This article will present two aspects, Polyester Chip Production, and Market Analysis.

Production Capacity Increase

In 2021, China’s polyester chip production capacity increase reaches 681,000 tons, with a growth rate of 6.7%.

Specifically, in the past five years (2016-2021), the domestic polyester chip production capacity has shown an “M” trend. And 2019-2020 is a rapid development period. In 2015 and 2016, the polyester market was relatively weak, mainly due to the large inventory pressure and weak downstream demand. Since 2019, the prosperity of the industry has gone up significantly. In 2020, 775,000 tons of polyester chips have been put into production. The independent production capacity is 600,000 tons (Huaya, Hengke, Baihong).

In 2021, the new independent devices for polyester chip production include 35,000 differentiated chips from Anhui Wanwei, 250,000 supporting industrial yarns from Zhejiang Sunway New Materials, and 200,000 non-woven chips from Tianlong New Materials. It can be seen that the new production in 2021 still lies in specialty chips.

In 2021, China’s polyester chip production reaches 8.675 million tons with an increase of 3.74%. In addition to the continued expansion of production capacity, the relatively stable downstream demand provides solid support for the start of construction. Secondly, differentiated products have gradually become the favorite products for chip spinning manufacturers recently, although specialty chips cannot compete with the regular ones. Finally, with the implementation of banning the import of solid waste policy in 2018, recycled products have entered the market. And the amount of chips purchased by manufacturers has also been increased significantly, which has also brought additional demand momentum to the market.

Specifically, from January to February in 2021, downstream weaving mills stop for holidays one after another. Affected by this, the output of polyester chips is the lowest during the whole year. From March to May, the construction returns to normal after the holiday. Demand has returned to normal, especially from March to May, which is the traditional peak season for the industry, and the start of construction remains relatively high. From June to August, it is the traditional textile off-season. From September to December, the traditional peak season for textiles, domestic orders are supported by “Double 11” and “Double 12”, and foreign orders are supported by “Christmas season”, so the fourth quarter maintains a high load.

Increasing Demand from Polyester Film and Industrial Yarn

The demand for polyester chips for polyester films and industrial yarns is expected to exceed 50%.

From the perspective of China’s polyester chip consumption in recent years, the main areas are concentrated in the fields of civilian filament, recycled staple fiber, polyester film, industrial yarn, etc., of which the demand for civilian filament accounts for 36%. In the future, with the continuous increase of direct spinning filament production, the production scale of domestic chip-spinning filament will continue to be suppressed. In the past two years, the production capacity of geotextiles, polyester films, and industrial yarns has continued to expand.

  1. Chip spinning filament for civil use: With the gradual updating and progress of domestic spinning technology, the production capacity of melt direct spinning polyester filament continues to increase, and the overall benefit is good. The overall scale of chip spinning yarn is shrinking and most are specialty polyester, like dyed yarn, cationic yarn, flame-retardant yarn, antimony-free These specialty types are produced to meet export demand.
  2. Polyester film: The Chinese name of BOPET is a biaxially oriented polyester film, which has the characteristics of high strength, good rigidity, transparency, and high gloss. BOPET is located at the end of the polyester industry chain and belongs to the terminal product. 6μ-75μ is mostly used in the field of packaging and printing, and 188μ-250μ is mostly in the electronic and industrial fields, and part in the construction field. From the perspective of this year, especially after the second quarter, the outbreak of foreign epidemics, some foreign orders were transferred to domestic production and processing, and the overall supply of goods in the market was tight, which boosted the continuous rise of film prices. Driven by this, the production plan for the next three years Increase, especially in 2022 is expected to have 900,000 new production capacity.
  3. Industrial yarn: Polyester industrial yarn is widely used in automobile and conveyor belts, webbing, geotechnical, transportation, and other industries as one of the raw materials. Since the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, thanks to the development of my country’s high-speed railways, highways, water conservancy and other infrastructure, the production of my country’s industrial textile industry has maintained rapid growth, becoming the world’s largest producer of industrial textiles, trading countries, and consumer countries. The consumption of polyester industrial yarn has steadily increased year by year.