China's modified plastics market demand is strong, domestic substitution to promote the overall development of the industry.

Modified plastics are widely used in home appliances, automobiles, communications and many other national pillar industries and emerging industries. The downstream applications of modified plastics include home appliances, automobiles, electronic and electrical, office equipment and power tools, among which home appliances and automobiles are currently modified. The most important downstream application industry of plastics.

At present, the domestic high-end modified plastics are still mainly imported. With the increase of domestic environmental protection pressure and the intensification of global competition, the industry concentration is expected to further improve, the industry head enterprises may usher in development opportunities.

Huge market development space

At present, the competition pattern of the domestic modified plastics industry can be divided into three levels, namely, large-scale foreign-funded enterprises, large-scale domestic-funded enterprises, and small-scale domestic-funded enterprises. Large-scale foreign-funded enterprises still occupy a major position in the high-end market of modified plastics. Statistics show that at present, the total number of domestic modified plastics enterprises exceeds 3000, but there are only more than 70 enterprises with a production capacity of more than 3000 tons, and there are few domestic enterprises with a production capacity of more than 10,000 tons.

For most small domestic enterprises, due to the small scale of production, it is usually difficult to enter the supplier system of large automobile manufacturing and home appliance customers, and they often obtain orders through cooperation or OEM. However, the modified plastics industry in many developed countries has many years of development history, large international chemical enterprises such as BASF, Dow, DuPont, SABIC and so on.

Most of the domestic modified plastics enterprises began to rise after the development of domestic household appliances and automobile industry. Although the development speed is relatively fast in recent years, there is still a certain gap between the comprehensive competitiveness and the international large chemical enterprises. At present, the domestic high-end modified plastics market is still dominated by imports, and the demand for import substitution is large.

However, in recent years, large-scale domestic-funded enterprises have begun to catch up, continue to increase R & D investment, and the technology gap with large international enterprises has gradually narrowed. Some enterprises to research and develop functional, high-performance products as the starting point, and gradually penetrate into the high-end market. On the other hand, as China's upstream petrochemical enterprises continue to strengthen the independent research and development of products, it also drives the overall innovation speed of the domestic modified plastics industry.

Market demand is increasing. It is predicted that by 2025, the demand for modified plastics in the automotive sector alone will reach 1180.24 tons, of which the demand for modified plastics for new energy vehicles will reach 2.3621 million tons. Driven by the domestic trends of "plastic instead of wood", "plastic strip steel", lightweight automobiles, and high-performance home appliance materials, my country's plastic modification rate has a huge space.

Promote the development of automotive lightweight

As far as the automotive market is concerned, the application of modified plastics in automobiles accounts for about 19% of the total. At present, automobiles are undergoing major changes from traditional mechanical and electrical products and vehicles to large-scale mobile intelligent terminals. Intelligence and lightweight are the development direction of automobile industry upgrading.

With the characteristics of low density, high strength and good molding process performance, modified plastic materials have become one of the important starting points for the realization of the goal of automobile lightweight, and are widely used in automobile interior and exterior decoration, electronic and electrical, and powertrain. Despite the impact of chip shortages and repeated epidemics, the automotive market is still recovering in 2021.

According to the data released by the China Automobile Association in 2021 China's automobile production and sales were completed 26.082 million and 26.275 million vehicles, an increase of 3.4 and 3.8 percent, respectively, according to the amount of modified plastics per vehicle 150kg to calculate the current demand for modified plastics in China's automotive field is about 3.91 million tons.

With the promotion of "carbon peak, carbon neutral" and other policies, the advantages of modified plastics in weight reduction and consumption reduction will promote the continuous growth of demand in the automobile manufacturing industry. The Chinese Society of Automotive Engineering stated in the "Energy-saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap 2.0" that the lightweight coefficient of passenger cars will be reduced by at least 25% in 2035. In today's automotive market environment, strict carbon emission regulations and fierce competition Together lead to rapid changes in the entire automotive supply chain.

According to the data, 1kg of modified plastic can replace 2-3kg of steel and other denser materials, while the vehicle weight is reduced by 10%, fuel consumption is reduced by 6%-8%. Therefore, from the perspective of environmental protection, it can be said that it is imminent to reduce the weight of the car, and the modified plastic is the key to realize the lightweight of the car.

Promote the intelligent transformation of home appliances

In addition, modified plastics are also the most widely used in the field of household appliances, accounting for up to 34%. With the characteristics of light weight, high strength, excellent electrical insulation performance and excellent chemical stability, the demand for modified plastics for housings, blades, exterior decorations and other accessories of household appliances has steadily increased, with modified plastics accounting for about 30-40% of raw materials in refrigerators and washing machines.

Especially in the field of small appliances, kitchen utensils, personal care and other products, are used in modified plastics. Common small household appliances include electric pressure cooker, induction cooker, noodle machine, steamed bread machine, soybean milk machine, cooking machine, juicer, boiling water cooker, hair dryer, straightener, shaver and so on. How to rationally apply modified plastic materials to reduce the cost of small household appliances and ensure product quality is one of the important ways for products to occupy the market.

Common modified plastics in the field of household appliances include modified PBT, modified PET, modified PA, modified PPO, etc. for internal parts, as well as modified PP, ABS, PC/ABS, etc. for external parts and shells. In addition, the rise of smart home appliances, home appliances with modified plastics are mostly flame retardant, and according to different uses, requirements to meet the high glow wire, high leakage marks, high RTI and other conditions.

China, a big producer and consumer of household appliances, produced 218.357 million units of air conditioners in 2021, up 9.4 percent year-on-year; 89.921 million refrigerators, down 0.4 percent, and 86.185 million washing machines, up 9.5 percent.

Modified plastics in flame retardant, strength, weather resistance, environmental protection and other basic properties and easy molding, rich color, shock absorption and noise absorption and other properties have more incomparable advantages of other materials, with China's home appliance industry to intelligent transformation, home appliances The demand for modified plastics will continue to increase and the application scenarios will be more diversified.