By Wang Jing, China National Chemical Information Center Co., Ltd.
More than 95% of polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) produced in China is the injection molding and fiber grades. Seen from downstream application sectors, the vehicle and electricity are primary users of the two types of PPS discussed above, holding 70% of overall consumption. And environmental filter bags and mechanical industry are other application domains.
China has made significant strides in synthetic technology, leading to a spike in PPS capacity with the Asia-Pacific region dominating worldwide capacity. And Chinese mainland capacity holds 46% overall. China is a major producer and consumer in the Asia-Pacific region with many car and electricity manufactures.
Domestic enterprises-built production equipment without high effective capacity
China’s PPS research and production have been underway since the early 1970s, when over 20 enterprises established PPS synthetic centers and production equipment. Currently, the most advanced enterprise is Zhejiang NHU Co., Ltd.
At the end of 2022, China had 11 enterprises producing PPS with representatives of Zhejiang NHU Co., Ltd. and Chongqing Glion New Material Technology Co., Ltd., of which the former, whose PPS synthetic technique is sodium sulfide process jointly developed with Zhejiang University, built up a PPS industry chain from basic raw materials to polymers, modified processing, and special fibers. And Zhejiang NHU Co., Ltd. has become the only enterprise which can stably produce PPS with fiber, injection molding, extrusion and coating grades. Other domestic enterprises have made great progress regarding polymerized and fiber resin in recent years, with some products’ quality reaching an advanced level globally.
In spite of various national favorable policies encouraging PPS development, China’s PPS capacity, without high effective capacity, was around 90 000 t/a in 2022. This was mostly because domestic PPS purchasing price was higher than selling price and the quantity was over the quality. Second, it was because defective PPS goods have been imported into the domestic market since antidumping policy was implemented. And the lack of brand value and cost-competitive advantages in domestic compounding enterprises hampered the healthy development of PPS.
In 2022, the world was overshadowed, leading to high energy prices. And the increasing prices of some PPS auxiliary materials drove product cost to rise, followed by enterprises lowering operation to maintain the cost.
PPS ongoing and proposed projects are shown in Table 2. Current domestic planning capacity is more than 100 000 t/a, mostly dominated by a large amount of capacity. And the launch in the future will mostly live on leading enterprises.
PPS was supplied from domestic and foreign-funded enterprises to private enterprises as a result of continuous technique breakthroughs in domestic enterprises. However, domestic market is showing signs of overcapacity, with a planning capacity of 100 000 t/a in the future, and capacity expansion is much higher than demand growth. Domestic PPS production enterprises will be more competitive, which recommends enterprises to reduce product cost while boosting capacity, quality and stability.
Encouraging foreign-funded enterprises to invest in domestic special engineering plastics including PPS
To implement the Foreign Investment Law and its regulations, encourage and guide foreigners to invest in specific industries, fields and regions in accordance with the needs of national economy and social development, the Catalogue of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment, which came into effect on January 1, 2023, includes the production of engineering plastics and plastic alloys, PPS, poly (ether-ether-ketone), polyimide, polysulfone, polyethersulfone, polyarylester, polyphenylene ether, special polyamide and its modified materials, liquid crystal polymers and other products.
New energy vehicle and 5G industries have become key PPS consumption fields
The development of new energy vehicles presents both opportunity and challenge for PPS application. On the one hand, some gasoline cars’ PPS parts, such as oil gasoline and engine cooling systems, are removed or curtailed after vehicle electrification. On the other hand, vehicle electrification requests lighter plastic parts to replace steels. Currently, the average usage of partial Chinese cars is 2 to 3 kg, with much room for the improvement, especially for high-end models and new energy vehicles. The replacement of gasoline vehicles is expected to be accelerated as the output of new energy vehicles surges. Moreover, PPS can also be charging-pile material of new energy vehicles.
5G industry is the primary source of PPS demand growth in the electronic field. PPS, such as thin films and substrates, is projected to be in greater demand in the electronics market in the 5G era, especially substrate materials. Furthermore, PPS can also be used in 5G aerial arrays. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the number of 5G base stations built in China reached 2 312 000 in 2022 and is expected to reach 7 600 000 by 2025.
Additionally, with the popularization of wide ultra-low emissions of domestic steel in environmental protection, filter bags will lead the development of high-efficient purification particles, which will then drive PPS demand to grow.
