As the world's ABS resin-related processing center, China is already the world's largest consumer of ABS resin, the consumption structure determines the market demand for ABS resin in China has been greatly affected by the international economic situation characteristics.China's ABS resin market applications mainly for the car , Household appliances, office equipment, etc. In 2016, the apparent consumption of domestic ABS resin was about 5.04 million tons, an increase of 180,000 tons over 2015.
The application of ABS resin products in China is highly concentrated on electronic / electrical accessories such as refrigerators, TV sets, telephones, office equipment and other small household appliances, toys and information technology equipment, among which the demand for ABS, such as computers, air conditioners and copiers, Rapid growth in the field of transportation, automobiles, motorcycles will also significantly increase the consumption of ABS, used in auto parts high-impact, heat-resistant ABS will be a new demand growth point.But in some applications, ABS resins are also facing new competition from other modified resins or resin blends with lower cost advantages.
(1) domestic ABS Resin market product Features
Product price is the key to determining market competitiveness: Affected by the competition of downstream products, ABS resin users are generally sensitive to the price.Because ABS resin belongs to common plastic, the added value of its products is relatively low.Price is the main factor affecting the sales volume in the market, and service is also an effective means to enhance the competitiveness of products.
Product quality is the life of the product: High-end market for higher product quality requirements, especially in the field of white goods, there is no stable quality can not enter the market.
General material instead of special material phenomenon is common: Domestic specialty materials market shrinking, including GE, Samsung and other special material brands in the country have disappeared.On the one hand, general materials instead of special materials generally prevail, the domestic ABS resin market is not standardized, the overall level is low, shoddy phenomenon is common, such as universal Material instead of board material, instead of spray paint, etc .; the other hand, ABS resin was replaced by other materials, such as refrigerator panels were HIPS instead.
Other materials replace each other: Including HIPS, PP, PC and other materials to replace ABS resin.It is mainly due to the replacement of ABS resin and alternative products, the price difference.PC and other engineering plastics and alloy materials impact ABS resin back to the market, especially the flame retardant ABS market.
Relative excess capacity: The domestic production capacity of ABS resin was 3.68 million tons in 2015, with a production volume of 3.03 million tons and a market demand of 4.66 million tons, although the production capacity is less than the market demand due to the impact of imported products, the actual operating rate is only about 83%.
(2) domestic ABS Resin supply and demand situation
Although China's ABS resin production capacity and output growth rapidly, but are based on general-purpose ABS resin, accounting for more than 70% of the total application, low-end products are mostly unable to meet domestic demand, each year still need a large number of imports. Domestic ABS Resin market demand is generally increasing trend, although after 2010 three consecutive years of market downturn, but after 2013 the market force, the rapid increase in demand, by 2016 demand reached 5040000 tons.
The supply of domestic ABS resin includes both imported and domestic products, with its domestic output increasing year by year, especially after 2013. The domestic consumption is 3.38 million tons and the import volume is 1.69 million tons in 2016.
The demand for ABS resin in the domestic market will decrease from 2010 to 2012, and the import volume will drop rapidly. The domestic production of ABS resin will increase rapidly in 2015, while the import volume will remain at about 1.6 million tons / year. In 2016, the import volume of ABS resin in China was 155.32 Ten thousand tons, a decrease of 70,000 tons over 2015.
In the next few years, the demand for ABS in China will grow at an average annual rate of 4%, and the domestic demand for ABS will reach 6 million tons by 2020. With the substantial increase of domestic ABS resin production capacity and continuous improvement of technical level In the next few years, ABS resin imports will gradually decrease, self-sufficiency rate will continue to increase.
(3) Domestic ABS Resin import and export analysis and forecast
China's ABS resin products are mainly low-end general-purpose materials, can not meet the needs of domestic high-end products, each year from the country (territory) large imports. ABS resin imports and exports in 2016 than the slight increase in 2015.
ABS resin import and export trade in 2016 mainly to feed processing trade. Feed processing trade is mainly for foreign markets, China is just a processing base.
In 2016, feedstock processing trade accounted for 46.33% of the total trade volume, down 6.2% from 2015, while general trade was 40.90%, an increase of 6.79% over 2015. The decrease in the volume of feed processing trade and the increase in general trade volume There are several main influencing factors:
First, due to the impact of rising domestic production costs, especially labor costs, the cost advantage of China's feedstock processing has been greatly weakened. Therefore, foreign manufacturers are increasingly giving their processing trade to cheap labor-producing Southeast Asian countries, leading China to a Material processing trade decreased significantly;
Second, with the internationalization of China's own brands and the enhancement of quality effects, more and more foreign users are willing to purchase Chinese-made branded products, leading to the weakening of the reputation of foreign brands and the reduction of market share, resulting in the volume of feed processing trade Decrease;
Third is the internationalized Chinese independent brand. In order to ensure the international competitiveness of product quality, higher quality and specialized ABS raw materials are required. At present, domestic ABS resins are mainly used for general purpose materials and can not meet certain requirements. Therefore, Need to be imported, resulting in an increase in the volume of general trade imports.
From the current source of domestic ABS resin imports, the most important is from China Taiwan and South Korea, accounting for about 86% of the domestic import market, a substantial squeeze of other opponents in the Chinese market space.