As a global trade commodity, styrene has attracted much attention in its distribution pattern and supply and demand trends. China is not only the world's largest producer of styrene, but also the world's largest consumer. How will the pattern of supply and demand in the later stage be interpreted?
From the data on the apparent consumption of styrene in China in recent years, the output, apparent consumption and self-sufficiency rate are all oscillating, while the import volume is declining year by year. Specifically, in terms of output, the total domestic production in 2013 is the first time. Breaking through 5 million tons, in 2017 it exceeded 6 million tons to 6.55 million tons, and apparent consumption increased from 8.1 million tons in 2013 to 9.7 million tons in 2017, entering 2018, still present Continue to increase the trend, the apparent consumption in the first half of the year increased to 4.85 million tons.
In recent years, styrene has been affected by the increase in production and the decline in imports. The self-sufficiency rate has also increased significantly. As of 2017, the self-sufficiency rate has increased from less than 60% in the previous years to 67.62%, while in the first half of 2018, self-sufficiency The rate has a new breakthrough, further raised to 71.3% level.
It is worth mentioning that in recent years, the decline in import volume is obvious. According to the import data of the Customs Statistics Bureau, the import volume of styrene in the past few years was basically 3.7 million tons/ton. In 2016, it fell back to 3.5 million tons/year. A little below the level, 2017 has dropped to 3.2 million tons / year. In 2018, affected by anti-dumping and arbitrage changes in various regions, the import volume continued to shrink. The total import volume from January to July was 1.56 million tons, down from the same period of last year. 11.15 million tons, from this trend, the annual import volume fell below 3 million tons in 2018 will become a high probability event.
Since 2018, after the Qingdao Bay Chemical 500,000 tons/year styrene plant was officially put into commercial operation after being ignited in mid-January, the Anhui 260,000 tons/year installation was also stable after the product was released on August 10, recently. Maintain full capacity operation. Before the deadline, China's styrene production capacity has reached 9.37 million tons / year. According to the latest news, CITIC Guoan Ruihua 200,000 tons of styrene co-production of 80,000 tons / year propylene oxide plant, Heng Petrochemical's 700,000 tons/year styrene plant and the largest domestic sulphurization and petrochemical integration project of 1.2 million tons/year styrene plant are scheduled to be put into operation before the end of 2018. The annual production capacity of styrene in China exceeds 11 million tons. Although there are still some uncertainties in the actual production schedule, the national production and self-sufficiency rate will soon reach a new level. The gap between China's styrene supply and demand will gradually disappear, and the dependence on import sources will also drop sharply.