The upstream of China's plastics industry is mainly petrochemical and coal chemical companies, of which petrochemical production accounts for more than 80% of the plastic supply, relatively concentrated; and in petrochemical, Sinopec and PetroChina account for more than 60% share.
The middle reaches of the industry chain are dealers at all levels. The major levels can be divided into three levels: a level dealer (general contractor), a level two dealer (roaster using information asymmetry) and a level three dealer Logistics / billing and 'white glove' secondary terminal).
Downstream of the industrial chain is a variety of plastic processing manufacturers, a wide range of structural dispersion.
First, the upper reaches of the plastic industry chain
1 Overview
Upstream of the plasticization industry, olefin monomers are produced through oil-based processes and coal-based processes, and are polymerized by the polymerization process. In the domestic plastics industry, the proportions of coal-based PE and coal-based PP in total production capacity are respectively 20% 22%, accounting for the majority of production capacity for the oil refining enterprises.
2. Industry chain - Take PE industry chain as an example:
3. The main business and characteristics
Most of the upstream synthetic resin producers are large-scale petrochemical enterprises, which have two distinctive features: First, the industry has a relatively high threshold and requires large-scale capital investment and financial support; second, due to the inefficiency of oil and natural gas resources Renewable, the petrochemical industry has a relatively strong monopoly resources resources.Complain, the synthetic resin market performance for the monopolistic competition in the market after the financial crisis, the main synthetic resin prices gradually rising, so that the overall cost of modified plastics industry, Rise.
From the perspective of domestic production distribution, PE production capacity is mainly concentrated in the two major groups, namely Sinopec Corp. and PetroChina. The two PE companies collectively account for about 80% of the domestic production capacity. The largest supplier of PP is Sinopec Corp., which accounts for 45% of the domestic production capacity %, PetroChina accounted for 26%, the remaining local enterprises; PVC production capacity of the first company for the China National Chemical Corporation, Xinjiang Tianye Group followed.
4. The overall characteristics of the upstream industry
Synthetic resin manufacturers with oligopolistic nature, strong bargaining power, access to the largest proportion of the industry chain profits.With the diversification of raw materials since 2010, a substantial increase in the supply capacity of synthetic resins, some of the common plastic in the supply side Has shown signs of structural excess capacity.
Second, the downstream plastic industry chain
1 Overview
Downstream of the plastics industry is the light industry that mainly focuses on plastic products, covering sub-sectors such as agricultural film, building materials, household appliances, auto parts, molds, container packaging etc. Currently, there are hundreds of subdivisions of plastics, Adjust the formula to produce a new polymer.
2. Finished product classification
In general, plastic can be divided into the following three uses:
3 downstream industry chain
4. Modified plastics and major enterprises
By adding appropriate modifiers to synthetic resins and using certain processing and forming processes, new plastic materials that meet various performance requirements, namely modified plastics, are commonly used in automobiles, appliances, telecommunications Such as material performance requirements of the higher industries.
Among the modified plastics companies, there are mainly two types: one is the leader in the processing of modified plastics, and these enterprises have a good competitive advantage in manufacturing and selling modified plastics for specific downstream products. A class of modified low-end plastics companies, access to a relatively low threshold, such as home appliances, electronic products, toys, lighting, etc. are in a state of perfect competition in the market.
5. The downstream industry overall characteristics
However, with the improvement of residents' consumption requirements and the tightening of national environmental protection policies, the supply and demand of low-end plastics began to shrink to different extents.General plastic technology is relatively mature, especially in recent years, the polymer concentration of new process routes has entered the market , There is homogeneity competition in low-end synthetic resin.
In the Chinese market, the demand for green and environmentally friendly high-end plastic products will grow steadily in the long run. At the request of lightweight vehicles, 30% -40% of the engineering plastics in Europe and the United States are concentrated in the automotive sector, with only 11.82% in China; With respect to medical and health care and disease prevention, the increase in the number of new diseases and the improvement of the medical insurance system will bring about the demand for medical plastic products (biodegradable bags, infusion bags, protective clothing, goggles, sprayers and activated carbon masks).
In addition, appliance upgrades, automotive specialty plastics increased, the outlook for the engineering plastics industry remains uncertain.Domestic technology is relatively backward and other factors, domestic engineering plastics has long been unable to meet the needs of the domestic market, more than half of the need to import engineering plastics.Therefore, special plastics And the field of high-end engineering plastics as demand exceeds supply, you can accept a certain increase.
Third, the middle of the plastic industry chain traders
1 Overview
Due to the plastic industry chain longer, diverse categories, the market demand, attracting a large number of state-owned giants and small private capital into the plastic trade industry.
2. Industry chain
The role of the middle traders in the entire industrial chain is as follows:
3. Intermediate trader market characteristics
a. There are a large number of market participants with low industry concentration.
According to incomplete statistics, there are 400,000 traders of all kinds in the plasticizing industry, among which the major giants include Zhejiang Yuanda, Future Petrochemical, Tomorrow, Sinochem Plastics, etc. The same is true for polyethylene (PE) sales. Two-thirds of the polyethylene is sold to downstream businesses through distributors, and even at the dealership, the specific structure is complicated, with 35% of the polyethylene, except for PetroChina and Sinopec's sales companies After two distributors, the last to reach the downstream polyethylene products processing enterprises.
As the plastics industry has many varieties (more than 100,000 types of plastic products, and still 20% annual rate of new products), large capacity, wide range of applications, the plastic trade industry can not be a dominance or oligopoly. Since 2014, the vertical B2B e-commerce platform has also rapidly blossomed in the plastics industry.
b. Competition intensifies and industry margins approach zero.
According to plastic trade insiders Tucao, plastic trade 10 years ago, the profit per tonne can reach 500 yuan, or even thousands of dollars, 5 tons ago can earn 200 yuan per ton, but now the profit is minimal, loss situation But also from time to time.Because the dealer's almost completely competitive nature, bargaining power is extremely weak, making polyethylene dealers only get the most meager profits in the industry chain.
With the continuous improvement of coal chemical industry, the trend of diversification of products becomes more and more obvious. The supply of products is increased and the downstream is more and more sensitive to the price. At present, the zero-margin policies implemented by all the major e-commerce platforms in China, whether matching or self-employed General Plastics), mostly flat out the price policy.
c. The market price volatility, the timely response to the high price response.
The introduction of futures tools, the rapid expansion of production capacity, coal chemical products involved, jointly promote the plastic industry to speed up the frequency of volatility, the more obvious seasonal trend has now ceased to exist in the past the spot market fluctuations in the price of 1 month 2-3 times , Fluctuating almost 1-2 times a day at present, and traders' price adjustment can not keep up, which will greatly affect the profitability and sales of traders. The ability of traders to find prices and the speed of response are the key capabilities of business transactions and risk control.
d. Improved logistics and financial services capabilities.
Because of the characteristics of commodity trading, the single trade value and weight of plastic trade are large, so the logistics and delivery closely related to the transaction have higher requirements for capital advancement.At present, most of the upstream of plastic raw materials are state-owned refinery or coalification enterprises, Credit sales policies require more stringent, and most of the factory delivery, and the downstream end users are usually small and medium-sized plastic products business, often want to cash on delivery, so traders logistics and shipping capacity and funding directly related to its sales.