Trade pattern and import and export
Due to the strong market demand and huge market gap in the raw materials for PP packaging, China has provided the world with excess polypropylene capacity. Many developed countries or regions in the petrochemical industry have put their products into the Chinese market. The polypropylene imported by China mainly comes from South Korea, Saudi Arabia, India, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Japan and the United States, of which Korea has the largest proportion. In 2012, China imported 921,000 tons of polypropylene from South Korea, accounting for 23.33% of China's total polypropylene imports. In recent years, products from Saudi Arabia and UAE have increased rapidly.
From 2002 to 2012, the demand for polypropylene in China continued to grow rapidly. The imbalance between supply and demand caused continuous increase in imports. Guangdong Province is located on the southeastern coast of China, adjacent to Hong Kong and has a unique geographical advantage in import and export trade. Through more than ten years of development, Guangdong Province has become China's major producer and exporter of plastic packaging products and related home appliances, electronics and toys. This greatly supports the demand for synthetic resins and has become the largest province in China.
As the petrochemical industry chain is very long, from crude oil to the final plastic products, it generally goes through dozens of intermediate stages such as refining, cracking, and polymerization. In addition to the poor stability of chemical properties, products that are difficult to store and transport will be used as intermediate products. It is to select a section of the industry chain for production and operation, and separate production and consumption links. Almost all petrochemical companies in China, including state-owned, private, and foreign-funded companies, sell polyolefins such as PP and PE directly as commodities, and do not further process them. Therefore, the commercialization rate of PP is almost 100%.
We have very few PP exports, and trade is mainly represented by the import trade and trade between major regions in China. Corresponding to the consumption zone, the trade flow of PP in China is also mainly concentrated in the “Confucius in Bohai Bay” formed by Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong, Beijing, Tianjin and other provinces and cities, and formed in Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. “Yangtze River Delta Consumer Zone” and “Pearl River Delta Consumer Zone” formed by Guangdong, Shenzhen and other provinces and regions. In terms of import volume, imports from eight provinces and cities including Guangdong, Fujian, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Tianjin, and Dalian accounted for about 70% of total imports. From the perspective of import customs, China's PP imports are mainly concentrated in Shanghai, Tianjin, Huangpu, Xiamen and Qingdao customs. Basically, it also reflects the tripartite trade pattern in the "Pearl River Delta," "Yangtze River Delta," and "Circular Bohai Sea."
The production capacity of PP transparent boxes is mainly distributed in East China, South China, Northeast and Northwest China. Consumption is mainly concentrated in East China, South China, and North China. Imported PP mainly flows into East China and South China. Therefore, the mainstream of overall trade in the country is concentrated inflows to the Yangtze River Delta region represented by Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, the Pearl River Delta region represented by Guangdong, and the coastal areas of North China represented by Shandong, while the northwest and northeast are net outflows, and the southwest region is supplied Mainly from the northwest and south China, there is also a small amount of commodity flow between East China, North China, and South China.
The northwestern region is the largest outflow area for PP. In 2012, 2.3 million tons of PP were exported and shipped to East China, South China, North China, and Southwest China. The transportation mode is mainly railways. This is mainly due to the fact that coal-producing PP companies have successively put into production in northwestern China in recent years, which has enabled rapid expansion of production capacity in the region. According to statistics, the new capacity in the northwestern region from 2006 to 2012 was 2.4 million tons, with an average annual growth rate of 28%; In 2012, the output of local plastic products was 1.65 million tons, accounting for less than 3% of the country's total. In addition, about 54 million tons of PP in the Northeast need to be digested by Sinotrans, which is mainly sold to North China and East China. The mode of transportation takes the form of railroads or transfers from Dalian. East China, South China, and North China are major consumer sites for PP (the combined consumption accounts for more than 80% of total). In 2012, there were about 2 million tons of supply and demand gaps. Most of the manufacturers set up distribution points in these three regions and trade is very active. There is also a small amount of commodity flow among the three places. Because the distance between Huadong and North China is relatively close, it is usually carried out by means of Qiyun, and South China-East China generally takes more of the sea.