Foreign Trade of Engineering Plastics in China   

By Li Shun, China Rubber & Plastic Research Institute, CNCIC

In recent two years, major engineering plastics in China still mainly depended on imports, and their net imports are expanding year by year (see Table 1 and Table 2). Out of the total trade of major engineering plastics in China in 2009 - 2010, the general trade accounted for a very small proportion, but the processing trade accounted for a major share. Take PBT for example, in 2010, China imported about 127 000 tons of PBT, of which the general trade accounted for about 18.9%, and the processing trade accounted for about 57.3%, indicating that only a small part of China's PBT imports were for domestic consumption; and out of China's PBT exports, the general trade accounted for about 15.8%, and the processing trade accounted for about 78.4%, indicating that Chinese enterprises mostly import the primary PBT resin and then process it into products and export the latter, or that some foreign-funded PBT enterprises in China are mainly engaged in processing trade of PBT.

Table 1  Imports of engineering plastics in China in recent two years  (thousand tons)
          2009                                                     2010
Products    Total imports    General trade    Processing trade    Total imports    General trade    Processing trade
PC    1026.87    334.23     555.83    1264.25     358.17     692.25
PBT    127.17     26.15     73.93    163.171    30.79     93.54
POM    165.94     50.94     84.23    222.95     71.24     107.87
PA66 salt    174.11     59.14     84.82    224.68     70.20     107.84
ABS    2168.00     647.56     1431.5    2169.37     513.15     1511.24

Table 2  Exports of engineering plastics in China in recent two years (thousand tons)
　　　　    2009                                                     2010
Products    Total imports    General trade    Processing trade    Total imports    General trade    Processing trade
PC    214.70     7.65     190.74    295.20     13.20     257.43
PBT    51.73     4.13     44.47    81.81     12.95     64.14
POM    31.17     2.19     27.45    57.37     13.27     42.21
PA66 salt    29.35     6.51     18.31    43.49     8.75     27.974
ABS    49.82     4.66     42.6    54.98     6.57     37.68

   The trade situation of PC, POM and ABS in China is very similar to that of PBT. For example, out of the total import volume of ABS, the processing trade accounted for up to 69.7% in 2010; and out of the total export volume of these engineering plastics, the processing trade accounted for about 75%. The imbalance between the imports and exports reflects a serious structural problem of China's engineering plastic industry, that is, Chinese enterprises only focus on the production of general-purpose and low-end engineering plastics, but specialized and high-end engineering plastics mainly rely on imports.
    As mentioned above, after materials imported in the form of processing trade are processed, manufactured and assembled into semi-finished or finished products in China, the latter are quickly exported to other countries, so they are actually not consumed in China. Therefore, the processing trade does not represent the actual domestic demand.
   Take PBT for example. In China in 2010, the apparent consumption of PBT/PET was about 300 000 tons, and the domestic output of PBT was about 218 000 tons, and the actual domestic demand for PBT was about 236 000 tons (see Table 3). Up to now, China's total PBT production capacity has reached 308 000 t/a and shows a rapid growth (see Table 4). In China, PBT is mainly used into low-voltage electrical appliances, but its uses in automobiles and other high-end areas are very small. In the future, if its applications are not expanded, the PBT market China-made will face oversupply.

Table 3  Actual domestic demand for PBT in China in 2010 (thousand tons, %)
Output    Apparent consumption    Self-sufficiency rate /%    Actual consumption               Actual self-sufficiency rate
218    300    72.7    236    92.4

Table 4 Major manufacturers of PBT in China in 2011                                   (thousand t/a )
Company    Name    Location    Capacity                                                                                
Sinopec Yizheng Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd.    Yizheng, Jiangsu Province    80
Nantong Xingchen Synthetic Material Co., Ltd.    Nantong, Jiangsu Province    68
Chang Chun (Jiangsu) Chemical Co., Ltd.     Changshu, Jiangsu Province     60
Xinjiang Tunhe Polyester Co.,