On October 25, Xinhua News Agency's "Economic Reference News" energy edition issued a headline report, once again focusing on Shenghong's strategic transformation, deeply analyzing Shenghong's three "million-tonne" projects to build a world-class new energy and new materials industry cluster, and drawing a "new blueprint" for strategic transformation.
The following is the full text of the report:
"According to the new development concept and the layout of national industrial development, the Shenghong Group has started to build three 'million-tonne' projects to build a world-class new energy new materials industry cluster." Miao Hangen, chairman of Shenghong Group Co., Ltd., said that these three million-tonne projects are the million-tonne EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer) photovoltaic new energy material project, the million-tonne acrylonitrile new material project, and the million-tonne green degradable material project.
Miao Hangen made the above statement in an interview with reporters recently. He said that as an important part of the national strategic emerging industry, new materials have become the focus of the transformation and breakthrough of the petroleum and chemical industries. Shenghong closely promotes the extension of the innovation chain and value chain around "aromatic hydrocarbons and olefins", and promotes the transformation of enterprises. During the 14th Five-Year Plan, Shenghong's goal is to build the enterprise into a "high-tech industrial group with strong basic raw material guarantee capabilities, world-leading scientific research and innovation capabilities, and world-class new energy materials supply capabilities".
Million-tonne EVA project to build a photovoltaic new energy material base
With China’s goals of achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, the new energy industry, represented by solar photovoltaics, has entered a period of rapid development. However, the insufficient supply of photovoltaic-grade raw materials such as EVA has become a major bottleneck affecting the development of the country's solar photovoltaic industry.
"EVA resin is the most mainstream raw material for photovoltaic film. It is the core raw material for the production of photovoltaic film, which directly determines the life of components and power generation efficiency." Miao Hangen introduced that under the background of "dual carbon", the demand for photovoltaic-grade EVA will continue to grow. It is expected that the new demand in 2021-2023 will be 810,000 tonnes, 1.06 million tonnes and 1.31 million tonnes respectively, and the average annual compound growth rate in the next three years will reach 28%.
However, for a long time, domestic photovoltaic-grade EVA manufacturers have suffered from outdated technology and small designed production capacity. Previously, domestic photovoltaic manufacturers mainly relied on imports of photovoltaic-grade EVA from countries and regions such as South Korea, Japan, and Europe, with an import dependence rate as high as 70%. With the rapid growth of demand in the downstream photovoltaic sector, the supply-demand gap for photovoltaic-grade EVA in my country will further widen in the next three years.
Miao Hangen said that through special technical research, Sierboang Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Shenghong Group, has made significant breakthroughs in improving key indicators such as crystal point and melt index of its independently developed EVA photovoltaic materials. The products have passed the scientific and technological achievement appraisal of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, and the technical level has reached the international advanced level, which has greatly alleviated the demand in the downstream market.
According to the data, at present, the annual production capacity of Sierbang Petrochemical EVA has reached 300,000 tonnes, accounting for 31% of the total domestic production capacity. Among them, the photovoltaic-grade EVA production capacity is more than 200,000 tonnes, accounting for 28.6% of the global photovoltaic-grade EVA production. The company is planning to expand the EVA production capacity to 1 million tonnes/year to further replace imports, improve the self-sufficient rate, and provide a stable guarantee for the national clean energy transformation.
Million-ton acrylonitrile project, focus on high-end new material manufacturing
The national "14th Five-Year Plan" and the long-term goal of 2035 are clearly put forward, focusing on a new generation of information technology, biotechnology, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, new energy vehicles, green environmental protection, aerospace, marine equipment and other strategic emerging industries, accelerating the application of key core technology innovation, enhancing the ability to guarantee elements, and cultivating and expanding the new momentum of industrial development.
"The most prominent problem in the field of new materials in China is structural contradictions. The industrial structure level is low and the product structure is similar, which restricts the high-quality development of the whole industry." Miao Hangen told reporters that in the field of strategic emerging industries, high-end new materials have been in a state of insufficient supply for a long time, and some even rely heavily on imports.
The Shenghong Group thus put forward the development goal of extending and optimizing the industrial structure, cultivating and expanding the leading industries, and building a new energy and new materials industrial base with global influence. The acrylonitrile industry has always been an important direction for the development of Shenghong.
It is understood that acrylonitrile, as an important upstream raw material for the country's development of new energy and new materials industries, is mainly used in the production of carbon fiber, ABS resin/plastic, nitrile rubber, acrylic, etc. Downstream products are widely used in various fields of the national economy such as wind power equipment, aerospace, automotive machinery, electronic equipment and environmental protection industry
Miao Hangen said that Shenghong Sierbang Petrochemical currently has an annual production capacity of 520,000 tonnes, which can guarantee the raw material needs for more than 50% of domestic carbon fiber production enterprises. It is the largest production base of acrylonitrile in China. In the next step, Sierbang Petrochemical will build and plan a larger propane industry chain project in combination with the existing industrial layout advantages. After the project is fully put into production, the overall production scale of acrylonitrile for Sierbang Petrochemical shall attain 1.04 million tonnes/year, becoming the world's largest acrylonitrile production base.
Million-ton degradable materials promote the green transformation of industry
Under the guidance of the "dual carbon" goal, green development and accelerating green transformation have become the strategic requirements for the high-quality development of the "14th Five-Year Plan" industry. It is understood that as a leading enterprise in building a world-class petrochemical industrial base in Lianyungang, the Shenghong Group is relying on innovation to build an ecological, low-carbon and circular modern green new materials industrial base, and a million-tonne green degradable material project has begun to be launched.
In April 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the List of Plastic Products Prohibited, Restricted Production, Sales and Use (Draft for Comments). In the same year, many provinces, regions and cities successively introduced strict measures for the management of plastic pollution. The introduction and implementation of these "restricting plastic" and "banning plastic" policies have greatly promoted the development of the degradable plastic industry.
The development and application of degradable plastics is of great significance to improve and alleviate current environmental pollution and promote green environmental protection. At present, the degradable materials that have entered the practical stage mainly include polylactic acid (PLA) and its copolymers, polybutylene glycol ester (PBS) and its copolymers, polybutylene glycol terephthalate (PBAT), polyhydroxy fatty acid ester (PHA) and polycaproester (PCL), etc.
"Relying on the advantages of the refining and chemical integration industrial platform, Shenghong Group has sufficient supply capacity to guarantee the basic raw materials of degradable materials such as refined terephthalic acid (PTA) and n-butane." Miao Hangen said that based on this, the company plans to build million-tonne green degradable material projects such as PBAT and PBS. The products are mainly used in engineering plastics, special films, packaging materials, medical equipment, communication optical cables and other fields to improve the application rate of degradable materials and realize the unity of social, economic and environmental benefits.
After the completion of Shenghong PBAT, PBS and other million-tonne projects, it will become the world's largest production base for green degradable materials.
National strategy, Shenghong's mission. Under the guidance of the "dual carbon" goal strategy, the Shenghong Group will further accelerate the pace of strategic transformation of new energy materials, strengthen the leadership of scientific and technological innovation, actively build a green and low-carbon cycle industrial system, and strive to build the enterprise into a high-tech industrial group with "strong basic raw material guarantee ability, the world's leading scientific research and innovation ability, and the world's first-class new energy and new material supply capacity", and draw the Shenghong blueprint of the new era with high-quality development!
