached  100  million  m2,   and  the
capacity of sheet floorings accounts for around two-thirds
of the total. Plastic floorings were in  short  supply  in
Beijing and Tianjin in 1989 and 1990. Nearly 40  producers
used domestic equipment to produce PVC  floorings.   Their
output reached 10 000 - 15 000  tons.   They  were  mostly
block floorings with uneven quality. There are  more  than
100 PVC flooring producers  today  in  China.   The  total
annual capacity has reached 200 million m2 and the  annual
output is around 40 million m2.
2. Development trend
During the Ninth Five-year Plan period the priority will be
laid on the application dissemination of rigid PVC  pipes,
and efforts will be made to develop new plastic pipes.  In
residential  buildings  to  be  constructed  before  2000,
plastic water drainage pipes will be used  in  50%  indoor
water drainage systems, and plastic pipes will be used  in
50% wire sleeves and  20%  outer  wall  downspouts.   More
  demonstrative  projects  will  be  implemented  for   the
application of urban  water  supply  plastic  pipes,   and
plastic pipes will be used in 30% water  supply  pipelines
(with a diameter of less than 400 mm) in new cities and 60%
water supply pipelines in  towns.   The  market  share  of
plastic doors and windows will be 15% in  2000,   and  the
proportion of plastic doors and windows will be more  than
50% in heating regions such as Northeast China,  Northwest
China and North China and not less  than  30%  in  coastal
areas.
  Table 2  shows  the  demand  of  major  plastic  building
materials in urban buildings in China in 2000 based on the
above-mentioned development trend.
3. PVC resin and plastic processing auxiliaries
(1) PVC resin
China has 75 PVC resin producers. The capacity in 1995 was 1.
7 million t/a, the output was  1. 374  million  tons,   the
  import  amount  was  495  000  tons  and   the   apparent
consumption was 1.869 million tons.   The  demand  of  PVC
resin is expected to reach 2.2 million tons in 2000.
    Table 1   Major PVC Pipe Producers and Their Capacity in China
                                            ('000 t/a)
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Producers                                     Capacity
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Xiamen Huaya Plastic Co., Ltd. &nbs